USS Nevada (BB-36) - World War I

World War I

After fitting out in the Boston and New York Navy Yards, Nevada joined the Atlantic Fleet in Newport, Rhode Island on 26 May 1916. Prior to the United States' entry into World War I, she conducted many training cruises and underwent many exercises out of her base in Norfolk, Virginia, sailing as far south as the Caribbean on these cruises. The US entered the war in 1917, but Nevada was not sent to the other side of the Atlantic because of a shortage of fuel oil in Britain. Instead, four coal-burning battleships of Battleship Division 9 (BatDiv 9) (Delaware, Florida, Wyoming, and New York) departed the US to join the British Grand Fleet on 25 November 1917. They arrived on 7 December and were designated as the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. Texas joined them after damage from a grounding on Block Island was repaired; she departed on 30 January and arrived in Scotland on 11 February. It was not until 13 August 1918 that Nevada left the US for Britain, becoming the last American ship to join the Fleet.

After a 10-day voyage, she arrived in Berehaven, Ireland, on 23 August. Along with Utah and her sister Oklahoma, the three were nicknamed the "Bantry Bay Squadron"; officially, they were BatDiv 6 under the command of Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rodgers, who chose Utah as his flagship. For the rest of the war, the three ships operated from the bay, escorting the large and valuable convoys bound for the British Isles to ensure no German heavy surface ships could slip past the British Grand Fleet and annihilate the merchant ships and their weak escorts of older cruisers. This never came to pass, and the war ended on 11 November with Nevada not getting a chance to engage an enemy during the war.

On 13 December 10 battleships, including Nevada, and 28 destroyers escorted the ocean liner George Washington, with President Woodrow Wilson embarked, into Brest, France, during the last day of Wilson's journey to the country so he could attend the Paris Peace Conference. The flotilla met George Washington and her escorts (Pennsylvania and four destroyers) just off Brest and escorted them into the port. The 10 battleships sailed for home at 14:00 on the next day, 14 December. They took less than two weeks to cross the Atlantic, and arrived in New York on 26 December to parades and celebrations.