Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

Lead Ship,Dreadnought USS Delaware showing her aft three 12/45 twin gun turrets, circa 1913....Note the sub-caliber spotting rifles mounted on the barrel of each heavy gun, gunsight practice gear fitted across the top front of each turret.

Nice shot of her unusual main gun arrangement on the stern... A similar layout was later used by IJN on board TOSA and AMAGI class BB/CB for their twin 16" turrets.

She and sister, NORTH DAKOTA were coal burners that formed part of USN's 6th Battleship squadron when it reinforced the Grand Fleet in WW1. They never fired their 12" in anger.

She was towed from Boston to Philadelphia for final scrapping due to Naval Treaty. DFO

Thanks Dennis , first time I've seen them with bilge Keels fitted on a ship this big in a dry dock shot

Interesting shots of the hull cross section design and how they were fabricated , but as we have said before , such a sad sight , like seeing a shot on a whaling factory ship where they are stripping her apart

Delaware Class Dreadnought Battleship USS North Dakota pictured on builders trials,Weymouth Fore River in 1909.
She was laid down at the Fore River Shipyard in December 1907, was launched in November 1908, and commissioned into the US Navy in April 1910. She was armed with a main battery of ten 12-inch guns and was capable of a top speed of 21 knots.North Dakota had a peaceful career; she was present during the United States occupation of Veracruz in 1914, but did not see action. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, North Dakota remained in the US, training crewmen for the rapidly expanding wartime Navy, and therefore did not see combat. She remained on active duty through the early 1920s, until she was decommissioned under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty in November 1923, and converted into a radio-controlled Target Ship. She served in that capacity until 1930, when she was replaced in that role by Utah. In 1931, she was sold for scrapping and thereafter dismantled.

A first gen USN battleship, with her main battery of twin 12". Far surpassed by "all or nothing" 14" gunned, second gen NEVADAs. DFO

Delaware Class Dreadnought Battleship USS North Dakota pictured at Brooklyn Navy Yard c1914.

Delaware Class Dreadnought Battleship USS North Dakota pictured in drydock No4 at Brooklyn Navy Yard on August 1st 1912.

The end of NORTH DAKOTA.......... DFO

Lead Ship.Dreadnought Battleship USS Delaware being dismantled at South Boston drydock in 1923.
In the years immediately following the end of the war, the United States, Britain, and Japan all launched huge naval construction programs. All three countries decided that a new naval arms race would be ill-advised, and so convened the Washington Naval Conference to discuss arms limitations, which produced the Washington Naval Treaty, signed in February 1922.Under the terms of Article II of the treaty, Delaware and her sister North Dakota were to be scrapped as soon as the new battleships Colorado and West Virginia, then under construction, were ready to join the fleet.On August 30th 1923, Delaware accordingly entered dry dock in the Norfolk Navy Yard; her crew was transferred to the recently commissioned Colorado, and the process of disposal began. Delaware was transferred to the Boston Navy Yard, decommissioned on November 10th, and disarmed. She was then sold on February 5th 1924 and subsequently broken up for scrap.

Lead Ship,Dreadnought Battleship USS Delaware pictured c1914.