Illinois-class battleship

The ''Illinois'' class was a group of three pre-dreadnought battleships of the United States Navy commissioned at the beginning of the 20th century. The three ships, , , and , were built between 1896 and 1901. They were transitional ships; they incorporated advances over preceding designs, including the first modern gun turrets for the main battery, and new rapid-firing secondary guns, but they were also the last American battleships to feature dated technologies like fire-tube boilers and Harvey armor. They were armed with a main battery of four guns in two twin turrets, supported by a secondary battery of fourteen guns. The ships had a designed speed of , though they exceeded that speed by a significant margin.

The three ships served in a variety of roles and locations throughout their career. ''Illinois'' served with the North Atlantic Squadron and the European Squadron early in her career, while ''Wisconsin'' served as the flagship of the Pacific Fleet and then in the Asiatic Fleet. ''Illinois'' and ''Alabama'' started the cruise of the Great White Fleet in December 1907 from the east coast of the United States, though by the time they had rounded South America and stopped in California, ''Alabama'' was forced to leave the fleet due to machinery problems. ''Wisconsin'' joined the fleet there and continued on with it to the conclusion of its tour in February 1909. All three ships were modernized in 1909 and served in the Atlantic Fleet for a short time.

By 1912, all three ships had been reduced to the reserve fleet and were primarily employed as training ships. They continued in this role during World War I, training men to operate the machinery of warships and transports for the war effort. They were all decommissioned by 1920. ''Illinois'' was loaned to the New York Naval Militia and was converted into a floating arsenal. Renamed ''Prairie State'' in 1941, she was eventually sold for scrapping in 1956. ''Wisconsin'' was broken up for scrap in 1922, while ''Alabama'' was expended as a target ship in September 1921 in bombing tests with the US Army Air Service.

Design

Design work on what became the ''Illinois'' class began on 25 March 1896, when Rear Admiral J. G. Walker convened a board to consider future battleship designs. At the time, the only modern battleship in service was the low-freeboard ; the high-freeboard battleship and the low-freeboard were under construction. As the Navy had little experience with modern battleships, the question settled on whether to repeat one of the low-freeboard designs, which were suitable for coast defense, to build another ''Iowa'', or to request a new design altogether. The Walker Board determined that another coastal battleship design would be imprudent, since the United States had long coastlines and therefore the new ships would need to have better seakeeping qualities than the ''Indiana'' or ''Kearsarge'' designs.

War games conducted by the fleet led the board to specify a draft of no more than to allow the ships to enter the comparatively shallow ports of the Gulf Coast. This limitation had a significant effect on the design; to meet it, weight would have to be kept to a minimum, which prevented copying the ''Iowa'' design outright, unless the main armament was reduced from to guns. The board was unwilling to make that concession, and so a new design would be required. In addition, the board had determined that the secondary gun was unnecessary, since though it could penetrate the thinner casemate armor on enemy battleships, it could not deliver a high-explosive shell through the armor. Instead, the board decided that a new rapid-firing gun would be superior. It would also simplify the ammunition supply, since there would be only one secondary caliber.

The board determined that the armor layout of the ''Kearsarge'' design was sufficient and adopted it without change for the new ships. They discarded the superposed turrets of the ''Kearsarge''s, though, by mounting most of the secondary guns in a battery amidships. A new turret design for the main battery was adopted; instead of the old, round -style turrets of earlier ships, the ''Illinois''' design featured a balanced turret with sloped armor on the face. Since it was balanced, it would prevent the ship from listing when the battery was trained to either broadside, as was the case with the ''Indiana''s. The US Congress authorized three new battleships on 10 June 1896; the Bureau of Construction and Repair issued its requests for tenders from the various American shipbuilding companies twelve days later. Contracts for the new ships, to be named ''Illinois'', ''Alabama'', and ''Wisconsin'', were awarded on 28 August.

General characteristics and machinery

The ships of the ''Illinois'' class were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of . They displaced as designed and up to at full load. As built, they were fitted with heavy military masts, but these were replaced by cage masts in 1909. They had a crew of 40 officers and 496 enlisted men. The crew increased to 690–713 later in her career. Steering was controlled with a single rudder, and the ships had a turning radius of at a speed of . The ships' transverse metacentric height was .

The ships were powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at . Steam was provided by eight coal-fired fire-tube boilers that were trunked into a pair of funnels that were arranged side-by-side. They were the last ships of the US Navy to use fire-tube boilers; subsequent designs changed to more efficient and lighter water-tube boilers. The engines generating a top speed of , though they exceeded their rated performance on trials, with ''Illinois'' reaching on . The ships could store up to of coal, which allowed them to steam for at a cruising speed of .

Armament

The ships were armed with a main battery of four /35 caliber guns guns in two twin gun turrets on the centerline, one forward and aft. These guns fired a shell with a brown powder charge, though this was replaced with a smokeless powder charge, which produced a muzzle velocity of . The gun had a range of , though Navy regulations prescribed opening fire at ; even this was beyond the range at which gunners at the time could reliably hit. At a range of , the shells could penetrate of steel. The gun was slow-firing, requiring 320 seconds between shots. The guns were mounted in Mark IV turrets, which had a range of elevation of 15 degrees to -5 degrees. The turrets required the guns to return to 2 degrees for loading. Ammunition storage was 60 shells per gun.

The secondary battery consisted of fourteen /40 caliber Mark IV guns, which were placed in casemates in the hull. They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . For close-range defense against torpedo boats, they carried sixteen 6-pounder guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull and six 1-pounder guns. These guns fired and shells, respectively. As was standard for capital ships of the period, the ''Illinois'' class carried four torpedo tubes in above-water, hull mounted torpedo launchers. They were initially equipped with the Mark II Whitehead design, which carried a warhead and had a range of at a speed of .

Armor

All three ships were protected with Harvey armor; they were the last ships of the US Navy to rely entirely on Harvey steel. The ships' main armored belt was thick over the magazines and the machinery spaces and reduced to on the lower edge. It gradually reduced to toward the bow. Transverse bulkheads that were thick connected both ends of the central belt and the main battery barbettes. The ships' armored deck was thick on the flat portion, with thick sloped sides forward; the sloped sides aft were thick. The conning tower had 10 in thick sides with a thick roof.

The main battery gun turrets had thick faces and thick roofs, and the supporting barbettes had of armor plating on their exposed sides. The portion of the barbettes that were behind the belt armor were reduced to . Armor that was thick protected the secondary battery, and the lower half of the casemate armor was backed by coal bunkers, which increased the level of protection. Anti-splinter bulkheads that were thick were placed between each of the secondary guns to reduce the possibility of one shell from disabling multiple guns.

Ships in class

Service history

From their commissioning, ''Alabama'' and ''Illinois'' served with the North Atlantic Squadron. Both ships made visits to Europe during their early careers, and ''Illinois'' served as the flagship of the European Squadron for a short time in 1902. She accidentally ran aground outside Oslo, Norway, in 1902 and returned to the North Atlantic Squadron in January 1903. ''Wisconsin'', having been built on the west coast of the United States, instead served in the Pacific Fleet as its flagship. In 1903, she was transferred to the Asiatic Fleet, and remained there until late 1906 when she returned to California.

''Illinois'' and ''Alabama'' steamed with the Great White Fleet on its world cruise that started in December 1907. ''Wisconsin'' joined the fleet after it had rounded South America in July 1908; ''Alabama'' had to leave the fleet owing to engine damage that required repairs. ''Alabama'' was detached 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.

The three ships were modernized after their return in 1909; from 1912, they were placed in reserve commission and employed as training ships for midshipmen from the US Naval Academy and naval militia units. They continued in this role through World War I, which the United States entered on 6 April 1917. The ships trained engine room personnel, armed guards for merchant ships, and other specialties. Following the German surrender in November 1918, most of the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet were used as transports to ferry American soldiers back from France. The ''Illinois''-class ships were not so employed, however, owing to their short range and small size, which would not permit sufficient additional accommodations.

The ''Illinois''-class ships served with the fleet only briefly after the war, still as training ships. By 1920, they had all been decommissioned. ''Wisconsin'' was sold for scrapping in January 1922 and broken up for scrap. ''Illinois'' was instead converted into a floating armory for the New York Naval Militia; renamed ''Prairie State'' in 1941, she served in this role until 1956, when she too was sold for scrap. ''Alabama'' met a more spectacular end as a target ship for bombing experiments conducted with the US Army Air Service in September 1921. She was hit with several bombs, including white phosphorus weapons and armor-piercing bombs, before eventually foundering.

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{{WWI US ships

Battleship classes
Illinois class battleship
Illinois class battleship