page_title: USS Oklahoma (BB-37)
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: USS Oklahoma (BB-37) / Service history / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Lot 5365-3: Launching of USS Oklahoma (BB 37) at New York Shipbuilding Company, Camden, New Jersey, March 23, 1914. This photograph shows the supports for the battleship before launching. The sponsor was Ms. Lorena J. Cruce, daughter of Oklahoma Governor Lee Cruce. Oklahoma capsized during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and while being towed to be scrapped on May 17, 1947, she sank during a heavy storm. Photographed through Mylar sleeve. Collection of Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. (9/11/2015).
context_page_description: USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was a Nevada-class battleship built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation for the United States Navy, notable for being the first American class of oil-burning dreadnoughts.
  Commissioned in 1916, Oklahoma served in World War I as a part of Battleship Division Six, protecting Allied convoys on their way across the Atlantic. After the war, she served in both the United States Battle Fleet and Scouting Fleet. Oklahoma was modernized between 1927 and 1929. In 1936, she rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War. On returning to the West Coast in August of the same year, Oklahoma spent the rest of her service in the Pacific.
  On 7 December 1941, Oklahoma was sunk by several torpedoes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Torpedoes from torpedo bomber airplanes hit the Oklahoma's hull and the ship capsized. A total of 429 crew died; survivors jumped off the ship 50 feet into burning hot water or crawled across mooring lines that connected Oklahoma and Maryland. Some sailors inside escaped when rescuers drilled holes and opened hatches to rescue them. In 1943, Oklahoma was righted and salvaged.
context_section_description: Oklahoma's keel was laid down on 26 October 1912, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey, who bid $5,926,000 to construct the ship. By 12 December 1912, she was 11.2 percent complete, and by 13 July 1913, she was at 33 percent. 
  She was launched on 23 March 1914, sponsored by Lorena J. Cruce, daughter of Oklahoma Governor Lee Cruce. The launch was preceded by an invocation, the first for an American warship in half a century, given by Elijah Embree Hoss, and was attended by various dignitaries from Oklahoma and the federal government. She was subsequently moved to a dock near the new Argentine battleship Moreno and Chinese cruiser Fei Hung, soon to be the Greek Elli, for fitting-out.
  On the night of 19 July 1915, large fires were discovered underneath the fore main battery turret, the third to flare up on an American battleship in less than a month. However, by 22 July, the Navy believed that the Oklahoma fire had been caused by "defective insulation" or a mistake made by a dockyard worker. The fire delayed the battleship's completion so much that Nevada was able to conduct her sea trials and be commissioned before Oklahoma. On 23 October 1915, she was 98.1 percent complete. She was commissioned at Philadelphia, on 2 May 1916, with Captain Roger Welles in command.
caption: Close up of the hull on launch day
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