USS Nevada (BB-36) - Interwar Period

Interwar Period

Between the two World Wars, Nevada served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. Though she had originally been equipped with 21 five-inch (130 mm)/51 cal guns to defend against enemy destroyers, this number was reduced to 12 in 1918, due to the overly wet bow and stern positions of the other nine.

Along with Arizona, Nevada represented the United States at the Peruvian Centennial Exposition in July 1921. A year later, in company with Maryland this time, she returned to South America as an escort to the steamer Pan America with Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes embarked; they all attended the Centennial of Brazilian Independence in Rio de Janeiro, celebrated from 5 to 11 September 1922. New York Times later credited the crew of Nevada for bringing baseball and that sport's unique terminology to Brazil, allowing the country to "make the Yankee game an institution of their own". Three years later, from July–September 1925, Nevada took part in the US Fleet's "goodwill cruise" to Australia and New Zealand. During this cruise, the ships had only limited replenishment opportunities, but they still made it to Australia and back without undue difficulty. This demonstrated to those allies and Japan that the US Navy had the ability to conduct transpacific operations and meet the Imperial Japanese Navy in their home waters, where both Japanese and American war plans expected the "decisive battle" to be fought, if it should come.

After the cruise, Nevada was modernized at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard between August 1927 and January 1930, with the exchange of her "basket" masts for tripod masts and her steam turbines for those from the recently-stricken battleship North Dakota. Additionally, many different adaptations and additions were made: her main guns' elevation was increased to 30° (which upped the range of the guns from 23,000 yd (21,000 m) to 34,000 yd (31,000 m)), anti-torpedo bulges were added, six boilers were relocated to accommodate those bulges, two catapults were added for three Vought O2U-3 Corsair biplane spotter aircraft, eight 5 in (130 mm)/25 cal AA guns were added, a new superstructure was installed, and her 5 in (130 mm)/51 cal secondary battery was relocated into an arrangement similar to that of the New Mexico class. Nevada then served in the Pacific Fleet for the next eleven years.