Battleship BB-35 "Texas"

Houston is not far from the San Jacinto Monument, and next to him in a special backwater Houston ship canal is laid one of the oldest US Navy ships - Battleship BB-35 "Texas."
Today, more than 100 years, the battleship, the keel of the vessel was laid in November 29, 1909 and the spring of 1914, more precisely on March 12, the ship was accepted into the Navy.





Battleships at numbers 34 and 35 were designed in a difficult period for the US 1909-1910. The reason is simple - while the race was "a huge cannon fire" between Germany and the United Kingdom, and the United States had to watch the race from the side, and build your fleet, which would be able to successfully deal with a potential enemy



The design itself vessel 35 was consistent development of precursors, namely, vehicles 32, 33 and 34, "Wyoming", "AR" and "New York", respectively. All these ships were of the same type, differing only in minor details.



The act of building was officially signed by the president June 24, 1910, indicating the specification of vessels and maximum cost - $ 6 million.



Tonnage of vessels was 27, 000 tons, the total length of 170-180 meters and aft draft - 7, 5-8 meters, the caliber of the main tools - 350mm, maximum speed - 20-21 knots, supply of coal - 2 600 tons.
The ship's store.



The contract for the construction of the vessel was won by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company, had shipbuilding docks at New York, and had already had experience in building ships of this class, namely, BB-28 and BB-38.



With the launching of the battleship, both Texas and New York, at numbers 35 and 34, were the most powerful ships in the world and was so until 1915 Foda, when the UK has built a "Queen Elizabeth", the main gauge of which was 380 mm.



Few words about the design of the vessel. The hull was made of steel and heavy-duty, steel sheets were are connected by means of rivets. Bolts began to be used only with the 30-ies. In total the ship had three decks, with sealed doors of the compartment.



Torpedo protection in the form of multi-layer walls was inadequate, and as shown by the experience and experiments, the ship would not survive the torpedo, but good luck, no torpedo it was not put into operation.



Another big blunder designers have cable pipe, runs the entire length of the hull and through a sealed compartment wall, ie, in the event of flooding of one compartment with damage these pipes the water began to flow into the other compartments.



The fact that today is absolutely logical decision at the time was a novelty. DEVID learned to build ships, taking into account the experience and mistakes of the previous file projects.





While serving as military campaigns battleship served more than 30 years.



The first baptism of fire he received in 1914, immediately after the launching, the battleship was sent to the port of Vera Cruz in Mexico, for covering amphibious landing marines and port security during the political turmoil in Mexico.



During World War I battleship main mission was to cover for a convoy of merchant ships, departure from the US to the UK.



An interesting fact about the vessel: "Texas" became the first battleship in the composition of the US Navy which successfully launched from the deck of the aircraft.



In 1925, the ship was sent to dry dock in New York for the overhaul and modernization.



During the renovation it has been replaced by a central mast and installed the newest sight guidance system for the main guns.



The Second World War for the battleship was successful, he had time to visit with many battles and set the heat as the Germans, and samurai.



The war for the battleship began in 1941, when he was patrolling and conducting exploration off the coast of Ireland, I came across a German submarine «U-203." More precisely the opposite - in the dark submarine bumped into "Texas».



The captain of the submarine began to pursue a battleship, in turn, captain of the battleship realized that the torpedo boat no protection in the case of getting the ship to sink, so he gave the order to shoot and move away zigzags.



German captain did not calculate class battleship that was too fast for the submarine, and after some time finally lost sight of the battleship. For the U-boat captain was certainly very badly, because the ship was one, but it is an ideal target for a submarine.



Battleship also took part in the landing of troops in Normandy, many sea battles in the Atlantic and off the coast of Africa, and was then sent to the Pacific Ocean, where in 1945 he took part in several battles in Japanese.



Altogether during World War II was released from the vessel 4305 shells main caliber 3885 caliber shells second (127 mm) and 615 third-caliber shells (76 mm).



In 1948, the ship was decommissioned, some of the equipment was dismantled, and then the battleship arrived in Houston, where he was installed on the joke as a museum, and he stood on it laid 40 years, until 1988.
Dining officers.



In 1988 it was decided that the ship should remain a museum since It is one of the oldest vessels, and must be repaired. The problem was that in 40 years the ship ran aground because of the reclamation of sand under the boat, and no one could say whether the boat to swim to the dock because 1986 battleship hull was leaking in three places, which was later removed.
Officer dishes that time.



Since 1986, students collected money to rebuild (the year they raised nearly $ 1 million). With the help of the Senate, highlighting in 1987 $ 5 million. For repairs, it was decided to raise the ship afloat and send it to the dock.
Place radio operator Kat.



At 5 am on 13 December 1988, it was given to mooring and five tugs tried to move a huge battleship afloat. After 8 hours the ship was moved from a bank, was in open water and swam ...!
Room cryptographers.



Within two years, the entire ship was thoroughly inspected, all the steel sheets, the thickness of which was less than 3/8 inch, were replaced. The main body of the battleship replaced 106 tons of steel were used and 35,000 liters of paint.
The inner dining room, dining room all on the ship had two, and the first on the top deck.



After the overhaul the ship was set to dock in a special shipping channel in Houston, where he remains to this day.



Today, on the battleship passes major facelift as the upper deck, and the interior, as the ship is moored at a new more than 20 years.



The ship is open to visitors of the museum completely, you can visit in the engine boiler room and pilothouse. This is very atypical, because many other museums korablyah- access inside the vessel is usually limited.



There are two ships in the Navy with the name "Texas" - a cruiser CGN-39 (built in 1975), and the submarine SSN-775 (built in 2005).
The cabin sailors.



Hospital ward.



Source: military-photos.livejournal.com

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