Kansas

II

(BB-21: displacement 16,000; length 456 feet 4 inches; beam 76 feet 10 inches; draft 24 feet 6 inches; speed 18 knots; complement 880; armament 4 12-inch guns, 8 8-inch guns, 12 3-pounders, 2 1-pounders, 2 .30 caliber machine guns, 4 21-inch torpedo tubes; class Vermont)

The second Kansas (BB-21) was launched by New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J., on 12 August 1905; sponsored by Miss Anna Hoch, daughter of the Governor of Kansas; and commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 18 April 1907, with Captain Charles B. Vreeland in command.

The new battleship departed Philadelphia on 17 August 1907 for shakedown training out of Provincetown, Mass., and returned home for alterations on 24 September. She joined the "Great White Fleet" at Hampton Roads on 9 December and passed in review before President Theodore Roosevelt while getting underway on the first leg of the fleet's historic world cruise. The American ships arrived at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, on 23 December and six days later got underway for Rio de Janeiro. From there, they sailed south along the east coast of South America and transited the perilous Straits of Magellan in open order. Turning north, the fleet visited Valparaiso, Chile, and Callao Bay, Peru, en route to Magdalena Bay, Mexico, for a month of target practice.

The "Great White Fleet" reached San Diego on 14 April 1908, and moved on to San Francisco on 7 May. Exactly two months later, the spotless warships sortied through the Golden Gate and headed for Honolulu. From Hawaii, they set course for Auckland, New Zealand, greeted as heroes upon arrival on 9 August. The fleet made Sydney on 20 August and, after enjoying a week of the most warm and cordial hospitality, sailed to Melbourne, where they were welcomed with equal graciousness and enthusiasm.

Kansas had her last glimpse of Australia on 19 September upon leaving Albany for ports in the Philippine Islands, Japan, and Ceylon before transiting the Suez Canal. She departed Port Said, Egypt, on 4 January 1909, for a visit to Villefranche, France, and then staged with the combined "Great White Fleet" at Gibraltar and departed for home on 6 February. She again passed in review before President Roosevelt as she entered Hampton Roads on 22 February, ending a widely acclaimed voyage of goodwill subtly but effectively demonstrating American strength to the world.

A week later, Kansas entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for overhaul. Repairs completed on 17 June, the battleship began a period of maneuvers, tactical training, and battle practice which lasted almost until the close of the following year. With the 2nd Battleship Division, she sailed on 15 November 1910 for Europe, visiting Cherbourg, France, and Portland, England, before returning to Hampton Roads via Cuba and Santo Domingo. She again departed Hampton Roads on 8 May 1911 for Scandinavia, visiting Copenhagen, Stockholm, Cronstadt, and Kiel before returning to Provincetown, Mass., on 13 July. She engaged in fleet tactics south to the Virginia capes before entering the Norfolk Navy Yard on 3 November for overhaul.

Early in 1912, she began several months of maneuvers out of Guantanamo Bay and then returned to Hampton Roads to serve as one of the welcoming units for the German Squadron which visited there from 28 May to 8 June and New York from 8 to 13 June.

The battleship embarked Naval Academy Midshipmen at Annapolis on 21 June for a summer practice cruise which took her, among other ports of call along the Atlantic seaboard, to Baltimore during the Democratic National Convention which nominated Woodrow Wilson. After debarking her midshipmen at Annapolis on 30 August, she sailed from Norfolk on 15 November for a training cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. She returned to Philadelphia on 21 December to enter the Navy Yard for overhaul.

Back in top shape on 5 May 1913, Kansas operated on the East Coast until she stood out of Hampton Roads on 25 October, bound for Genoa, Italy. From there, she proceeded to Guantanamo Bay en route to the coast of Mexico to operate off Vera Cruz and Tampico, watching out for American interests in that land then troubled by revolutionary unrest as rival factions struggled to attain and hold power. She returned to Norfolk on 14 March 1914, and entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for overhaul on 11 April.

Kansas departed Norfolk on 1 July with the body of the Venezuelan Minister to the United States, arriving at La Guaira on 14 July. Then she returned to the Mexican coast to patrol off Tampico and Vera Cruz, supporting the A.E.F. which had landed there. She departed Vera Cruz on 29 October to investigate reports of unstable conditions at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where she arrived on 3 November. The battleship stood out of Port-au-Prince on 1 December and reached Philadelphia a week later. Maneuvers off the East Coast and out of Guantanamo Bay occupied her until she entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for overhaul on 30 September 1916.

Kansas was still in that yard on 6 April 1917 when the United States entered World War I. She arrived in York River from Philadelphia on 10 July and became a unit of the 4th Battleship Division, spending the remainder of the war as an engineering training ship in Chesapeake Bay, occasionally making escort and training cruises to New York. After the Armistice, she made five voyages to Brest, France, to embark and return veterans home.

She was overhauled at the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 29 June 1919 to 17 May 1920. Three days later, she arrived at Annapolis where she embarked midshipmen and sailed on 5 June for a practice cruise to Pacific waters, transiting the Panama Canal to visit Honolulu, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Pedro. She departed the latter port on 11 August, transited the canal, and visited Guantanamo Bay before returning to Annapolis on 2 September.

Proceeding to Philadelphia, Kansas became the flagship of Rear Admiral Charles F. Hughes, Commander of Battleship Division 4, Squadron 2, and future Chief of Naval Operations. She sailed for Bermuda on 27 September and was inspected by the Prince of Wales at Grassy Bay, Bermuda, on 2 October. Two days later, she was underway for the Panama Canal and Samoa. She was in Pago Pago, Samoa, on 11 November when Captain Waldo Evans became Governor of American Samoa. After visiting Hawaiian ports and transiting the Panama Canal, she cruised in the Caribbean and the Panama Canal before returning to Philadelphia on 7 March 1921.

Kansas embarked midshipmen at Annapolis and sailed on 4 June 1921 with three other battleships, bound for Christiana, Norway; Lisbon, Portugal; Gibraltar; and Guantanamo Bay. She returned on 28 August to debark her midshipmen before visiting New York from 3 to 19 September. She entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 20 September and was decommissioned on 16 December. Her name was struck from the Navy List on 24 August 1923, and she was sold for scrap in accordance with the Washington Treaty limiting naval armament.