USS Maine (BB-10)

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For other ships with the same name, see USS Maine.

USS Maine underway in 1918
History
United States
NameMaine
Namesake
State of Maine
BuilderWilliam Cramp & Sons
Laid down15 February 1899
Launched27 July 1901
Commissioned29 December 1902
Decommissioned15 May 1920
FateBroken up, 1922
General characteristics
Class and typeMaine-class battleship
Displacement
Length393 ft 10 in (120.04 m)
Beam72 ft 3 in (22.02 m)
Draft24 ft 4 in (7.42 m)
Installed power
  • 24 ×
    Niclausse boilers
  • 16,000 ihp (12,000 kW)
Propulsion
  • 2 ×
    triple-expansion steam engines
  • 2 × screw propellers
Speed18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h)
Complement561 officers and enlisted
Armament
  • 4 ×
    12 in (305 mm)/40 caliber
    guns
  • 16 ×
    6 in (152 mm)/50 cal
    Mark 6 guns
  • 8 × 3-pounders (47 mm (1.9 in))
  • 6 × 1-pounders (37 mm (1.5 in))
  • 4 ×
    18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor

USS Maine (BB-10), the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 23rd state. Maine was laid down in February 1899 at the William Cramp & Sons shipyard in Philadelphia. She was launched in July 1901 and commissioned into the fleet in December 1902. She was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and could steam at a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

Maine served in the Atlantic for the entirety of her career with the North Atlantic Fleet, which later became the Atlantic Fleet; during the early years of her service, she was the fleet flagship, until she was replaced in 1907. Later that year, she joined the cruise of the Great White Fleet, though her heavy coal consumption prevented her from continuing with the fleet past San Francisco. After returning to the U.S., she served as the 3rd Squadron flagship. During America's participation in World War I from April 1917 to November 1918, Maine was used as a training ship. She remained in active service until May 1920, when she was decommissioned. The ship was ultimately sold for scrap in January 1922 and broken up for scrap under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty signed that year.

Description

Main article: Maine-class battleship

The

Krupp cemented armor that was stronger than Harvey armor used on earlier vessels, and water-tube boilers that provided more power for the engines.[1]

Plan and profile drawing of the Maine class

Maine was 393 feet 11 inches (120.07 m)

cage masts in 1909. She had a crew of 561 officers and enlisted men, which increased to 779–813.[2]

The ship was armed with a

18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.[2]

Maine's main

armored belt was 11 inches (279 mm) thick over the magazines and the propulsion machinery spaces and 8 inches (203 mm) elsewhere. The main battery gun turrets had 12-inch (305 mm) thick faces, and the supporting barbettes had the same thickness of armor plating on their exposed sides. Armor that was 6 in thick protected the secondary battery. The conning tower had 10-inch (254 mm) thick sides.[2]

Service history

drydock
in San Francisco in 1908

Maine was built by the

Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans. On 16 April 1907, Evans transferred his flag to the newly commissioned battleship Connecticut.[4]

Maine's next significant action was the cruise of the

naval review for President Theodore Roosevelt in Hampton Roads.[3] The cruise of the Great White Fleet was conceived as a way to demonstrate American military power, particularly to Japan. Tensions had begun to rise between the United States and Japan after the latter's victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, particularly over racist opposition to Japanese immigration to the United States. The press in both countries began to call for war, and Roosevelt hoped to use the demonstration of naval might to deter Japanese aggression.[5] On 17 December, the fleet steamed out of Hampton Roads and cruised south to the Caribbean and then to South America, making stops in Port of Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Punta Arenas, and Valparaíso, among other cities. After arriving in Mexico in March 1908, the fleet spent three weeks conducting gunnery practice.[6] The fleet then resumed its voyage up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping in San Francisco, where Maine was detached from the rest of the fleet. The ship's boilers had proved to be badly inefficient, requiring excessive amounts of coal to keep up with the fleet. The battleship Alabama also left the fleet, owing to a cracked cylinder head.[7]

naval review
in December 1918

Maine and Alabama crossed the Pacific independently, via Guam and the Philippines. After steaming through the Indian Ocean, they transited the Suez Canal and cruised the Mediterranean. They crossed the Atlantic and arrived back on the east coast of the United States in October 1908, well ahead of the rest of the Great White Fleet. Following their arrival, Maine was assigned as the flagship of the 3rd Squadron, Atlantic Fleet, and operated off the east coast for the next several months.[3] On 14 February, Maine, the new battleships New Hampshire, Mississippi, and Idaho, two armored cruisers and two scout cruisers were organized to meet the returning Great White Fleet. Maine and the rest of the squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Conway Hillyer Arnold, steamed out into the Atlantic and rendezvoused with the Great White Fleet on 17 February. The combined fleet arrived in Hampton Roads on the 22nd, where a large naval review was held for Theodore Roosevelt to celebrate the journey.[8] On 31 August 1909, the ship was temporarily decommissioned at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She returned to service on 15 June 1911 for duty with the Atlantic Fleet.[3]

On 6 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, entering

J.G. Hitner and W.F. Cutler of Philadelphia, to be broken up for scrap. By 17 December 1923, she had been disarmed in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty, which mandated significant reductions in naval strength. Maine was then scrapped.[3]

Footnotes

Notes

  1. ^ /40 refers to the length of the gun in terms of calibers. A /40 gun is 40 times long as it is in bore diameter.

Citations

  1. ^ Friedman, pp. 38–41.
  2. ^ a b c d Campbell, p. 142.
  3. ^ a b c d e f DANFS Maine.
  4. ^ Albertson 2007, p. 36.
  5. ^ Hendrix, pp. XIII, XIV.
  6. ^ Albertson 2007, pp. 41–46.
  7. ^ Albertson 2007, p. 49.
  8. ^ Albertson 2008, pp. 137–139.
  9. ^ Jones, p. 121.

References

Further reading

External links

Media related to USS Maine (BB-10) at Wikimedia Commons

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