¹⁄700

Niko Models have released the 1/700th USS Rhode Island 1918. Check out these released images of the kitset.

Like most of Niko Models products this kitset will be a quality resin kit with photoetch and turned brass masts. Details as to availability and price are yet to be confirmed.

We will of course update you with more detail as it comes to hand.

Images courtesy of Niko Models.

Ships History

General Statistics

Displacement: 14,948 tons
Length: 441.7feet
Beam: 76.3 feet
Draft: 23.8 feet
Speed: 19 knots
Complement: 40 officers and 772 men
Armament: 4 x 12 inch guns
8 x 8 inch guns
12 x 6 inch guns
]
The USS Rhode Island, a 14,948-ton Virginia class battleship, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company.

She was launched on the 17th of May 1904, sponsored by Mrs. F. C. Dumaine, and commissioned on the 19th of February 1906, with Captain Perry Garst in command.
Initially designated as Battleship # 17,and later the BB-17.

The USS Rhode Island underwent extensive shakedown and acceptance trials on the U.S. East Coast between Hampton Roads, Virginia and Boston before being assigned to Division 2, Squadron 1, of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet on the 1st of January 1907. The battleship departed Hampton Roads 9 March 1907 for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to participate in gunnery practice and squadron operations evolutions. She then returned north to cruise between Hampton Roads and Cape Cod Bay.

Arriving in Hampton Roads the 8th of December 1907, the Rhode Island joined The Great White Fleet.

Subsequently upon returning from the cruise around the world she entered New York Navy Yard for overhaul and received a "cage" foremast and numerous other alterations. The USS Rhode Island was assigned on the 8th March 1909 to Division 3, Squadron 1. She continued to serve with the Atlantic Fleet into 1910, participating in exercises including deployment southward to the Caribbean during February 1910. She was also fitted with a second "cage" mast in 1910 and later in the year visited Europe with other U.S. battleships.

She was assigned on the 20th of October 1910 to Division 4, Squadron 1. The Rhode Island and other fleet units were reviewed the 2nd of November at Boston by President Howard Taft prior to their departure for European waters. In an elaborate battle and scouting problem, the Fleet continued its training, Rhode Island subsequently visiting Gravesend, England, before returning to Guantánamo Bay on the 13th of January 1911.

Rhode Island continued her duties attached to the Atlantic Fleet up to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914. She cruised southward to Key West, Havana, and Guantánamo Bay during June and July 1912 but otherwise remained on the East Coast operating between Hampton Roads and Rockland, Maine. Reassigned to Division 3, Squadron 1, Atlantic Fleet, Rhode Island became division flagship on the 17th of July 1912. She transferred the division flag to New Jersey on the 1st of August in the periodic rotation of additional flag duties among units of her division.

The Commander of Division 3, Squadron 1, transferred his flag from Virginia to Rhode Island on the 28th June 1913 and remained on board until the 18th of January 1914.
At the end of 1913, Rhode Island cruised off the Mexican coast to protect citizens and property threatened by deteriorating political developments ashore. Arriving off Veracruz on the 4th of November 1913, the Rhode Island operated off Tampico and Tuxpan into February 1914.

After two weeks at Guantánamo Bay the battleship returned northward to Virginia waters.

The Rhode Island kept up her continuous schedule of annual docking and overhaul, gunnery practice, and squadron maneuvers well into 1916. She remained off the U.S. Eastern seaboard but occasionally steamed into more southerly waters; she called at Caribbean ports during October 1914 to March 1915 and January to February 1916. Rhode Island undertook additional duty as flagship, Division 4, Squadron 1, from the 19th of December 1914 until the 20th of January 1915.

Placed in reduced commission in reserve on the 15th of May 1916 at Boston Navy Yard, the Rhode Island was detached from the Atlantic Fleet the following day. The battleship flew the flag of the Commander-in-Chief, Reserve Force, Atlantic Fleet, from the 24th of June 1916 to the 28th of September.

Returned to full commission the 27th of March 1917 at Hampton Roads. The Rhode Island bore the flag of the Commander of Battleship Division 3, Atlantic Fleet, on the 3rd of May 1917 shortly after the United States entered World War I. Undertaking vigorous gunnery practice and emergency drills to reach combat readiness, Rhode Island was assigned antisubmarine patrol duty off Tangier Island, Maryland. Based at Hampton Roads into 1918, Rhode Island was transferred to Battleship Division 2 during April. Remaining ready for overseas deployment, Rhode Island undertook special torpedo proving trials during June 1918.
Upon the war's end in November 1918, Rhode Island was ordered to assist returning U.S. troops from France. Fitted with hundreds of extra bunks, the battleship made five round-trip voyages across the Atlantic between the 18th of December 1918 and the 4th of July 1919 . In all she transported over 5,000 men from Brest, France, to Hampton Roads and Boston.

Designated flagship of Battleship Squadron 1, Pacific Fleet, on the 17th of July 1919 at Boston, the Rhode Island departed Boston Navy Yard on the 24th of July for Balboa, in the Panama Canal Zone, and Mare Island Navy Yard to undertake her new assignment. After remaining at Mare Island into 1920, Rhode Island was decommissioned on the 30th of June and was placed in reserve.
Rendered incapable of any further warlike service and in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty limiting naval armaments, the USS Rhode Island was sold on the 1st of November 1923 for scrapping.
Her ships bell is on display at the Rhode Island State House in Providence, Rhode Island.

The USS Rhode Island was commemorated on a postage stamp issued by the Marshall Islands in 1997