Maine-class battleship

The three ''Maine''-class battleships—, , and —were built at the turn of the 20th century for the United States Navy. Based on the preceding , they incorporated several significant technological advances over the earlier ships. They were the first American battleships to incorporate Krupp cemented armor, which was stronger than Harvey armor, smokeless powder, which allowed for higher-velocity guns and water-tube boilers, which were more efficient and lighter. The ''Maine''s were armed with four guns and sixteen guns, and they could steam at a speed of , a significant increase over the ''Illinois'' class.

The three ''Maine''-class battleships served in a variety of roles throughout their careers. ''Maine'' and ''Missouri'' remained in the Atlantic Fleet for their careers, though ''Ohio'' initially served with the Asiatic Fleet from 1904 to 1907. All three ships took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet in 1907–1909, though ''Maine''s excessive coal consumption forced her to proceed independently for most of the voyage. ''Missouri'' was used as a training ship for much of the rest of her career, and ''Ohio'' took part in the American intervention in the Mexican Revolution in 1914. All three ships were employed as training ships during World War I. After the war, all three ships were withdrawn from service between 1919 and 1920 before being sold for scrap in 1922 and 1923 and broken up.

Design

By 1897, the US Navy had five battleships under construction, and no plans to request additional units for 1898. With the destruction of the armored cruiser in Havana harbor and the subsequent declaration of war on Spain on 25 April 1898, however, a large naval expansion program was passed through Congress. The program called for three new battleships, the first of which would be named for the destroyed ''Maine''. Design work began immediately, though the broad parameters for the new battleships proved to be contentious. The Board on Construction advocated a design based on , to be armed with 13-, 8-, and 6-inch (330, 203, and 152 mm) guns, though others on the board argued that repeating the , which was armed with and 6 in guns and had a speed of , would save construction time. Additionally, they pointed out that 8 in guns could not be incorporated within the displacement limit.

Several important technological advances had become available by this time, however, which necessitated several changes to the design. The advent of smokeless powder permitted smaller guns with greater muzzle velocities; the Navy had accordingly designed a 12-inch (305 mm) 40-caliber high-velocity gun. In addition, Krupp cemented armor had been developed in Germany; the steel was a significant improvement over the older Harvey process. Since the steel was stronger, thinner armor plating could achieve the same level of protection and more importantly, significant savings in weight. Water-tube boilers were also now sufficiently reliable for use in warships. These were lighter and substantially more efficient than older fire-tube boilers.

Shortly after the three ships had been authorized, the Navy learned that the Russian battleship , recently ordered from William Cramp & Sons in Philadelphia, would be capable of steaming at , a margin of over the ''Maine'' design. The Navy requested that the shipyards submitting designs for the contract increase the speed of their proposed ships to match the Russian vessel. Cramp & Sons responded by lengthening the hull by to increase its fineness (and thus reduce drag) and incorporate new Niclausse boilers, while the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company lengthened the hull by and increased the horsepower of the propulsion system by sixty percent, to . Ultimately, the Newport design was chosen for the new ships.

General characteristics and machinery

The ships of the ''Maine'' class were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of to . They displaced as designed and up to at full load. The ships had a metacentric height of . They had a forecastle deck that extended to the main mast. As built, they were fitted with heavy military masts with fighting tops, but these were replaced by cage masts in 1909. They had a crew of 40 officers and 521 enlisted men, which increased to 779–813 officers and men.

The ships were powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at . Steam was provided by twelve coal-fired Thornycroft boilers for ''Missouri'' and ''Ohio'', and twenty-four Niclausse boilers for ''Maine'', which were trunked into three tall funnels amidships. The ships' engines generated a top speed of , though ''Ohio'' only made on her speed trials. Normal coal capacity was , though ''Maine'' could carry up to , ''Missouri'' had capacity for , and ''Ohio'' could store of coal. At a speed of , the ships had a designed endurance of , though they could steam for at that speed. ''Ohio''s significantly greater coal capacity allowed her to cruise for at that speed. Steering was controlled by a single rudder, and the ships had a turning radius of at 10 knots.

Armament

The ships were armed with a main battery of four 12-inch/40 caliber Mark 3 guns in two twin gun turrets on the centerline, one forward and aft. The guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . The turrets were Mark IV mounts, which required the guns to be horizontal to be reloaded. These mounts could elevate to 15 degrees and depress to -5 degrees, and they were electrically operated, and the guns could be operated independently.

The secondary battery consisted of sixteen 6-inch/50 caliber Mark 6 guns, which were placed in casemates in the hull. Ten were mounted in a battery on the upper deck, four more were located in another battery directly above on the forecastle deck, and the last two were placed in sponsoned casemates in the bow. They fired a shell at . For close-range defense against torpedo boats, they carried six /50 caliber guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull, eight 3-pounder guns, and six 1-pounder guns. As was standard for capital ships of the period, the ''Maine''-class battleships carried two torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside. They were initially equipped with the Mark II Whitehead design, which carried a warhead and had a range of at a speed of .

Armor

The ships' armor consisted of both Krupp cemented and Harvey steel. Their main armored belt was thick over the magazines and the machinery spaces and tapered down to on the lower edge. The belt was elsewhere and reduced to on the bottom edge. The belt extended from above the waterline to below. The main deck was thick and was increased slightly to on the sloped sides that connected it to the belt. The deck was increased to 4 in at the stern. The main battery gun turrets had 12 in thick faces, and the supporting barbettes had the same thickness of armor plating on their exposed sides. thick bulkheads connected the belt with the barbettes; behind these, the barbettes were protected with 8 in of steel. Armor that was 6 in thick protected the secondary battery. The conning tower had thick sides with a thick roof.

Construction

Service history

After ''Maine'' and ''Missouri'' entered service, they were assigned to the North Atlantic Fleet, while ''Ohio'', built on the West Coast of the United States, was instead sent to serve as the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet based in the Philippines. In April 1904, a turret fire killed 36 men aboard ''Missouri'', but the quick action of three men prevented the fire from reaching the magazines and destroying the ship, for which they were awarded the Medal of Honor. In 1907, ''Ohio'' returned from the western Pacific and joined her sisters in what was now the Atlantic Fleet. During this period, ''Maine'' served as the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet until she was relieved in April 1907.

In December 1907, the three ships and the other battleships in the Atlantic Fleet steamed out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, at the start of the cruise of the Great White Fleet. The fleet steamed south, around South America and back north to the US west coast. ''Maine'' was detached owing to her excessive use of coal along with the battleship ; the two ships continued the journey independently and on a greatly shortened itinerary. The rest of the ships then crossed the Pacific and stopped in Australia, the Philippines, and Japan before continuing on through the Indian Ocean. They transited the Suez Canal and toured the Mediterranean before crossing the Atlantic, arriving bank in Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909 for a naval review with President Theodore Roosevelt.

Over the following six years, the ships had fairly uneventful careers. ''Missouri'' spent most of the time out of active service, only recommissioning for summer training cruises with midshipmen from the US Naval Academy. In 1914, ''Ohio'' was sent to Mexican waters to protect American interests in the country during the Mexican Revolution. After the United States entered World War I by declaring war on Germany on 6 April 1917, all three ships were used to train naval recruits for the expanding wartime fleet. Following the German surrender in November 1918, ''Missouri'' was used to ferry American soldiers back from France, though the other two vessels were not so employed, since their short range and lack of sufficient accommodations would have made them inefficient transports. The three ships remained in active service only very briefly after the war. ''Ohio'' was decommissioned in January 1919 and ''Missouri'' and ''Maine'' followed in September 1919 and May 1920, respectively. All three ships were sold for scrap, with ''Maine'' and ''Missouri'' going to the breakers' yard in January 1922 and ''Ohio'' joining them in March 1923.

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{{WWI US ships

Battleship classes

Maine class battleship