USS Utah

The Vessel

USS Utah (AG-16), originally commissioned as USS Utah (BB-31), was a Florida-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy, commissioned at the New York Shipbuilding Company in Camden, New Jersey, on 31 August 1911. She was 159 metres long, 23,033 tons standard displacement as originally commissioned, and armed with ten 12-inch guns in five twin turrets. She was one of the two Florida-class battleships, the American answer to the British Bellerophon-class dreadnoughts of 1909-1910.

Her career followed a progression characteristic of older American battleships of her generation. She served as a first-line battleship from 1911 through the interwar period; was demilitarised under the provisions of the London Naval Treaty of 1930; was converted to a radio-controlled target ship in 1931 (her main battery removed, her hull strengthened to absorb practice bombs and torpedo hits, her designation changed from BB-31 to AG-16); and served as a training asset for Pacific Fleet aviation practice through the 1930s.

By 1941 she was, at 30 years of age, the oldest American battleship-hull in active service (though she had ceased to be classed as a battleship a decade earlier). Her specific role was as a target-vessel for practice aerial bombing and for gunnery training. Her upper decks had been reinforced with timber baulks and sandbags to absorb practice bomb impacts. She carried a skeleton crew of approximately 500.

The Voyage

On the morning of 7 December 1941 USS Utah was moored alongside Ford Island at the 'F-11' berth position on the north side of the island, inboard of the light cruiser USS Raleigh (CL-7). The mooring position placed her in a row normally reserved for aircraft carriers; in fact, USS Enterprise (CV-6) was at sea on the morning of the attack, and USS Utah's position in the carrier row was a result of routine berth rotation. The two cruisers normally moored in the adjacent positions had been at sea the previous night and had not yet returned.

The Japanese pilots of the 7 December attack had been briefed to attack the battleships on Battleship Row (on the east side of Ford Island) and the aircraft carriers they expected to find on the west side. Utah's configuration, her position, and the heavy wooden protection on her upper decks led several Japanese torpedo-bomber pilots to identify her as a priority target, apparently mistaking her for either an aircraft carrier or a more capable modern battleship.

Between 08:01 and 08:04 on 7 December 1941 USS Utah was struck by two Type 91 aerial torpedoes on her port side. The torpedo hits were both below her waterline in the former main engineering spaces. Her hull, demilitarised over a decade earlier and no longer equipped with first-line anti-torpedo protection, flooded rapidly.

The Disaster

USS Utah listed to port within 90 seconds of the first torpedo strike. Her list was not gradual; the absence of the original torpedo-protection system and the compromises in her internal subdivision following her 1931 conversion made her particularly vulnerable to sequential flooding. By 08:08 she was at 40 degrees of list. At 08:12 she capsized onto her port side.

Among her crew casualties was Chief Warrant Officer Peter Tomich, the engineering officer on watch at the moment of the attack. Tomich remained in the engine room as his ship capsized, specifically to keep the auxiliary steam systems running to allow crew members in the lower compartments to escape through the bilge keels as the ship rolled. His decision cost him his life but is credited with the survival of several dozen crew members who might otherwise have been trapped. Tomich was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his conduct.

USS Utah sank at 08:15 on 7 December 1941, approximately 14 minutes after the first torpedo strike. Of her 558 crew aboard at the moment of the attack, 58 died. 500 survived, many by clambering along her exposed starboard hull as she capsized and being picked up by launches from the nearby USS Raleigh.

The relatively low death toll (compared to USS Arizona or USS Oklahoma) reflected Utah's reduced operational status: she carried approximately one-third the crew of a comparably-sized fleet battleship, and most of her crew were on the upper decks rather than in lower compartments when the attack began.

The Legacy

USS Utah was never raised. The 1942 salvage survey conducted at Pearl Harbor concluded that her obsolete hull and minimal military value did not justify the expense of a raising operation comparable to that being conducted on USS Oklahoma and USS West Virginia. She was formally struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 5 November 1944 and left in place.

Unlike the USS Arizona, which has been preserved as a memorial in her original position, USS Utah was not initially marked as a memorial or as a war grave. From 1944 through 1971 she remained in her capsize position, exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide, essentially a derelict wreck on the west side of Ford Island. Her gradual recognition as a war grave was the result of survivor advocacy through the 1960s; the USS Utah Memorial was formally dedicated on 27 May 1972.

The Utah Memorial is a much smaller installation than the Arizona Memorial across the harbour: a pedestrian boardwalk extending from Ford Island out to the exposed hull at low tide, with a bronze plaque listing the 58 dead. The memorial is accessible only to authorised visitors and is not on the standard tourist route of Pearl Harbor attractions; most visitors to Pearl Harbor are unaware of its existence.

Chief Warrant Officer Peter Tomich's Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously on 21 December 1942, was the first Medal of Honor awarded to a U.S. Navy enlisted or warrant officer for the 7 December 1941 action. His award remained unclaimed for 64 years because his next of kin could not be located; his nearest surviving relatives in the former Yugoslavia were identified by Navy researchers in 2006, and the Medal was formally presented to the Tomich family on 18 May 2006 at a ceremony in Prolog, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The wreck of USS Utah remains at her 7 December 1941 capsize position off Ford Island, still partially visible above water at low tide 83 years after her sinking. She is a protected United States war grave; the 58 dead are commemorated at the memorial. The name USS Utah has not been carried by any subsequent American warship; the attack-class submarine USS Utah (SSN-801) is under construction and scheduled for commissioning in the late 2020s, which will be the first time the name has been in service since 1941.