HISTORY

Arizona Stowaway

In April 1924, when the USS Arizona

docked in Balboa Harbor after passing

through the Panama Canal, the Chief

Radio Operator ran to the bridge and

informed the skipper that a woman was

on board. Captain Percy Olmstead had

been receiving rumors of a woman on

board for several days, but did not believe them. The USS Arizona, Admiral

William Pratt‘s flagship at the time, was

en route from New York to the U.S. West

Coast and had traveled 2,500 miles.

To his utter surprise, however, a woman

was indeed found on board. It turned out

to be 19-year-old Madeline Blair, also

known as Adelaide Andrews or by her

nicknames Jackie or Blackie. The young

woman said she was from Bridgeport,

Connecticut, and that she was a prostitute and was smuggled on board by

sailors. She wanted to make it easier

for herself to get to the West Coast. She

made a deal with the cook to pay him

$10 a day for meals, and the sailors who

visited her in her cabin paid her $3. At

night, she sometimes went on deck in

men‘s clothes. Some sailors recognized

the woman in in disguise, but usually

reported nothing, or their reports were

simply dismissed as way too unlikely.

(Jan Bobek)

cers a bit so she could be on board as

long as possible. The captain eventually

let her disembark and the US Navy paid

for her to sail first class to her destination. The ticket cost $25.45. This young

lady is not traceable through any genealogy records under the names she gave,

and what happened to her afterwards

is unknown. In 1928, she described the

events on the USS Arizona in The San

Francisco Examiner. Her narrative suggests that she acted alone and on her

own accord, using her brother-in-law‘s

naval uniform to get on board. She is

sometimes mistakenly credited with

a biographical book published under the

name Madeline Blair.

The repercussion on the ship were severe. Captain Olmstead initiated court

martials for 23 enlisted men and sentences of up to 10 years imprisonment

were imposed. Admiral Henry A. Wiley

issued a letter of reprimand to all officers of the ship, including future Admiral and Chief of Naval Operations Arleigh Burke, then an ensign. Fortunately

for his career and the careers of the

other officers, Admiral William V. Pratt

thought the penalties excessive, and

when he became Chief of Naval Operations in 1930, he ordered the reprimands

After being apprehended on April 12,

stricken from the officer‘s records. He

Madeline did not identify any of the saicould not, however, reverse the verdicts

lors involved in her case and furthermoof the court martials of the enlisted men.

re claimed that there were more women

on board. She wanted to stall the offi-

Sources: BALESTRIERI S.: “At ‘Em Arizona!” The Battleship That Had a Stowaway Prostitute Aboard For Two

Weeks!; Kingston Daily Freeman, 16. 4. 1924; National

Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Roll #:

27; NOFI A. A: To Train The Fleet For War: The U.S. Navy

Fleet Problems, 1923-1940; San Francisco Examiner: By

a Girl Stowaway Who Lived 5 Weeks on the Battleship

Arizona; Wipedia

and this supported new superstructures

for the bridge and a new smokestack. Instead of the original masts, new, three

legged items were erected, holding searchlights, aiming devices for both main and

secondary weapons, light anti-aircraft

guns and an observation station.

There were significant upgrades made

to the weapons as well. The elevation

upper limit of the main guns went from

15 to 30 degrees. Visually, this needed

a cutout from the main frontal plate, but

the main effect of this mod was an increase in range to 34,000 yards thanks also to

new ammunition. The original casemates

were completely eliminated at the level

of the bow decking. Ten original 127mm

(5 inch) guns were moved to five new casemates on each side, placed on the deck

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INFO Eduard

superstructure. Two others were installed on the superstructure deck located

on the sides ahead of the bridge. Here,

eight new semi-automatic anti-aircraft

127mm (5-inch) guns were newly mounted, in fours along each side. Light anti-aircraft protection was to be entrusted

to a quartet of four-barrel 28mm (1.1-inch)

cannon, but these were not available at

the time of the upgrades, so this duty remained with eight water cooled 12.7 mm

(.5 inch) Browning machine guns positioned on platforms on both masts. Even

these were not yet available and weren’t

actually installed until 1933. The torpedo

tubes were removed. A quartet of 90cm

(36-inch) searchlights was concentrated on platforms around the smokestack.

The original compressed air rotated ca-

tapult at the stern of the ship was replaced by a new type P Mk.VI (shortened to

P-6) unit, whose power was provided by

a powder filled cartridge. The new catapult also was moved from just left of

centreline onto it. It was also expected

that there would be a second catapult, a

fixed unit (P-4 Mod 1) on the roof of Turret

No.3. At the time of the completion of the

modifications, it was however not installed. This occurred later, during 1932. For

the handling of aircraft, the stern of the

ship only retained the folding boom, and

for the fixed catapult on the turret, this

was accomplished by cranes that were

primarily intended for use on small boats

that were stored in groups on the superstructure deck behind the smokestack.

The crew complement rose to 1,731 men.

March 2022