During the early stage of World War 1, the United States stayed neutral watching and selling goods on the sideline. However, the rise of Germany’s U-boat threat and the dominance of Britain’s Royal Navy made US realized they needed huge navy armed with ‘big guns’ to protect U.S coast and merchant ships around the globe. In response, Congress passed the Naval Act of 1916, to build the greatest navy ever existed.
What the Naval Act of 1916 Proposed
Signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on August 29, 1916, the US navy will construct 10 battleships, 6 battle cruisers, 10 cruisers, 50 destroyers, and 67 submarines between 1919-1923. In 1918, another bill passed to construct an additional 12 battleships and 16 battle cruisers. By the end of 1923, the US navy would have over 50 super-dreadnought warships ready to be used.
Some of the planned ships were exemplified in the photos.
Four Colorado class Battleships
Lexington class cruisers (two of them was later converted as aircraft carriers)
Wartime Realities Change Priorities
Even though the plan was bold, things did not go as planned. First, due to German submarine attacks, small ships were preferred to deal with submarine threats in the ocean for transport. Not only that with the British Royal Navy as its ally, the US Navy no longer needed to build that much. Therefore, the plan was postponed until end of the war.
This big ambition of the US navy did not go into fruition as time passed. During World War 1, the navy did not have much impact as most wars were fought on land. Also, no one wanted to spend huge portion of another naval arms race that could hit their recovery from the war. Therefore, all naval power met at Washington to limit the size of the navy that a country could have.
Aftermath of Washington Naval Treaty
For the US, the Washington Naval Treaty ended with scrapping most of the planned naval construction. The six South Dakota Class that was under construction were all scrapped and sold. Six Lexington class cruisers under construction were scrapped and sold. However, the Lexington and Saratoga were changed to aircraft carriers and survived from being scrapped. The plan to build the greatest navy was gone but this act showed the power of the United States as it showed the world that it had enough economy and technological power to build the biggest navy in the world in very short amount of time.