USS Massachusetts 1921
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Marker: recorded wreck position (Interwar).
Key facts
| Name | USS Massachusetts | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1921 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Interwar | derived from year |
| Ship type | pre-dreadnought battleship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Scuttled | Wikidata P793 significant event: scuttling |
| Nationality / flag | United States | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | United States Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War I | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Sea / ocean | Gulf of Mexico | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | United States | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 13 km from land |
| Position | 30.2969, -87.3114 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
USS Massachusetts was an Indiana-class, pre-dreadnought battleship and the second United States Navy ship comparable to foreign battleships of its time. Authorized in 1890, and commissioned six years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship class also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense and as a result, her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.
Massachusetts served in the Spanish–American War as part of the Flying Squadron and took part in the blockades of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba. She missed the decisive Battle of Santiago de Cuba after steaming to Guantánamo Bay the night before to resupply coal. After the war she served with the North Atlantic Squadron, performing training maneuvers and gunnery practice. During this period she suffered an explosion in an 8-inch (203 mm) gun turret, killing nine, and ran aground twice, requiring several months of repair both times. She was decommissioned in 1906, for modernization.
Although considered obsolete in 1910, the battleship was recommissioned and used for annual cruises for midshipmen during the summers, and otherwise laid up in the reserve fleet, until her…
Location
- Recorded position: 30.2969, -87.3114 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Gulf of Mexico
- Nearest coast: United States
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article USS Massachusetts (BB-2) (revision 1377048798), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- SS Tarpon 1937 · 133 km
- Vamar Shipwreck Site 1942 · 183 km
Other wrecks of the World War I
- SMS Hindenburg 1919
- SMS Markgraf 1919
- SMS Moltke 1919
- SMS S51 1919
- SMS Seydlitz 1919
- SMS Baden 1921
- SMS Nürnberg 1922
- HMAS Australia 1924
- HMS M1 1925
- HMS M2 1932
All 163 wrecks of the World War I →
Browse more: North America wrecks · wrecks off United States · Gulf of Mexico · Interwar