USS North Carolina (ACR-12)

USS North Carolina (ACR-12), starboard bow view while underway, date and location unknown.
History
United States
Name:	North Carolina
Namesake:	State of North Carolina City of Charlotte, North Carolina
Ordered:	27 April 1904
Awarded:	3 January 1905
Builder:	Newport News Drydock & Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Virginia
Cost:	$3,575,000 (contract price of hull and machinery)
Laid down:	21 March 1905
Launched:	6 October 1906
Sponsored by:	Miss Rebekah Glenn
Commissioned:	7 May 1908
Decommissioned:	18 February 1921
Renamed:	Charlotte, 7 June 1920
Reclassified:	CA-12, 17 July 1920
Struck:	15 July 1930
Identification:	Hull symbol:ACR-12 Hull symbol:CA-12
Fate:	sold for scrap, 29 September 1930
General characteristics (as built)
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 502 ft (153 m) pp
Beam:	72 ft 10 1⁄2 in (22.212 m)
Draft:	25 ft (7.6 m) (mean)
Installed power:	16 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 23,000 ihp (17,000 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × vertical triple expansion reciprocating engines 2 × screws
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) 21.91 knots (40.58 km/h; 25.21 mph) (Speed on Trial)
Complement:	83 officers 804 enlisted 64 Marines
Armament:	4 × 10 in (250 mm)/40 caliber Mark 3 breech-loading rifles (2x2) 16 × 6 in (150 mm)/50 caliber Mark 8 breech-loading rifles 22 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber rapid-fire guns 4 × 3-pounder (47 mm (1.9 in)) Driggs-Schroeder saluting guns 4 × 21 in (530 mm) submerged torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 5 in (13 cm) Deck: 1 1⁄2–4 in (38–102 mm) (amidships) 3 in (76 mm) (forward & aft) Barbettes: 4–7 in (100–180 mm) Turrets: 5–9 in (130–230 mm) Conning Tower: 9 in (230 mm)
General characteristics (1921)
Armament:	4 × 10 in (250 mm)/40 caliber Mark 3 breech-loading rifles (2×2) 16 × 6 in (150 mm)/50 caliber Mark 8 breech-loading rifles 2 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber anti-aircraft guns 4 × 6-pounder (57 mm (2.2 in)) Driggs-Schroeder saluting guns 4 × 21 in (530 mm) submerged torpedo tubes

USS North Carolina (ACR-12/CA-12) was a Tennessee-class armored cruiser of the United States Navy and the second Navy ship so named. She was also known as "Armored Cruiser No. 12" and later renamed and reclassified Charlotte (CA-12).

She was laid down on 21 March 1905 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia, launched on 6 October 1906, sponsored by Miss Rebekah Glenn, daughter of the Governor of North Carolina R. B. Glenn, and commissioned at Norfolk on 7 May 1908, Captain William A. Marshall in command.

Following shakedown along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean, North Carolina carried President-elect William Howard Taft on an inspection tour to the Panama Canal in January–February 1909. From 23 April – 3 August, the new cruiser cruised the Mediterranean. Sailing with Montana to protect Americans threatened by conflict in the Ottoman Empire. North Carolina sent a medical relief party ashore on 17 May to Adana, Turkey, to treat both wounded and desperately ill Armenians, victims of massacre. North Carolina provided food, shelter, disinfectants, distilled water, dressings and medicines, and assisted other relief agencies already on the scene. For the remainder of her Mediterranean cruise, North Carolina cruised the Levant succoring both American citizens and refugees from oppression.

In the years before World War I, North Carolina trained and maneuvered in the western Atlantic and Caribbean and participated in ceremonial and diplomatic activities. Highlights included attending centennial celebrations of the independence of Argentina (May–June 1910) and Venezuela (June–July 1911); carrying the Secretary of War for an inspection tour of Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Cuba, and the Panama Canal (July–August 1911); and bringing home from Cuba bodies of the crew of the destroyed Maine for their final interment in Arlington National Cemetery.