Figure 1: USS Massachusetts (BB-2) halftone photograph, taken prior to 1898. Copied from the contemporary publication Uncle Sam's Navy. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Massachusetts (BB-2) photographed by E.H. Hart off New York City during the Spanish-American War victory review, circa August 1898. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Massachusetts (BB-2) photograph taken in 1898. The original photograph was copyright J.F. Jarvis and printed on a stereograph card. Courtesy of Captain George Atkins, USNR(DC), 1975. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Massachusetts (BB-2) at anchor, 1898. The original photograph was copyright 1898 by J.F. Jarvis and published on a stereograph card. Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN(MSC), 1975. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Massachusetts (BB-2) in 1893. This could be a black-and-white photograph from either a book or a postcard that has had color added to it by the publisher. Courtesy of Arnold A. Putnam. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Starboard bow view of USS Massachusetts (BB-2) at a wharf, June 1901. US Naval Historical Center Photograph #1 81-NYS-15-46. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Massachusetts (BB-2) is seen at the coaling facility (Building 109) on Pier 1 of the Boston Navy Yard in 1904. Astern of the battleship is USS Constitution. Photograph by E. Chickering, National Park Service, Boston National Historical Park, cat. no. BOSTS-10053, courtesy of Stephen P. Carlson, Preservation Specialist, Boston NHP, Charlestown Navy Yard. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: Pre-cruise fitting out of USS Massachusetts (BB-2) at the New York Navy Yard, 1904. USS Indiana (BB-1) is in the background. USNI/USN photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: The Massachusetts (BB-2) in dry dock, possibly at the New York Navy Yard, 1904. USNI/USN photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS Massachusetts (BB-2) in harbor, date and place unknown. This is a black-and-white photograph on a postcard that has had color added to it by the publisher. Courtesy of Arnold A. Putnam. Click on photograph for larger image.
USS Massachusetts (BB-2) was a 10,288-ton battleship of the Indiana class and was built by William Cramp & Sons at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was commissioned on 10 June 1896. The ship was approximately 350 feet long and 69 feet wide, had a top speed of 16 knots, and had a crew of 473 officers and men. Massachusetts was armed with four 13-inch guns, eight 8-inch guns, four 6-inch guns, 20 6-pounders, six 1-pounders, and four 18-inch torpedo tubes.
Massachusetts left on her shakedown cruise on 4 August 1896. She conducted trials and maneuvers off the east coast of the United States until 30 November and then entered the New York Navy Yard in New York City for an overhaul. For almost two years, Massachusetts patrolled off America’s Atlantic coastline and participated in training maneuvers with the North Atlantic Squadron off Florida.
After the start of the Spanish-American War on 21 April 1898, Massachusetts participated in the naval blockade of Cuba. She was stationed off Cienfuegos, Cuba, and on the afternoon of 31 May she bombarded the forts at the entrance of Santiago de Cuba and exchanged gunfire with the Spanish cruiser Cristobal Colon, forcing the enemy ship to retire into the inner harbor of Santiago for safety. Massachusetts remained on patrol off Santiago, occasionally bombarding the Spanish fortifications there until 2 July 1898. The battleship went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for coal and this trip caused her to miss the naval Battle of Santiago, which occurred on 3 July. But Massachusetts quickly steamed back to Santiago and did arrive in time to help the battleship USS Texas force the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes to beach and surrender at midnight on 6 July. The ship then supported the American occupation of Puerto Rico from 21 July to 1 August. After that, Massachusetts steamed home and arrived in New York City on 20 August.
For the next seven years, Massachusetts patrolled off America’s Atlantic coast and in the eastern Caribbean as a member of the North Atlantic Squadron. From 27 May to 30 August 1904, she served as a training ship for US Naval Academy midshipmen off New England and then entered the New York Navy Yard in New York City for an overhaul. After the overhaul was completed, Massachusetts left New York on 13 January 1905 and went to the Caribbean on training maneuvers. The battleship returned to New York on 12 November 1905, where she underwent inactivation overhaul and was decommissioned on 8 January 1906.
Massachusetts was placed in “reduced commission” on 2 May 1910 and served as a summer practice ship for US Naval Academy midshipmen. Over the next four years, Massachusetts made three midshipman cruises (two of them to Europe) and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in September 1912. After a brief trip to New York from 5 to 16 October 1912 for a Presidential Fleet Review, Massachusetts went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was based there until being decommissioned on 23 May 1914.
Massachusetts was re-commissioned at Philadelphia on 9 June 1917. She left there on 9 October and arrived at the Naval Training Station at Newport, Rhode Island, on 15 October and embarked US Naval Reserve gun crews for gunnery training in Block Island Sound off Rhode Island. Massachusetts continued serving as a training ship during World War I. After the war ended, Massachusetts was re-designated Coast Battleship No. 2 on 29 March 1919. USS Massachusetts was decommissioned for the last time on 31 March 1919. She was struck from the Navy list on 22 November 1920 and given to the War Department as a target ship. Towed to Pensacola, Florida, on 6 January 1921, the ship was bombarded by guns from nearby Fort Pickens and sunk. Her hulk remains there to this day.
