USS Vermont (BB-20) - Pre-World War I

Pre-World War I

After her shakedown cruise off the eastern seaboard between Boston, Massachusetts and Hampton Roads, Virginia, Vermont participated in maneuvers with the 1st Division of the Atlantic Fleet and, later, with the 1st and Second Squadrons. Making a final trial trip between Hampton Roads and Provincetown, Massachusetts from 30 August – 5 September, Vermont arrived at the Boston Navy Yard on 7 September and underwent repairs until late November 1907.

Departing Boston on 30 November, she coaled at Bradford, Rhode Island, received "mine outfits and stores" at Newport, Rhode Island, and picked up ammunition at Tompkinsville, New York, arriving at Hampton Roads on 8 December.

There, she made final preparations for the globe-girdling cruise of the Atlantic Fleet. Nicknamed the "Great White Fleet" because of the white and spar color of their paint schemes, the 16 pre-dreadnought battleships sailed from Hampton Roads on 16 December, standing out to sea under the gaze of President Theodore Roosevelt who had dispatched the ships, around the globe as a dramatic gesture toward Japan, a growing power on the world stage.

Vermont sailed as a unit of the 1st Division, under the overall command of Rear Admiral Robley D. "Fighting Bob" Evans, who was concurrently the Commander in Chief of the Fleet. Over the ensuing months, the battleship visited ports in Chile, Peru, Mexico, California, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, China, and in the Mediterranean, before she returned to Hampton Roads again passing in review before President Roosevelt on 22 February 1909. During the voyage, Vermont's commanding officer, Captain Potter, was advanced to flag rank and took command of the division; his place was taken by Captain (later Admiral) Frank Friday Fletcher.

Following her return to the United States, Vermont underwent repairs at the Boston Navy Yard from 9 March – 23 June and then rejoined the fleet off Provincetown. She subsequently spent 4 July at Boston as part of the 1st Division of the Fleet before spending nearly a month, from 7 July – 4 August, in exercises with the Atlantic Fleet. Subsequently coaling at Hampton Roads, the battleship conducted target practice off the Virginia Capes in the operating area known as the Southern Drill Grounds.

For the remainder of 1909, Vermont continued maneuvers and exercises, broken by visits to Stamford, Connecticut, for Columbus Day festivities and to New York City for the observances of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration from 22 September – 9 October. She spent the Christmas holidays at New York City, anchored in the North River.

The battleship then moved south for the winter, reaching Guantánamo Bay on 12 January 1910. For the next two months, she exercised in those Caribbean climes, returning to Hampton Roads and the Virginia Capes for elementary target practice that spring. Ultimately reaching Boston on 29 April, the battleship underwent repairs at that yard through mid-July, before embarking members of the Naval Militia at Boston for operations between that port and Provincetown from 22–31 July.

Vermont subsequently visited Newport and then sailed for Hampton Roads on 22 August, where she then prepared for target practices from 25–27 September, before visiting New York City with other ships of the Atlantic Fleet.

After minor repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the battleship sailed for European waters on 1 November. Reaching the British Isles a little over two weeks later, Vermont, with other units of the 3rd Division, Atlantic Fleet, visited Gravesend, England from 16 November – 7 December and then called at Brest, France, where she remained until heading for the West Indies on 30 December.

Vermont engaged in winter maneuvers and drills out of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba from 13 January – 13 March 1911, before sailing for Hampton Roads. In the ensuing weeks, the battleship operated in the Southern Drill Grounds and off Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay, where she conducted target practice. After dropping off target materials at Hampton Roads on 8 April, Vermont sailed later that day for Philadelphia where she arrived on 10 April and entered drydock.

Later in the spring, Vermont resumed her operations with the other pre-dreadnought battleships of the 3rd Division. She operated off Pensacola, Florida, and ranged into the Gulf of Mexico, calling at Galveston, Texas from 7–12 June before returning to Pensacola on 13 June for provisions.

Shifting northward to Bar Harbor, Maine, Vermont spent 4 July there before she drilled and exercised with the Fleet in Cape Cod Bay and off Provincetown. The battleship then operated off the New England seaboard through mid-August, breaking her periods at sea with a port visit to Salem, Massachusetts, and alterations at the Boston Navy Yard. She then shifted south to conduct experimental gunnery firings and autumn target practice in the regions from Tangier Sound to the Southern Drill Grounds.

After repairs at the Norfolk Navy Yard from 12 September – 9 October, Vermont rejoined the Fleet at Hampton Roads before participating in the naval review in the North River, at New York City from 24 October – 2 November. She then maneuvered and exercised with the 1st Squadron of the Fleet before returning to Hampton Roads.

Touching briefly at Tompkinsville on 7–8 December, Vermont reached the New York Navy Yard on the latter day for year-end leave and upkeep and remained there until 2 January 1912, when she sailed for the Caribbean and the annual winter maneuvers. She operated in Cuban waters, out of Guantánamo Bay and off Cape Cruz until 9 March, when she sailed for the Norfolk Navy Yard and an overhaul that lasted into the autumn.

She departed Norfolk on 8 October and reached New York City on 10 October. She participated in the naval review at that port from 10–15 October before embarking Commander, Second Division, Atlantic Fleet, at Hampton Roads from 16–18 October.

Vermont subsequently worked out of Hampton Roads, in the Virginia Capes Southern Drill Grounds area, into December. During that time, she conducted target practices and twice participated in humanitarian deeds, searching for Noruega on 2 November and assisting B-2 from 13–15 December.

The battleship spent Christmas 1912 at the Norfolk Navy Yard before steaming for Cuba and winter maneuvers. En route, she visited Colón, Panama, a terminus of the nearly completed Panama Canal, and reached Guantánamo Bay on 19 January 1913. She subsequently operated out of Guantánamo and Guayancanabo Bay until sailing for Mexican waters on 12 February.

Vermont arrived at Veracruz on 17 February and remained at that port into the spring, protecting American interests until 29 April, when she sailed north to rejoin the fleet in Hampton Roads. The battleship conducted one midshipman's training cruise that summer, embarking the midshipmen at Annapolis, Maryland on 6 June. After rejoining the fleet, Vermont cruised in Block Island Sound and visited Newport.

The battleship then received her regular overhaul at Norfolk from July into October before she conducted target practice off the Southern Drill Grounds. Vermont then made her second European cruise, departing Hampton Roads for French waters on 25 October, reaching Marseille on 8 November. Ultimately departing that Mediterranean port on 1 December Vermont reached the Norfolk Navy Yard five days before Christmas, making port on the end of a towline because of storm damage to a propeller.

Soon after she had completed her post-repair trials and had begun preparations for the spring target practice with the Fleet in the Southern Drill Grounds, tension in Mexico beckoned the battleship. Departing Hampton Roads on 15 April, Vermont reached Veracruz very early in the morning on 22 April in company with Arkansas, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and New Jersey.

Her landing force—a "battalion" of 12 officers and 308 men—went ashore after daybreak that same day as United States forces occupied the port to block an arms shipment to the dictator Victoriano Huerta. In the fighting that ensued, two officers from the staff were awarded Medals of Honor: Lieutenant Julius C. Townsend, the battalion commander, and Surgeon Cary DeV. Langhornes, the regimental surgeon of the Second Seaman Regiment. During the fighting, Vermont's force suffered one fatality – a private from her Marine detachment, killed on 23 April. But for a visit to Tampico, Mexico from 21 September – 10 October, Vermont remained in that Mexican port into later October.