The sixth ship to be named for the First State, Delaware was armed with a main battery of ten 12-inch (305 mm) guns all on the centerline, making her the most powerful battleship in the world at the time of her construction.

After the end of the war, she returned to her peacetime duties of fleet maneuvers, midshipmen cruises, and good-will visits to foreign ports.

[1] The ship was powered by two-shaft vertical triple-expansion engines rated at 25,000 shp (18,642 kW) and fourteen coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, generating a top speed of 21 kn (24 mph; 39 km/h).

As was standard for capital ships of the period, she carried a pair of 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.

[6] On 31 January, the ship carried the remains of Don Anibal Cruz, the Chilean ambassador to the United States, back to Chile.

She was present in the Naval Review of 14 October 1912, attended by President William Howard Taft and the Secretary of the Navy George von Lengerke Meyer.

[5] Following the American entrance into World War I on 6 April 1917, Delaware had recently returned to Hampton Roads from fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean Sea.

On 22–24 April, the German High Seas Fleet sortied to intercept one of the convoys in the hope of cutting off and destroying the escorting battleship squadron.

[10] Starting on 30 June, the 6th Battle Squadron and a division of British destroyers covered a group of American minelayers as they laid the North Sea mine barrage; the work lasted until 2 July.

[5] Delaware remained at York River until 12 November 1918, the day after the Armistice with Germany was signed, effectively ending World War I.

[5] In the years immediately following the end of the war, the United States, Britain, and Japan all launched huge naval construction programs.

[11] Under the terms of Article II of the treaty, Delaware and her sister North Dakota were to be scrapped as soon as the new battleships Colorado and West Virginia, then under construction, were ready to join the fleet.

[12] On 30 August 1923, Delaware accordingly entered dry dock in the Norfolk Navy Yard; her crew was transferred to the recently commissioned Colorado, and the process of disposal began.