USS Nebraska (BB-14) was a Virginia-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy, the second of five members of the class, and the first ship to carry her name.

She was built by the Moran Brothers shipyard in Seattle, Washington, with her keel-laying in July 1902 and her launching in October 1904.

Nebraska joined the Great White Fleet after it reached the west coast of the United States in 1908 and continued with it during its circumnavigation of the globe.

She was reactivated shortly before the United States entered World War I in April 1917, and was thereafter used as a training ship and later as a convoy escort.

After the war, she transported American soldiers back from France, and in 1919 she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, though she remained in service for less than a year, being decommissioned in July 1920.

Design work on the Virginia class began in 1899, after the United States' victory in the Spanish–American War, which had demonstrated the need for sea-going battleships suitable for operations abroad, finally resolving the debate between proponents of that type and those who favored low-freeboard types useful for coastal defense.

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

There, she joined the Great White Fleet, which had departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, the previous year on the first leg of its global cruise.

[3] The cruise of the Great White Fleet was conceived as a way to demonstrate American military power, particularly to Japan.

The press in both countries began to call for war, and Roosevelt hoped to use the demonstration of naval might to deter Japanese aggression.

[5] After leaving Australia, the fleet turned north for the Philippines, stopping in Manila, before continuing on to Japan where a welcoming ceremony was held in Yokohama.

The ships then crossed the Atlantic to return to Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909, having traveled 46,729 nautical miles (86,542 km; 53,775 mi).

She remained on the eastern coast of the United States and was tasked with training guard crews for transport ships.

On 16 May, Nebraska embarked the remains of the recently deceased Uruguayan ambassador, Carlos DePena, at Hampton Roads.

She departed that day with the armored cruiser Pittsburgh—the flagship of the Pacific Fleet—and arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay on 10 June.