USS Vermont
General Statistics
A Connecticut class battleship and classified as BB-20.
Displacement: 16,000 tons
Length: 456.3 feet
Beam: 76.9 feet
Draft: 24.5 feet
Speed: 18 knots
Complement: 8880 officers and men
Armament: 4 x 12 inch guns
8 x 8 inch guns
12 x 7 inch guns
The USS Vermont (BB-20), was a Connecticut-class battleship and was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the fourteenth state.
Her keel was laid down on 21st of May 1904 at Quincy, Massachusetts, by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company.
The USS Vermont was launched on the 31st of August 1905 and was sponsored by Miss Jennie Bell, the daughter of Governor Charles J. Bell of Vermont, and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on the 4th of March 1907 with Captain William P. Potter in command.
This is a dramatic picture of her launching
After her shakedown cruise off the eastern seaboard between Boston, Massachusetts, and Hampton Roads, Virginia, she participated in training with the 1st Division of the Atlantic Fleet and, later, with the 1st and Second Squadrons. Making a final trial trip between Hampton Roads and Provincetown, Massachusetts, between 30 August and September 5, USS Vermont arrived at the Boston Navy Yard on September 7 and underwent repairs until late in November 1907.
This a general picture showing the profile of the USS Vermont.
Departing Boston on the 30th of November, she coaled at Bradford, Rhode Island,received "mine outfits and stores" at Newport, Rhode Island, and picked up ammunition at Tompkinsville, New York and arrived at Hampton Roads on 8th day of December.
There, she made final preparations for the globe-girdling cruise with the "Great White Fleet"
A dramatic picture of the USS Vermont in heavy seas possibly during the Great White Fleet cruise.
Modernized after this cruise, the USS Vermont received two "cage" masts and other new features.
After completion of this work in June 1909, she spent most of the following eight years taking part in fleet operations along the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean.
In 1910-11 and again in 1913, the battleship crossed the Atlantic to visit European ports.
She also participated in the Vera Cruz intervention during April-October 1914 and supported U.S. Marines in Haiti in 1916-17.
A picture of the USS Vermont quarter deck action. Check out the guy trying to get up the boat ladder
During the U.S. involvement in the First World War that began in April 1917 and lasted until the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the USS Vermont mainly served on training duties in Chesapeake Bay and off the Atlantic coast.
In June and July 1918, she also performed a diplomatic mission, transporting the body of the late Chilean Ambassador to his homeland for burial.
Starting in January 1919, the USS Vermont made four trans-Atlantic round-trip voyages to bring about 5,000 U.S. servicemen back to the U.S. from France.
In July 1919, she transited the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet.
After nearly a year of operations along the West Coast, the USS Vermont was decommissioned in June 1920.
Though reclassified as BB-20 soon thereafter (she was previously known simply as "Battleship #20"), she saw no further active service and was sold for scrapping in 30 November 1923.
Regards
Sean
