Florida - class battleship The " Florida " - class battleship s of the United States Navy comprised two ships : and . Launched in 1910 and 1909 respectively and commissioned in 1911 , they were slightly larger than the preceding " Delaware " - class design but were otherwise very similar . This was the first US battleship class in which all ships received steam turbine engines . In the previous , one ship received steam turbine propulsion as an experiment while the other retained triple - expansion engines . Both ships were involved in the 1914 Second Battle of Vera Cruz , deploying their Marine contingents as part of the operation . Following the entrance of the United States into World War I in 1917 , both ships were deployed to Europe . " Florida " was assigned to the British Grand Fleet and based in Scapa Flow ; in December 1918 she escorted President Woodrow Wilson to France for the peace negotiations . " Utah " was assigned to convoy escort duty ; she was based in Ireland and was tasked with protecting convoys as they approached the European continent . Retained under the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 , both ships were modernized significantly , with torpedo bulge s and oil - fired boilers installed and other improvements made , but were demilitarized under terms of the 1930 London Naval Treaty . " Florida " was scrapped , " Utah " converted into first a radio - controlled target ship , then an anti - aircraft gunnery trainer . She served in the latter role until sunk by the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 . Her hull , never raised , remains on the bottom of the harbor as a war memorial . Design . The " Florida " s were the third of 10 separate classes built between 1906 and 1919 , a total of 22 battleships being commissioned . The new dreadnoughts of the American battle line were being designed from pre - dreadnought experience and observation of foreign designs , as no U . S . dreadnought had yet been commissioned at the time that the " Florida " s were designed ; all were either at some stage of building or in design . American capital ship design was also heavily influenced by war games conducted at the U . S . Navy ' s Naval War College . Captain William Sims led a reform movement that assigned warship design to the General Board . These ships were an improvement over the preceding . Their engine rooms were larger to hold four Curtis or Parsons steam turbines . Their larger beam gave them greater metacentric height , in which the " Delaware " s were notably deficient , which improved buoyancy and reduced hull stress . The ships mounted new 5 in ( 127 mm ) / 51 caliber gun s as secondary batteries in casemates that boasted increased armor protection . The class retained the large and fully enclosed conning tower s that were adopted for the preceding " Delaware " s , as a result of American studies of the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 . The design reduced the vulnerability of the command staff . Overall , these ships were much better protected than their British counterparts , although they were modified extensively during the interwar period . General characteristics . The " Florida " - class ships were 510 ft ( 155 . 5 m ) long at the waterline and 521 ft 8 inches ( 159 m ) overall . They had a beam of 88 ft 3 inches ( 27 m ) and a draft of 28 ft 3 in ( 8 . 6 m ) . They displaced 21 , 825 tons ( 22 , 175 metric tons ) at standard displacement and 23 , 033 tons ( 22 , 669 metric tons ) at full load . This was an increase of approximately 1 , 500 short tons ( 1 , 400 metric tons ) over the previous . The ships also had some of their superstructure rearranged , including the lattice mast s and the funnels . The " Florida " - class ships had a crew of 1 , 001 officers and men . The engine rooms on these ships were lengthened to accommodate the larger Parsons steam turbines , which meant the after boiler room had to be eliminated . The remaining boiler rooms were widened by ; to do this and maintain adequate underwater and coal bunker protection , the ships were made beamier than the " Delaware " s . Funnel spacing was therefore closer than in the " Delaware " s . Also , the wider beam increased the vessels ' metacentric height , a quality in which the " Delaware " s were notably deficient . This improvement allowed the " Florida " s to accommodate their larger medium - caliber guns without any real penalty in topweight . " Florida " was fitted experimentally with a larger bridge than was then standard , to house both ship and fire control personnel under armor , while " Utah " received an heavily armored fire - control tower atop a standard - sized bridge . The former proved especially successful , to the point that when a larger armored fire - control tower and standard bridge was proposed for the " Nevada " class , it was rejected in favor of a roomier bridge like that of the " Florida " . The two ships were modernized in 1925 – 27 ; among the improvements were the addition of torpedo bulge s , which were designed to increase resistance to underwater damage — this widened the ships to 106 ft ( 32 m ) . The ships also had their rear lattice mast s removed and replaced with a pole mast . A catapult for launching aircraft was mounted on the center gun turret . Propulsion . The ships were powered by four - shaft Parsons steam turbines ; steam was provided by 12 Babcock & Wilcox coal - fired boilers . The engines were rated at 44 , 000 shaft horsepower ( shp ) to give a top speed of 20 . 75 knots . On trials , " Florida " made 22 . 08 knots on 40 , 511 shp ; " Utah ' s " turbines produced only 27 , 028 shp but still propelled the ship at 21 . 04 knots . However , the engine and boiler room arrangements remained the same as in the " Delaware " s , with the engine room situated between the rear main turrets and steam lines running beneath the superfiring rear turret . The ships had a range of 6 , 720 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 10 knots . During " Florida " and " Utah ' s " reconstruction in the 1920s , their coal - fired boilers were replaced with four White - Forster oil - fired boilers . The reduction in the number of boilers allowed their twin funnels to be trunked into one single larger funnel . Armament . Main guns . It was intended originally to arm these ships with eight guns then in development in superfiring fore - and - aft mountings . As this gun did not go into service until 1914 , the arrangement of ten Mark 5 45 - caliber guns in five twin gun turret s was retained from the " Delaware " class . The gun housings were the Mark 8 type , and they allowed for depression to −5 degrees and elevation to 15 degrees . The guns had a rate of fire of 2 to 3 rounds per minute . They fired 870 lb ( 394 . 6 kg ) shells , of either armor - piercing ( AP ) or Common types , though the Common type was obsolete by 1915 and put out of production . The propellant charge was 310 lb ( 140 . 6 kg ) in silk bags , and provided a muzzle velocity of 2 , 700 fps ( 823 mps ) . The guns were expected to fire 175 rounds before the barrels would require replacement . The two ships carried 100 shells per gun , or 1 , 000 rounds in total . At 15 degrees elevation , the guns could hit targets out to approximately 20 , 000 yards ( 18 , 290 m ) . Unfortunately , the turret layout of the " Delawares " was also retained , with its respective challenges . Two turrets were mounted fore in a superfiring pair , while the other three were mounted aft of the main superstructure , all on the centerline . The rearmost turret was placed on the main deck , facing rearward , the next turret was placed on the main deck facing forward , but could only have fired on either broadside , it could not have fired straight forward or aft . The center turret , placed in a superfiring position facing rearward , could not fire astern when the turret directly under it had its guns trained forward . This left only the rearmost turret , with its pair of 12 " guns , to cover the rear quarter of the ship . Also , since the engine room was situated between the superfiring rear turret and the ones behind it , steam lines ran from the boiler rooms amidships around the ammunition magazine for Number 3 turret to the engine room . These lines , it was later found , had the potential to heat the powder in the magazine and degrade its ballistics . This design flaw was also prevalent in several British dreadnoughts but was considered inescapable by naval designers on structural grounds . Secondary guns . C & R proposed secondary guns for these ships , protected by casemate armor . This would have been the only change from the protective scheme carried over from the " Delaware " class . However , a new 5 in / 51 cal gun was adopted instead after concerns about inadequate splinter protection for secondary gun casemates and smoke uptakes led to an increase in armor . Sixteen of these weapons were fitted in individual casemates . These guns fired a 50 lb ( 22 . 7 kg ) armor - poiercing ( AP ) shell at a muzzle velocity of 3 , 150 fps ( 960 mps ) and a rate of 8 to 9 rounds per minute . The guns could depress to −10 degrees and elevate to 15 degrees . The guns were manually operated , and had a range of train of about 150 degrees in either direction . Anti - aircraft guns . " Florida " and " Utah " received two 3 inch 23 caliber guns in 1917 for anti - aircraft ( AA ) defense . This was increased to eight guns between 1926 and 1928 . These guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of to a maximum range of and ceiling of at an elevation of 45 . 3 degrees and a rate of between eight and nine rounds per minute . Torpedo tubes . The ships were also armed with two 21 inch ( 53 . 3 cm ) submerged torpedo tubes . The tubes were mounted one on each broadside . The torpedoes were 197 in ( 5 . 004 m ) long and carried a 200 lb ( 91 kg ) warhead . They had a range of 4 , 000 yards ( 3 , 660 m ) and traveled at a speed of 26 knots . Armor . The armor layout was largely the same as in the preceding " Delaware " - class battleships . The armored belt ranged in thickness from 9 inches ( 228 mm ) to 11 in ( 280 mm ) in the more important areas of the ship . Casemated guns mounted in the hull had between 8 – 10 inches of armor plate ( 203 – 254 mm ) . After modernization , some of the casemated guns were moved to the superstructure ; these guns were protected with only 5 in ( 127 mm ) of armor . The barbette s that housed the main gun turrets were armored with between 4 – 10 in ( 102 – 254 mm ) of armor ; the side portions more vulnerable to shell fire were thicker , while the front and rear sections of the barbette , which were less likely to be hit , received thinner armor to save weight . The gun turrets themselves were armored with 12 in ( 305 mm ) of armor . The conning tower was 11 . 5 in ( 292 mm ) thick . The armored deck was slightly reduced in thickness , from 2 in ( 51 mm ) to 1 . 5 in ( 38 mm ) . Construction . " Florida " , ordered under hull number " Battleship # 30 " , was laid down at the New York Navy Yard on 9 March 1909 . She was launched on 12 May 1910 , after which fitting out work commenced . Work was finished on 15 September 1911 , at which point she was commissioned into the United States Navy . " Utah " was ordered under hull number " Battleship # 31 " . She was laid down in Camden , New Jersey , at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation , 6 days later on 15 March . Work proceeded faster on " Utah " than on her sister ship , and she was launched about four and a half months earlier , on 23 December 1909 . After launching , she underwent fitting out work , which lasted until 31 August 1911 , when she was commissioned into the American fleet . Service history . USS " Florida " . " Florida " took part in the Second battle of Vera Cruz in 1914 . She and her sister " Utah " were the first two ships on the scene ; the two ships landed some 1 , 000 sailors and Marines under the command of " Florida " s captain on 21 April . Fighting lasted for 3 days ; the contingent from " Florida " and " Utah " suffered a total of 94 casualties . After the United States entered World War I in April 1917 , " Florida " was dispatched to Europe ; she departed the United States in December 1917 . After arriving in the North Sea , she was assigned to the Grand Fleet , where she served with her British counterparts . The ship , part of the U . S . Navy ' s Battleship Division Nine , under the command of Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman , arrived on 7 December and was assigned to the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet . Following training exercises with the British fleet , 6th Battle Squadron was tasked with convoy protection duty on the route to Scandinavia . Following the end of the war , in December 1918 , the ship escorted President Woodrow Wilson on his trip to Europe to participate in the peace negotiations at Versailles . Later in December , " Florida " returned to the United States to participate in the Victory Fleet Review in New York harbor . Post - war , " Florida " returned the U . S . Navy ' s Atlantic Fleet ; she operated along the east coast of the United States and into Central America . In July 1920 , she was assigned the hull number " BB - 30 " . In the early 1920s , she carried the U . S . Secretary of State on a diplomatic trip around the Caribbean and South America . " Florida " was the oldest American battleship that was retained under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 . She underwent extensive reconstruction and modernization during the mid - 1920s . After emerging from the shipyard , she was assigned as the flagship of the Control Force , U . S . Fleet . The ship conducted a series of training cruises for the remainder of the decade . Under the London Naval Treaty of 1930 , the ship was to be discarded . She was decommissioned in February 1931 and towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard , where she was broken up for scrap . USS " Utah " . " Utah " s first assignment was with the U . S . Navy ' s Atlantic Fleet . During 1913 , she took a goodwill voyage to the Mediterranean . " Utah " was also involved in the Second Battle of Vera Cruz , alongside her sister " Florida " . The ship also saw front - line duty in the First World War , although she was not attached to the British Grand Fleet . Starting in September 1918 , " Utah " was based in Bantry Bay , Ireland . Here she conducted convoy escort duties on the approach to Europe . Post - war service saw " Utah " again in the Atlantic Fleet ; during 1921 – 22 , she was stationed in Europe . " Utah " was also retained under the Washington Naval Treaty . In 1924 – 1925 , the ship sailed on a goodwill cruise to South America . Following her return to the United States , she was taken into dry dock for significant reconstruction . After she rejoined the active fleet , she was assigned to the U . S . Scouting Fleet . Late in 1928 , she steamed to the South Atlantic , where she picked up President - Elect Herbert Hoover , who was returning from an ambassadorial visit to several South American countries . According to the London Naval Treaty , the ship was to be removed from front - line service . To this end , she had her main battery guns removed and she was converted into a radio - controlled target ship . She was redesignated " AG - 16 " , and served in this capacity after 1931 . In the mid - 1930s , she was rebuilt again , as an anti - aircraft gunnery training ship . In 1941 , additional anti - aircraft guns were installed to increase her training capacity . Later in 1941 , she was transferred to the U . S . Pacific Fleet and based in Pearl Harbor . She was present in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 ; after having been hit by two torpedoes , she capsize d and sank . A few years later , the hull was partially righted and towed closer to Ford Island , where the wreck remains today .