US Navy pre-dreadnaught Battleships: Illinois class: USS Illinois (BB-7), USS Alabama (BB-8), USS Wisconsin (BB-9)
(USN Photo, NH 60633)
USS Illinois (BB-7) in Harbour, ca 1901.
USS Illinois (BB-7) was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy. She was the lead ship of the Illinois class, and was the second ship of the U.S. Navy to be named for the 21st state. Her keel was laid down in February 1897 at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, and she was launched in October 1898. She was commissioned in September 1901. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 13-inch (330 mm) guns and she had a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).
Illinois served with the European Squadron from 1902 to 1903, and with the North Atlantic Fleet until 1907, by which time it had been renamed the Atlantic Fleet. During this time, she accidentally collided with two other battleships. From December 1907 to February 1909, she circumnavigated the globe with the Great White Fleet. From November 1912, the ship was used as a training ship. She was lent to the state of New York in 1919 for use as a training vessel for the New York Naval Militia. The ship was converted into a floating armory in 1924 as a result of the Washington Naval Treaty, and it was as a floating armory, barracks and school that she served for the next thirty years. In January 1941 she was reclassified as IX-15 and renamed Prairie State so that her former name could be given to USS Illinois (BB-65), a new Iowa-class battleship. Prairie State was ultimately sold for scrap in 1956. (Wikipedia)
(U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo)
USS Illinois (BB-7) anchored off New York City, 1905.
(U.S. National Archives Photo)
USS Illinois (BB-7), fitting out at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company shipyard, Newport News, Virginia, ca 1901, soon after she ran her trials. The number 17.31 painted on her after turret proclaims the speed achieved on the trial run. Note the numbers on her hull side, and the broom lashed to her foremast peak.
(U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo)
USS Illinois (BB-7) at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ca 1919. Note that all main deck six-inch guns have been removed.
(U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo)
USS Illinois (BB-7) off the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 1919. Note that she only retains three six-inch guns on this side.
(U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo)
USS Illinois (BB-7) off New York City during the Naval Review, October 1912.
(U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo)
USS Illinois (BB-7) in harbour ca 1901-1908.
(U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo)
USS Illinois (BB-7) underway, ca 1918, showing modifications made to the ship during the First World War.
(U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo)
USS Illinois (BB-7) in the new floating drydock at New Orleans Naval Station, Louisiana, 6 January 1902.
(USN Photo, NH 57753)
USS Alabama (BB-8), off New York City, during the October 1912 Naval Review.
USS Alabama (BB-8) was an Illinois-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy. She was the second ship of her class, and the second to carry her name. Her keel was laid down in December 1896 at the William Cramp & Sons shipyard, and she was launched in May 1898. She was commissioned into the fleet in October 1900. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 13-inch (330 mm) guns and she had a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).
Alabama spent the first seven years of her career in the North Atlantic Fleet conducting peacetime training. In 1904, she made a visit to Europe and toured the Mediterranean. She took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet until damage to her machinery forced her to leave the cruise in San Francisco. She instead completed a shorter circumnavigation in company with the battleship Maine. The ship received an extensive modernization from 1909 to 1912, after which she was used as a training ship in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She continued in this role during World War I. After the war, Alabama was stricken from the naval register and allocated to bombing tests that were conducted in September 1921. She was sunk in the tests by US Army Air Service bombers and later sold for scrap in March 1924. (Wikipedia)
(August Loeffler Photo)
USS Alabama (BB-8), 1904.
(U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo)
USS Alabama (BB-8), off Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ca 1919.
USS Wisconsin (BB-9) an Illinois-class pre-dreadnought battleship, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the 30th state. She was the third and final member of her class to be built. Her keel was laid down in February 1897 at the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, and she was launched in November 1898. The completed ship was commissioned into the fleet in February 1901. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 13-inch (330 mm) guns and she had a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).
Wisconsin served as the flagship of the Pacific Fleet from her commissioning to 1903; during this period, she made one long distance cruise to American Samoa in late 1901. In 1903, she was transferred to the Asiatic Fleet, where she served as the Northern Squadron flagship. She returned to the United States in late 1906, where she was overhauled extensively. In July 1908, she joined the Great White Fleet for the second leg of its cruise around the world, which lasted until February 1909. The ship remained in service with the Atlantic Fleet until early 1910, when she was reduced to reserve status.
The vessel was employed as a training ship starting in 1912, primarily for cadets from the US Naval Academy. After the United States entered the First World War in April 1917, Wisconsin’s training duties expanded to engine room personnel. She was also assigned to the Coast Battleship Patrol Squadron. She took part in a naval review in December 1918 after the war ended. She served briefly with the fleet in 1919, though by May 1920, she was decommissioned. The old battleship, thoroughly obsolete by this time, was sold for scrap in January 1922 and broken up. (Wikipedia)
USS Wisconsin (BB-9) off San Francisco, California, in 1901.
USS Wisconsin (BB-9) underway, circa 1909-1910, after being refitted with a cage foremast.
USS Wisconsin (BB-9) 1918; note the secondary guns have been removed and plated over
Standard type battleships: The so-called “Standard-type” was a series of battleships ordered between 1911 and 1916, and incorporating a number of new features including “all or nothing” armor. Twelve of these battleships were constructed across five classes, and were commissioned between 1916 and 1923. The older ships underwent major reconstructions during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Battleships USS Nevada (BB-36) to USS Kentucky (BB-66) are listed separately on this website.
The United States Navy began the construction of battleships with USS Texas in 1892, although its first ship to be designated as such was USS Indiana. USS Texas and USS Maine, commissioned three years later in 1895, were part of the New Navy program of the late 19th century, a proposal by then Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt to match Europe’s navies that ignited a years-long debate that was suddenly settled in Hunt’s favour when the Brazilian Empire commissioned the battleship Riachuelo.
In 1890, Alfred Thayer Mahan’s book The Influence of Sea Power upon History was published and significantly influenced future naval policy—as an indirect result of its influence on Secretary Benjamin F. Tracy, the Navy Act of 30 June 1890 authorized the construction of “three sea-going, coast-line battle ships” which became the Indiana class.
The Navy Act of 19 July 1892 authorized construction of a fourth “sea-going, coast-line battle ship”, which became USS Iowa. Despite much later claims that these were to be purely defensive and were authorized as “coastal defense ships”, they were almost immediately used for offensive operations in the Spanish–American War. By the start of the 20th century, the United States Navy had in service or under construction the three Illinois-class and two Kearsarge-class battleships, making the United States the world’s fifth strongest power at sea from a nation that had been 12th in 1870.
Except for the USS Kearsarge, named by an act of Congress, all U.S. Navy battleships have been named for states, and each of the 48 contiguous states has had at least one battleship named for it except Montana; two battleships were authorized to be named Montana but both were cancelled before construction started. Alaska and Hawaii did not become states until 1959, after the end of battleship building, but the battlecruiser, or “Large Cruiser,” USS Alaska was built during the Second World War and her sister, USS Hawaii, was begun but never completed. The pre-dreadnoughts USS Zrinyi (formerly the Austrian SMS Zrínyi), USS Radetzky (formerly the Austrian SMS Radetzky), and the dreadnought USS Ostfriesland (formerly the German SMS Ostfriesland), taken as prizes of war after the First World War, were commissioned in the US Navy, but were not assigned hull classification symbols.
No American battleship has ever been lost at sea, though four were sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of these, only USS Arizona (BB-39) and USS Oklahoma (BB-37) were permanently destroyed as a result of enemy action. Several other battleships have been sunk as targets, and USS Utah, demilitarized and converted into a target and training ship, was permanently destroyed at Pearl Harbor. The hulk of the USS Oklahoma was salvaged, but was lost at sea while being towed to the mainland for scrapping. Two American-built pre-dreadnought battleships, USS Mississippi (BB-23) and her sister USS Idaho (BB-24), were sunk in 1941 by German bombers during their Second World War invasion of Greece. The ships had been sold to Greece in 1914, becoming Kilkis and Lemnos respectively. (Wikipedia)
USS Maine and USS Texas were part of the “New Navy” program of the 1880s. Texas and BB-1 to BB-4 were authorized as “coast defense battleships”, but Maine was ordered as an armoured cruiser and was only re-rated as a “second class battleship” when she turned out too slow to be a cruiser. The next group, BB-5 Kearsarge through BB-25 New Hampshire, followed general global pre-dreadnought design characteristics and entered service between 1900 and 1909. The definitive American pre-dreadnought was the penultimate class of the type, the Connecticut class, sporting the usual four-gun array of 12-inch (305 mm) weapons, a very heavy intermediate and secondary battery, and a moderate tertiary battery. They were good sea boats and heavily armed and armoured for their type. The final American pre-dreadnought class, the Mississippi-class, were an experiment in increasing numbers with slower ships of limited range. The Navy soon rejected the concept and within 6 years of commissioning, sold these to Greece in 1914 to pay for a new super-dreadnought USS Idaho (BB-42).
The dreadnoughts, BB-26 South Carolina through BB-35 Texas, commissioned between 1910 and 1914, uniformly possessed twin turrets, introduced the superimposed turret arrangement that would later become standard on all battleships, and had relatively heavy armor and moderate speed (19–21 knots, 35–39 km/h, 22–24 mph). Five of the ten ships used the established vertical triple expansion (VTE) propulsion rather than faster direct-drive turbines, used by the British which had higher fuel consumption. The ships had 8 (South Carolina class), 10 (Delaware and Florida) or 12 (Wyoming class) 12-inch guns, or 10 (New York class) 14-inch (356 mm) guns. The dreadnoughts gave good service, the last two classes surviving through World War II before being scrapped. However, they had some faults that were never worked out, and the midships turrets in the ten and twelve-gun ships were located near boilers and high-pressure steam lines, a factor that made refrigeration very difficult and problematic in hot climates. One of their number, Texas (BB-35), is the last remaining American battleship of the pre–Second World War era and the only remaining dreadnought in the world.
Next came the twelve Standards, beginning with BB-36 Nevada, commissioned over the period 1914 to 1920. The last ship commissioned was BB-48 West Virginia (BB-49 through 54 were also Standards, but were never commissioned, and scrapped under the Washington Naval Treaty). Oklahoma (BB-37) was the last American battleship commissioned with triple expansion machinery; all the other Standards used either geared steam turbines (Nevada, the Pennsylvania class, Idaho and Mississippi) or turbo-electric propulsion (New Mexico, the Tennessee and Colorado classes). The Standards were a group of ships with four turrets, oil fuel, a 21-knot (39 km/h; 24 mph) top speed, a 700-yard (640 m) tactical diameter at top speed, and heavy armor distributed on the “All or Nothing” principle. Armament was fairly consistent, starting with ten 14-inch guns in the Nevada class, twelve in the Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Tennessee classes, and eight 16-inch (406 mm) guns in the Colorado class. (Wikipedia)
After the 1930s “builders holiday,” the USN commissioned ten more battleships of an entirely new style, the so-called fast battleship. These ships began with BB-55 North Carolina and the last ship laid down was BB-66 Kentucky (the last completed ship was BB-64 Wisconsin). These ships were a nearly clean break from previous American design practices. All ten ships were built to a Panamax design (technically post-Panamax, as they exceeded normal Panamax beam by two feet, but they were still able to transit the canal). They were fast battleships, and could travel with the aircraft carriers at cruising speed (their speed was not intended for that role, but rather so they could run down and destroy enemy battlecruisers). They possessed almost completely homogeneous main armament (nine 16-inch guns in each ship, the sole difference being an increase in length from 45 to 50 calibers with the Iowa-class vessels), very high speed relative to other American designs (28 knots, 52 km/h, 32 mph in the North Carolina and South Dakota classes, 33 knots, 61 km/h, 38 mph in the Iowa class), and moderate armor. The North Carolina class was of particular concern, as their protection was rated as only “adequate” against the 16-inch super-heavy shells. They had been designed with, and armored against, a battery of three quadruple 14-inch guns, then changed to triple 16-inch guns after the escalator clause in the Second London Naval Treaty had been triggered. Secondary armament in these ships was almost homogeneous as well: Except for South Dakota, configured as a flagship, the other nine ships of this group sported a uniform 20-gun 5-inch (127 mm) secondary battery (South Dakota deleted two 5-inch mounts to make room for flag facilities).
Visually, the Second World War ships are distinguished by their three-turret arrangement and the massive columnar mast that dominates the superstructure. The last ship, Wisconsin (BB-64), commissioned in 1944 (Wisconsin was approved last; however, Missouri (BB-63) was commissioned three months later, due to delays from additional aircraft carrier construction). Missouri (BB-63), famous for being the ship on which the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed, was the last battleship in the world to be decommissioned on 31 March 1992. Seven of these ten ships are still in existence. South Dakota, Washington and Indiana were scrapped, but the remainder are now museum ships. There was intended to be another class of five of these ships, the Montana class (BB-67 Montana through BB-71 Louisiana), but they were cancelled before being laid down in favor of a greater number of aircraft carriers. The Montana-class ships would have been built to a 60,000-ton post-Panamax design, and carried a greater number of guns (twelve 16-inch guns) and heavier armour than the other ships; otherwise they would have been homogeneous with the rest of the Second World War battleships. In October 2006, the last battleships, (USS Iowa and USS Wisconsin), were stricken from the Naval Registry. (Wikipedia)