USS Minnesota (BB 22)
USS Minnesota, a 16,000-ton Connecticut class battleship, was built at Newport News, Virginia. She was commissioned in March 1907 and participated in the Jamestown Exposition during much of that year. From December 1907 to February 1909, Minnesota steamed around the World with the "Great White Fleet", in one of the era's most impressive demonstrations of battle fleet mobility. Upon her return to the United States, she was modernized, receiving initially a "cage"foremast and other superstructure alternations, as well as a coating of grey paint. About a year later, she was fitted with a second "cage" mast.
During 1909-16, Minnesota performed the typical duties of contemporary battleships, taking part in fleet operations along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean area and supporting military interventions in Cuba and Mexico. She also crossed the Atlantic once to visit northern European waters. Minnesota served as a gunnery and engineering training ship during World War I. Damaged by a German mine on 29 September 1918, she was under repair until March 1919, then briefly served as a troop transport bringing service personnel home from France. In 1920, the battleship was designated BB-22. She made Midshipmen's training cruises in 1920 and 1921 and was decommissioned and stricken from the Navy registry in December of the latter year. After she was dismantled at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, USS Minnesota's remains were sold for scrap in January 1924.
