USS Arkansas (BM-7)

USS Arkansas (M-7), fitting out at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., 1 July 1902. Her armament is completely installed and the ship is only four months away from commissioning. The ship in the background is the battleship Missouri.
History
United States
Name	Arkansas (1899–1909) Ozark (1909–1922)
Namesake	The State of Arkansas Ozark, Arkansas
Ordered	4 May 1898
Awarded	11 October 1899
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia
Cost	$1,110,025 (hull and machinery)
Laid down	18 November 1899
Launched	10 November 1900
Sponsored by	Bobbie Newton Jones
Acquired	8 September 1902
Commissioned	28 October 1902
Decommissioned	20 August 1919
Renamed	Ozark, 2 March 1909
Identification	Hull symbol: M-7 Hull Symbol: BM-7, 17 July 1920
Honors and awards	Mexican Service Medal
Fate	Sold, 26 January 1922
General characteristics
Type	Arkansas-class monitor
Displacement	3,225 long tons (3,277 t) (standard) 3,356 long tons (3,410 t) (full load)
Length	255 feet 1 inch (77.75 m) (overall) 252 ft (77 m) (waterline)
Beam	50 ft (15 m)
Draft	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) (mean)
Installed power	4 × Thornycroft boilers 2,400 indicated horsepower (1,800 kW) 1,739 ihp (1,297 kW) (on trials)
Propulsion	2 × Vertical triple expansion engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed	12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph) (design) 12.03 kn (22.28 km/h; 13.84 mph) (on trial)
Complement	13 officers 209 men
Armament	2 × 12 in (305 mm)/40 caliber breech-loading rifles (1×2) 4 × 4 in (102 mm)/50 cal guns (4×1) 3 × 6-pounder (57 mm, 2.2 in) guns 4 × 1-pounder, rapid fire guns
Armor	Harvey armor Side belt: 11–5 in (280–130 mm) Barbette: 11–9 in (280–230 mm) Gun turret: 10–9 in (250–230 mm) Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm) Conning tower: 8 in (200 mm)

The second USS Arkansas, was a single-turreted "New Navy" monitor and one of the last monitors built for the United States Navy. Arkansas was ordered on 4 May 1898 and awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company on 11 October 1899.^[1] She was laid down just over a month later on 18 November 1899. Arkansas was launched almost a year later on 10 November 1900, sponsored by Bobbie N. Jones;^[2] but not commissioned for another two years, on 28 October 1902,^[3] with Commander Charles E. Vreeland in command.^[2]

This last class of monitors had been designed and built because of public demand for coastal defense before the Spanish–American War. By the time they were built and commissioned their purpose had passed. They didn't fit into the Navy's new purpose and so they bounced around from one different assignment to another. In 1909, the ship was renamed Ozark so that her name could be used for a new battleship. Ozark and her sisters were refitted as submarine tenders in 1913 because of their low freeboards.^[4]