The first Indiana (BB-1) was laid down May 7, 1891, by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was launched February 28, 1893, sponsored by Miss Jessie Miller, daughter of the Attorney General of the United States, and commissioned on November 20, 1895, with Captain Robley D. Evans in command.
Following fitting out at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Indiana trained off the coast of New England. This duty continued until the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, when Indiana formed part of Admiral William Sampson's Squadron. The ten ships sailed south to intercept Pascual Cervera's Spanish squadron, known to be en route to the Caribbean Sea. Indiana took part in bombardment of San Juan on May 12, 1898, and returned to Key West with the squadron to guard Havana, Cuba, on May 18. After it was discovered that Cervera was at Santiago de Cuba, Sampson joined Winfield Scott Schley there June 1 and took up the blockade.
In late June, Army units arrived and were landed for an assault on Santiago. Cervera saw that his situation was desperate and began his gallant dash out of Santiago July 3, 1898, hoping to outrun the American blockaders. Indiana did not join in the initial chase because of her extreme eastern position on the blockade, but was near the harbor entrance when destroyers Pluton and Furor emerged. In a short time both ships were destroyed by Indiana's guns and those of the other ships. Meanwhile the remaining Spanish vessels were sunk or run ashore, in one of the two major naval engagements of the war.
Indiana returned to her previous pattern of training exercises and fleet maneuvers after the war, and made practice cruises for midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy before decommissioning on December 29, 1903.
The battleship recommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on January 9, 1906. During this phase of her career, Indiana served with the Naval Academy Practice Squadron, sailing to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. At Queenstown, Ireland, she fired a 21-gun salute on June 22, 1911, in honor of the coronation of King George V. This important work in training the Navy's future leaders ended in 1914 and she decommissioned at Philadelphia on May 23, 1914.
Indiana recommissioned a second time May 24, 1917, and served through World War I as a training ship for gun crews off Tomkinsville, New York, and in the York River, Virginia. She decommissioned at Philadelphia January 31, 1919. On March 29, 1919, and she was renamed "Coast Battleship Number 1" so that the name Indiana could be assigned to a newly authorized battleship. She was used as a target in an important series of tests designed to determine the effectiveness of aerial bombs and was sunk in November 1920. Her hulk was sold for scrap March 19, 1924.
General Characteristics
- Displacement: 10,288 tons
- Length: 350.9 feet
- Beam: 69.3 feet
- Draft: 24 feet
- Speed: 15 knots
- Complement: 473 officers and men
- Armament: four 13-inch guns, eight eight-inch guns, four six-inch guns, 20 six-pounders, six one-pounders