By James F. Vivian

(This Tuesday, December 7, 2010 marks the 69th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. The following article tells of the christening of the ship over 95 years ago.)

Four young women graced the official platform at the launching of the USS Arizona in June, 1915. Two of them, Esther Ross and Eva Behn, were ‘Prescott girls.’ Ross performed the actual christening while Behn stood engagingly to her side holding a flower bouquet.

At least that’s how New York newspapers described the scene. Eva Behn claimed, in an interview in 1962, that their description was wrong. She remembered Ross as being slightly more than five feet tall and "petite." Several people, she said, doubted that Ross could fulfill her duty as the battleship’s appointed sponsor and Behn was asked to give her a boost – that is, she gripped Ross’s "elbow and shoved," enabling her to develop "a hefty swing" that produced a "liberal dousing" when the bottle shattered.

The importance of this detail hangs on the word "sponsor." Did Behn mean a gentle, helpful assist or did she intend to suggest membership in "The Society of Sponsors of the U.S. Navy," to which Ross already qualified by virtue of her designated role as sponsor?

The Society of Sponsors dates from 1908 when a group of 14 women proposed the organization for ship sponsors to President Theodore Roosevelt. He promptly endorsed the concept, signed the charter and invited the organization to join in the annual Army and Navy reception at the White House. The Navy’s ship launchings, previously casual and uncertain affairs, now became scheduled events in which women participated directly and regularly. It’s the program familiar to most of us today: a woman, often the wife or daughter of a president, governor, senator, ship’s namesake or other dignitary, cheerfully breaks a champagne bottle in sending the vessel to sea. The Society’s ranks grew with the expanding American defense fleet. Membership, according to its constitution, was automatic unless expressly refused.

In 1914, the Society’s fourth president argued that the launching ceremony required another feature – a Christian prayer. Other sea-faring nations, for centuries, had developed and shaped religious ceremonies surrounding a ship launching. Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, agreed. Daniels put the proposal into early effect. The USS Oklahoma, launched just days later, and the USS Pennsylvania, three or four months under construction, became the first battleships equipped also with religious appeals. State leadership, including local clergy, carried out the reform "most enthusiastically" in each instance.

In mid-April, 1915 Daniels finally fixed the launch date for the USS Arizona for June 19th. This was the signal Arizonans had been waiting for. Plans needed to be made for the train trip to NYC by the entourage from Arizona. In May, Governor George W. P. Hunt sent an invitation to the Reverend Julius W. Atwood, the Episcopal Bishop of Arizona, to provide the prayer for the christening ceremony.

In the Brooklyn Navy Yard, June 19th, the battleship towered impressively above the raised timber platform, its railings draped in bunting and pennants. On the platform were Daniels, Hunt, their wives, Ross and her mother and the three "maids of honor." Rear Admiral N. R. Usher quieted the surrounding crowd at half-past noon and introduced the Reverend Atwood who delivered a five-paragraph invocation composed for the occasion, followed by a public recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. Then Ross christened the ship, saying that the privilege of naming the "greatest warship in the world for the greatest state in the Union" meant the "proudest moment" in her life.

The New York press noted only one oddity in the ceremony: Ross used two bottles, not the usual one, in christening the ship: a champagne bottle and another filled with water taken from the spillway of the newly completed Roosevelt Dam. No one observed that Ross had needed a partner to accomplish her task as Eva Behn suggested later.

The Arizona Labor Journal, besides deploring the cost to build and maintain the battleship against the wages of the country’s average-paid workers, wondered openly about the "irreverent" use of religion to praise "an instrument….of hatred, strife, oppression and wrong." But, later it decided that Bishop Atwood’s prayer had actually taken the opportunity to remind the military of their higher purpose: advancing the "principles of peace, love, and justice."

"I am getting used to seeing pretty young women christen the giant fighters such as the Arizona," Daniels said on his way to the grand luncheon after the ceremony. "I like the practice," he added, and "will continue to rely" on the Society of Sponsors.

For the record, the Society never admitted Behn into its membership. Whether she didn’t apply, or was denied, remains unclear. Esther Ross retained a life-long connection.

For more photos and other Days Past articles go tosharlothallmuseum.org/archives/history/dayspast. The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration. Please contact Scott Anderson at Sharlot Hall Museum Archives at 445-3122 for information.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(U. S. Naval Institute, 1925, courtesy of author) Reuse only by permission.

June 19, 1915, Launching stand of the USS Arizona.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Courtesy of author) Reuse only bypermission.

Rev. Julius W. Atwood, the Episcopal Bishop of Arizona, who offered prayer at the christening ceremony of the USS Arizona.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(courtesy of author) Reuse only bypermission.

Eva Behn (Mrs. W. R. Chapline), maid of honor to sponsor, Esther Ross, here admires the USS Arizona tea set recovered from the sunken ship. The silver set is on display at the Arizona State Capitol building in Phoenix. Photo date unknown…possibly early 1960s.