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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 73978:  USS Minnesota underway in 1911

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Minnesota (Battleship # 22, later BB-22), 1907-1924

USS Minnesota, a 16,000-ton Connecticut class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. She was commissioned in March 1907 and participated in the Jamestown Exposition during much of that year. From December 1907 to February 1909, Minnesota steamed around the World with the "Great White Fleet", in one of the era's most impressive demonstrations of battle fleet mobility. Upon her return to the United States, she was modernized, receiving initially a "cage"foremast and other superstructure alternations, as well as a coating of grey paint. About a year later, she was fitted with a second "cage" mast.

During 1909-16, Minnesota performed the typical duties of contemporary battleships, taking part in fleet operations along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean area and supporting military interventions in Cuba and Mexico. She also crossed the Atlantic once to visit northern European waters. Minnesota served as a gunnery and engineering training ship during World War I. Damaged by a German mine on 29 September 1918, she was under repair until March 1919, then briefly served as a troop transport bringing service personnel home from France. In 1920, the battleship was designated BB-22. She made Midshipmen's training cruises in 1920 and 1921 and was decommissioned and stricken from the Navy registry in December of the latter year. After she was dismantled at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, USS Minnesota's remains were sold for scrap in January 1924.

This page features selected views concerning USS Minnesota (Battleship # 22, later BB-22).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 46023

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

Photographed circa 1907-08.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 575 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 91751

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

Pitches her forefoot out of the water during a storm, while steaming from the Philippines to Yokohama, Japan, in October 1908, during the "Great White Fleet" World cruise.

Courtesy of Rear Admiral Fred W. Connor.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 570 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 101500

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

Photographed by Brown & Shaffer, 1909.

Collection of Chief Quartermaster John Harold.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 73978

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

Photographed in 1911 by O.W. Waterman, Hampton, Virginia.
She is flying a Rear Admiral's flag from her mainmast, and has practice gun sighting equipment installed atop her gun turrets.

Collection of Captain Glenn Howell.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 460 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 61215

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

At the Philadelphia Navy Yard, circa 1919.
Note that all of her 7-inch broadside guns have been removed.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 510 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 73817

USS Minnesota (BB-22)


In the Panama Canal, circa 1920.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 505 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 85216-KN (Color)

Great White Fleet at Sea, the Second Squadron, Dec. 1907

Painting by Henry Reuterdahl, depicting Rear Admiral Charles M. Thomas on board USS Minnesota (Battleship # 22) during the Atlantic Fleet's cruise around the World. The artist has inscribed the work to Rear Admiral Thomas.

Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC.
Donation of Miss Ruth Thomas.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46030

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

An officer poses in the breech of one of the after turret's 12"/45 guns, 1908.

Courtesy of Chaplain Evans, 1935.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 109KB; 545 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 85292

"A Sailor's Sewing Day Reminds Him Keenly of Home and Mother -- Life on Board a Battleship"


Photograph probably taken on board USS Minnesota (Battleship # 22), circa 1910, and published on a stereograph card by the Keystone View Company during the World War I period.
Note other men relaxing and reading. Note "Nick Carter" magazine in center, and men at right holding a USS Minnesota cap ribbon. .
See Photo # NH 85292 (extended caption) for the text printed on the original stereograph card's reverse side, concerning the sailors' "comfort bags" and other items provided by American women through the Red Cross and Navy League during World War I.

Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN(MSC), 1975

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 630 x 675 pixels

A stereo pair version of this image is available as Photo # NH 85292-A

Online Image of stereo pair: 74KB; 675 x 355 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46027

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

Damage to the ship's starboard bow from the 29 September 1918 explosion of a mine laid by the German submarine U-117. Photographed in drydock at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, 1 October 1918.
Note hull plating pushed into internal framing and many split seams with open rivet holes. The side armor at the top of the view does not appear to have been much distorted, if at all, by the explosion.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 142KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 82118

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

Ship's officers and crewmen, posed on the forecastle and superstructure, 1 November 1918.
Minnesota was then at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, receiving repairs to mine damage suffered a month earlier.

Collection of LCdr. Abraham DeSomer, donated by Myles DeSomer, 1975.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 435 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 104960

USS Minnesota
(Battleship # 22)

Part of the "Rainbow Division" (42nd Division, U.S. Army) on board the ship during their homeward bound voyage from France to New York, 1919.

Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 53KB; 420 x 765 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 24 April 2001
New image added 13 September 2007