USS Nebraska (Battleship #14) BB-14
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5.
Apr. 20, 2020

I am researching family information in connection with an ancestor who is named as being a steward on the USS Nebraska. His name was William Carrington and I know the dates could have been about the time of WWI. Do you have crew lists, photos, etc.

Thank you,
Elsie Aarons


4.
May 3, 2011

Do you know if an archive exists that might have photographs of seamen who served on the USS Nebraska during WWI? Also - where you be the best sources of records related to the USS Nebraska during WWI.  Would it be the National Archives? Thanks for any help you can offer.

Fred Lillibridge


3.
Apr. 16, 2011

I believe my paternal grandfather, Daniel Jackson Fitch, was employed by the Moran Brothers shipyard in Seattle, and that he worked in the crews building U.S.S. Nebraska (hull number BB-14) the only battleship ever built in the state of Washington. Among the memorabilia found in DJF's home is a metal (shirt or coat) souvenir button bearing a picture of the battleship. The button is a souvenir of the launching event, in October 1904.
Does your organization know whether the payroll and personnel records of the Moran Bros. firm were preserved, or can you recommend sources of information?  I am trying to establish the historical facts that might support my belief that "grandpa Fitch" did work on that ship, and probably attended the launching ceremonies with his wife and five children.

Thanks for your attention,
James Fitch
Santa Rosa, California


2.
Jan. 11, 2010

Thank you for the pages on the USS Nebraska, and thanks to Mr. Kowlsky for his email about his connection to her propellers! I am especially grateful for the launch photo - My great-grandfather, Andrew Willman, was a carpenter in the Moran Bros. Shipyard and my Grandma, Julia Willman Van Soelen, used to tell us as kids how he worked on the Nebraska, and how she attended her launch. 

She was scared to death as a seven-year old girl, because her father's launch duties involved going out on the ways and, immediately before Nebraska slid down the ways, knocking out the falsework scaffolding that had helped hold the hull upright under construction. She said her father had casually mentioned some time before Nebraska was launched, that a far smaller vessel had seemed likely to fall over at launch, when her supports were knocked out, and Grandma remembered this as her father went out to do the same thing under the giant Nebraska! I've strained my eyes to see if I can recognize her dad among the shadowy figures at ground level in the launch photo, but no luck - but thanks anyway for the pix and information.

Mark Parthemer


1.
July 14, 2008

Enjoyed finding your site, as I was wanting to show my 7-year old Grandson the Battleship that his Great-Great- Grandfather had cast the propellers and anchor chain for. My Grandfather, Knute Evertz was a turn of the 20th Century bronze artist who was commissioned by the Moran Shipyards in Seattle to help in the construction of the Nebraska. Having actual sea trial pictures to share was priceless. While no one likely knows what became of the bronze propellers, the anchor chain has been saved and is on the grounds of the Rosario Resort, on Orcas Island in Washington State's Puget Sound. This originally was the Moran family's estate. My Grandfather would travel to the Moran's by boat, and also did other bronze work still visible there.


John C. Kowsky, Jr.


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