USS Nevada (BB-36)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Nevada.

USS Nevada
Nevada underway off the Atlantic coast of the United States on 17 September 1944
History
United States
NameUSS Nevada
NamesakeNevada[1]
Ordered4 March 1911[2]
Awarded22 January 1912[2]
BuilderFore River Shipbuilding Company[2]
Laid down4 November 1912[1]
Launched11 July 1914[3]
Commissioned11 March 1916[1]
Decommissioned29 August 1946[1]
Stricken12 August 1948[4]
Nickname(s)"The Cheer Up Ship"
FateSunk as a target 31 July 1948, in Operation Crossroads[4]
General characteristics
Class and typeNevada-class battleship
Displacement27,500 t[5]
Length583 ft (178 m)[5]
Beam95 ft 3 in[5] (29 m)
Draft28 ft 6 in[1][6] (8.7 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed20.5 kn (24 mph; 38 km/h)[5]
Endurance8,000 nmi (9,206 mi; 14,816 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)[8]
Complement864 officers and men[9]
Armament
Armor
Aircraft carried
General characteristics 1942 configuration
Displacement30,500 t[8]
Installed power6 Bureau Express oil-fired boilers
Complement2,220[10]
Armament
Aircraft carried
  • 2 × floatplanes
  • 1 × catapult[10]

USS Nevada (BB-36), the third United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two Nevada-class battleships. Launched in 1914, Nevada was a leap forward in dreadnought technology; four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets,[c] oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the "all or nothing" armor principle. These features made Nevada, alongside her sister ship Oklahoma, the first US Navy "standard-type" battleships.

Nevada served in both World Wars. During the last few months of World War I, Nevada was based in Bantry Bay, Ireland, to protect supply convoys that were sailing to and from Great Britain. In World War II, she was one of the battleships trapped when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Nevada was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, making the ship "the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal and depressing morning" for the United States.[11] Still, the ship was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs while steaming away from Battleship Row, forcing the crew to beach the stricken ship on a coral ledge. The ship continued to flood and eventually slid off the ledge and sank to the harbor floor.[12] Nevada was subsequently salvaged and modernized at Puget Sound Navy Yard, allowing her to serve as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and as a fire-support ship in five amphibious assaults (the invasions of Attu, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa).

At the end of World War II, the Navy decided that, due to age, Nevada would not be retained as part of the active fleet and she was instead assigned as a target ship for the atomic experiments at Bikini Atoll in July 1946 (Operation Crossroads). The ship was hit by the blast from atomic bomb Able, and was left heavily damaged and radioactive. Unfit for further service, Nevada was decommissioned on 29 August 1946, and sunk for naval gunfire practice on 31 July 1948, in Operation Crossroads.

  1. ^ a b c d e DANFS Nevada (BB-36).
  2. ^ a b c d Cox 1916.
  3. ^ New York Times 12 July 1914.
  4. ^ a b NVR Nevada (BB 36).
  5. ^ a b c d e US Naval History Division 1970, p. 47.
  6. ^ New York Times 23 October 1915.
  7. ^ Chisholm 1922, p. 436.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Friedman 1985, p. 438.
  9. ^ US Naval History Division 1970, p. 46.
  10. ^ a b c d Fitzsimons 1978, p. 1982.
  11. ^ Bonner 1996, p. 101.
  12. ^ Friedman, Norman (2016). US Battleships – An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 416. ISBN 978-1-59114-247-8.


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