Because even old cannons could still be useful to the enemy, the US Navy sank one of its most traditional warships off the coast of the Philippines on December 24, 1941. An account of the sinking of the USS New York aka USS Saratoga aka USS Rochester.
The US Navy personnel at Subic Bay base in the Philippines didn’t have much time left in mid-December 1941. You didn’t have to be clairvoyant to realize that the base would be impossible to hold against the Japanese after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December of the same year. So the order of the day was to get all the material to safety or at least keep it out of the enemy’s reach. This also involved the USS Rochester, a rather old bucket lying on the pier, already partially cannibalized and removed from the US Navy’s ship register on October 28, 1938. But her main armament was still on board, four eight-inch (203 mm caliber) 45-caliber guns. These were not to be left to the Japanese. The “old bucket” we are talking about entered service with the US Navy at the end of the 19th century. At that time, the ship was still called the USS New York (the fourth of this name in the US Navy). It was the first armored cruiser of the American Navy, if one considers the date of commissioning. If you take the keel laying date, the USS Maine deserves this honor. However, the construction of the Maine was delayed to such an extent that the USS New York was able to enter service sooner, and – incidentally – it served much longer than the USS Maine, which was only granted a short period of service.
An early armored cruiser
The ship was commissioned by the US Congress in 1888; the keel was laid on September 19, 1890 at William Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia. Launched on December 2, 1891, the USS New York was commissioned on August 1, 1893, with Captain John Woodward Philip as her first commander. The ship was well armored and comparatively fast: four piston steam engines with a total of eight coal-fired boilers and a total output of 17,000 hp brought the armored cruiser to 21 knots during sea trials. The USS New York was 117 meters long and had a displacement of 8,170 tons. The main armament consisted of six eight-inch Mark 3 guns of 35 caliber, four were mounted in twin turrets fore and aft, two in open single mounts on the sides. In addition, there were twelve 102-mm rapid-fire guns, eight 57-mm rapid-fire guns from Driggs-Schroeder and four one-pounder saluting guns (37-mm caliber). There were also three torpedo tubes. Intended for the South Atlantic Squadron, the New York left her home port on December 27, 1893, bound for Rio de Janeiro; she arrived in Taipu Beach in January 1894 and remained there until March 23. She then returned home via Nicaragua and the West Indies.
She was handed over to the North Atlantic Squadron. The armored cruiser returned to West Indies waters to take part in a winter exercise. The crew helped fight a fire in Trinidad that threatened to destroy Port of Spain. In 1895, the USS New York joined the US Navy’s European Squadron and represented the United States at the ceremonial opening of the Kiel Canal. In the Spanish-American War and after
After the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898, the New York steamed to Cuba and shelled Spanish positions near Matanzas. In May, she and other American ships sought contact with the Spanish fleet in vain, after which the USS New York shelled Spanish fortifications at Castillo San Felipe del Morro. The armored cruiser then became the flagship of Admiral William T. Sampson. Just as the New York was taking the admiral to a meeting with Major General Wiliam Shafter, the Spanish fleet made its breakout from Santiago. Running at half power (some engines were disconnected and it took too long to reconnect them), the USS New York arrived too late to intervene in the main phase of the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3. https://militaeraktuell.at/eine-kugelspritze-fuer-woodbury-kane/ After returning home, she participated in various voyages to the Caribbean and in 1901 the USS New York was transferred to the Asiatic Fleet, where she became the new flagship. She sailed to Yokohama and supported American troops in the fight against Philippine insurgents. After a variety of uses, she was temporarily decommissioned in Boston on 31 March 1905 and thoroughly modernized. After around four years in the shipyard, she returned to service and served first in the Atlantic Fleet and then in the Asiatic Fleet. The ship now had twelve Babcock & Wilson boilers, but it was not only the propulsion system that had been modernized. The side-mounted 203 mm guns had been removed and the other four replaced with Mark 6 guns of the same caliber but with longer barrels (45 caliber lengths). The old guns could not withstand the gas pressure developed by the new, smokeless powder of the propelling charges, which is why the conversion was necessary. The turrets had also been replaced; their armor (165 mm thick) was now made of “Krupp cemented steel”, a new type of alloy. Ten 127 mm caliber guns, eight 76 mm caliber guns and four three-pounder salute guns were added to the main battery. The crew now numbered 73 officers and 511 men, plus 64 marines. New York becomes Saratoga, then Rochester
On February 16, 1911, the USS New York was renamed USS Saratoga, as state names were only given to the newest capital ships, and there were now battleships of the post-Dreadnought standard in the US. The Saratoga spent five years in the Far East. In February 1916, she joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
She was returned to active service in April 1917, serving frequently to observe the Mexican coast, and then joined the Atlantic Fleet, where she was renamed USS Rochester. After escorting a convoy to France, she was sent to the Chesapeake Bay for training purposes. From March 1918, she again served as an escort, now under the command of Captain Alfred Walton Hinds. On her third voyage, this time with convoy HM-58, a German submarine torpedoed the British steamer Atlantian on June 9, 1918. The Rochester tried to come to the aid of the sinking ship, but the Atlantian sank within five minutes.
After the armistice, the USS Rochester served as a troop transport and brought US soldiers home. In May 1919, she served as the flagship of the destroyer flotilla monitoring the transatlantic flight of the Curtiss NC seaplanes. In 1920 she was finally given the new designation CA-2 (heavy cruiser) and operated on the east coast. From 1923, she again operated off the coasts of Latin America. In 1927, the number of boilers was reduced to four, reducing the power to around 7,700 hp. When unrest broke out in Haiti in 1929, the USS Rochester transported troops from the1st Marine Brigade there and in 1931 she helped with a support mission for Nicaragua, which had been hit by an earthquake. End in the Philippines
Many far more modern ships of the US Navy had long since been taken out of service and almost all of the old armored cruisers had been scrapped after being used as depot ships or for other functions – not so the Rochester. She joined the Pacific Fleet in 1932, operated for a short time in the mouth of the Yangtze River and was finally taken out of active service on April 29, 1933. She was then berthed at the Olongapo Shipyard in Subic Bay for several years. Much had already been dismantled, but not the main battery. After a Japanese air raid on Subic Bay, people began to worry about what use the old Rochester could still be to the Japanese. On December 23, 1941, she was towed into deeper water, where she was sunk by depth charges the next day. The Rochester sank over the stern on Christmas Day and now (after various salvage attempts in the 1960s) lies in situ at a depth of between 14 and 28 meters. The wreck is now a popular destination for divers.
