USS Oklahoma (BB-37)

Oklahoma at anchor
History
United States
Name:	Oklahoma
Namesake:	State of Oklahoma
Ordered:	4 March 1911
Builder:	New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey
Laid down:	26 October 1912
Launched:	23 March 1914
Sponsored by:	Lorena J. Cruce
Commissioned:	2 May 1916
Decommissioned:	1 September 1944
Struck:	1 September 1944
Motto:	"For the Good of the Service!"
Nickname(s):	"Okie"
Honors and awards:	1 battle star for World War II service.
Fate:	Sunk in Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941 Raised and sold for scrap, 5 December 1946 Hulk sank while under tow, 17 May 1947.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Nevada-class battleship
Displacement:	27,500 long tons (27,900 metric tons)
Length:	583 ft (178 m)
Beam:	95 ft 6 in (29.11 m)
Draft:	28 ft 6 in (8.69 m)
Installed power:	12 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 24,800 ihp (18.5 MW)
Propulsion:	2 × shafts; 2 × Vertical triple-expansion steam engines
Speed:	20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph)
Range:	5,120 nmi (9,480 km; 5,890 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	As built: 864 officers and crewmen From 1929: 1,398
Armament:	As built: 2 × triple, 2 × twin 14 in (356 mm)/45 cal. guns 21 × single 5 in (127 mm)/51 cal. guns 2 × single 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal. AA guns 2 or 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes After 1927–29 refit: 12 × single 5 in/51 cal. guns 8 × single 5 in/25 cal. AA guns
Armor:	Belt: 13.5 to 8 in (340 to 200 mm) Bulkheads: 13 to 8 in (330 to 200 mm) Barbettes: 13 in (330 mm) Turrets: 18 in (460 mm) Decks: 5 in Conning tower: 16 in (406 mm), 8 in (203 mm) top
Aircraft carried:	as built: 3 floatplanes, 2 catapults 1941: 2 floatplanes, 1 catapult

USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was a Nevada-class battleship built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation for the United States Navy in the 1910s. The Nevada class were oil-burning ships in the United States Navy. Oklahoma was the only US warship ever named for the 46th state.

Oklahoma, commissioned in 1916, served in World War I as a member of Battleship Division 6, protecting Allied convoys on their way across the Atlantic. After the war, she served in both the United States Battle Fleet and Scouting Fleet. Oklahoma was modernized between 1927 and 1929. In 1936, she rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War. On returning to the West coast in August of the same year, Oklahoma spent the rest of her service in the Pacific.

On 7 December 1941, Oklahoma was sunk by several torpedoes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Torpedoes from torpedo bomber airplanes hit the ship's hull and the ship flipped upside down. Survivors jumped off the ship 50 feet into burning hot water or crawled across mooring lines which connected the Oklahoma and the Maryland. Some people inside the ship escaped when rescuers came and drilled holes and opened hatches to take them out. When the ship sank a total of 429 crew died when she capsized in Battleship Row. In 1943, Oklahoma was righted and salvaged. Unlike most of the other battleships that were recovered following Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma was too damaged to return to duty. Her wreck was eventually stripped of her remaining armament and superstructure before being sold for scrap in 1946. The hulk sank in a storm while being towed from Oahu in Hawaii to a breakers yard in San Francisco Bay in 1947.

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Wikipedia