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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 2895:  USS North Dakota at anchor, 1911

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

USS North Dakota (Battleship # 29, later BB-29), 1910-1931

USS North Dakota, a 20,000-ton Delaware class battleship, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. Commissioned in April 1910, she generally operated with the Atlantic Fleet along the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean area for most of her career. She participated in the Mexican intervention in April-October 1914, served as a gunnery and engineering training ship during the First World War, and took part in aerial bombing tests off the Virginia Capes in 1921. When the Navy formally adopted hull numbers in 1920, she was designated BB-29.

North Dakota also made a number of more distant cruises. In November 1910, she steamed across the Atlantic to visit England and France. The battleship returned to European waters in late 1919, when she visited ports throughout the Mediterranean Sea while on a mission to bring home the remains of the U.S. Ambassador to Italy. During a Naval Academy Midshipmen's training cruise in 1923, she went to Scandinavia, Scotland and Spain.

The Washington naval limitations treaty rendered North Dakota excess to the U.S. Navy's battleship allowance, and she was decommissioned in November 1923. Demilitarized in 1924, she was to be converted to a mobile target and was redesignated "unclassified". North Dakota was sold for scrapping in March 1931.

This page features selected views concerning USS North Dakota (BB-29).


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 #: NH 44729

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Running trials in 1909.
Photographed by N.L. Stebbins, Boston.
Note the five-inch gun mounted in a low sponson forward. This gun and sponson were soon removed.

Collection of Rear Admiral Ammen C. Farenholt, USN(MC).
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 580 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 2895

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


At anchor in harbor, 1911.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 135KB; 605 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 61218

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Underway in about 1912.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 44734

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Photographed by Enrique Muller, 1912.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 77197

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


In the Grand Harbor, Valletta, Malta, 17 December 1919.
A British battleship is moored beyond her.

Photograph from the scrapbooks of Fred M. Butler. Courtesy of Mrs. C.R. DeSpain, 1973

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 460 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-1024881

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Underway during battle practice, circa 1921.
Note sighting target mounted above her stern; all guns trained out on the port beam; heavy coal smoke.

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

Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 73827

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Passing through the Galliard Cut, Panama Canal, 15 February 1923.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 113KB; 740 x 495 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 73765

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Firing a broadside with her twelve-inch guns, prior to World War I.
Mast details have been retouched in this photograph.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 133KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 100784

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Sailor poses in the breech of the left 12"/45 gun of Turret # 5, at the New York Navy Yard, 14 March 1914.
The original photo is printed on postcard stock, inscribed on the reverse: "To Luther, from Phil".
Note that this man wears the Seaman Gunner Mark, with "E" below his chevrons.

Courtesy of Carter Rila, 1986.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 530 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 85195

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Group of officers and men posed on the boat deck, circa 1913-14
Among those present are: Captain Charles P. Plunkett, Commanding Officer (seated in center); Commander Orton P. Jackson; and Electrician's Mate 1st Class Mason Dunlap (seated at lower left).

Courtesy of HT1c J.T. Thompson, Jr., USN, 1976.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 485 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 93814

USS North Dakota (BB-29)


Launching, at the Fore River Shipbuilding Company shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, 10 November 1908.
Note that the ship wears a bow decoration, a feature removed before her completion.

Courtesy of the Submarine Force Library & Museum, Groton, Connecticut, 1982.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 60KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 


The fire seen in the following photograph is probably that during which Machinist 1st Class Charles C. Roberts performed the actions that resulted in the award of the Medal of Honor:

Photo #: NH 103077

USS North Dakota
(Battleship # 29)

View on deck, looking forward from aft, showing smoke from an oil tank explosion. The image bears a date that appears to be 8 September 1910.
Photographed by F.B. Jones.
The original image is printed on postal card ("AZO") stock.

Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2005.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 93KB; 440 x 765 pixels

 


The ship seen in the following photograph is probably USS North Dakota or her sister, USS Delaware:

Photo #: NH 105785

Installing a 12"/45 gun in a battleship gun turret


This is probably Turret # 3 of either Delaware (Battleship # 28) or North Dakota (Battleship # 29). The view may have been taken while the ship was under construction, circa 1909-1910.
The original image is printed on post card ("AZO") stock. A handwritten inscription pencilled on its reverse ("USS Franklin") has no obvious bearing on the subject of the photo.

Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2008.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image size: 57KB; 740 x 465 pixels

 


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


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Page made 16 January 2001
New image added 12 May 2008