![]() ![]() 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 dreadnoughts, BB-26 South Carolina through BB-35 Texas, commissioned between 19, 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). 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 final American pre-dreadnought class, the Mississippi-class, were an experiment in increasing numbers with slower ships of limited range. They were good sea boats and heavily armed and armored for their type. 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. The next group, BB-5 Kearsarge through BB-25 New Hampshire, followed general global pre-dreadnought design characteristics and entered service between 19. Texas and BB-1 to BB-4 were authorized as "coast defense battleships", but Maine was ordered as an armored cruiser and was only re-rated as a "second class battleship" when she turned out too slow to be a cruiser. Maine and Texas were part of the "New Navy" program of the 1880s. The ships had been sold to Greece in 1914, becoming Kilkis and Lemnos respectively. 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 World War II invasion of Greece. The hulk of Oklahoma was salvaged and was lost at sea while being towed to the mainland for scrapping. 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. Of these, only USS Arizona (BB-39) and USS Oklahoma (BB-37) were permanently destroyed as a result of enemy action. No American battleship has ever been lost at sea, though four were sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor. 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 World War I, were commissioned in the US Navy, but were not assigned hull classification symbols. 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 World War II and her sister, USS Hawaii, was begun but never completed. 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. Įxcept for Kearsarge, named by an act of Congress, all U.S. 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. 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. The Navy Act of Jauthorized construction of a fourth "sea-going, coast-line battle ship", which became USS Iowa. Tracy, the Navy Act of J authorized the construction of "three sea-going, coast-line battle ships" which became the Indiana class. 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. Hunt to match Europe's navies that ignited a years-long debate that was suddenly settled in Hunt's favor when the Brazilian Empire commissioned the battleship Riachuelo. 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. 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.
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