The second USS Pennsylvania (ACR/CA-4), also referred to as Armored Cruiser No. 4, and later renamed Pittsburgh, was a United States Navy armored cruiser, the lead ship of her class. She was originally assigned the name Nebraska but was renamed Pennsylvania on 7 March 1901.
Construction
She was laid down on 7 August 1901, by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, launched on 22 August 1903. Pennsylvania was sponsored by Miss Coral Quay, daughter of Senator Matthew S. Quay of Pennsylvania, and commissioned on 9 March 1905, with Captain Thomas C. McLean in command.
Service history
Pre-World War I
Pennsylvania operated on the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean Sea until 8 September 1906, when she cleared Newport for the Asiatic Station, returning to San Francisco on 27 September 1907, for west coast duty. She visited Chile and Peru in 1910.
At 10:48, on 18 January 1911, Eugene Ely, flew a Curtiss Model D from Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, California, and at 11:01, landed on board Pennsylvania while she lay at anchor off Hunters Point, in San Francisco Bay. The plane made a smooth landing from astern onto a specially built platform. At 11:58, the plane took off and returned to Selfridge Field, completing the earliest demonstration of the adaptability of aircraft to shipboard operations.
In another of these early demonstrations, civilian aircraft designer and entrepreneur Glenn Curtiss taxied a hydroaeroplane alongside Pennsylvania as she lay anchored in San Diego Harbor, during the forenoon watch on 17 February 1911. The plane landed alongside the ship at 08:45 and sailors manned the cruiser's crane to hoist the machine on board. At 09:05, Pennsylvania hoisted the aircraft out and it returned to base.
While in reserve at Puget Sound, from 1 July 1911 – 30 May 1913, the cruiser trained naval militia. She was renamed Pittsburgh on 27 August 1912, to free the name Pennsylvania for a new battleship.
World War I
Recommissioning, Pittsburgh patrolled the west coast of Mexico, during the troubled times of insurrection that led to American involvement with the Veracruz landing in April 1914. Later she served as flagship for Admiral William B. Caperton—Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet—during South American patrols and visits during World War I. Cooperating with the British, she scouted German raiders and acted as a powerful deterrent against their penetration of the eastern Pacific.
While at Rio de Janeiro, in October and November 1918, failure to implement quarantine procedures by Captain George Bradshaw, led to the spread of the deadly strain of Spanish influenza on ship, sickening 663 sailors (80% of the crew) and killing 58 of them.
Future Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias served as a line officer aboard Pittsburgh during World War I. Future Governor of American Samoa George Landenberger commanded the vessel.
Inter-war period
Returning to the east coast, Pittsburgh prepared for duty as flagship for Commander, US Naval Forces in the eastern Mediterranean, for which she sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire on 19 June 1919. Cruising the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, and Black Sea, she joined in the massive relief operations and other humanitarian concerns with which the Navy carried out its quasi-diplomatic functions in this troubled area. In June 1920, she sailed north to visit French and British ports and cruise the Baltic Sea on further relief assignments.
On 9 September 1920, she ran aground on rocks in the Baltic Sea off Libau. She was assisted by and ; Frederick escorted her to Sheerness Royal Dockyard, Kent, England which she reached at 10:00 o'clock in the morning of 23 September. Before 12 October she had moved up river to Chatham Dockyard where she went into dry dock. On that date a team from Pittsburgh routed a team of British officers 21–8 at baseball. The following month, with Pittsburgh still in dry dock, a court-martial absolved Captain Todd of blame for the grounding but the navigator and watch officer were held accountable. She returned to decommission at Philadelphia, on 15 October 1921.