USS Arkansas (BM-7)

Figure 1: "US Monitors Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida and Wyoming." Pen and ink side elevation and plan view, by the Bureau of Construction and Repair. These monitors (numbers 7-10, respectively) were built under the 1898 ship construction program. Connecticut (Monitor No. 8) was renamed Nevada in January 1901, after launching but more than two years before completion. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 2: Launching of USS Arkansas (BM-7) at Newport News, VA, 10 November 1900. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 3: The monitor USS Arkansas (BM-7) fitting out at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., 1 July 1902. Her armament has been completely installed and the ship is only four months away from commissioning. The ship in the background is the battleship Missouri (BB-11). US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.



Figure 4: Postcard of the Arkansas (BM-7). Photograph courtesy of SK/3 Tommy Trampp. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 5: Officers and crew of the monitor USS Arkansas (BM-7), circa 1907. US National Archives photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 6: USS Ozark (formerly USS Arkansas) as completed, port-side view. She was renamed Ozark in March 1909. Date and location of this photograph is unknown. Photograph from National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), Record Group 19-N, Box 33. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 7: USS Ozark (formerly USS Arkansas) painted in wartime gray. She was renamed Ozark in March 1909. US Navy photograph courtesy of US Warships of WW1 by Paul Silverstone. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 8: USS Ozark (BM-7) probably in a Mexican port, circa 1914-1918. The original photograph is printed on postal card stock. Photographed by Carreras. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2005. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.



Named after the state of Arkansas, the 3,225-ton USS Arkansas (BM-7) was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Virginia, and was the lead ship in a class of single-turreted “New Steel Navy” monitors. She was one of the last monitors built for the US Navy and was commissioned on 28 October 1902. The ship was approximately 255 feet long and 50 feet wide, had a top speed of 12 knots, and had a crew of 220 officers and men. Arkansas carried two 12-inch guns in its single turret, plus four 4-inch guns and three 6-pounders.

After her shakedown cruise, Arkansas was initially used as a training ship for the US Naval Academy. She then was ordered to join the Coast Squadron of the North Atlantic Fleet. Her primary duties included patrolling off America’s east coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the West Indies. But Arkansas continued making summer training cruises for the midshipmen at the Naval Academy and in 1906 was assigned to the Academy as a training ship for more than three years.

To free up her name for a new battleship that was being built at the time, Arkansas was renamed USS Ozark on 2 March 1909. The ship then was assigned to the District of Columbia’s Naval Militia from 26 June 1910 to 6 March 1913. Later that month, Ozark was sent to Norfolk, Virginia, to be converted into a submarine tender. Although she began those new duties on 12 July 1913, Ozark was sent off the coast of Mexico for most of 1914 and participated in Atlantic Fleet training exercises in 1915. In 1916, Ozark was assigned to patrol the Chesapeake Bay area off the coasts of Virginia and Maryland.

On 6 April 1917, the day the United States entered World War I, Ozark was assigned to Submarine Division (SubDiv) 6 of the Atlantic Fleet as a submarine tender. But Ozark soon was ordered to steam to Tampico, Mexico, where she was used as a gunboat to protect American lives and property along the coast of that politically unstable country. Ozark left for New Orleans on 18 December 1918 and then patrolled off the coasts of Key West, Florida, as well as Central America and the Panama Canal Zone. Ozark returned to Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 23 June 1919 and was decommissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 20 August. USS Ozark remained there until 26 January 1922, when she was sold for scrapping.

USS Nevada (BM-8)

Figure 1: "U.S. Monitors Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida and Wyoming." Pen-and-ink side elevation and plan view, by the Bureau of Construction and Repair. These monitors (numbers 7-10, respectively) were built under the 1898 ship construction program. Connecticut (Monitor No. 8) was renamed Nevada in January 1901, after launching but more than two years before completion. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 2: Color postcard of the USS Nevada (BM-8) at anchor at New London, Connecticut, in 1905. Photograph by Enrique Muller, courtesy of Tommy Trampp. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 3: Caption of this black-and-white photograph reads: “The crew of the USS Tonopah (BM-8) dressed in whites in 1909, while the ship was at anchor, probably on a Sunday. “ But this photograph looks like the picture used by Enrique Muller for the color postcard dated 1905. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 4: Starboard view of USS Nevada (BM-8) circa 1903-09, location unknown. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 5: USS Tonopah (BM-8) heading out to sea, circa 1914. Originally laid down as USS Connecticut, she was renamed USS Nevada to avoid confusion with a pre-dreadnought battleship. She was again renamed in March 1909 to USS Tonopah. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 6: View on USS Tonopah’s (BM-8) foredeck, showing 12-inch guns and crewmen, taken while she was serving as submarine tender at the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, circa 1917. Submarines alongside are USS L-11 (Submarine No. 51) and USS L-9 (Submarine No. 49). Note the workbench, with vise attached, in the left foreground. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 7: USS Tonopah (BM-8) in the harbor at Ponta Delgada, Azores, in April 1918. She is painted in what appears to be Mackay-type camouflage. Photographed from USS Margaret (SP-527) by Raymond D. Borden. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 8: Postcard of USS Nevada (BM-8), date and place unknown. US Navy photograph courtesy of Darryl L. Baker. Click on photograph for larger image.



USS Connecticut (BM-8) was a 3,225-ton Arkansas class monitor that was laid down on 17 April 1899 at the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, and was launched on 24 November 1900. But the ship was re-named USS Nevada in January 1901 and was commissioned on 5 March 1903. Nevada was approximately 225 feet long and 50 feet wide, had a top speed of 13 knots, and had a crew of 220 officers and men. Nevada was armed with one main turret that held two 12-inch guns and also carried four 4-inch guns and two 6-pounders.

Nevada’s initial career was rather subdued. She was in commission for roughly three years when the ship was decommissioned on 19 August 1906. Nevada was then re-named USS Tonopah on 2 March 1909 to allow Battleship Number 36 to be named Nevada. Re-commissioned on 14 May 1909, Tonopah was assigned to the US Navy’s Atlantic Fleet as a submarine tender. Tonopah operated along America’s east coast from Massachusetts to Key West, Florida, until January 1918.

Although briefly based in Bermuda, Tonopah was sent to Ponta Delgada on the island of San Miguel, Azores, in February 1918. From February to December 1918, the ship tended to five submarines and several submarine chasers operating from the Azores. In December, Tonopah was towed to Lisbon, Portugal, and then returned to the United States. The ship was decommissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October 1919. On 26 January 1922, USS Tonopah was sold for scrapping.

The era of the big-gun monitor had drawn to a close. They were powerful ships, but anachronisms, with a design that belonged to a previous century. Monitors were very slow, poorly ventilated, and extremely sluggish and hard to handle in heavy seas. In fact, it’s amazing more of them were not lost in stormy weather. Yet from 1865 to about 1900, they were still considered by many old-fashioned admirals to be the last word in battleship design. But with time came change and with so many newer and more modern battleships joining the American fleet after 1900, there was no need for them, even as coastal patrol boats. Most of these strange-looking warships were disposed of by the 1920s.

USS Florida (BM-9)

Figure 1: USS Florida (BM-9) photographed in 1904 by Enrique Muller, while serving with the Coast Squadron training midshipmen on summer cruises and operating along the East Coast and in Caribbean waters. Photo courtesy of greatwhitefleet.info, by William Stewart. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 2: Postcard of USS Florida (BM-9). Image taken from a photograph by Enrique Muller, 1905. Photograph courtesy of SK/3 Tommy Trampp. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 3: Postcard of USS Florida (BM-9). Image possibly taken from a photograph by Enrique Muller, 1905, and published by Tuck & Sons. Photograph courtesy of Henry Higgins. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 4: The submarines K-6 and K-5 alongside the monitor USS Tallahassee (formerly USS Florida, BM-9) at Hampton Roads, Virginia, 10 December 1916. Photograph from the National Archives & Record Administration (NARA), Record Group 19-N, Box 33. Click on photograph for larger image.



The 3,225-ton USS Florida (BM-9) was an Arkansas class monitor built by the Crescent Shipyard at Elizabethport, New Jersey, and was commissioned on 18 June 1903. The ship was approximately 252 feet long and 50 feet wide, had a top speed of 12 knots, and had a crew of 220 officers and men. Florida was armed with two 12-inch guns in a single turret, four single 4-inch guns, and one 3-inch gun.

After briefly being assigned to the US Navy’s “Coast Squadron,” Florida was used as a training ship on summer cruises for midshipmen attending the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. While serving in this capacity, she steamed along America’s East Coast and in the Caribbean. Florida also took part in the Presidential Naval Review held by Theodore Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, Long Island, on 3 September 1906. Four days later, Florida became a full-time training ship at the Naval Academy. The ship was placed in reserve on 11 September 1906, but was fully commissioned from 7 June to 30 August 1907 for a midshipman cruise. Once the cruise was completed, the ship was decommissioned and placed in reserve.

From 21 May to 19 June 1908, Florida was subjected to an extraordinary set of ordnance tests. Florida was used as a target ship while her sister ship, the monitor USS Arkansas, fired several shots at Florida using her 12-inch and 4-inch guns. According to the US Navy at the time, the tests were conducted “to strike the Florida’s turret with an energy little short of penetration, in such a way that most of the [shell] fragments will fly across the bows clear of the ship. It is not intended to penetrate the turret armor, and the test is in no respect a contest of gun against armor or armor against gun, the effect of the shock only being desired. The shock, under the conditions above noted, will be approximately the greatest that could be experienced in battle.” An experimental steel “cage” mast also was placed on board Florida for the test and the shell hits would determine the sturdiness of the new mast design. The test took place on 27 May 1908 off Hampton Roads, Virginia, with Arkansas firing several shots at Florida at close range. Evidently, Florida survived the test very well. According to an article in the New York Tribune dated 28 May 1908, “The biggest naval gun, the heaviest projectile and the highest explosive known, combined with close range and deadly aim, were allowed to work their full havoc on the turret plate of the monitor Florida today. The result is declared to be a victory for turret construction, and this notwithstanding the 11-inch hardened steel plate was blackened, broken, the seams of the turret sprung and the rivets and screws loosened and twisted.” The article went on to say that Florida’s 12-inch guns were still operational even after being pounded by Arkansas. In addition, the experimental “cage” mast that was placed on board Florida for the test also sustained only minor damage and withstood all of the shell hits. The test proved that although monitors were very slow and rapidly becoming obsolete in terms of naval technology, they were still formidable warships and hard to sink. Then, incredibly, Florida was repaired after this test and returned to the fleet. This is probably the only time in American naval history where a warship was actually used as a target for target practice and then repaired and sent back to active duty.

On 1 July 1908, USS Florida was renamed USS Tallahassee to free up the state’s name for a new battleship that was being built. On 1 August 1910, Tallahassee was placed in reserve and became a gunnery test ship and performed occasional duties as a submarine tender in the Panama Canal Zone and at Norfolk, Virginia. During World War I, the ship served as a submarine tender in the Panama Canal Zone, the Virgin Islands, and Bermuda. On 30 September 1918, Tallahassee entered Charleston Navy Yard at Charleston, South Carolina, and was decommissioned there on 3 December.

Tallahassee was assigned to the Sixth Naval District as a reserve training ship on 19 February 1920, but was not re-commissioned. The ship was officially placed back in commission as a training ship from 3 September 1920 to 24 March 1922, when Tallahassee was decommissioned for the last time. USS Tallahassee was sold for scrapping at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 25 July 1922.