Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

Tennessee Class Armoured Cruiser USS Montana pictured in the Hudson River in 1909.

Tennessee Class Armoured Cruiser USS North Carolina pictured off New York on October 3rd 1911..She was built at Newport News Shipbuilding; she was laid down in March 1905, launched in October 1906, and was commissioned in May 1908. The final Class of armoured cruisers to be built for the USN, North Carolina and her sisters were armed with a main battery of four 10-inch guns, and were capable of a top speed of 22 knots...North Carolina spent much of her career in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea conducting training and visiting foreign countries. She went on short deployments to the Mediterranean Sea twice, the first in 1909 to protect American citizens in the Ottoman Empire, and the second during World War I, again to protect still neutral American citizens in the region. After the United States entered the war in April 1917, North Carolina was used to escort troop ships off the eastern coast of the United States. Following the war in late 1918 and early 1919, she was used to carry soldiers from the American Expeditionary Force back from France. In 1920, the ship was renamed Charlotte so her original name could be used for a new Battleship, and she was decommissioned the following year. She was sold for scrap in September 1930 and broken up thereafter.

Tennessee Class Armoured Cruiser USS Montana arrives at Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston from Mexico with the remains of 17 sailors and marines killed in the Battle of Veracruz...May 1914.

Tennessee Class Armoured Cruisers USS Montana and USS North Carolina pictured at Norfolk Navy Yard on October 26th 1908.

Tennessee Class Armoured Cruiser USS Washington (Re-named Seattle on November 9th 1916), pictured at the 1912 New York Naval Review.

Tennessee Class Armoured Cruiser USS Washington pictured at Brooklyn Navy Yard c 1907.

Tennessee Class Armoured Cruiser USS North Carolina pictured off Camden New Jersey in October 1908.

Tennessee Class Armoured Cruiser USS North Carolina pictured as she transits up the Piscataqua River for Portsmouth Navy Yard, c1910, seen from the Naval Prison, with the town of Newcastle, N. H., in the background.

Builders blueprint for Tennessee Class Armoured Cruiser USS Missoula (Ex USS Montana).

Lead Ship, Armoured Cruiser USS Tennessee coaling at Brooklyn Navy Yard c1916.