American battle ships no longer fitted out with conning towers according to the Dutch magazine Marineblad 1901/1902 no. 8

An item reported that the commission decided that the large battleships were no longer to be fitted out with conning towers. This was a decision of the results in the last war when it became clear that these towers the view extremely limited that the commanding officers already in the beginning of the battle the conning towers left towards the bridge or in the battle topmast. It was unknown if all signalling devices remained unprotected.