American battleship USS Ohio (BB-12) 1899-1923

Illinois-class

Maine-class

Virginia-class

Of the Maine-class consisting of the Maine, Missouri and Ohio, preceded by the Illinois-class and succeeded by the Virginia-class. The original design was changed as a response of the Russian battleship Retvizan to be built by WilliamCramp&Sons, Philadelphia, USA which would be 2 miles faster as the original Maine-class design/ The Newport News Shipbuilding&Drydock Company proposed to lengthen the hull with another 6,1 metres/20’ and 60% increase of the horsepower. The US Navy altered the design as a result.

Laid down by Union Iron Works, San Francisco on 22 April 1899, launched on 18 May 1901, commissioned on 4 October 1904, training ship 1917-1918, decommissioned in July 1919, stricken on 31 May 1922 and sold to be broken up on 24 March 1923.

Displacement 13.052 (normal)-13.900 (full load) tons and as dimensions 118 (waterline)-120,07 (over all)x 22,02 x 7,24-7,42 metres or 388-393.11 x 72.3 x 23.9-24.4 feet. The original military masts with fighting tops were replaced in 1909 by the so-called cage masts. The machinery consisted of 2-4cylinder triple expansion steam engines and 12 Thornycroft boilers supplying 16.000 ihp and with 2 screw allowing a speed of 17,82 (trials)-18 (design)knots. Coal bunker capacity 1.000 (normal)-2.180 (maximum) tons and a range of 4.900 (design)-6.560 (in service) nautical miles. Her crew numbered 561 men (included 40 officers). The Krupp cemented armour consisted of a 20,3cm/8”-279cm/11” thick belt, with the turrets, casemates and conning tower protected by respectively 30,5cm/12”, 15,2cm/6” (forward) and 25,4cm/10”. The armament consisted of 2x24-30,5cm/12” /40 cal Mark 3 Mod 3 guns, 16x15,2cm/6”/50 cal Mark 6 guns, 8-4,7cm/1.9”/3 pd guns, 6-3,7c,/1.5”/1pd guns and 2-45,7cm/18” submerged torpedo tubes