| On April 18, 1903, more than 20,000 people gathered in the shipyards at Newport News, Virginia to witness the launching of an armored cruiser, the U.S.S. West Virginia (ACR-5). Miss Katharine Vaughan White, eldest daughter of West Virginia Governor A. B. White, christened the cruiser with a bottle of champagne. Tom Swinburn of Charleston wrote a poem to honor the new ship. |
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The West Virginia was commissioned on February 23, 1905. The ship served as a unit of both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, and on two occasions sailed to Mexico to enforce U. S. diplomacy. In 1916 the ship was renamed the U.S.S. Huntington to permit the assignment of her old name to a newly authorized battleship. During World War I, the Huntington conveyed a high-level U. S. Commission to confer with the Allies in England. Following the conclusion of the war in 1918, the ship was used to transport veterans of the war back to the United States. The Huntington was decommissioned on September 1, 1920 and was sold ten years later in accordance with the London Treaty for the reduction of naval armaments. |
USS Armored Cruiser West Virginia
