USS CALIFORNIA (ACR-6)

USS San Diego (formerly USS California) USS ''San Diego'', formerly USS ''California''
Career	USN Jack
Ordered:
Laid down:	7 May 1902
Launched:	28 April 1904
Commissioned:	1 August 1907
Fate:	sunk 1918, suspected to be by a U-boat
General Characteristics
Displacement:	13,680 tons
Length:	504 ft (154 m)
Beam:	69 ft 6 in (21.2 m)
Draft:	26 ft 1 in (8 m)
Propulsion:	23,000 shp; 2 propellers
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	830
Armament:	4 × 8 in./40 (203 mm) guns, 14 × 6 in. (152 mm) guns, 18 × 3 in./50 (76 mm) guns, 12 × 3 pdr, 2 × 1 pdr, 2 × 18 in. (457 mm) torpedo tubes
Motto:

The second 'USS ''California'' (ACR-6)', also referred to as "Armored Cruiser 6", and later renamed '''San Diego''', was a United States Navy ''Pennsylvania''-class armored cruiser.
She was launched 28 April 1904 by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California, sponsored by Miss Florence Pardee (daughter of California governor George C. Pardee), and commissioned 1 August 1907, Captain V. L. Cottman in command.
Joining the 2nd Division, Pacific Fleet, ''California'' took part in the Naval Review at San Francisco in May 1908 for the Secretary of the Navy. Aside from a cruise to Hawaii and Samoa in the fall of 1909, the cruiser operated along the west coast, sharpening her readiness through training exercises and drills, until December 1911, when she sailed for Honolulu, and in March 1912 continued westward for duty on the Asiatic Station. After this service representing American power and prestige in the Far East, she returned home in August 1912, and was ordered to Corinto, Nicaragua, then embroiled in internal political disturbance. Here she protected American lives and property, then resumed her operations along the west coast; she cruised off California, and kept a watchful eye on Mexico, at that time also suffering political disturbance.
''California'' was renamed '''San Diego''' on 1 September 1914, and served as flagship for Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, intermittently until a boiler explosion put her in Mare Island Navy Yard in reduced commission through the summer of 1915. ''San Diego'' returned to duty as flagship through 12 February 1917, when she went into reserve status until the opening of World War I. Placed in full commission 7 April, the cruiser operated as flagship for Commander, Patrol Force Pacific Fleet, until 18 July, when she was ordered to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Reaching Hampton Roads 4 August, she joined Cruiser Division 2, and later broke the flag of Commander, Cruiser Force, Atlantic, which she flew until 19 September.
''San Diego's'' essential mission was the escort of convoys through the first dangerous leg of their passages to Europe. Based on Tompkinsville, New York, and Halifax, Nova Scotia , she operated in the weather-torn, submarine-infested North Atlantic safely convoying all of her charges to the ocean escort. On 19 July 1918, bound from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to New York, while ten miles southeast of Fire Island ''San Diego'' suffered an explosion and sank in 28 minutes with the loss of six lives, the only major warship lost by the United States in World War I. Her commanding officer, Harley H. Christy, survived the wreck.
The Navy initially declared that she had been torpedoed by the German submarine U-156. Later historians believe that it was sunk by a mine laid by a U-boat. However, U-156 carried no mines, and the blast hole is remarkably far toward the cruiser's stern -- an unlikely place to strike a mine.
Other possibilities include a fire caused by spontaneous combustion in the coal bunkers could have ignited ammunition stored nearby, and sabotage by a German agent, a theory raised by the release of secret Russian documents that asserted a spy planted a bomb aboard.
The wreck presently lies in 33 m (110 ft) of water, with the highest parts just 20 m (65 ft) below the surface, and as a result is one of the most popular shipwrecks in the US for scuba diving. Nicknamed the "Lobster Hotel" for the abundance of lobsters living there, it is also a home to many kinds of fish. The wreck is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Contents

See also

References

External links

See also

See USS ''California'' and USS ''San Diego'' for other Navy ships of the same name.

References

Alden, John D. ''American Steel Navy: A Photographic History of the U.S. Navy from the Introduction of the Steel Hull in 1883 to the Cruise of the Great White Fleet.'' Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989. ISBN 0870212486
Friedman, Norman. ''U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History.'' Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1984. ISBN 0870217186
Musicant, Ivan. ''U.S. Armored Cruisers: A Design and Operational History.'' Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0870217143

External links

★ history.navy.mil: USS ''California'' / ''San Diego''

★ Navy photographs of ''California'' (ACR-6)

★ navsource.org: USS ''California'' / ''San Diego''

★ hazegray.org: USS ''California'' / ''San Diego''

★ Wreck diving information