USS Connecticut BB-18

 

Connecticut IV

(BB-18: dp. 16, 000; 1. 456'4"; b. 76'10"; dr. 24'6"; s. 18 k.; cpl. 827; a. 4 12", 8 8", 12 7"; cl. Connecticut)

The fourth Connecticut (BB-18) was launched on 29 September 1904 by the New York Navy Yard, sponsored by Miss A. Welles, granddaughter of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War, and commissioned on 29 September 1906, with Captain W. Swift in command.

The Connecticut-class battleships were a leap forward in naval design for the U.S. Navy. Connecticut, with a displacement of 16,000 tons, was larger and more heavily armed than her predecessors. Her main battery consisted of four 12-inch guns, complemented by an array of eight 8-inch guns and twelve 7-inch guns.

After joining the Atlantic Fleet, Connecticut became its flagship on 16 April 1907. Later that month, she participated in the Presidential Fleet Review and other ceremonies marking the opening of the Jamestown Exposition. On 16 December 1907, still as the flagship, she embarked from Hampton Roads on the Great White Fleet's world cruise. On 8 May 1908, the Atlantic Fleet joined the Pacific Fleet in San Francisco Bay for a review by the Secretary of the Navy, and the combined fleets, with Connecticut as the flagship, continued their cruise, showcasing American strength around the world. The fleet returned to Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909.

Connecticut continued as the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet until 1912, cruising the East Coast and the Caribbean from its base at Norfolk, conducting training, and participating in ceremonial events. From 2 November 1910 to 17 March 1911, she embarked on an extended scouting problem in European waters. Between 1913 and 1915, Connecticut served with the Fourth Division of the Atlantic Fleet, usually as the flagship. Apart from a brief Mediterranean cruise in October and November 1913, she operated in the Caribbean, protecting American citizens and interests during unrest in Mexico and Haiti.

After repairs and a stint as a receiving ship at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1916, Connecticut returned to full commission on 3 October 1916 as the flagship of the Fifth Division, Battleship Force, Atlantic Fleet. She operated along the East Coast and in the Caribbean until the United States entered World War I. During the war, based in the York River, Virginia, she trained in Chesapeake Bay, preparing midshipmen and gun crews for merchant ships. At the war's end, she was outfitted for transport duty and between 6 January and 22 June 1919, made four voyages to bring troops back from France. On 23 June 1919, she was reassigned as the flagship of Battleship Squadron 2, Atlantic Fleet.

In the summer of 1920, Connecticut sailed to the Caribbean and the West Coast on a midshipman-Naval Reserve training cruise. The next summer, she visited European ports on similar duty, and upon her return to Philadelphia on 21 August 1921, was assigned as the flagship of the Train, Pacific Fleet. She arrived at San Pedro, California, on 28 October, and over the next year, cruised along the West Coast, participating in exercises and commemorations. Entering Puget Sound Navy Yard on 16 December 1922, Connecticut was decommissioned there on 1 March 1923 and sold for scrapping on 1 November 1923, in accordance with the Washington Treaty for the limitation of naval armaments.