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The launching of the Ohio, 1901
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The
Ohio decorated for the Empress of China
The third Ohio (BB-12) was laid down 22 April 1899 by Union
Iron Works, San Francisco, California.; launched 18 May 1901; sponsored by Miss
Helen Deschler; and commissioned 4 October 1904, Captain Leavitt C. Logan in
command.
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| Designated flagship of the Asiatic Fleet, Ohio departed San
Francisco 1 April 1905 for Manila, where she embarked the party of then
Secretary of War William Howard Taft, which included Miss Alice Roosevelt, the
President's daughter. She conducted this party on much of its Far Eastern tour
of inspection, and continued the cruise in Japanese, Chinese and Philippine
waters until returning to the United States in 1907. |
| Ohio sailed out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, 16 December 1907
with the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. Guns crashed a salute to President
Theodore Roosevelt while he reviewed the Great White Fleet as it began the
cruise around the world, which, perhaps more than any other event, marked the
emergence of the United States as a major world power. |
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Commanded by Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, and later, Rear Admiral Charles
S. Sperry, the feet made calls on the east and west coasts of South
America, rounding the Horn in between, en route to San Francisco. On 7 July
1908, Ohio and her sisters shaped their course west to Hawaii, New
Zealand, and Australia. On each visit, the American ships were welcomed with
great enthusiasm, but none of their ports of call received them with such
enthusiastic friendliness as Tokyo where they anchored 18 October. The fleet's
presence in Japan symbolised both American friendship and strength and helped to
ease dangerously strained relations between the two countries.
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The fleet put in at Amoy, returned to Yokohama held target practice
in the Philippines, and was homeward bound 1 December. After steaming through
the Suez Canal 4 January 1909, the fleet made Mediterranean calls, before
anchoring in Hampton Roads 22 February.
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