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General Note

Over the years, there have been several U.S.S. Floridas, starting with a sloop in 1824. The BB-30 was the fifth USS Florida. It was laid down by New York Naval Ship Yard on March 9, 1909, launched on May 12, 1910 and commissioned on September 15, 1911. The U.S.S. Florida displaced 21,825 tons of water, was 521 feet in length, travelled 21 knots an hour, and was armed with well over thirty guns (including the 12 inch, 21 inch, and 5 inch varieties). For twenty years it served in the Atlantic and Caribbean. In 1914 it took part in the landings at Veracruz, Mexico; during World War I it operated in the North Sea with the British Grand Fleet from its base at Scapa Flow. U. S. S. Florida radioed mid-ocean weather observations in support of the 1919 transatlantic flight of Navy NC seaplanes. During the 1920's it carried the Secretary of State on a diplomatic voyage to Latin America, trained midshipmen, and participated in experimental landing operations with the Marine Corps. USS Florida was decommissioned at Philadelphia on February 16, 1931, and was scrapped under the terms of the London naval arms limitation treaty of 1930.

Biographical Note

R.E. MacDonald was a naval officer on the U.S.S. Florida while it served with the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea during the First World War.