USS Utah BB-31
History of the USS Utah Battleship
The USS Utah (BB-31) was ordered for the U.S. Navy several years before the start of World War I. Her keel was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of New Jersey on March 9, 1909. She was launched on December 23, 1909 and commissioned on August 31, 1911 under the command of Captain William S. Benson.
USS Utah was involved primarily in training exercises until tensions with Mexico escalated in 1914. She headed south to Vera Cruz to intervene in a delivery of arms meant for the dictator Victoriano Huerta. When she landed on April 21, 1914, the fighting that resulted led to seven of her men winning Medals of Honor. The battleship remained at Vera Cruz for two months before heading north to Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York for overhaul.
When World War I began, the USS Utah conducted gunnery training in Chesapeake Bay until she joined with the Atlantic Fleet to cross the ocean in August 1918. She then protected the Irish waters as the flagship of Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rogers, Commander Battleship Division 6 (BatDiv 6) until the end of the war. She joined President Woodrow Wilson’s honor escort on his way to the Paris Peace Conference before heading home for New York.
Between the two World Wars, USS Utah performed a variety of duties, from battle practice and maneuvers to ceremonial and diplomatic missions. She was modernized and fitted to burn oil instead of coal in 1925.
USS Utah was selected for conversion to a mobile target under the London Naval Treaty of 1930. She was redesignated from BB-31 to AG-16. She spent that time putting her radio control gear through trials and then serving as a mobile target for development of tactics. She was a part of the annual fleet problem exercises and machine gun practices for Submarine Squadron 6. The ship was overhauled again at Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington in May 1931 to make her more effective as a gunnery training ship.
The USS Utah was at Pearl Harbor after a gunnery cruise in December 1941. When the Japanese attacked on December 7, she took a torpedo hit early on in the fighting. As she began to sink, efforts to abandon ship were hampered. Lieutenant Commander Solomon Isquith nearly became trapped when inspecting the ship to make sure his men got out, but he was pulled out by another man just in time. When the fighting was over, six officers and 52 crew members had died.
The ship was partially righted and decommissioned on September 5, 1944. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on November 13, 1944. She was awarded one battle star for her service in World War II. The USS Utah was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
The use of asbestos was common in shipbuilding components for much of the 20th Century because of its resistance to heat, fire, water and corrosion. Because of their asbestos exposure onboard ship and in the shipyards, seaman, shipyard workers and longshoreman are at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma.
Sources include:
John Hedley-Whyte and Debra R Milamed, “Asbestos and Ship-Building: Fatal Consequences,” Ulster Med. J. 77(3):191-200 (Sep 2008)
Naval Historical Center, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships – USS Utah