USS Connecticut (BB-18)

Connecticut underway sometime before World War I
History
United States
Name:	Connecticut
Namesake:	State of Connecticut
Ordered:	1 July 1902
Awarded:	15 October 1902
Builder:	New York Naval Shipyard
Laid down:	10 March 1903
Launched:	29 September 1904
Sponsored by:	Alice B. Welles
Commissioned:	29 September 1906
Decommissioned:	1 March 1923
Struck:	10 November 1923
Fate:	sold for scrap, 1 November 1923
General characteristics
Class and type:	Connecticut-class battleship
Displacement:	16,000 long tons (16,300 t)
Length:	456 ft 4 in (139.09 m)
Beam:	76 ft 10 in (23.42 m)
Draft:	24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
Propulsion:	12 × 250 psi (1,700 kPa)Babcock & Wilcox boilers; 8 Ship Service generators, reciprocating, at 100 kW each
Speed:	18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h)
Complement:	827 officers and men
Armament:	4 × 12 in (305 mm)/40 or 45 cal guns (2 × 2) 8 × 8 in (203 mm)/45 caliber guns (4 × 2) 12 × 7 in (178 mm)/45 caliber Mark 2 guns 20 × 3 in (76.2 mm)/50 caliber guns 12 × 3-pdr guns 6 × 1-pdr automatic guns 2 × 1-pdr semiautomatic guns 2 × .30 in (7.6 mm) machine guns 4 × 21 in (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 11 to 9 in (279 to 229 mm), tapering to 7 in (178 mm), 5 in (127 mm) and 4 in (102 mm) at bow and stern Lower casemate: 9 in (229 mm) Upper casemate: 7 in (178 mm), with 1.5 to 2.5 in (38 to 64 mm) transverse splinter bulkheads between 7 in (178 mm) guns Bulkheads: 6 in (152 mm) Barbettes: 10 in (254 mm) Turrets: 11 in (279 mm)/2.5 in (64 mm)/9 in (229 mm) in for 12 in (305 mm) guns, 6.5 in (165 mm)/2 in (51 mm)/6 in (152 mm) for 8 in (203 mm) guns 7 in (178 mm) around 7 in (178 mm) guns, 2 in (51 mm) around 3 in (76 mm) guns Conning tower: 9 in (229 mm)/2 in (51 mm)

USS Connecticut (BB-18), the fourth United States Navy ship to be named after the state of Connecticut, was the lead ship of her class of six battleships. Her keel was laid on 10 March 1903; launched on 29 September 1904, Connecticut was commissioned on 29 September 1906 as the most advanced ship in the U.S. Navy.

Connecticut served as the flagship for the Jamestown Exposition in mid-1907, which commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony. She later sailed with the Great White Fleet on a circumnavigation of the Earth to showcase the US Navy's growing fleet of blue-water-capable ships. After completing her service with the Great White Fleet, Connecticut participated in several flag-waving exercises intended to protect American citizens abroad until she was pressed into service as a troop transport at the end of World War I to expedite the return of American Expeditionary Forces from France.

For the remainder of her career, Connecticut sailed to various places in both the Atlantic and Pacific while training newer recruits to the Navy. However, the provisions of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty stipulated that many of the older battleships, Connecticut among them, would have to be disposed of, so she was decommissioned on 1 March 1922 and sold for scrap on 1 November 1923.

The design that evolved into the Connecticut-class battleship was conceived on 6 March 1901 when Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long asked the Board on Construction for a study of future battleship designs. When this was completed, different bureaus supported different designs.