BB-35 Texas
Not far from Houston is the monument to San Jacinto, and next to it in the special backwater of the navigable canal of Houston stands on the joke one of the oldest US Navy ships - the battleship BB-35 "Texas".
Today, the battleship is more than 100 years old, the ship’s keel was laid in 29 November 1909 of the year, and in the spring of 1914 of the year, more precisely, 12 of March, the ship was accepted into the Navy.
1. The battleships numbered 34 and 35 were designed in the 1909-1910 heavy period for the USA. The reason for this is simple - at that time there was a race of "guns of huge caliber" between Germany and Great Britain, while the USA had to look at this race from the side and build its fleet that could successfully fight a potential adversary.
2. The design of the ship 35 was a consistent development of predecessors, namely the ships 32, 33 and 34, "Wyoming", "Arkansas" and "New York", respectively. All of these ships were of the same type, differing only in small details.
3. The construction act was officially signed by the President of 24 on June 1910 of the year, specifying the specification of the vessels and the maximum cost - $ 6 million.
4. Vessel displacement was 27,000 tons, total length 170-180 meters, draft astern - 7,5-8 meters, caliber of main implements - 350 mm, maximum speed - 20-21 knots, coal stock - 2 600 tons.
Ship store.
5. The shipbuilding contract was won by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company, which had shipbuilding docks near New York and had previous experience in building ships of this class, namely, BB-28 and BB-38.
6. With the launch of the battleship Texas and New York, under the numbers 35 and 34, they became the most powerful ships in the world and were like that until 1915, when Great Britain built the Queen Elizabeth, whose main caliber was 380 mm.
7. A few words about the design of the vessel. The hull of the ship was made of heavy-duty steel, the sheets of steel were joined with rivets. Bolts began to be used only from the 30's. In total, the ship had three decks with hermetic doors along the walls of the compartments.
8. Torpedo defense in the form of multilayer walls was inadequate, and as experience and experiments showed, the ship would not have survived torpedoing, but fortunately, not a single torpedo was launched into it.
9. Another big miscalculation of the designers was the cable tubes that ran along the entire length of the ship's hull and through the hermetic walls of the compartments, i.e. in case of flooding of one compartment with damage to these pipes, the water would start to flow into the other compartments.
10. What is a completely logical decision today was new at the time. Industry learned to build ships, given the experience and mistakes of previous projects.
11. The battleship served for more than 30 years at the post of military campaigns.
12. He received his first baptism of fire in 1914, immediately after launching, the battleship was sent to the port of Vera Cruz in Mexico, to cover the landing of the marines and protect the port during political unrest in Mexico.
13. During World War I, the main mission of the battleship was to cover the convoys of merchant ships leaving the United States for Great Britain.
14. An interesting fact about the ship: "Texas" was the first battleship in the US Navy, which produced the successful launch of the aircraft from the deck.
15. In 1925, the ship was sent to New York's dry dock for major repairs and upgrades.
16. During the renovation, the central mast was replaced and the latest aiming systems for the main guns were installed.
17. The Second World War for the battleship was successful, he managed to go through many battles and set the heat to both the Germans and the samurai.
18. The war for the battleship began in the 1941 year, when he, patrolling and conducting reconnaissance off the coast of Ireland, came across a German submarine "U-203". More precisely on the contrary - in the dark the submarine stumbled upon the "Texas".
19. The captain of the submarine began to pursue the battleship, in turn, the captain of the battleship understood that there was no torpedo defense on the ship and the ship would sink if it hit, so he gave the order to shoot back and retreat in zigzags.
20. The German captain did not calculate the class of the battleship, which turned out to be too fast for a submarine, and after some time completely lost the battleship from view. For captain Yu-bot, this was of course very bad, because the ship was alone, and this is an ideal target for a submarine.
21. The battleship also took part in the landing of troops in Normandy, many naval battles in the Atlantic and off the coast of Africa, after which
was sent to the Pacific Ocean, where in 1945 took part in several battles in the Japanese.
22. In total, 4 305 main caliber rounds, 3 885 second caliber shells (127 mm) and 615 third caliber shells (76 mm) were fired from the vessel during World War II.
23. In 1948, the ship was decommissioned, part of the equipment was dismantled, after which the battleship arrived in Houston, where it was set up as a museum and stood on this joke for 40 years, until 1988.
Dining officers.
24. In 1988, it was decided that the ship should remain a museum, since is one of the oldest ships, and needs to be renovated. The problem was that in 40 years the ship was stranded due to alluvial of sand under the ship, and no one could say whether the ship could sail to the dock, because in 1986, the body of the battleship leaked in three places, which was eliminated later.
Officer's dishes of the time.
25. Starting from 1986, students raised money for restoration (they collected almost $ 1 million in a year). Thanks to the help of the Senate, who singled out $ 1987 million for repairs in 5, the ship was decided to be lifted off and sent to the dock.
Place radio operator Kat.
26. At 5 in the morning, 13 in December 1988, the mooring lines were given away and five tugboats tried to move the huge battleship from the ground. After 8 hours of operation, the ship was shifted from the ground, found itself in open water and ... swam!
Encryption room.
27. Within two years, the entire ship was thoroughly inspected, all sheets of steel whose thickness was less than 3 / 8 in. Were replaced. On the body of the battleship, 106 tons of steel were replaced and 35 000 liters of paint were used.
Inner dining room, all the dining rooms on the ship were two, on the upper and first deck.
28. After a major overhaul, the ship was installed at a special dock in the Houston shipping canal, where it remains to this day.
29. Today, the battleship is undergoing major redecoration of both the upper deck and the interior, as The ship is on the new joke for more than 20 years.
30. The ship is open to visitors to the museum completely, you can visit the machine-boiler room, and in the wheelhouse. This is very atypical, because on many other museum ships, access inside the ship is usually limited.
31. There are two more ships in the Navy that have the name "Texas" - this is the cruiser CGN-39 (built in 1975 year), and the submarine SSN-775 (built in 2005 year).
Cabin sailors.
32. Hospital ward.
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