USS Utah (BB-31)

Stern view of Utah (BB-31) in 1912
History
United States
Name	Utah
Namesake	Utah
Builder	New York Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down	9 March 1909
Launched	23 December 1909
Commissioned	31 August 1911
Decommissioned	5 September 1944
Stricken	13 November 1944
Fate	Sunk at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. Hull near Ford Island.
General characteristics
Class and type	Florida-class battleship
Displacement	Normal: 21,825 long tons (22,175 t) Full load: 23,033 long tons (23,403 t)
Length	521 ft 6 in (159.0 m) (overall) 510 ft (155.4 m) (waterline)
Beam	88 ft 3 in (26.9 m)
Draft	28 ft 6 in (8.7 m) (mean) 30 ft 1 in (9.2 m) (max)
Installed power	12 × Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers 28,000 shp (20,880 kW)
Propulsion	4 × Parsons steam turbines 4 × screw propellers
Speed	21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Crew	1,001 officers and men
Armament	10 × 12 in (305 mm)/45 caliber Mark 5 guns 16 × 5 in (127 mm)/51 cal guns 4 × 6-pounder 57 mm (2.24 in) guns 2 × 1-pounder 37 mm (1.46 in) guns 2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 9–11 in (229–279 mm) Barbettes: 4–10 in (102–254 mm) Turret face: 12 in (305 mm) Conning tower: 11.5 in (292 mm) Decks: 1.5 in (38 mm)
Notes	1 battle star awarded
USS Utah wreck
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Location	Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Honolulu, Hawai'i
Website	www.nps.gov/valr/index.htm
NRHP reference No.	89001084
Added to NRHP	5 May 1989

USS Utah (BB-31/AG-16) was the second of two Florida class dreadnought battleships. The first ship of the United States Navy named after the state of Utah, she had one sister ship, Florida. Utah was built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, laid down in March 1909 and launched in December of that year. She was completed in August 1911, and was armed with a main battery of ten 12-inch (305 mm) guns in five twin gun turrets.

Utah and Florida were the first ships to arrive during the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution. The two battleships sent ashore a landing party that began the occupation of the city. After the American entrance into World War I, Utah was stationed at Berehaven in Bantry Bay, Ireland, where she protected convoys from potential German surface raiders. Throughout the 1920s, the ship conducted numerous training cruises and fleet maneuvers, and carried dignitaries on tours of South America twice, in 1924 and 1928.

In 1931, Utah was demilitarized and converted into a target ship and re-designated as AG-16, in accordance with the terms of the London Naval Treaty signed the previous year. She was also equipped with numerous anti-aircraft guns of different types to train gunners for the fleet. She served in these two roles for the rest of the decade, and late 1941 found the ship in Pearl Harbor. She was in port on the morning of 7 December, and in the first minutes of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was hit by two torpedoes, which caused serious flooding. Utah quickly rolled over and sank; 58 men were killed, but the vast majority of her crew were able to escape. The wreck remains in the harbor, and in 1972, a memorial was erected near the ship.