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.
After returning the midshipmen to Annapolis on 24–25 August, Wyoming took part in gunnery and torpedo training over the next few weeks. On 16 September, she returned to New York for repairs, which lasted until 2 October. She then ran full–power sea trials before proceeding to the Virginia Capes, where she participated in another round of fleet maneuvers. Next, she departed for a European goodwill cruise on 26 October. She toured the Mediterranean Sea, stopping in Valletta, Malta, Naples, Italy, and Villefranche, France. She departed France on 30 November, and arrived in New York on 15 December. There, she went into dock at the New York Navy Yard for periodic repairs, which lasted until January 1914. On the 6th, Wyoming left for Hampton Roads, where she took on coal in preparation for the annual fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean.
The exercises lasted from 26 January to 15 March, and the fleet was based in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Wyoming and the rest of the fleet then proceeded to Tangier Sound for additional training, including gunnery drills. On 3 April, Wyoming left the fleet for an overhaul in New York, which lasted until 9 May. She then returned to Hampton Roads, where she took on a contingent of troops and ferried them to Veracruz, arriving on 18 May. The US had intervened in the Mexican Revolution and occupied Veracruz to safeguard American citizens there. Wyoming cruised off Veracruz into the Autumn of 1914, at which point she returned to the Virginia Capes for exercises. On 6 October, she entered New York for repairs; this work lasted until 17 January 1915.
Wyoming then proceeded to Hampton Roads, and then to Cuba, where she joined the fleet for the annual maneuvers off Cuba. These lasted until April, when she returned to the US. She participated in more exercises off Block Island over the next several months, and on 20 December, she returned to New York for another overhaul. On 6 January 1916, she emerged from dry dock, and then proceeded to the Caribbean. On 16 January, she reached Culebra, Puerto Rico, then visited Port-au-Prince, Haiti on 27 January. She entered port at Guantanamo the next day, and took part in fleet maneuvers until 10 April, after which she returned to New York. Another round of dockyard work took place from 16 April to 26 June. After returning to service, Wyoming took part in more maneuvers off the Virginia Capes for the remainder of the year. She left New York on 9 January 1917, bound for Cuban waters for exercises that lasted through mid-March. She left Cuba on 27 March, and was cruising off Yorktown, Virginia, when the US declared war on Germany on 6 April, formally entering World War I.
World War I
Wyoming operated out of the Chesapeake Bay area for the next seven months, training engine-room personnel for the expanding American fleet. On 25 November, Battleship Division 9 (BatDiv 9), which at that time comprised Wyoming, , , and , departed the US, bound for Britain. BatDiv 9 was to reinforce the British Grand Fleet at its base in Scapa Flow. The American ships reached Scapa on 7 December, where they became the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet. The American ships drilled with their British counterparts from December 1917 to February 1918.
On 6 February, Wyoming and the other American battleships undertook their first wartime operation, to escort a convoy to Stavanger, Norway, in company with eight British destroyers. On 7 February, lookouts on several ships, including Wyoming, thought they spotted German U-boats attacking the ships with torpedoes, though these proved to be incorrect reports. The convoy successfully reached Norway two days later; the return trip to Scapa Flow took another two days. Wyoming patrolled in the North Sea for the next several months, watching for a sortie by the German High Seas Fleet. On 30 June, Wyoming and the rest of the 6th Battle Squadron covered a minelaying operation in the North Sea; the operation lasted until 2 July. During the operation, jumpy crewmen again incorrectly reported U-boat sightings, and Wyoming opened fire on the supposed targets. On the return voyage, the 6th Battle Squadron joined up with Convoy HZ40, which was returning from Norway.
On 14 October, New York collided with a U-boat and sank it. The collision nevertheless damaged her screws, which forced Rodman to transfer his flag from New York to Wyoming while the former was in dock for repair. On 21 November, after the Armistice with Germany ended the war, Wyoming and an Allied fleet of some 370 warships met the High Seas Fleet in the North Sea and escorted it into internment in Scapa Flow. On 12 December, Wyoming, now the flagship of Rear Admiral William Sims, the new BatDiv 9 commander, left Britain for France. There, she rendezvoused off Brest, France, with , which was carrying President Woodrow Wilson to the peace negotiations in Paris. Wyoming then returned to Britain two days later before departing for the US, arriving in New York on 25 December. She remained there through the new year, and on 18 January 1919, she became the flagship of BatDiv 7, flying the flag of Rear Admiral Robert Coontz.
Inter-war period 1919–1924
On 1 February, Wyoming steamed out of New York to join the annual fleet maneuvers off Cuba, before returning to New York on 14 April. On 12 May, she left port to help guide a group of Navy Curtiss NC flying boats as they made the first aerial transatlantic crossing. The battleship was back in port by 31 May. She then took on a crew of midshipmen for a training cruise off the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia Capes. After finishing the cruise, Wyoming entered dry dock at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 1 July for a modernization for service in the Pacific. Her secondary battery was reduced to sixteen 5-inch guns. After emerging from the shipyard, she became the flagship of BatDiv 6 of the newly designated Pacific Fleet. On 19 July, Wyoming and the rest of the Pacific Fleet departed the east coast, bound for the Pacific. The ships transited the Panama Canal later that month, and reached San Diego, California on 6 August.
On 9 August, Wyoming moved to San Pedro, where she was based for the next month. She went to the Puget Sound Navy Yard for an overhaul that lasted until 19 April 1920. On 4 May, she was back in San Pedro and resumed her normal routine of fleet maneuvers off the California coast. On 30 August, Wyoming left California for Hawaii, where she participated in more training exercises through September. She then returned to San Diego on 8 October for more maneuvers off the west coast. The ship left San Francisco on 5 January 1921 for a cruise to Central and South American waters; the trip culminated in Valparaíso, Chile, where she was reviewed by the President of Chile Arturo Alessandri Palma on 8 February. Wyoming then returned north, arriving in Puget Sound for repairs on 18 March.