Missouri at Sea by Richard E. Schroeder

Author:Richard E. Schroeder [Schroeder, Richard E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780826262493
Publisher: University of Missouri Press

St. Louis just missed the excitement of the fleet’s California visits because she was visiting Hawaii and Central America as the fleet sailed westward from San Francisco. While Missouri returned to serve in the Atlantic, St. Louis spent the next few years on the West Coast. When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, the United States at first tried to remain neutral, hoping to trade with all the warring powers. German agitation and sabotage in the United States, along with their aggressive submarine campaign, quickly turned many Americans against Germany. In February 1915 Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare around England, and in May 1915 sank the British liner Lusitania with great loss of life.

As the U.S. Navy made war plans, even older battleships like Missouri were valuable to train new sailors. In the summer of 1915 Missouri carried Naval Academy midshipmen on a training cruise through the Caribbean and Pacific. She and Ohio became the first battleships to pass through the new Panama Canal. A cadet described the tropical jungles, huge locks that swallowed the battleships, freshwater lakes, and deep cuts as the ships steamed toward the Pacific. On the transit, Missouri carried the U.S. Army’s Canal Zone governor, his staff, and “lots of good looking [ladies]” and was cheered by U.S. Army troops as they passed. “We gave several [navy] yells and the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ . . . for it was a great occasion—the passing of the first battleship through the canal.”

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