#target ship

[lonestarbattleship]

USS MASSACHUSETTS (BB-2) settled down, after being scuttled in the shallow waters in the Gulf of Mexico, outside the entrance to Pensacola Bay, Florida. After being stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in November 1920, she was loaned to the Department of War for use as a target ship for experimental artillery from coastal batteries of Fort Pickens and by railway artillery.

Photographed on January 6, 1921.

Maritime Museum of San Diego: P-03550

US Navy and Marine Corps Museum/Naval Aviation Museum, Photo No.1989.119.001.007

[redarmyscreaming]

USS San Marcos (former USS Texas) after being used for target practice.

[lonestarbattleship]

"USS RALEIGH (CL-7) is kept afloat by a barge lashed alongside, after she was damaged by a Japanese torpedo and a bomb, on December 7, 1941. The barge has salvage pontoons YSP-14 and YSP-13 on board. The capsized hull of USS UTAH (AG-16) is visible astern of RALEIGH."

Photographed in December 1941.

NARA: 306540

Text from Wikipedia: link

[lonestarbattleship]

"Capsized hull of USS UTAH (AG-16) off the western side of Ford Island, five days after she was sunk by Japanese aerial torpedoes during the Pearl Harbor Attack. View looks toward Ford Island, with Utah's bow at left. USS TANGIER (AV-8) is in the right background."

Photographed on December 12, 1941.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 50857

[lonestarbattleship]

View of after gun turret and superstructure of USS SAN MARCOS (ex-USS TEXAS (1892)), just after she had been used as a target by USS NEW HAMPSHIRE (BB-25) in Chesapeake Bay.

Photographed in March 1911.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 73109

[lonestarbattleship]

COSTAL BATTLESHIP NO. 4 (Ex-USS IOWA (BB-4)) steaming off the Virginia Capes, under radio control from USS OHIO (BB-10) five miles away, as bombing planes made attacks on her to determine their effectiveness.

"When she was commissioned in 1897, IOWA had 100-fot-tall smokestacks. By June 1921, when this picture was taken, those stacks were among the few unchanged elements in her topside appearance. She still had her oval-shaped turrets, but the 13-inch and 8-inch guns were gone from them. In her declining years, she was a radio-controlled target ship with bull's-eyes on both bow and stern. The final ignominy came on March 22, 1923, when she was sunk by 14-inch salvos from the modern battleship USS MISSISSIPPI (BB-41)."

Photographed on June 29, 1921.

(National Archives)

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph: NH 69161, NH 83685

[lonestarbattleship]

USS SAN MARCOS (ex-USS TEXAS (1892)) being towed to the target area off Tangier Island, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia.

Photographed in March 1911.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 108611

[lonestarbattleship]

Armor plate from USS TEXAS (1892) at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, circa September 17 to 25, 1915. I have not been able to find out what happened to this armor plate after the fair. The latest dated photograph is from July 1916. It's most likely it was scrapped at some point.

source, source, source