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Photo # 19-N-13046:  USS New York underway at high speed, 29 May 1915

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

USS New York (Battleship # 34, later BB-34), 1914-1948

USS New York, lead ship of a two-ship class of 27,000-ton battleships, was built at the New York Navy Yard. Commissioned in April 1914, her first active service was off Vera Cruz, Mexico, during the U.S. intervention there. After more than three years of operations off the east coast and in the Caribbean, in December 1917 New York crossed the Atlantic to join the British Grand Fleet. She was flagship of the U.S. battleships of the Sixth Battle Squadron during the remainder of the First World War.

In mid-1919, New York transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific, where she was based during the next decade and a half. As a unit of the Battle Fleet, she took an active part in the exercises, drills and gunnery practices that were regularly held in the Pacific and Caribbean. New York underwent modernization in 1925-27, receiving new oil-fired boilers, anti-torpedo bulges on her hull sides, heavier deck armor, up-to-date gunfire control mechanisms and many other improvements that enhanced her combat capabilities. After being transferred to the Atlantic in the mid-1930s, she visited England in 1937 as the U.S. representative to the British Coronation naval review. Over the next three years, the battleship was actively employed as a training ship.

With the coming of war to Europe, New York participated in Neutrality Patrol operations, and, as the U.S. drew closer to the conflict in 1941, helped in the occupation of Iceland and in escorting convoys. Her convoy activities continued after the United States became a combatant in December 1941. In November 1942, New York also took part the North African invasion, providing gunfire support for landings at Safi, Morocco. She spent 1943 and most of 1944 on escort and training duties, steaming to the Pacific war zone in early 1945. In February, New York's big guns were active bombarding Iwo Jima before and during the Marines' assault on that island. She was similarly employed off Okinawa from late March until June, and was lightly damaged by a suicide plane on 14 April 1945.

Following the Japanese capitulation in August 1945, New York moved back to the Atlantic and was at New York City for the Navy Day fleet review in late October. Her last active service was as a target during the atomic bomb tests at Bikini, Marshall Islands, in July 1946. Too radioactive and far too old for further use, she decommissioned a month later. In July 1948, USS New York was towed out to sea off Pearl Harbor and sunk as a target for Navy aircraft and ships.

This page features, and provides links to, selected views concerning USS New York (BB-34).

For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS New York (Battleship # 34, later BB-34) -- Part II.


    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 #: 19-N-13046

    USS New York (BB-34)


    Underway at high speed, 29 May 1915.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 45138

    USS New York (BB-34)


    In Hampton Roads, Virginia, 10 December 1916.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 570 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 64510

    USS New York (BB-34)


    Anchored in Hampton Roads, Virginia, 17 October 1929.

    Donation of Franklin Moran, 1967.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 600 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 48138

    USS New York (BB-34)


    Leads USS Nevada (BB-36) and USS Oklahoma (BB-37) during maneuvers, 1932. The carrier USS Langley (CV-1) is partially visible in the distance.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 590 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-31582

    USS New York (BB-34)


    Off North Africa on 10 November 1942, just after the Battle of Casablanca.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 615 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 63525

    USS New York (BB-34)


    Photographed in 1944-45, while painted in camouflage Measure 31A, Design 8b.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 104833

    USS New York
    (BB-34)

    Underway off shore, circa early 1945.
    She is wearing Camouflage Measure 31a, Design 8B.
    This photograph was released on 26 January 1946 with an announcement that New York was to be used as an atomic bomb target. It was, however, taken about a year earlier.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-K-14562 (Color)

    USS New York (BB-34)

    Arrives off New York City to take part in Navy Day celebrations, circa 19 October 1945.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 83KB; 590 x 765 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 105564

    USS New York
    (BB-34)

    Anchored in New York Harbor, circa late 1945 or early 1946.

    Collection of Warren Beltramini, donated by Beryl Beltramini, 2007.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image size: 65KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     


    For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS New York (Battleship # 34, later BB-34) -- Part II.


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


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 21 November 2000
    New image added 16 April 2008