The first New Jersey (BB-16), a 441' long battleship, was launched 10 November 1904 by Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts, and commissioned into the US Navy on 12 May 1906.

Like her sister ship, USS Virginia, USS New Jersey spent time in Havana, Cuba, from 21 September through 13 October 1906 to protect American lives and property threatened by the Cuban Insurrection.

In company with fifteen other battleships and six attendant destroyers, New Jersey cleared Hampton Roads 16 December 1907, her rails manned and her guns crashing a 21-gun salute to President Roosevelt, who watched from the presidential yacht Mayflower this beginning of the dramatic cruise of the "Great White fleet." The international situation required a compelling exhibition of the strength of the United States; this round-the-world cruise was to provide one of the most remarkable illustrations of the ability of sea power to keep peace without warlike action. Not only was a threatened conflict with Japan averted but notice was served on the world that the United States had come of age, and was an international power which could make its influence felt in any part of the world.

During World War I, New Jersey made a major contribution to the expansion of the wartime Navy, training gunners and seamen recruits in the Chesapeake Bay. After the Armistice, she began the first of four voyages to France from which she brought home 5,000 members of the American Expeditionary Forces by 9 June 1919. New Jersey was decommissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard 6 August 1920, and was sunk off Cape Hatteras 5 September 1923 in Army bomb tests conducted by Brigadier General Billy Mitchell.

The USS New Jersey rests close to the remains of her sister ship, USS Virginia, in 330' of water off Hatteras. She lies mostly inverted, her hull rising almost 60' off the bottom.