History of USS Utah
 
USS Utah at sea, probably during its sea trials in 1911. U.S. Naval Historical Center photo NH63201.

USS Utah has been almost forgotten. Seldom honored by public visits, it rests in the waters of Pearl Harbor as a distant memory of America's most remembered day, a sad epitaph for a fine battleship.

Second of the Florida class, USS Utah was laid down on March 6, 1909, at the Camden, New Jersey yard of the New York Shipbuilding Co. Completed nine months later, Utah was launched on December 23, 1909. Work to prepare the ship for sea took longer, and Utah was not placed in commission until 1911. Assuming command of the ship was Captain William Benson. Utah's statistics were impressive for the "Dreadnought Era" -- 21,825 tons that drew approximately 28 feet. Top speed was estimated at 20 knots. The crew consisted of 60 officers and 941 men. Fire power was measured by five gun turrets, armed with two 12-inch guns. Supplementing the main armament were 16 5-inch, 51-caliber guns and two 21-inch submerged torpedo tubes. Armor 12 inches thick surrounded the vital areas of the vessel. After a shakedown cruise south along the coast, into the Gulf and then the Caribbean, Utah was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet in March 1912. For the next two years the battleship was assigned to regular duties in the Atlantic Fleet: drilling and engaging in training cruises.

USS Utah's maintop, sometime prior to World War One. Utah had two of these platforms, which were fitted with
rangefinders and other equipment used to aim the ship's main battery. This unusual image
was probably taken from a bridge as Utah passed underneath. U.S. Naval Historical Center photo NH79494.

In 1914 Utah played an important role in the American landings at Veracruz, Mexico. Mexico, torn by civil war and revolution, was the scene of considerable American intervention, much of it centered at Veracruz and Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing's forays into northern Mexico. Utah was deployed twice at Veracruz, first from February to April 1914, when it anchored off Veracruz and transferred refugees to nearby Tampico, and again in late April to June 1914 when it joined other American ships in an attempt to contravene the landing of arms shipped from Germany to Mexican president Victoriano Huerta, who had succeeded the assassinated legal president, Francisco I. Madero. President Woodrow Wilson, eager to support Madero backers and anti-Huerta revolutionaries as part of his international campaign for human rights, and seeking the means to stabilize war-torn neighboring Mexico, sent in troops. Marines and sailors landed from the U.S. Naval vessels, including Utah, took Veracruz on April 21, 1914, seized the customs house and prevented the landing of the arms. In the action, seven members of Utah's crew distinguished themselves and received Medals of Honor. Considerable Mexican casualties embarrassed the United States and led to an American withdrawal, but the action was one of a series of maneuvers that led to Huerta's downfall and the installation of a new government.

The "battalion" from USS Utah in the streets of Vera Cruz, 1914. U.S. Naval Historical Center photo NH100607

Until the outbreak of World War I, Utah continued with fleet battle practices and maneuvers in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Once the war was underway, Utah became a training ship for gunnery and engineering for hundreds of new recruits. On September 10, 1918, new orders moved Utah to the theater of war. On that day, it arrived at Bantry Bay, Ireland, to become the flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rodgers, commander of Battleship Division Six. From Ireland Utah was directed to protect convoys and secure naval approaches to the British Isles.

The war ended that year. Utah was ordered to serve as honor escort for the transport George Washington that was carrying President Woodrow Wilson to the Versailles Peace Conference. Conspicuously present with the honor escort was USS Arizona. President Wilson arrived in Brest, France, on December 13. The following day Utah departed for home and overhaul in the Boston Navy Yard.

A view of Utah's bridge and foremast, January 21, 1919. The large dial with numbers at the center top was popularly known as a "range clock." This dial, along with one on the aft side of mainmast, was used to indicate the range to the target to other battleships in line ahead and astern. The numbers painted around the base of the turret (foreground) similarly indicated the azimuth, or direction, to the target. These two devices together, it was believed, would allow a squadron of battleships to concentrate their gunfire on a single target even if some of the ships couldn't actually see the target themselves due to smoke or weather conditions.  U.S. Naval Historical Center photo NH76569.

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