Shawnee County Community Connections
USS Kansas (BB-21) was laid down by New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 12 August 1905 sponsored by Miss Anna Hoch, daughter of Kansas Governor Edward W. Hoch; and commissioned in Philadelphia Navy Yard on 18 April 1907, Captain Charles E. Vreeland in command.
The new battleship departed Philadelphia on 17 August 1907, for shakedown training out of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and returned home for alterations on 24 September. She joined the "Great White Fleet" at Hampton Roads on 9 December and passed in review before President Theodore Roosevelt while getting underway on the first leg of the fleet's historic world cruise.
Nov 14, 2011
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