U.S.S. Pennsylvania
Class of Ten Armored Cruisers (1905)

The Pennsylvania in a colourised photo postcard, c. 1908. Enlarge

The U.S. had experimented with armored cruisers through a few one-off designs and foreign purchases: the famous French-style Brooklyn, the solid and seaworthy New York, both prominent players in the Spanish-American War.

No one profited more politically from that brief conflict than former Assistant Navy Secretary Theodore Roosevelt (left), who parlayed his well-publicized courage at San Juan Hill into the governorship of New York State and, barely a year later, the Vice Presidency.

From then it was only months until President Teddy Roosevelt took the oath of office on the assassination of President McKinley. Coming to power in 1901, Roosevelt made sure the U.S. maintained its naval buildup with undiminished vigor. In keeping with the navy's new global mission, one of the steps taken was to build ten large armored cruisers to a uniform design; the first six of the class were authorized in 1900. The result was the Pennsylvania class, pioneered by the name ship, Armored Cruiser No. 4, launched at Cramps on Aug. 22, 1903 and commissioned March 9, 1905. Essentially following the British pattern, these were large, handsome, moderately fast, and well-protected ships. One point of difference with the British pattern was the U.S. preference for flush-deck design, dating back to Old Ironsides and the old sailing Navy of John Adams: British armored cruisers all had a raised forecastle deck, whereas this generation of American ships had all the main guns on one level, and substituted a long foredeck and fine entry in an effort to keep the guns dry. The Pennsylvanias were somewhat more economical to operate than their European counterparts, but were otherwise quite comparable.

Authorized in 1903, four improved Pennsylvanias were brought into service in 1907-08. These beefed-up cruisers carried a main armament of 10"/40 (254 mm) instead of 8"/45 (203 mm). They were also slightly larger, with an additional 3' beam and 1,100 tons displacement.In 1903, The vessels with the ten-inchers were the Washington, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Montana). Schematic

In their 20-to-25-year lifespans, these ten armored cruisers gave devoted service to the United States, and never more so than in ferrying the victorious troops home after World War I. But in reality, the imperial mission of projecting America's influence overseas was a great part of these ships' raison d'être. Beginning in 1908, four of the class were permanently stationed in Manila as the spearheads of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, with back-up a cablegram away. Others beefed up the permanent squadrons stationed in the Caribbean and Latin America. So it should come as no surprise that Pennsylvania's experience reflected both hemispheres of influence.

Pennsylvania had a long and varied career, composed of many segments. She did two stints in the Asiatic Fleet, the first in 1906-07; pioneered naval aviation in 1911; assisted the U.S. intervention in revolutionary Mexico in 1914; patrolled the sea lanes off South America in WWI; was the flagship of the U.S. Mediterranean Fleet in the early Twenties, and of the Asiatic Fleet during the Kuomintang takeover of China in 1926-28; brought the U.S. governor-general of the Philippines on a goodwill tour through China and Southeast Asia; and gave her all for her country in 1931. She bore two names, relinquishing her original monniker to the super-dreadnought battleship (and sister of the USS Arizona) in 1912; still only 8 years old, the cruiser was known as the Pittsburgh henceforth.

One of the less savory episodes in the ship's career came during her WWI service as flagship, U.S. Pacific Fleet, in Latin America. In part because her skipper, Captain Bradshaw, neglected to quarantine sick crewmen, the ship developed a full-blown epidemic of the Spanish influenza which was ravaging the world on the heels of the Great War. During the emergency in Oct. - Nov. 1918, 80% of the ship's crew became infected; 58 of them died as a result.

As the U.S. fleet burgeoned in the years 1912-23, states' names were in demand for new battleships. One by one, all the Pennsylvanias and Washingtons relinquished their original names and were re-christened for cities in their original states: Washington became Seattle; Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh; and so on. For a complete guide to the ten ships' nomenclature, click here. This cascade of renaming echoed the 1905-08 re-christening of the Arkansas class coastal monitors as the Pennsylvania class itself thundered down the ways!

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Plans and Specifications

Specifications for the Pennsylvanias:
Dimensions: 503'11" OA x 69'7" x 26'6". Displacement: 13,680 tons. Armament: (4) 8"/45 cal (2x2), (14) 6"/50, and (18) 3" 14-pdr guns; (4) 3-pdr MG; (2) submerged 18" torpedo tubes except last four built had four 10"/40 (2x2) instead of 8", an additional 3' beam and 1,100 tons (Washington, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Montana). KC Armor: 6"/3½" belt, 6½/6" turrets, 6" casemates, 5" upper belt & battery, 9" conning tower, 5" secondary conn; 4" deck slopes, hoists, and bulkheads; 2½" screens in battery. Fuel capacity: 900 tons of coal normal; 1,929 tons maximum. Propulsion: (16) coal-fired B&W boilers, (2) 4-cyl vertical triple expansion engines developing 23,000 hp, shafted to outward-turning twin screw. Speed: 22.44 knots. Crew: 830. Engineering note: Pennsylvania and Colorado were originally boilered with Niclausse; converted to Babcock 1912-16. All converted to oil fuel 1926.

Metric specs:
Dimensions: 153.6m OA x 21.2m x 8.1m   Displacement: 13,680 tons. Armament: (4) 203 mm/45 cal (2x2), (14) 152 mm/50, and (18) 76 mm 14-pdr guns; (4) 3-pdr MG; (2) submerged 45-cm torpedo tubes, except last four built with four 254 mm/40 (2x2) instead of 203 mm, an additional .91 m beam and 1,100 tons (Washington, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Montana). KC Armor: 152 mm belt, 165/152 mm turrets, 152 mm casemates, 127 mm upper belt & battery, 229 mm conning tower, 127 mm secondary conn; 102 mm deck slopes, hoists, and bulkheads; 63.5 mm screens in battery. Fuel capacity: 900 tons of coal normal; 1,929 tons maximum. Propulsion: (12) coal-fired B&W boilers, (2) 4-cyl vertical triple expansion engines developing 17,151 kW, shafted to outward-turning twin screw. Speed: 41.6 km/hr. Crew: 830. Converted to oil fuel 1926.