She was the fifth ship to carry her name. For the duration of her career, Virginia served in the Atlantic Fleet , much of it spent conducting peacetime training exercises to maintain fleet readiness.
In β, she took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet around the world. She was involved in the American intervention in the Mexican Revolution in β, including the occupation of Veracruz. After the United States entered World War I in April , she was used first to train gunners for the expanding wartime fleet, and later to escort convoys to Europe. During this period, she served briefly as the flagship of the 1st and 3rd Divisions, Battleship Force.
After the war ended in November , she was assigned to the operation to transport American soldiers back from France. Virginia was decommissioned in and eventually expended as a target ship in under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. Design work on the Virginia class began in , after the United States' victory in the SpanishβAmerican War , which had demonstrated the need for sea-going battleships suitable for operations abroad, finally resolving the debate between proponents of that type and those who favored low- freeboard types useful for coastal defense.
The designers included a superposed arrangement of the main and some of the secondary guns, which proved to be a significant disappointment in service, as firing either set of guns interfered with the others, slowing the rate of fire.
Virginia was feet 3 inches She displaced 14, long tons 15, t as designed and up to 16, long tons 16, t at full load. The ship was powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at 19, indicated horsepower 14, kW , with steam provided by twenty-four coal-fired Niclausse boilers. As built, she was fitted with heavy military masts , but these were quickly replaced by cage masts in She had a crew of officers and enlisted men.
