State Ship Series: USS Missouri

There has been four ships commissioned named after the state of Missouri in the US Navy.

USS Missouri (1841), 10 gun sidewheel steam frigate, in commission from 1842 to 1843. She departed the US in August 1843, carrying the US Minister to China, to Alexandria, Egypt, on the first leg of his journey to negotiate the first commercial treaty with China. While in Gibraltar after her first Atlantic crossing, a fire started caused when engineer's yeoman accidentally broke and ignited a demijohn of turpentine in the storeroom. The fire spread too quickly for the crew to put out so the caption order the crew to abandon ship. Within 4 hours the ship was sinking when one of the powder magazines exploded. Luckily, she was accompanied by Missouri's sister ship, USS Mississippi (1841) and the US Minister, who had saved all of the documents for the negotiation before he left the ship, was able to continue on to Egypt.

USS Missouri (BB-11), Maine Class, predreadnought battleship, in commission from 1903 to 1919. Participated in the World Cruise of the Great White Fleet. Served as a training ship during World War I and carried troops home after. Sold for scrap in 1922.

USS Missouri (BB-63), Iowa Class, battleship, in commission from 1944 to 1955, 1956 to 1992. During WWII, she fought at Iwo Jima, Okinawa where she was hit by a kamikaze and bombarded the mainland Japan. Famously hosted the formal surrender of Japan to the United States. She was the only battleship to not be decommissioned after the war and performed shore bombardment during the Korean War. She was the first Iowa to be decommissioned after the conflict, in 1955. She reactivated and modernized in the 1980's as part of Reagan's 600 ship plan. She shelled Iraqi targets during Operation Desert Storm. Decommissioned in 1992. She was kept in mothballs for a time in Bremerton, Washington and when the Navy decided to donate her to a museum, groups asked that she remain there. But the Navy decided to place her next to the wreck of USS Arizona to symbolize the beginning and end of WWII.

USS Missouri (SSN-780), Virginia Class Block, in commission from 2010 to present.

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NHHC: 80-G-K-4575, 80-G-332701, USA-C-2719

Destroyer classes of the U.S. Navy.

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USS California (BB-44) underway at eight knots in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Washington, on January 25, 1944.

Note: she is painted in Measure 32, Design 16-D.

NHHC: 80-G-211831, 80-G-166187

Sub at the Port of Seattle, 1930s

BB-44 battleship USS CALIFORNIA firing her starboard 5/51 secondary guns during night battle practice in 1933

USS California (BB-44), 1921