USS LOUISIANA SSBN 743

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The submarine USS LOUISIANA (SSBN 743), stationed in Bangor Washington on Kitsap Naval Base, is the fourth U.S. Naval vessel to be named in honor of the eighteenth state admitted into the union, and is the eighteenth and last Trident Submarine to be commissioned.  
The first LOUISIANA, a sloop built in New Orleans in 1812, played a vital role in the defense of New Orleans during the war of 1812.  From December 23, 1814 to January 8, 1815, the sloop LOUISIANA pounded advancing British troops, providing naval gunfire support for General Jackson’s troops.  When British troops advanced up river beyond the range of the deadly cannon fire of the sloop LOUISIANA, the crew did not let the absence of wind deter their support.  Crewmembers waded ashore with mooring lines and towed their sloop up river against the currents of the mighty Mississippi to re-engage.  LOUISIANA was credited with playing a key role in the defeat of the British and keeping the valuable port of New Orleans in American hands.
The second LOUISIANA, a sidewheel steamer, was commissioned in August 1861.  Originally assigned to the Union’s North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, LOUISIANA operated along the Virginia Coast against Confederate blockade-runners.  LOUISIANA was involved in the defense of Washington, D.C. in December of 1862, where Maj. Gen. John J. Foster reported that LOUISIANA “had rendered most efficient aid, throwing their shells with great precision, and clearing the streets, through which her guns had range.”  She later was involved in numerous engagements off the coast and in the rivers of North Carolina.  The second LOUISIANA was sacrificed on Christmas Eve, 1864, when she was towed, stripped and laden with explosives, to the base of Ft. Fisher in Wilmington, NC, and detonated in an attempt to destroy the fort with minimum loss of life.  The explosion had little effect, and it took Union forces several more weeks to capture this important Confederate stronghold.
The battleship LOUISIANA (BB 19) was the third ship to bear the name.  Commissioned on June 2, 1906, LOUISIANA was soon called on to provide services, and was sent to Havana with a Peace Commission at the request of the Cuban president for help in suppressing an insurrection.  In November of 1906, LOUISIANA embarked President Theodore Roosevelt for a cruise to inspect construction progress of the Panama Canal.  On December 16, 1907, LOUISIANA departed Hampton Roads as one of the 16 Battleships of the “Great White Fleet”, sent on an around the world cruise by President Roosevelt as a means of deterring hostile action toward the United States and displaying to the world America’s position as a global naval power.  This cruise took a little over a year, returning to Hampton Roads on February 22, 1909.  LOUISIANA later saw duty in World War I as a training ship and convoy escort.  Some of the silver service from the battleship is proudly displayed on board the submarine LOUISIANA.

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