USS North Dakota (BB-29) - Pre-World War I

Pre-World War I

On 8 September 1910, the ship suffered an oil-tank explosion and fire while at sea. Six men—Chief Watertenders August Holtz and Patrick Reid, Chief Machinist's Mates Thomas Stanton and Karl Westa, Machinist's Mate First Class Charles C. Roberts, and Watertender Harry Lipscomb—each received the Medal of Honor "for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession" during the fire.

In her first years, North Dakota operated with the Atlantic Fleet in maneuvers along the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea. She sailed on 2 November for her first Atlantic crossing, visiting England and France prior to winter-spring maneuvers in the Caribbean. In the summers of 1912–1913, she carried United States Naval Academy midshipmen for training in New England waters, and on 1 January 1913 she joined the honor escort for HMS Natal as the British ship entered New York City harbor with the body of the late Whitelaw Reid, United States Ambassador to Great Britain.