USS Montana (ACR-13)

USS Montana (ACR-13), port view underway, 1919.
History
United States
Name:	Montana
Namesake:	State of Montana
Builder:	Newport News Drydock & Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Virginia
Laid down:	29 April 1905
Launched:	15 December 1906
Commissioned:	21 July 1908
Decommissioned:	2 February 1921
Renamed:	Missoula, 7 June 1920
Struck:	15 July 1930
Fate:	sold 29 September 1930
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tennessee-class armored cruiser
Displacement:	14,500 long tons (14,733 t) (standard) 15,981 long tons (16,237 t) (full load)
Length:	504 ft 5 in (153.75 m) oa
Beam:	72 ft 10 in (22.20 m)
Draft:	25 ft (7.6 m)
Installed power:	16 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 23,000 ihp (17,000 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × Triple expansion steam engines
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Complement:	914
Armament:	4 × 10 in (254 mm)/ 40 caliber Mark 3 guns 16 × 6 in (152 mm)/50 caliber Mark 8 guns 22 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber guns 12 × 3-pounder guns 4 × 1-pounder guns 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 5 in (127 mm) Deck: 3 in (76 mm) Turrets: 9 in (229 mm) Conning tower: 9 in

USS Montana (ACR-13/CA-13), also referred to as "Armored Cruiser No. 13", later renamed Missoula and reclassified CA-13, was a Tennessee-class armored cruiser of the United States Navy. She was built by the Newport News Drydock & Shipbuilding Co.; her keel was laid down in April 1905, she was launched in December 1906, and she was commissioned in July 1908. The final class of armored cruisers to be built for the US Navy, Montana and her sisters were armed with a main battery of four 10-inch (254 mm) guns, and were capable of a top speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph).

Montana spent her active duty career in the Atlantic Fleet. She made two cruises to the Mediterranean Sea to protect American citizens in the Ottoman Empire, the first in 1909 in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution and the second during the Balkan Wars in 1913. Montana was also involved in political unrest in Central American countries, sending landing parties ashore in Haiti and in Mexico during the Occupation of Veracruz, both in 1914.

After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Montana was tasked with convoy escort and training ship duties. With the end of the war in November 1918 came a new task, transporting American soldiers back from the battlefields of Europe. She made six round trips to France and carried back a total of 8,800 men. Montana was then transferred to the Puget Sound Naval Yard in Washington State, where she was decommissioned and renamed Missoula. She remained in the reserve fleet until 1930, when she was stricken under the terms of the London Naval Treaty. The ship was eventually sold for scrap in 1935 and broken up.