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.
Read more about this topic: USS North Dakota (BB-29)
Famous quotes containing the words war i and/or war:
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)
“Let the erring sisters depart in peace; the idea of getting up a civil war to compel the weaker States to remain in the Union appears to us horrible to the last degree.”
—Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)