Ahoy Shipmates
USS Maine
General Statistics
Displacement: 12,500 tons
Length: 394 feet
Beam: 72.3 feet
Draft: 24.4 feet
Speed: 18 knots
Complement: 561 officers and men
Armament: 4 x 12 inch guns
16 x 6 inch guns
6 x 3 inch guns
USS Maine (BB-10), the lead ship of her class of battleships, and was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honour of the twenty third state.
The contract to build Maine was awarded to William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 1, 1898, and her keel was laid down on the15th of February 1899, a year to the day after the destruction of the first Maine She was launched on the 27th of July 1901, sponsored by Miss Mary Preble Anderson, and commissioned at Philadelphia on the 29th of December 1902 with Captain Eugene H.C. Leutze in command.
Picture on deck taken on 10 February 1903. Maines Commanding Officer Captain Eugene H.C Leutze is standing just to the left of the 12"/40 gun in the center of the photograph.
From 1903 to 1907 the USS Maine cruised along the Atlantic coast south to the West Indies, and she completed one cruise to the Mediterranean Sea. On the 16th of December 1907 she left Hampton Roads with the rest of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet en route to the Pacific Ocean where she joined ships of that Fleet for a cruise around the world.
In port circa 1903-1907
However the USS Maine and USS Alabama departed San Francisco on the 8th of June 1908 to complete their own, more direct, circumnavigation of the globe. Steaming by way of Honolulu and Guam, the two battleships arrived at Manila in the Philippines on the 20th of July. In August, they visited Singapore and Colombo on the island of Ceylon. From Colombo, the two battleships made their way, via Aden on the Arabian Peninsula, to the Suez Canal. Through the Canal early in September, Alabama and Maine made an expeditious transit of the Mediterranean Sea, pausing only at Naples at mid-month. Following a port call at Gibraltar, they embarked upon the Atlantic passage on 4 October. They made one stop, in the Azores, on their way across the Atlantic. On 19 October as they neared the end of their long voyage, the two battleships parted company. The USS Maine headed for Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and the USS Alabama steered for New York. Both reached their destinations on the 20th of October.
Picture in drydock at Hunter's Point, San Francisco, California circa 1908
At anchor 1908
Fitted out as flagship of the Third Squadron, Atlantic Fleet, the Maine resumed operations along the Atlantic Coast and into Caribbean waters during the next several months. She was decommissioned at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 31st of August 1909. Recommissioned again on the15th of June 1911, the Maine operated along the East Coast. During World War I, she trained engineers, armed guard crews, and midshipmen. Following the defeat of the Central Powers, she took part in the review of the Fleet at New York City on the 26th of December 1918.
USS Atlantis (American Motor Boat 1911) passing the Maine prior to World War 1. Photograph by Paul Thompson, New York. This pleasure craft was acquired by the US Navy on 2 July 1917 and placed in commission on 27 September 1917 as USS Atlantis (SP-40) and was removed from the Navy list on 7 July 1919 and later sold.
Under way in the Hudson River, New York on 27 December 1918.
The USS Maine operated with ships of the Atlantic Fleet until the 15th of May 1920 when she again decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard. She was sold on the 23rd of January 1922 to Joseph G. Hitner and William F. Cutlet of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for scrap. She was rendered incapable of further warlike service on the 17th of December 1923 in accordance with terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, and subsequently broken up and scrapped.
A sad picture of the USS Maine awaiting scrapping probably taken at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. USS Maine is at the right, down at the head with her side armour removed. USS Wisconsin is in the centre and USS Old Columbia is toward the left with a merchant ship alongside.
Regards
Sean
