USS Michigan (BB-27)

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Michigan was employed as a convoy escort and training ship for the rapidly expanding wartime navy.

The ship conducted training cruises in 1920 and 1921, but her career was cut short by the Washington Naval Treaty signed in February 1922, which mandated the disposal of Michigan and South Carolina.

The ship was powered by two-shaft vertical triple-expansion engines rated at 16,500 ihp (12,304 kW) and twelve coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, generating a top speed of 18.5 kn (34 km/h; 21 mph).

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.

A training cruise to Europe followed; she departed Boston, Massachusetts, on 2 November and stops included Portland in the United Kingdom and Cherbourg, France.

[2] During this period, future naval aviation pioneer John Henry Towers served aboard the ship as a spotter for the main guns.

On 15 November 1912, she departed for a longer cruise to the Gulf of Mexico, with stops in Pensacola, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Galveston, Texas, on the way.

[4] In September 1916, Michigan conducted gunnery practice with the old monitor Miantonomoh as a target, including night shooting drills on the 18th.

Due to her slow speed, Michigan was assigned to Battleship Force 2 that day, and was tasked with training naval recruits and escorting convoys.

On 15 January 1918, Michigan was cruising off Cape Hatteras on a training exercise when a heavy gale and rough seas knocked over the forward cage mast.

The rapid change in direction caused the mast to snap at its narrowest point, which had been damaged in the 1916 barrel explosion and patched over.

Michigan steamed to Norfolk, transferred the injured men to the hospital ship Solace, and went to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs, arriving on 22 January.

[2] By early April, Michigan was back in service; for the next several months, she primarily trained gunners in the Chesapeake Bay.

Michigan was assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force in late December 1918 to ferry American soldiers back from Europe.

After departing Annapolis, the ship steamed south and transited the Panama Canal before proceeding to Honolulu, Hawaii, where she arrived on 3 July.

The commanders of the Atlantic Fleet and Michigan's squadron decided that the committees were a threat to discipline and evidence of Marxist influences.

This voyage took the ship to Europe, with stops in a number of ports, including Christiana, Norway, Lisbon, Portugal, and Gibraltar.

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

Line-drawing of the South Carolina class
Michigan dressed with flags for a Naval Review off New York in October 1911
Michigan ' s collapsed cage mast, January 1918
Michigan steaming at high speed, c. 1918