Old Mary at Peace
On the road at an industry event all week in Louisiana, so we’re taking a knee on Warship Wednesday.
In its place, how about this amazing photo essay by LIFE Photographer Peter Stackpole of the Colorado-class “Super 16” dreadnought USS Maryland (BB 46) with embarked floatplanes of Observation Squadron Four (VO-4) seen in the waters of the Territory of Hawaii in August 1941 during the tense lead-up to the Pacific War, some 85 years ago this month.
Holystoning the deck, a ritual known throughout the old wooden-deck Navy for generations.
Note the “meatball” roundels on the Vought OS2U Kingfisher. The floatplane began deliveries to the Navy in August 1940.
While some 1,500 Kingfishers were produced, they never fully replaced the biplane Curtiss SOC Sea Gull, which remained in service until 1949
Note the searchlights on the masts
Ah, the Quad 1.1-inch “Chicago Piano” AAA mount.
The third warship to use the name of the seventh state, USS Maryland (Battleship No. 46) was laid down 24 April 1917 by Newport News, launched 20 March 1920, and commissioned 21 July 1921.
Maryland was hit by two armor-piercing bombs during the attack on Pearl Harbor, causing localized fires, flooding, and structural damage but only 17 casualties. Meanwhile, her own batteries fired 7,450 rounds and claimed seven enemy planes shot down, so there is that.
Patched up, she soon returned to service, and steamed 152,697 miles during 1942-45, during which she shrugged off a Japanese aerial torpedo (22 June 1944) and two kamikazes (29 November 1944 and 7 April 1945). In return, she sent aloft 3,479 16-inch, 13,972 5-inch, 4,093 40mm and 10,500 20mm shells aimed at the subjects of the Emperor.
From her official War History:
Maryland received seven battle stars for World War II service, and, after spending 13 years in post-war mothballs, was scrapped in 1959– only after the Russian Gangut-class battlewagons Sevastopol and Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya were sent to the breakers.