USS Louisiana
I dedicate this instalment to this forums moderator Kenny as I strongly suspect he may have a soft spot for the USS Louisiana.
General Statistics
A Connecticut class battleship and classified as BB-19.
Displacement: 16,000 tons
Length: 45403 feet
Beam: 76.9 feet
Draft: 24.5 feet
Speed: 18 knots
Complement: 827 officers and men
Armament: 4 x 12 inch guns
8 x 8 inch guns
12 x 7 inch guns
The USS Louisiana was laid down on 7 February 1903 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia and launched on 27 August 1904.She was sponsored by Miss Juanita LaLande.
The USS Louisiana was commissioned on 2 June 1906 with Captain Albert R Couden in command.
During 1906 -1907 she was active in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean areas including making a diplomatic visit to Havana, Cuba in September 1906 and taking President Roosevelt to Panama later in that year.
From December 1907 until February 1909 she was part of “The Great White Fleet”.
Upon her return she received an overhaul and was fitted with the then-new “cage” masts and joined the Second Division of the US Atlantic Fleet on 1 November 1910. For the next six years, she primarily operated of the US East Coast and in the Caribbean area, participating in Atlantic Fleet battleship exercises. She also made two cruises to European waters in late 1910 and in mid 1911. In April-August 1914 Louisiana was one of the many US warships that took part in the occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico. From late 1915, until the spring of 1917 she was employed on training duties when not in reserve.
The USS Louisiana’s WW1 service, from April 1917 until the Armistace of 11 November 1918, mainly consisted of gunnery and engineering training operations along the US Atlantic coast and she undertook convoy escort missions during the conflict’s last two months. From December 1918 until mid-1919, she transported servicemen back to the US from Europe.
In July 1920 she was reclassified as BB-20.
In October 1920 she was decommissioned.
After three years inactivity she was sold for scrapping in November 1923.
As a small aside I will in the next few episodes cover of the relevance of the HMS Dreadnought for all things naval in the pre 1918 era.
The next instalment will be about the Fleet crossing the Equator.
Regards
Sean
