USS Wyoming (BB-32) was the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleships and was the third ship of the United States Navy named Wyoming, although she was only the second named in honor of the 44th state. Wyoming was laid down at the William Cramp & Sons in Philadelphia in February 1910, was launched in May 1911, and was completed in September 1912. She was armed with a main battery of twelve guns and capable of a top speed of .
During the First World War, she was part of the Battleship Division Nine, which was attached to the British Grand Fleet as the 6th Battle Squadron. During the war, she was primarily tasked with patrolling in the North Sea and escorting convoys to Norway. She served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets throughout the 1920s, and in 1931–1932, she was converted into a training ship according to the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
Wyoming served as a training ship throughout the 1930s, and in November 1941, she became a gunnery ship. She operated primarily in the Chesapeake Bay area, which earned her the nickname "Chesapeake Raider". In this capacity, she trained some 35,000 gunners for the hugely expanded US Navy during World War II. She continued in this duty until 1947, when she was decommissioned on 1 August and subsequently sold for scrap; she was broken up in New York starting in December 1947.
Design
Wyoming was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . She displaced as designed and up to at full load. The ship was powered by four-shaft Parsons steam turbines and twelve coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers rated at , generating a top speed of . The ship had a cruising range of at a speed of .
The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 12-inch/50 caliber Mark 7 guns in six Mark 9 twin gun turrets on the centerline, two of which were placed in a superfiring pair forward. The other four turrets were placed aft of the superstructure in two superfiring pairs. The secondary battery consisted of twenty-one /51 caliber guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull. The main armored belt was thick, while the gun turrets had thick faces. The conning tower had thick sides.
Modifications
In 1925, Wyoming was modernized in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Her displacement increased significantly, to standard and full load. Her beam was widened to , primarily from the installation of anti-torpedo bulges, and draft increased to . Her twelve coal-fired boilers were replaced with four White-Forster oil-fired boilers that had been intended for the ships cancelled under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty; performance remained the same as the older boilers. The ship's deck armor was strengthened by the addition of of armor to the second deck between the end barbettes, plus of armor on the third deck on the bow and stern. The deck armor over the engines and boilers was increased by and , respectively. Five of the 5-inch guns were removed and eight /50 caliber anti-aircraft guns were installed. The mainmast was removed to provide space for an aircraft catapult mounted on the Number 3 turret amidships.
Service history
Wyoming was laid down at the William Cramp & Sons shipyard in Philadelphia on 9 February 1910, and was launched on 25 May 1911. She was completed a year and four months later, on 25 September 1912. After her commissioning, the final fitting-out work was completed at the New York Navy Yard over the next three months. She then proceeded to join the rest of the fleet at Hampton Roads on 30 December, where she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Charles J. Badger, the commander of the Atlantic Fleet. Wyoming left Hampton Roads on 6 January 1913, bound for the Caribbean. She visited the Panama Canal, which was nearing completion, and then participated in fleet exercises off Cuba. The ship was back in port in Chesapeake Bay on 4 March.
Wyoming then took part in gunnery drills off the Virginia Capes, and on 18 April, entered drydock at the New York Navy Yard for some repairs, which lasted until 7 May. She joined the rest of the fleet for maneuvers off Block Island that lasted from 7–24 May. During the maneuvers, the ship's machinery proved troublesome, which necessitated repairs at Newport from 9–19 May. At the end of the month, she was in New York harbor, to participate in the ceremonies for the dedication of the monument to the armored cruiser , which had been destroyed in Havana harbor on 15 February 1898. On 4 June, Wyoming steamed to Annapolis, where she took on a crew of naval cadets from the Naval Academy for a summer midshipman cruise.