The Lucky Band on the USS Minnesota

 

We live in a world of instantaneous communication.
Press 'SEND' and your twitter comment is whisked away to France.
Tap 'SHARE' and your video of a bear in the garden is transported to California.
Click 'JOIN' and you enter a virtual meeting
of a dozen people separated by thousands of miles.
Faster than the blink of an eyelash, digital telecommunication
connects us to hidden networks letting us exchange messages 

without ever needing to know exactly how it is done.

 

 Yet not so many years ago

people corresponded by way
of a much simpler self-propelled technology
that anyone could understand.

Using nothing more than

a sheet of paper, a pencil or pen,
and maybe a camera for an extra sepia tone dimension,
a message could be sent for just the cost of a two-cent stamp.

The connection between sender and receiver 
was unpredictable and required patience.
Sometimes a message sent in the morning might be delivered by that afternoon.
At other times it might take weeks or even months to reach the recipient.
This was especially true when nations were at war,
and the fragile network of postal services was disrupted by the conflict.
For a soldier or sailor even the simplest of notes might get lost,
delayed by the system of hand-carried mail,

until finally arriving with the message,
"I'm okay."

 

 

USS Minnesota Band

Luck gang 11 days after the torpedo hit us, 9/31/1918

Arranged on the deck of the USS Minnesota are 25 navy bandsmen with their bandleader. The clarinets and cornets sit cross-legged on the wooden deck, with saxophones, tubas, euphoniums, a horn, and the  drums standing in a second row. A few more sailors look on from behind and above. The band is dressed in dark work fatigues with wool stocking caps suitable for cold weather. A second message is written on the back of the photo postcard.

 

Sept 31st 1918
Just after the wreck
of the USS Minnesota

The USS Minnesota (BB-22) was a Connecticut-class battleship, the first ship of the United States Navy named for the 32nd state, Minnesota. This warship was a so-called pre-dreadnought design that was built to replace the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Its keel was laid down in Virginia's  Newport News Shipyard in 1903 but by the time of its commission in 1907 it was already considered obsolete. This was due to the launch a few months earlier in 1906 of the HMS Dreadnought, a British battleship equipped with more 12 inch guns and more powerful steam engines than any other battleship then afloat. The Dreadnought's larger firepower and faster speed outclassed ships like the Minnesota and over the next few years, nations around the world scrambled to build bigger battleships to match this new design.

 

USS Minnesota (BB-22)
photographed in Hampton Roads, VA in 1911
Source: Naval History and Heritage Command

The USS Minnesota was 456 ft 4 in (139.09 m) long from stem to stern, and 76 ft 10 in (23.42 m) across at the beam. It was propelled by two triple-expansion steam engines and capable of 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h). The ship original complement was 827 officers and men, but this later increased to 896. The armament consisted of four 12 inch main guns, along with 56 smaller guns and four torpedo tubes. And since it was a battleship in the US Navy, it also required a band.

After its launch in March 1907 the USS Minnesota made a shakedown cruise to the coast of New England before returning to Hampton Roads to participate in the Jamestown Exposition, the commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the Jamestown colony, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. 

In December, the Minnesota joined the Great White Fleet, the nickname for a group of 16 US Navy battleships which were ordered President Theodore Roosevelt to undertake a voyage that would circumnavigate the globe and demonstrate American military power. The fleet was divided into two squadrons of battleships and assorted auxiliary ships and between December 1907 and February 1909  traveled over 43,000 nautical miles (80,000 km) making twenty port calls on six continents. This grand parade of naval power was intended to establish the United States as a new major player in international affairs, particularly since the US had acquired a vast colonial empire as an outcome of the Spanish-American War of 1898. Because the fleet had to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean by going around Cape Horn, it also demonstrated the strategic importance of the Panama Canal which was an American project begun in 1904 but not completed until 1914.

After her return from this round-the-world tour, the USS Minnesota was assigned to the Atlantic fleet with patrols around Cuba and Mexico. But by the time the US entered World War One in April 1917, the Minnesota had already been placed in the reserve fleet. Since the navy was suddenly hit with thousands of new sailors recruited for the war effort, the Minnesota was quickly recalled to act as a training ship and stationed in the Chesapeake Bay where it trained gunners and engine room personnel. 

   

  

Philadelphia Inquirer 
30 September 1918

On 29 September 1918, while cruising with the destroyer USS Israel in the waters south of the Delaware Bay and just off Ocean City, MD, the USS Minnesota struck a submerged naval mine which  had been laid by the German submarine U-117 earlier in the year. The explosion tore open a gaping hole in the Minnesota's forward hull below the armor belt and flooded the bow. Though the damage was serious fortunately it caused no casualties as the ship had recently been refitted with reinforced bulkheads which strengthened the hull and prevented the flooding from spreading. 

Because it was close to the Philadelphia Navy Yard the battleship was able to make its way there at a reduced speed where it could be repaired. This overhaul work took five months to complete, but during this time Germany agreed to an Armistice and the war ended on 11 November 1918. 

_ _ _

damaged bow of USS Minnesota (BB-22)
in drydock at Philadelphia Navy Yard, PA on 1 October 1918
Source: Naval History and Heritage Command

In March 1919, the Minnesota returned to service joining the transport force assembled to bring the American troops home from Europe. The battleship made three trips to France returning over 3,000 soldiers to the US before its duty ended in July 1919. Over the next few years the Minnesota acted as a training ship for midshipmen from the US Naval Academy, before being decommissioned on 1 December 1921. She was sold for scrap the Philadelphia Navy Yard in January 1924. 

The state's name was used again in 2013 for the USS Minnesota (SSN-783), a Virginia-class attack submarine, also built in the Newport News Shipyard.

Part of "Rainbow" 42nd Division US Army
returning to New York on board
USS Minnesota (BB-22)
Source: Naval History and Heritage Command

Band of the USS Minnesota (BB-22)
November 1, 1918
Source: Naval History and Heritage Command

The "Lucky gang" bandsmen of USS Minnesota posed for one more photo on the deck in November 1918. No doubt they proudly remembered their service from this second gigantic photo of the full complement of officers and crew, but I suspect most of the sailors preferred the little postcard of their band and their shipmates best. I wonder what music they played when they brought their wounded ship into Philadelphia? 

Click the image below. Can you spot the 12 inch guns?

Officers and Crew of the USS Minnesota (BB-22)
Philadelphia Navy Yard, 1 November 1918
Source: Naval History and Heritage Command

Postcard photos of navy bands are some of my favorite stories to write about as the service history of a battleship is already thoroughly documented and there are always dozens of useful photos of the ships and crews to be found at the Naval History and Heritage Command or the NavSource Online: Battleship Photo Archive.  I can't resist noting that the current namesake of the USS Minnesota, the submarine (SSN-783) is just 79 feet shorter than the battleship but operates with a complement of only 134 sailors. But it doesn't have a band.

For more postcards of US Navy Bands in my collection
I recommend my stories
The Navy Band of the USS Minneapolis,
Full Steam Ahead on the USS Georgia, 
and Going Home .

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where damage control is never a problem.