USS Texas (1895)

History of the USS Texas (1895)

The first USS Texas was America's first warship. The U.S. Navy needs warships to protect its shores and is considered a major player in the world's major navies. On August 3, 1886, the U.S. Congress approved funding for the construction of two ships, the Texas and her sister ship, the Maine.

The USS Texas was commissioned 32 days before the USS Maine, putting Texas at the top of her class. However, the Admiralty did not issue a class ID at this time. However, many believe that both ships are unique and a class in their own right.

The aircraft carrier USS Texas was a second-class battleship and became a pre-dreadnought battleship in 1900. The Texas was built to a British design that emerged from a competition to win the grand prize of $15,000. The ship was built at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia, and commissioned on August 15, 1895, under the command of Captain Henry Glass.

After commissioning, it was found that her bottom plate was too light and she was sent back to Norfolk Shipyard for repairs.

In many ways, the USS Maine was superior to the USS Texas - Texas carried lighter weapons and her coal bunker capacity was smaller. However, these two weight issues make the Texas faster than the Maine.

She was a turret ship, classified as a "trapezoid" in design, with two 12" turrets, one on port and the other on starboard, slightly off centerline and surrounded by 12" armor. Texas has pending sponsors to support coal supplies for Collier's ships. Sponsors are protrusions on the side of a ship that protect, stabilize or attach equipment. They extend the hull dimension at or below the waterline and are used to increase buoyancy or increase buoyancy while sailing.

A coal-fired ship with a bulkhead between the rearmost cargo hold and the engine room in the stern is bent or bent in its middle to protrude and provide a main coal bunker between the cargo hold and the engine room. Loaded with coal and supplies, the USS Texas sank so deeply that the ship's armor belt was submerged below the waterline, severely limiting her speed and seaworthiness.

Fires on ships are always the worst disaster for seafarers, and coal use in Texas is no exception. Coal bunker fires and explosions were commonplace, and coal dust was almost as flammable as the artillery itself.

Texas was assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron, with ships cruising up and down the East Coast of the United States. In February 1897, she left the Atlantic Squadron for the ports of Galveston and New Orleans on the Gulf Coast.

She resumed service on the Atlantic coast from March 1897 to early 1898. America wants to be a world power, and to do that they need a huge navy to expand and project their power.

To achieve this, their ships needed coal bunkering stations, and the Spanish Empire had a foothold in strategically important places in Cuba and Puerto Ricoboth islands close to the U.S. coast and within the sphere of influence of the "Monroe Doctrine" . The Monroe Doctrine states that any attempt by a European government to intervene in U.S. affairs can be viewed as an act of U.S. aggression.

The Philippines, located deep in the Pacific Ocean, is another point of interest for the United States, which could help the United States expand its power on a global scale. Spain and the United States were not at odds at the time, and Spain did support the United States in the past. At this time, however, the power and influence of the state was rising and fallingand thus, the Spanish military was not at its peak. In the early spring of 1898, war broke out between the United States and Spain over the situation in Cuba and the reported destruction of the battleship Maine by Spain in the harbor of Havana.

In February 1898, this single act ignited war between the two countries. On May 18, Texas mines coal and obtains supplies and ammunition to continue the war in Key West, Florida.

On May 21, the Texas and the squadron arrived in Enfuegos, Cuba, to blockade the Cuban coast. Due to a shortage of coal ships and no local coal station, Texas returned to Key West to resupply and returned to Santiago de Cuba on the 27th.

For the next five weeks, she patrolled the port between Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo Bay. In mid-June, Texas joined the unarmored cruiser USS Marblehead (C-11) in bombing the fort at Cayo del Tore at Guantanamo Bay.

Both ships opened fireMarblehead with their 5-inch 177mm guns and Texas with their 12-inch 305mm gunsand together they destroyed the fort in just over an hour.

The Spanish fleet under Admiral Sevilla was intercepted by a squadron in the bay of Santiago de Cuba. Artillery surrounded the bay to stop American warships. Cervera's boats are outstanding in both quantity and quality of boats.

The maximum caliber of guns deployed by Spanish ships was 5.5 inches, compared to the 12-inch guns on Texas and other American battleships. Small-caliber guns weren't the only problem the Spaniards faced - their shells themselves were of poor quality and not entirely reliable. Cervera knew he had to execute the interception, but the timing of the action was an issue. The night was an unrealistic possibility, as American Collier Merrimack had sunk in the narrow fairway.

He chose Sunday morning, hoping that American sailors would attend their weekly church service.

On July 3, 1898, Texas and the squadron were on the scene when the Spanish fleet made a desperate attempt to escape. Texas made immediate progress and began firing on the four enemy ships.

While the battleship's main batteries bombed the Spanish cruisers Biscay and Colon, her secondary batteries bombed the two torpedo boat destroyers as well as the first-class battleship Iowa and the gunboat USS Gloucester. The two Spanish destroyers were hit multiple times, reducing their speed and eventually running aground with severe damage. One by one the Spanish cruisers were attacked and succumbed to the combined fire of the American fleet. One by one they made their way to the coast and ran aground - the Texan and the rest of the squadron's ships officially destroyed the Spanish fleet. Two weeks later, the Spanish city of Santiago surrendered, and shortly afterward, Spain asked for peace.

Texas arrived in New York on July 31, 1898.

Texas returned in peacetime, patrolling the East Coast and visiting new territories in San Juan and Havana - the US now has new regional coal stations. She went to Norfolk Naval Shipyard for repairs in 1901 and served as flagship of the Coast Squadron in 1902.

She was at the end of her career and by 1908 had become a station ship docked in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1911, the Navy wanted to name a new battleship No. 35 Texas, so the original name was changed to San Marcos.

In retrospect, USS Texas' famous sister ship USS Maine was sunk without firing a shot. Texas proved itself in battle and helped win the war with Spain, but their actions here are often overlooked in most history books. Later that year, on October 10, her name was removed from the Navy's active duty ship list.

Her ultimate mission is to sink as a target in the Chesapeake Bay.

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