HMS Northumberland

Figure 1:  HMS Northumberland (British broadside ironclad battleship, commissioned in1868) in harbor, while fitted with her original five-masted rig, circa 1868-1875. Copied from the photographic album Types of Ships in the British Navy, prepared in 1877. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.   

Figure 2:  HMS Northumberland moored to a buoy while carrying her original five-masted rig, circa 1868-1875. Copied from the photographic album Types of Ships in the British Navy, prepared in 1877. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 3:  HMS Northumberland seen from astern while alongside a wharf while carrying her original five-masted rig, circa 1868-1875. Note her sternwalk and boats. Copied from the photographic album Types of Ships in the British Navy, prepared in 1877. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 4:  HMS Northumberland at anchor after her rig was reduced from five to three masts in 1875-1879. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 5:  HMS Northumberland in harbor, drying canvas aloft, after her rig was reduced to three masts during the later 1870s. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 6:  HMS Northumberland  in harbor while serving as the English Channel Squadron’s Second Flagship, 1890. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 7:  HMS Northumberland, center, and HMS Agincourt (British broadside ironclad, commissioned in 1868), at left, photographed together while serving in the English Channel Squadron after 1879, when Northumberland was reduced from five-masted to three-masted rig, but prior to 1889, when Agincourt was placed in reserve. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 8:  Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. View of Funchal harbor, taken by local photographer M.d.O. Perestrello during the 1870s or 1880s. Four British battleships are present, among them two of the three "five masters" (Minotaur, Agincourt and Northumberland). The ship at far right, partially hidden by the land, appears to be HMS Monarch. From the collection of Captain E.L. Bennett, USN. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

 

Named after a county in England, the 10,780-ton HMS Northumberland was a broadside ironclad battleship of the Minotaur class that was built by the Millwall Iron Works at Millwall, England. Northumberland was the third and final ship of the Minotaur class and was a modification of the type represented by HMS Minotaur and HMS Agincourt, the other two ships in the class. Northumberland was approximately 400 feet long and 59 feet wide, had a top speed of 14 knots, and had a crew of 800 officers and men. The ship was originally armed with an astonishing 48 68-pounder smoothbore guns, two 7-inch breech-loading guns, and eight 40-pounder guns, although this armament changed dramatically in later years.

Northumberland was of very similar appearance to the other two ships in her class, with five masts atop a long hull, but she had a shorter battery with an armored bulkhead at each end of the ship, plus an armored conning tower. Like her near sisters, she was laid down in 1861 and took a long time to complete. Her launching in 1866 encountered major problems, as she became stuck on the slipway and did not enter the water for a month. Further delayed by the financial collapse of her builders, the ship was finally commissioned in October 1868.

Northumberland’s first seven years of service was mostly spent with the English Channel Squadron, but in 1869 she was given a special task. In company with HMS Agincourt, Northumberland towed a large floating dry dock to Madeira, Portugal, where the ironclads HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince took over and towed the dock to its final destination in Bermuda. While at the port of Funchal in Madeira, on Christmas Day 1872, her anchor chain parted during a storm and Northumberland drifted across the battleship HMS Hercules’ ram bow. Northumberland suffered serious underwater damage, but her compartmented iron hull limited the flooding and she was able to steam to Malta for repairs. The accident showed just how much punishment an ironclad of this class could withstand and still remain afloat.

Beginning in 1875, Northumberland underwent an extensive refit and overhaul, losing two of her five masts and receiving a new set of guns. After her overhaul was completed, Northumberland was armed with seven 9-inch muzzle-loading guns, 20 8-inch muzzle-loading guns, and two 20-pounder breech-loading guns. The ship rejoined the English Channel Squadron in 1879. Except for another period of dockyard refit from 1885 to 1887, Northumberland was active for the next decade, including a tour of duty as the Channel Squadron’s flagship.

Northumberland, though, was by now quite obsolete given the more modern steel battleships that were entering the Royal Navy. She was harbor bound from the early 1890s onward, initially in reserve and then as a stokers training ship (under the new name Acheron). In 1909, the ship was converted into a coal hulk and had 18 years’ service in this humble, yet important, role. Sold by the Royal Navy in 1927, the old former battleship was used as a hulk (now named Stedmound) at Dakar, Senegal, until 1935, at which point she was scrapped after almost 70 years of service.

USS Arkansas (BB-33)

Figure 1:  USS Arkansas (BB-33) in the middle chambers of the Gatun Locks, Panama Canal, on 25 July 1919, while en route to the Pacific. USS Texas (BB-35) is at right. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 2:  USS Arkansas (BB-33) anchored in harbor during the early 1920s, location unknown. Donation of Franklin Moran, 1967. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 3:  USS Arkansas (BB-33) photographed during the late 1920s or early 1930s, following modernization. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 4: USS Arkansas (BB-33) anchored off Portland, Maine, in February 1942, shortly before the overhaul that replaced her "basket" foremast with a tripod. Photographed from USS Wasp (CV-7). Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 5:  USS Arkansas (BB-33) off the New York Navy Yard, New York, 23 September 1942. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 6:  USS Arkansas (BB-33) underway off the US east coast, 11 April 1944. Photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-11. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 7:  Normandy Invasion, June 1944. USS Arkansas (BB-33) fires her 12-inch guns at German positions while supporting the Omaha Beach landings, 6 June 1944. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.   

Figure 8:  USS Arkansas (BB-33) off the Boston Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts, 5 November 1944. She is painted in camouflage Measure 31a, Design 7B. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.   

Figure 9:  USS Arkansas (BB-33) off the Boston Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts, 5 November 1944. She is painted in camouflage Measure 31a, Design 7B. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.   

Figure 10:  USS Arkansas (BB-33) anchored in San Pedro harbor, California, on 1 January 1945. A tanker and a Navy attack transport (APA) are in the background. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.

Named after the state of Arkansas, the 27,243-ton USS Arkansas (BB-33) was a Wyoming class battleship that was built by the New York Shipbuilding Company at Camden, New Jersey, and was commissioned on 17 September 1912. The ship was approximately 562 feet long and 93 feet wide, had a top speed of 21 knots, and had a crew of 1,036 officers and men. Arkansas was originally armed with twelve 12-inch guns, an astonishing 21 5-inch guns, and two 21-inch torpedo tubes, but this armament changed in later years.

After being commissioned, Arkansas spent seven years with the US Atlantic Fleet. In 1913, she cruised in the Mediterranean Ocean and in 1914 participated in the US intervention in Mexico. During America’s involvement in World War I, Arkansas served with the British Grand Fleet and remained there until the war ended. Arkansas returned to the United States in December 1918.

Transiting the Panama Canal in July 1919, Arkansas joined the US Pacific Fleet and remained there for two years before returning to the Atlantic. The battleship carried midshipmen from the US Naval Academy on cruises to Europe in 1923 and 1924, and went back to America’s west coast in 1925. After that, Arkansas underwent extensive modernization, receiving new oil-fired boilers, additional deck armor, and a changed appearance, with only one smokestack replacing the two older ones and a single “basket” mast in place of the previous two cage masts. During the next two decades, Arkansas primarily served in the Atlantic area, making annual midshipmen’s cruises to Europe from 1929 to 1931 and from 1934 to 1937. From 1932 to 1934, she patrolled along America’s west coast on training exercises, a mission that occupied most of her time during the 1930s.

After World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939, Arkansas continued her training duties, and, as relations with Germany disintegrated, she took part in “operations short of war.” During the summer of 1941, Arkansas escorted American occupation forces to Iceland. In August 1941, the battleship was present when Prime Minister Winston Churchill met President Franklin Roosevelt on board USS Augusta at the Atlantic Charter Conference off the coast of Newfoundland. Once the United States formally entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941, Arkansas escorted convoys across the Atlantic and was used as a training ship. Another major overhaul from March to June 1942 again changed the ship’s appearance, with a new tripod foremast replacing the previous “basket” type mast.

Arkansas’ combat experience began during the Allied invasion of Normandy, France. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, Arkansas took up a position 4,000 yards off the coast of “Omaha” beach. At 0552 hours, all of the battleship’s 12-inch guns opened fire on the Normandy coastline. During the day, Arkansas was fired on by German shore batteries and was attacked by German aircraft. Fortunately, the Germans scored no hits on the battleship. Over the ensuing days, Arkansas continued providing gunfire support along the French coast. On 25 June, the battleship dueled with German shore batteries off the coast of Cherbourg, France, with the enemy repeatedly straddling the ship but never hitting her. Arkansas’ big guns helped support the Allied attack on Cherbourg, which led to the capture of that vital port the following day. After Cherbourg was secured, Arkansas went to Weymouth, England, for fuel, ammunition, and supplies.

Arkansas left England on 4 July 1944, bound for the Mediterranean. She passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and anchored at Oran, Algeria, on 10 July. Eight days later, Arkansas got underway and reached Taranto, Italy, on 21 July. She remained there until 6 August, and then steamed to Palermo, Sicily, the next day.

On 14 August 1944, Operation “Anvil,” the invasion of the southern French coast between Toulon and Cannes, began. Arkansas provided gunfire support for the initial landings on 15 August and continued her bombardment until 17 August. After making stops at Palermo and Oran, Arkansas returned to the United States. On 14 September, the battleship reached Boston, Massachusetts, and underwent alterations and repairs until early November. After completing her overhaul on 7 November, Arkansas sailed south to the Panama Canal. After transiting the canal on 22 November, Arkansas headed for San Pedro, California, arriving there a few days later.

On 20 January 1945, Arkansas left San Pedro and headed for Pearl Harbor. One day after her arrival there, Arkansas left Pearl Harbor and headed for Ulithi Atoll, which was a major US Navy base and staging area in the Caroline Islands. She then went on to Tinian Island, arriving there on 12 February. After two days of training exercises, Arkansas moved on to Iwo Jima.

At 0600 hours on 16 February 1945, Arkansas opened fire on Japanese positions on Iwo Jima as she lay off the island’s west coast. Arkansas bombarded the island for three days and remained in the fire support area to provide cover during the evening hours. During her time off the coast of Iwo Jima, Arkansas shelled numerous Japanese positions in support of the US Marines who were struggling to advance on that wretched island. Arkansas completed her mission at Iwo Jima on 7 March and returned to Ulithi. After arriving at the atoll on 10 March, the battleship rearmed, obtained provisions, and took on more fuel in preparation for her next assignment, the invasion of Okinawa.

Arkansas left Ulithi on 21 March 1945 and began her preliminary shelling of Japanese positions on Okinawa on 25 March, several days ahead of the actual amphibious assault, which started on 1 April. The Japanese soon began their infamous kamikaze onslaught and Arkansas fought off several aerial attacks. For 46 days, Arkansas provided gunfire support for the invasion of Okinawa. On 14 May, Arkansas arrived at Apra Harbor, Guam, and waited for a new assignment.

After spending a month at Apra Harbor, part of which was spent in dry dock, Arkansas got underway on 12 June 1945 and headed for Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. She dropped anchor there on 16 June and remained in the Philippines until the war ended in August. On 20 August, Arkansas left Leyte and returned to Okinawa, reaching that island three days later. After spending a month at Okinawa, Arkansas embarked approximately 800 troops for transport back to the United States as part of Operation Magic Carpet, which was designed to bring home American servicemen as soon as possible. Arkansas left Okinawa and, after making a brief stop at Pearl Harbor, arrived at Seattle, Washington, on 15 October. For the rest of the year, Arkansas made three more trips to Pearl Harbor to shuttle troops back to the United States.

By now thoroughly obsolete, Arkansas was assigned one final mission, to serve as a target ship for the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Although the tough old battleship survived the initial atomic blast which was detonated in the air, she was anchored in close proximity to the bomb used in the 25 July 1945 underwater atomic explosion. Arkansas was engulfed in a huge column of water driven up by the powerful blast and sank quickly. She remains at the bottom of Bikini Atoll to this day. USS Arkansas received four battle stars for her service during World War II.