US Navy pre-dreadnaught Battleships: Maine class: USS Maine (BB-10), USS Missouri (BB-11), USS Ohio (BB-12)
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USS Maine (BB-10), underway, ca 1918.
USS Maine (BB-10), the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 23rd state. Maine was laid down in February 1899 at the William Cramp & Sons shipyard in Philadelphia. She was launched in July 1901 and commissioned into the fleet in December 1902. She was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and could steam at a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
Maine served in the Atlantic for the entirety of her career with the North Atlantic Fleet, which later became the Atlantic Fleet; during the early years of her service, she was the fleet flagship, until she was replaced in 1907. Later that year, she joined the cruise of the Great White Fleet, though her heavy coal consumption prevented her from continuing with the fleet past San Francisco. After returning to the U.S., she served as the 3rd Squadron flagship. During America’s participation in World War I from April 1917 to November 1918, Maine was used as a training ship. She remained in active service until May 1920, when she was decommissioned. The ship was ultimately sold for scrap in January 1922 and broken up for scrap under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty signed that year. (Wikipedia)
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USS Maine (BB-10), in drydock, San Francisco, ca 1908.
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USS Maine (BB-10) in the Hudson River, New York, 27 Dec 1918. Note wartime modifications, including removal of some broadside guns.
(University of Washington Photo)
USS Maine (BB-10).
(Library of Congress Photo)
USS Maine (BB-10), 1915.
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USS Missouri (BB-11), probably off New York City during a naval review in 1912.
USS Missouri (BB-11), a Maine-class battleship, was the second ship of her class and of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 24th state. Missouri was laid down in February 1900 at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, was launched in December 1901, and was commissioned into the fleet in December 1903. She was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and could steam at a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
Missouri spent her entire career in the Atlantic with the North Atlantic Fleet, later renamed the Atlantic Fleet. In late 1907, she and the rest of the Atlantic Fleet circumnavigated the globe as the so-called Great White Fleet, which ended in February 1909. The ship was decommissioned in 1910, with periodic reactivations for summer training cruises over the followed six years. After America entered World War I in April 1917, Missouri was brought back into service to train personnel for the expanding wartime Navy. She served briefly as a troopship in 1919, carrying American soldiers back from France, before being decommissioned in September that year. Ultimately, she was sold for scrapping in January 1922. (Wikipedia)
(U.S. National Archives Photo)
USS Missouri (BB-11) flying a Rear Admiral’s flag, 1918. Note that some of her broadside guns have been removed for wartime service in other ships.
(Library of Congress Photo)
USS Missouri (BB-11), 1906.
(University of Washington Photo)
USS Missouri (BB-11), 1908.
(Library of Congress Photo)
USS Missouri (BB-11).
(U.S. National Archives Photo)
USS Missouri (BB-11), fitting out at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia, 30 June 1903. A crane barge is alongside.
(U.S. National Historical Center Photo)
USS Missouri (BB-11), during the last half of 1909, after she had been fitted with a cage foremast.
(USN Photo)
USS Ohio (BB-12) at anchor, 1918.
USS Ohio (BB-12), a Maine-class pre-dreadnought battleship, was the third ship of her class and the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the 17th state. She was laid down at the Union Iron Works shipyard in San Francisco in April 1899, was launched in May 1901, and was commissioned into the fleet in October 1904. She was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and could steam at a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
Ohio initially served in the Asiatic Fleet, from 1905 to 1907, when she returned to the United States. In December that year, she joined the Great White Fleet for its world cruise, which lasted until early 1909. She served with the Atlantic Fleet for the next four years conducting a peacetime training routine. In 1914, she was sent to Mexico to protect American interests in the country during the Mexican Revolution. She served as a training ship during America’s involvement in World War I from 1917 to 1918. Thoroughly obsolete by that time, Ohio was decommissioned in July 1919, and was ultimately sold for scrap in March 1923 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. (Wikipedia)
(University of Washington Photo)
USS Ohio (BB-12), 1908.
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USS Ohio (BB-12), passing the Cucaracha Slide, while transiting the Panama Canal on 16 July 1915. She appears to be under tow.
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USS Ohio (BB-12), off New York City, 3 July 1911.
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USS Ohio (BB-12), 12″/40 guns of the ship’s forward gun turret, photographed circa 1907-1908. Note Sailors strolling on deck; bell mounted on the pilothouse face; and 3-pounder guns mounted on the superstructure.
(Library of Congress Photo)
USS Ohio (BB-12), between 1900 and 1917.
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)