American armoured cruiser USS North Carolina (ACR-12) 1905-1920 and Charlotte (CA-12) 1920-1930

Pennsylvania-class

Tennessee-class

Part of the Tennessee-class consisting of the Tennessee, Washington, North Carolina and Montana, preceded by the Pennsylvania-class but never succeeded. There were none armoured cruisers further built as believed that an armoured cruiser became an obsolete design replaced by the battle cruiser concept like that of the British Invincible-class. Also referred to as Armored Cruiser No. 12. Building ordered on 27 April 1904, building awarded on 3 January 1905, laid down at Newport News Drydock&Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia, USA on 21 March 1905, launched by miss Rebekah Glenn on 6 October 1906, commissioned on 7 May 1908, renamed Charlotte on 7 June 1920, reclassified as CA-12 on 17 July 1920, decommissioned on 18 February 1921, stricken on 15 July 1930 and sold o be broken up on 29 September 1930.

General technical specifications of this class. With a displacement of 14.730 (standard)-15.964 (full load) tons and as dimensions 153,8 x 22,2 x 7,6 metres or 504’6” x 72’10” x 25”. The machinery consisted of 2 vertical triple steam engines and 16 Babcock&Whitecox boilers supplying 23.000 ihp allowing a speed of 22 (design) knots. Crew numbered 887 men. The armour consisted of a 7,6cm/3”-12,7cm/5”thick waterline belt, a 3,8cm/1.5”-10,2cm/4” thick deck with the conning tower and turrets protected by respectively 22,9cm/9” and 6,4cm/2.5”-22,9cm/9”. The armament consisted of 2x2-25,4cm/10” /40 Mark 3 guns, 16x1-15,2cm/6” /50 Mark 8 guns, 22x1-7,6cm/3” /50 guns, 12-3pd guns, 4-1pd guns, 2-7,6cm/3” field guns, 2-30cal machineguns, 6-30 cal automatic guns and 4-53,3cm/21” torpedo tubes.
The machinery consisted of 2 vertical triple steam engines and 16 Babcock&Whitecox boilers supplying 23.000 ihp allowing a speed of 22 (design) knots. During a 4 hours trial was a speed of 22,38 knots with a horse power 26.038ihp achieved. During the 24 hours trial was a speed of 20,6 knots with a horsepower of 19.802ihp achieved.