By Terry Munderloh

The USS ARIZONA was launched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York on June 19, 1915. She would be the third ship to bear that name. 

The first ARIZONA was an iron side-wheel steamer purchased by the Government in 1863 and used in service during the Civil War. The second ARIZONA was a first class screw frigate launched in 1865 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.  The third ship was authorized by an act of congress on March 4, 1913 and her construction was assigned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. Work on the ship's keel commenced in September of 1913 at a cost of seven million dollars. Upon being fitted with guns, armor and other equipment, the ship's cost to the country was projected as 16 million dollars or more. 

When news that the biggest super dreadnaught in the world would be built by the Navy reached Arizona, members of the state government petitioned Secretary Daniels to have the ship bear the name Arizona after the youngest state and it was officially announced that the vessel would bear the name the USS ARIZONA. 

As work progressed on the hull, the people of Arizona began preparations for all the pomp and circumstances associated with the launching of a great ship. An original silver service set with the Arizona coat-of-arms etched on each piece was commissioned to grace the Captain's cabin for state occasions. The 80 piece set contained such necessities as a punch bowl with a Neptune base with mermaid handles, candelabras representative of Saguaro Cacti, serving trays depicting Arizona scenes including one of the old log Governor's mansion, and a humidor for cigars etched with a ranching scene. School children donated their pennies to the silver fund and individual citizens promised their dollars, but the bulk of the contributions to pay the $10,000 price tag for the 670 pound silver service came from the six major Arizona mining companies. 

As Arizona was a dry state in both senses of the word, a great debate had ensued as to the propriety of using wine to christen the ship. Abstainers were in favor of using water. A compromise was finally reached in that two bottles, one of wine and one of water, would be used, an unprecedented and never again repeated change to the usual custom. The christening bottles, one wrapped in copper bands from Arizona mines and the other encased in silver, were custom ordered from Tiffany's. 

Then there was the matter of who would christen the ship. William W. Ross, a Prescott pharmacist, decided that his 17-year-old daughter, Esther, should be the ship's sponsor and began petitioning his friends and political associates for support. Governor Hunt bestowed that distinguished honor on Esther. 

Every night after Esther came home from school, her mother would make her practice christening filling syrup and barley bottles with water for Esther to throw against a fence post in the back yard. Originally water from the Hassayampa River had been selected for the christening but an Arizona citizen who had caught the first water that had come over the spillway at Roosevelt dam sent Esther the bottle of water and asked her to use it on the new ship. 

As the launch date approached, Esther with her parents, Governor Hunt and an entourage of Arizona dignitaries traveled by rail to New York City where they were quartered at the Waldorf-Astoria and regally wined and dined. 

On Saturday morning of June 19, 1915 Esther arrived at the shipyard for the launching accompanied by two maids of honor and a flower girl. Esther was dressed all in white from her kid shoes to an ostrich feather bedecked floppy hat. As the Arizona constituency entered the shipyard, rumor spread through the awaiting crowd that sailors long had considered christening a ship with water a bad omen. 

Esther was handed a large bouquet of red roses. "Just before christening the ship" Esther recalls, "a white butterfly came fluttering along and landed right on top of the bouquet. I was thrilled. You know, in Japan at a ship launching they turn loose bags of butterflies as a good luck omen." 

The christening bottles dangled at the end of two ropes hanging from the ship's prow, wreathed with red, white and blue ribbons. Thousands of spectators held their breaths as the holding blocks were sawn off, waiting for the first movement of the ship. Suddenly and very slowly the Arizona began to move. Esther drew back the ribbon bound ropes, swung them with all her might and shouted, "I christen thee Arizona". The champagne bottle broke, the water bottle reportedly did not. A seafarer on deck at the end of the ropes quickly hauled up the cords. The USS Arizona stern struck the water and the blue jackets on deck of the ship shouted and waved. On shore thousands cheered, bands played the national anthem and every siren in the yard bellowed its loudest. 

After the USS Arizona's hull was launched it was fitted with its final armaments and placed in commission in October 1916 with the Atlantic fleet. In 1924 the ship joined the Battle Fleet on the West Cost where she remained active with the Pacific Fleet. Modernize in 1929, the ship was equipped with new guns and boilers specifically designed to attack land targets. The elderly USS Arizona was stationed at Pearl Harbor naval base until its iconic demise on December 7, 1941. 

Esther returned home to her social life in Prescott where Fort Whipple's strict social order and etiquette of army life in that day extended into the little town of Prescott and Esther had her own personalized calling cards even as a teenager. 

After her marriage Esther spent most of her adult life in California. Years later Esther was quoted as saying about the christening, "I thought it would be all over when I got home, that it would be just an episode in my life and people would forget about my role. Instead it has followed me throughout my life and has come up again and again." 

When the memorial to the USS Arizona was erected in Pearl Harbor in 1977, eighty year old Esther was again called on to christen the 27' model of the ship. In December of that same year she was the honored dignitary at the dedication of the memorial to the ship's servicemen featuring the ship's 10-ton anchor located at the Arizona State Capital. 

The famous christening bottles, originally donated to the Sharlot Hall Museum by Esther's mother, are now on exhibit at the University of Arizona Student along with salvaged piece of the ship's silver set. 

At the Arizona Capitol Museum in Phoenix, another wine bottle and two crystal wine glasses are also on exhibit. Purchased by the survivors of the USS Arizona, the wine bottle will remain curated by that museum until only two survivors remain alive. When that day comes, the last survivors will pull the champagne's cork and drink a last toast to their departed comrades in arms. 

(Terry Munderloh is a volunteer at the Sharlot Hall Museum Library & Archives on Saturdays) 



Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po2477p). Reuse only by permission.
Arizonans made sure that the navy's newest ship would be named for the "Youngest State." When the USS Arizona was launch in 1915, Prescott's own Esther Ross (shown here 6th from the right) was chosen to christen her with champagne and water. Today is the anniversary of the sinking of the Arizona and her crew.