USS Michigan (BB-27) - World War I

World War I

Michigan next put to sea on 11 October and from that time until the eve of America's entry into World War I, operated out of various ports on the Eastern Seaboard. Assigned to Battleship Force 2 on 6 April 1917, the warship escorted convoys, trained recruits, and engaged in fleet maneuvers and battle practice. The battleship suffered two notable accidents, one in September 1916 when a twelve-inch gun of her second turret burst while being fired and the second in January 1918 when her "cage" foremast collapsed during a storm at sea. On 15 January 1918, while steaming in formation with the fleet off Cape Hatteras, Michigan's foremast buckled and was carried away over the port side as the battlewagon lurched violently in the trough of a heavy sea. Six men were killed and 13 injured, five seriously, in this accident. Michigan proceeded to Norfolk where the next day she transferred her casualties to Solace. On 22 January, she entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. Early in April, she resumed operations off the East Coast and trained gunners in Chesapeake Bay until World War I ended.

Read more about this topic:  USS Michigan (BB-27)

Famous quotes containing the words war i, world and/or war:

    “So, when old hopes that earth was bettering slowly
    Were dead and damned, there sounded ‘War is done!’
    One morrow. Said the bereft, and meek, and lowly,
    ‘Will men some day be given to grace? yea, wholly,
    And in good sooth, as our dreams used to run?’”
    —Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

    “Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.”
    —Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)

    “The British blockade won the war; but the wonder is that the British blockhead did not lose it. I suppose the enemy was no wiser. War is not a sharpener of wits.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)