Day of Infamy: The Oldest Ship in the Harbor - U.S.S. Baltimore

December 7th, 1941.  The Empire of Japan launched an aircraft carrier borne attack against the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor.  The Japanese launched their aircraft roughly 300 miles north of Oahu...six Carriers worth of torpedo bombers, dive bombers and "zero" fighter aircraft.  There were two waves sent by the Empire...and when it was over, the U.S. Pacific fleet was in shambles.  The Japanese lost a handful of aircraft and pilots...the United States lost thousands of men, hundreds of warplanes, and some of the most iconic ships that ever sailed.

Hand-drawn cartoon found in the cockpit of a Japanese aircraft shot down during the Pearl Harbor attack 

Pearl Harbor is and was located on the Island of Oahu, Territory of Hawaii (The Hawaiian Islands did not become a State until 1959).  At 7:55, Sunday morning, the "Surprise Party" began...

Just about everything is known and documented about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, from books to films and all ephemera in between.  There are a few tidbits left...things that are not as well known, but still of interest...

Constructed between 1887-1888, then commissioned into U.S. Navy service January of 1890, she was over fifty years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  Technically, by 1941 she was classified as a "hulk", used as a naval floating storage shed or "receiving ship".  She was moored north of the Battleship Nevada, with the destroyers U.S.S. Chew and U.S.S. Allen.

U.S.S. Baltimore was a protected cruiser, which meant her inner machinery was "protected" with a layer of armor.  For example, her boilers, steam engine, the coal bunker and ammunition stores had a layer of armor (or an armored deck) atop them within the ship.  She also had armored shields around her guns.

Her naval career included taking the body of John Ericsson from New York to Stockholm, Sweden to be buried in his homeland in 1890, creating controversy in Valparaiso when two of her sailors were killed in a bar brawl that inflamed tensions with the U.S. during the Chilean Revolution in 1891 and fighting in the Battle of Manila Bay (which delivered the Philippine Islands to the U.S.) during the Spanish American War of 1898.  When World War I broke out, the Baltimore was converted to a minelayer, and was very active in dropping mines around Ireland, Scotland and the Orkney Islands.

U.S.S. Baltimore - 1890s

The Baltimore as a "receiving ship" at Pearl Harbor in 1941

Arriving at Pearl Harbor in 1922, Baltimore was decommissioned and served there in her final role until the later days of World War II.  Baltimore was not damaged or sunk during the Japanese attack, and survived until 1944 when she was stripped, blown-up with explosives and scuttled (sunk)  off the coast of Oahu.

The wreck of the U.S.S. Arizona on December 10th, 1941 - the Baltimore can be seen moored in the background