USS Ohio ( BB - 12 ) USS " Ohio " ( BB - 12 ) , a , was the third ship of the United States Navy named for the 17th state . " Ohio " was laid down on 22 April 1899 by Union Iron Works , San Francisco . She was launched on 18 May 1901 sponsored by Miss Helen Deschler , a relative of Governor George K . Nash of Ohio . President and Mrs . William McKinley attended the ceremony . " Ohio " commissioned on 4 October 1904 , Captain Leavitt C . Logan in command . Pre - World War I . Designated flagship of the Asiatic Fleet , " Ohio " departed San Francisco on 1 April 1905 for Manila , where she embarked the party of then Secretary of War William Howard Taft , which included Miss Alice Roosevelt , President Theodore Roosevelt ' 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 . Also aboard for this cruise as Midshipman – later to receive promotion to Fleet Admiral – Chester Nimitz . " Ohio " sailed out of Hampton Roads on 16 December 1907 with the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet . Guns crashed a salute to President Roosevelt while he reviewed the " Great White Fleet " , as it began the cruise around the world , which — perhaps more than any other single event — marked the emergence of the United States as a major world power . Commanded by Rear Admiral Robley D . Evans , and later , Rear Admiral Charles S . Sperry , the fleet 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 , Japan , where they anchored on 18 October . The fleet ' s presence in Japan symbolized both American friendship and strength and helped to ease dangerously strained relations between the two countries . The fleet put in at Amoy , returned to Yokohama , held target practice in the Philippines and was homeward - bound on 1 December . After steaming through the Suez Canal on 4 January 1909 , the fleet made Mediterranean calls , before anchoring in Hampton Roads on 22 February . " Ohio " sailed on to New York , her home port for the next four years during duty training men of the New York Naval Militia and performing general service with the Atlantic Fleet . In 1914 , she sailed to the Gulf of Mexico to join in the patrol off Veracruz , protecting American interests endangered by Mexican political turmoil . " Ohio " returned north in the summer for a United States Naval Academy midshipmen cruise , then joined the Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia , recommissioning for each of the next two summers ' midshipmen cruises — 1915 and 1916 . World War I . Soon after the United States entered World War I " Ohio " recommissioned on 24 April 1917 . Throughout the war , she operated out of Norfolk , training crews for the expanding fleet , taking part in battleship maneuvers . She arrived at Philadelphia on 28 November 1918 and was placed in reserve there on 7 January 1919 . Decommissioned on 31 May 1922 , she was sold for scrap on 24 March 1923 . References . Bibliography