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| Act of 7 June 1900: |
"._._. The President is hereby authorized to have constructed by contract two seagoing battle ships, carrying the heaviest armor and most powerful ordnance for vessels of their class, upon a trial displacement of about thirteen thousand five hundred tons, and to have the highest practicable speed and great radius of action, and to cost, exclusive of armor and armament, not exceeding more than three million six hundred thousand dollars each; ._._. Not more than two of the vessels herein provided for shall be built in one yard or by one contracting party; ._._. Not more than two of the aforesaid vessels shall be built on or near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, ._._." |
| The first New Jersey (BB-16) was launched 10 November 1904 by Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts; sponsored by Mrs. William B. Kenney, daughter of Governor Franklin B. Murphy of New Jersey; and commissioned 12 May 1906, Captain William W. Kemball in command. |
| New Jersey's initial training in Atlantic and Caribbean waters was highlighted by her review by President Theodore Roosevelt in Oyster Bay during September 1906, and by her presence at Havana, Cuba, from 21 September through 13 October to protect American lives and property threatened by the Cuban Insurrection. From 15 April to 14 May 1907, she lay in Hampton Roads representing the Navy at the Jamestown Exposition. |
| In company with fifteen other battleships and six attendant destroyers, New Jersey cleared Hampton Roads 16 December 1907, her rails manned and her guns crashing a 21-gun salute to President Roosevelt, who watched from Mayflower this beginning of the dramatic cruise o the Great White Fleet. The international situation required a compelling exhibition of the strength of the United States; this round-the-world cruise was to provide one of the most remarkable illustrations of the ability of seapower to keep peace without warlike action. Not only was a threatened conflict with Japan averted, but notice was served on the world that the United States had come of age, and was an international power which could make its influence felt in any part of the world. |
| Commanded first by Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, and later by Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry, the fleet laid its course for Trinidad and Rio de Janeiro, then rounded cape Horn. After calling in Punta Arenas, Valparaiso and Callao, the battleships made a triumphant return to the United States at San Francisco. On 7 July 1908 the fleet sailed west, bound for Hawaii, Auckland, and three Australian ports; Sydney, Melbourne and Albany. Each city seemed to offer a more enthusiastic reception for the American sailors and their powerful ships that had the last, but tension and rumor of possible incident made the arrival in Tokyo Bay 18 October unique among the cruise's calls. Immediately it was clear that no special precautions had been necessary; nowhere during the cruise did the men of the New Jersey and her sisters meet with more expression of friendship, both through elaborately planned entertainment and spontaneous demonstration. The President observed with satisfaction this accomplishment of his greatest hope for the cruise: "The most noteworthy incident of the cruise was the reception given to our fleet in Japan." |
| The Great White Fleet sailed on to Amoy, returned briefly to Yokohama, then held target practice in the Philippines before beginning the long homeward passage 1 December. The battleships passed through the Suez Canal 4 January 1909, called at Port Said, Naples, and Villefranche, and left Gibraltar astern 6 February. In one of the last ceremonial acts of his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt reviewed the Great White Fleet as it went up to anchor in Hampton Roads 22 February. |
| Aside form a period out of commission in reserve at Boston form
2 May 1910 until 15 July 1911, New Jersey carried out a normal pattern
of drills and training in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean, carrying midshipmen
of the United States Naval Academy in the summers of 1912 and 1913.
On 1 August 1912 Rhode Island (BB-17)transferred the division flag to New Jersey in the periodic rotation of additional flag duties among units of her division. With Mexican political turmoil threatening American interests, New Jersey was ordered to the Western Caribbean in the fall of 1913 to provide protection. On 21 April 1914 -- in company with sister battleships Vermont (BB- 20), Arkansas (BB-33), South Carolina (BB- 26) and New Hampshire (BB- 25) -- as part of the force commanded by Rear Admiral Frank F. Fletcher, following Mexican refusal to apologize for an insult to American naval forces at Tampico, sailors and marines landed at Vera Cruz and took possession of the city and its customs house until changes in the Mexican government made evacuation possible. New Jersey sailed from Vera Cruz 13 August, observed and reported on trouble conditions in Santo Domingo and Haiti, and reached Hampton Roads 9 October. Until the outbreak of World War I, she returned to her regular operations along the east coast and in the Caribbean. |
| During World War I, New Jersey made a major contribution to the expansion of the wartime Navy, training gunners and seamen recruits in Chesapeake Bay. After the Armistice, she began the first of four voyages to France from which she had brought home 5,000 members of the A.E.F. by 9 June 1919. New Jersey was decommissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard 6 August 1920. |
| New Jersey and her sistership Virginia (BB-13) were taken to a point three miles off the Diamond Shoals lightship, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and anchored there on 5 September 1923. She was sunk on 5 September 1923 in Army bomb tests conducted by Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell. |
| New Jersey's end, and Virginia, provided far-sighted naval officers with a dramatic demonstration of air power and impressed upon them the "urgent need of developing naval aviation with the fleet." As such, the service performed by the old pre-dreadnought may have been her most valuable. |
| USS New Jersey, Battleship (BB-16) Specifications | |||
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1906
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1908-10
1917
1918
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Naval Historical Center FAQ -- Great White Fleet | |
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United States Navy Department, Bureau of Navigation, Men on Board Ships of the Atlantic Fleet Bound for the Pacific, December 16, 1907, (Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1908) | |
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Larry W. Jewell, Who's Who of United States Battleships, (Internet publication), edition: 30 August, 1993. | |
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James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964), Vol.1 -- A-B, p. 192 | |
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James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970), Vol.5: N-Q, p. 59-60 | |
