ALABAMA
Battleship No. 8
From: DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN NAVAL FIGHTING SHIPS, James L.
Mooney, ed., Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy,
Washington, DC., 1991
displacement. 11,565 tons (n.);
length. 374'10";
beam. 72'5";
draft. 25'0" (f.) (aft);
speed. 16 k.;
complement. 536;
armament. 4 13", 14 6", 16 6-pdrs., 4 1-pdrs.,
4 .30-cal. mg., 4 18" tt.;
class. Illinois
Note: An unusual feature of this ship is its "side-by-side" stacks>
The second ALABAMA (Battleship No. 8) was laid down on 1
December 1896 at Philadelphia, Pa., by the William Cramp and
Sons Ship and Engine Building Co.; launched on 18 May 1898;
sponsored by Miss Mary Morgan, daughter of the Honorable John T.
Morgan, United States Senator from Georgia; and commissioned on
16 October 1900, Capt. Willard H. Brownson in command.
Though assigned to the North Atlantic Station, ALABAMA did not
begin operations with that unit until early the following year.
The warship remained at Philadelphia until 13 December when she
got underway for the brief trip to New York. She stayed at New
York through the New Year and until the latter part of January
1901. Finally, on 27 January, the battleship headed south for
winter exercises with the Fleet at the drill grounds in the Gulf
of Mexico near Pensacola, Fla. ALABAMA's Navy career began in
earnest with her arrival in the gulf early in February. With a
single exception in 1904, each year from 1901 to 1907, she
conducted Fleet exercises and gunnery drills in the Gulf of
Mexico and the West Indies in the wintertime before returning
north for repairs and operations off the northeastern coast
during the summer and autumn. The exception came in the spring
of 1904 after the conclusion of winter maneuvers when she
departed Pensacola in company with KEARSARGE (Battleship No.5),
MAINE(Battleship No. 10), IOWA (Battleship No. 4), OLYMPIA
(Cruiser No. 6), BALTIMORE (Cruiser No. 3), and CLEVELAND
(Cruiser No. 19) on a voyage to Portugal and the Mediterranean.
After a ceremonial visit to Lisbon honoring the entrance of the
Infante into the Portuguese naval school, ALABAMA and the other
three battleships cruised the Mediterranean until mid-August.
Returning by way of the Azores, she and her traveling companions
arrived in Newport, R. I., on 29 August. Late in September, the
warship entered the League Island Navy Yard for repairs. Early
in December, ALABAMA left the yard and resumed cruising with the
North Atlantic Fleet.
Near the end of 1907, the battleship set out upon a special
mission. On 16 December 1907, she stood out of Hampton Roads in
company with what became known as the Great White Fleet. ALABAMA
accompanied the Fleet on its voyage around the South American
continent as far as San Francisco. On 18 May 1908 when the bulk
of the Fleet headed north to visit the Pacific northwest, she
remained at San Francisco for repair at the Mare Island Navy
Yard. As a consequence, the warship did not participate in the
celebrated visit to Japan. Instead, ALABAMA and Maine departed
San Francisco on 8 June 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 20 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. Maine headed for Portsmouth, N.H.;
and ALABAMA steered for New York. Both reached their
destinations on the 20th.
ALABAMA was placed in reserve at New York on 3 November 1908.
Though she remained inactive at New York, the battleship was not
decommissioned until 17 August 1909. The warship underwent an
extensive overhaul that lasted until the early part of 1912. On
17 April 1912, she was placed in commission, second reserve, at
New York, Comdr. Charles F. Preston in command. At that point,
she became an element of the newly established Atlantic Reserve
Fleet. According to that concept, the Navy organized a unit
that comprised nine of the older battleships as well as BROOKLYN
(Armored Cruiser No. 3), COLUMBIA (Cruiser No. 12), and
MINNEAPOLIS (Cruiser No. 13) for the purpose of keeping those
ships constantly read for active service using the fiscal
expedient of severely reduced complements that could be filled
out rapidly by naval militiamen and volunteers in an emergency.
The unit as a whole possessed enough officers and men to take
two or three of the ships to sea on a rotating basis to test
their material readiness and to exercise the sailors at drill.
ALABAMA was placed in full commission on 25 July 1912 and
operated with the Atlantic Fleet off the New England coast
through the summer. She was returned to reserve status-in
commission, first reserve-at New York on 10 September 1912. Late
in the spring of 1913, the Navy added a new dimension to the
concept of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet by having the warships of
that unit embark detachments of the various state naval militias
for training afloat in a manner similar in many respects to the
contemporary Navy's selected reserve program. During the summer
of 1913, ALABAMA cruised along the east coast and made two
round-trip voyages to Bermuda to train naval militiamen from
Maryland, the District of Columbia, New York, Rhode Island,
Maine, North Carolina, and Indiana. She ended her last training
cruise of the year at Philadelphia on 2 September. The
battleship was placed in ordinary on 31 October 1913 and in
reserve on 1 July 1914.
Though still in commission, she passed the next 30 months in
relative inactivity with the Reserve Force, Atlantic Fleet, at
Philadelphia. America's shift toward belligerency in World War
I, however, brought ALABAMA out of the doldrums of the peace-
time reserve at the beginning of 1917. On 22 January, she became
receiving ship at Philadelphia, embarking drafts of recruits for
training. In mid-March, the battleship moved south to the lower
reaches of the Chesapeake Bay and beg an transforming landsmen
into sailors. She took a brief respite from her rigorous
training schedule on 6 April 1917 for the announcement of the
United States declaration of war on the Central Powers. Two
days later, ALABAMA became flagship of Division 1, Atlantic
Fleet. For the remainder of World War 1, the warship conducted
recruit training missions in the lower Chesapeake Bay and in the
coastal waters of the Atlantic seaboard, though she made one
visit to the Gulf of Mexico in late June and early July of 1918.
After the armistice on 11 November 1918, her recruit training
duties continued but began to diminish somewhat in intensity.
During February and March of 1919, the battleship steamed south
to the West Indies for winter maneuvers. She returned to
Philadelphia in mid-April for routine repairs before heading for
Annapolis to embark Naval Academy midshipmen for their summer
training cruise. On 28 and 29 May, ALABAMA made the short trip
from Philadelphia to Annapolis. She left Annapolis on 9 June
with 184 midshipmen embarked. During the first part of the
cruise, ALABAMA visited the West Indies and made a trip through
he Panama Canal and back. In mid-July, she voyaged to New York
and the New England coast. August saw her return south or
maneuvers at the drill grounds. ALABAMA disembarked the
midshipmen at Annapolis at the end of August and returned to
Philadelphia.
After more than nine months at Philadelphia lingering in a sort
of naval purgatory, the battleship was finally decommissioned
on 7 May 1920. On 15 September 1921, ALABAMA was transferred to
the War Department to be used as a target, and her name was
struck from the Navy list. Subjected to aerial bombing tests in
Chesapeake Bay by planes of the Army Air Service, the former
warship sank in shallow water on 27 September 1921. On 19 March
1924, her sunken hulk was sold for scrap.
Transcribed and edited by:
Larry W. Jewell
[email protected]
