U.S.S. Texas
Second Class Battleship (1895)
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Above, USS Texas anchored off Cuba in 1898. Maine and Texas were second-class battleships intended for coast defense, authorized under the 1886 program. They were America’s first modern battleships, and being built domestically, reflected the country’s still-uncertain grasp of the new naval technologies being refined in Europe. Texas was adapted from plans purchased by the Navy Department from the British arms conglomerate Armstrong Whitworth (as were the contemporary cruisers Charleston and Baltimore). The plans were modified before the keel was laid, and again as construction proceeded, as happened with the Maine. Scholars have noted the resemblance between the Maine and the Brazilian turret-ship Riachuelo; there is a parallel similarity between Texas as built and the Brazilian Aquidaban -- and a parallel slight increase in size and power over the British-built Brazilian model. A rather unlovely old tub, the Texas had two 12” guns in single mounts, one to a side, and six 6” guns in the oblique ½-round shield mount common to all the Armstrong-designed U.S. ships of this time. Built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Texas was a long time coming, like the Maine: six years and six weeks from laying of the keel to first hoisting the commission pennant.
Although an échelon design like her half-sister, the ship that evolved in Norfolk was quite different from the distinctly asymmetrical Maine taking shape at Brooklyn Navy Yard. Texas was a bluff, businesslike workboat. She was commissioned late in 1895 -- shortly before the Maine and, like her, mere months before the Indiana class of heavy battleships completed. Significantly, though she lacked the Maine's pleasing lines, the Texas carried the same foot-thick Harvey armor belt as the Maine -- and carried it two knots faster.
Although an échelon design like her half-sister, the ship that evolved in Norfolk was quite different from the distinctly asymmetrical Maine taking shape at Brooklyn Navy Yard. Texas was a bluff, businesslike workboat. She was commissioned late in 1895 -- shortly before the Maine and, like her, mere months before the Indiana class of heavy battleships completed. Significantly, though she lacked the Maine's pleasing lines, the Texas carried the same foot-thick Harvey armor belt as the Maine -- and carried it two knots faster.
Plans and Specifications
Texas's vital statistics: Dimensions: 308'10" x 64'1" x 24'6". Armament: (2) 12"/35 Mark 1 (2x1), (4) 6"/30 Mark 3, (2) 6"/35 Mark 3, and (8) 12-pdr guns; (4) 21" tt. Armor: Harvey type. 12" belt, 9" conning tower, 12" main turrets, 4"/3" secondary turrets and casemates, 3" deck. Propulsion: Vertical inverted triple expansion engines developing 9000 IHP, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 17 kts. Crew: 392.
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 94.2m x 19.5m x 7.47m. Armament: (2) 305 mm/35 Mark 1 (2x1), (4) 152 mm/30 Mark 3, (2) 152 mm/35 Mark 3, and (8) 12-pdr guns; (4) 525 mm tt. Armor: Harvey type. 305 mm belt, 229 mm conning tower, 305 mm main turrets, 102/76 mm secondary turrets, 76 mm deck. Propulsion: Vertical triple expansion engines developing 6,711.3 kW, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 31.5 km/hr. Crew: 392.
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 94.2m x 19.5m x 7.47m. Armament: (2) 305 mm/35 Mark 1 (2x1), (4) 152 mm/30 Mark 3, (2) 152 mm/35 Mark 3, and (8) 12-pdr guns; (4) 525 mm tt. Armor: Harvey type. 305 mm belt, 229 mm conning tower, 305 mm main turrets, 102/76 mm secondary turrets, 76 mm deck. Propulsion: Vertical triple expansion engines developing 6,711.3 kW, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 31.5 km/hr. Crew: 392.
Texas in drydock when new. Elaborate gilt-bronze bow crest was painted over when she went to war.
Ship's History
Certainly more fortunate than the Maine, the Texas never had nearly the name recognition. In the fleet, the Texas was known as a hoodoo ship because of her many accidents. In part she was accident prone because of her design: the many sponsons and gun embrasures along her hull made it difficult to maneuver coaling vessels alongside and often led to scraped-up paintwork, mangled metal, and broken limbs.
At right, crewmen clown on the Texas around 1898. This shot is taken looking aft showing the port 12" single turret, unique in the U.S. Navy. Imagine you are standing near the rail looking aft, level with the foremast in the shot above. One imagines a burning desire among the crew to restore their ship's reputation, and avenge the shame cast on Second Class Battleships by the Maine's violent demise.
Under the command of Capt. John Woodward Philip, Texas proved a pugnacious blockader of Santiago and a tireless bulldog in the eventual battle. All summer, Texas was in the thick of the fight whenever a fight was to be had: bombarding fortifications, covering Marine landings, and performing close reconnaissance. Texas picked up a contact mine in her port propeller; mercifully it was so encrusted with barnacles that it didn't go off.
Spanish strategy took another blow from Yankee efficiency when the converted liner St. Paul intercepted a shipment of prime Cardiff steam coal destined for Cervera's flotilla. She captured the British collier Restormel loaded with the contraband on May 25, sending her to Key West under a prize crew. This left Cervera with a scratch load of mostly brown (bituminous) fuel with which to attempt his escape. Indeed, his was already seeming like a doomed mission. Mutinous murmurings pervaded the idle Spanish fleet, to erupt into open rebellion and reprisals during the battle.
On Sunday July 3, 1898, the U.S. C-in-C, Adm. Sampson, had departed for an Army-Navy council of war at Siboney, taking with him the armored cruiser New York and leaving a gaping hole in the blockade line where she would normally patrol. Cervera's squadron was sighted at 9 a.m. coming out through the steep-sided approaches to Santiago de Cuba. Cervera's flagship emerged at 9:31, immediately leading the Spanish line through the gap in the blockade. Texas was one of the few U.S. ships with steam fully raised, and she went right for the Spaniards. In close fighting, the Texas suffered more than a dozen 5" shell hits during the Battle of Santiago, but no fatalities. Four Texas crewmen were injured by shrapnel during the fight. After nearly colliding with the Brooklyn in the scramble to begin the chase, Texas charged up parallel to the Spanish line and half a mile offshore. It was claimed by Texas gun layers that one of their 12-inch shells took out the Spanish destroyer Furor, which perished in one cataclysmic explosion. Shortly afterwards, chasing the Spanish cruisers close along the coast, the Texas crossed behind the stern of the burning Spanish flagship Infanta Maria Teresa as she staggered aground in the breakers, and the sailors began to cheer. Captain Philip silenced his crew, saying, "Don't cheer, boys. Those poor devils are dying."This delicacy did not presage Philip's retiring from the fight, though. Under his direction, the Texas rushed in to be in at the kill of the cruiser Vizcaya, along with the Oregon, Iowa, and Brooklyn. Still gamely attempting to escape despite her inferior coal, the Vizcaya was preparing to launch torpedoes at her tormentors when an 8" salvo struck her. The fleeing ship trembled from a great explosion as one of her own torpedo warheads exploded, tearing her bow apart and soon setting her aflame from stem to stern. Wounded, Capt. Eulate turned his mortally wounded vessel toward Aserraderos Beach and grounded her in the surf offshore. Crewmen jumped from red-hot decks to save themselves; in those flames, nothing could live. The Iowa stood off and sent in boats to rescue more than 200 Spanish crewmen from the sharks -- and the whining bullets of Cuban insurgents firing from shore. One by one, three of the four Spanish cruisers and the one remaining destroyer had been forced aground by a hot hail of American fire. The last cruiser, the Colón, brand new and somewhat faster than her squadron-mates, nearly got away, but surrendered to the superior firepower of the Oregon when cornered some 50 miles up the coast. The wrecks sizzled for days afterwards along the verdant coastline, while cameramen came by on chartered boats to film and photograph the dèbacle. Spain was decisively defeated. The besieged city of Santiago capitulated two weeks later, and the war was all but over. The crewmen of the Texas found they had shed their hoodoo reputation; were in fact minor popular heroes, fawned over by politicians and the press.
Certainly more fortunate than the Maine, the Texas never had nearly the name recognition. In the fleet, the Texas was known as a hoodoo ship because of her many accidents. In part she was accident prone because of her design: the many sponsons and gun embrasures along her hull made it difficult to maneuver coaling vessels alongside and often led to scraped-up paintwork, mangled metal, and broken limbs.
At right, crewmen clown on the Texas around 1898. This shot is taken looking aft showing the port 12" single turret, unique in the U.S. Navy. Imagine you are standing near the rail looking aft, level with the foremast in the shot above. One imagines a burning desire among the crew to restore their ship's reputation, and avenge the shame cast on Second Class Battleships by the Maine's violent demise.
Under the command of Capt. John Woodward Philip, Texas proved a pugnacious blockader of Santiago and a tireless bulldog in the eventual battle. All summer, Texas was in the thick of the fight whenever a fight was to be had: bombarding fortifications, covering Marine landings, and performing close reconnaissance. Texas picked up a contact mine in her port propeller; mercifully it was so encrusted with barnacles that it didn't go off.
Spanish strategy took another blow from Yankee efficiency when the converted liner St. Paul intercepted a shipment of prime Cardiff steam coal destined for Cervera's flotilla. She captured the British collier Restormel loaded with the contraband on May 25, sending her to Key West under a prize crew. This left Cervera with a scratch load of mostly brown (bituminous) fuel with which to attempt his escape. Indeed, his was already seeming like a doomed mission. Mutinous murmurings pervaded the idle Spanish fleet, to erupt into open rebellion and reprisals during the battle.
On Sunday July 3, 1898, the U.S. C-in-C, Adm. Sampson, had departed for an Army-Navy council of war at Siboney, taking with him the armored cruiser New York and leaving a gaping hole in the blockade line where she would normally patrol. Cervera's squadron was sighted at 9 a.m. coming out through the steep-sided approaches to Santiago de Cuba. Cervera's flagship emerged at 9:31, immediately leading the Spanish line through the gap in the blockade. Texas was one of the few U.S. ships with steam fully raised, and she went right for the Spaniards. In close fighting, the Texas suffered more than a dozen 5" shell hits during the Battle of Santiago, but no fatalities. Four Texas crewmen were injured by shrapnel during the fight. After nearly colliding with the Brooklyn in the scramble to begin the chase, Texas charged up parallel to the Spanish line and half a mile offshore. It was claimed by Texas gun layers that one of their 12-inch shells took out the Spanish destroyer Furor, which perished in one cataclysmic explosion. Shortly afterwards, chasing the Spanish cruisers close along the coast, the Texas crossed behind the stern of the burning Spanish flagship Infanta Maria Teresa as she staggered aground in the breakers, and the sailors began to cheer. Captain Philip silenced his crew, saying, "Don't cheer, boys. Those poor devils are dying."This delicacy did not presage Philip's retiring from the fight, though. Under his direction, the Texas rushed in to be in at the kill of the cruiser Vizcaya, along with the Oregon, Iowa, and Brooklyn. Still gamely attempting to escape despite her inferior coal, the Vizcaya was preparing to launch torpedoes at her tormentors when an 8" salvo struck her. The fleeing ship trembled from a great explosion as one of her own torpedo warheads exploded, tearing her bow apart and soon setting her aflame from stem to stern. Wounded, Capt. Eulate turned his mortally wounded vessel toward Aserraderos Beach and grounded her in the surf offshore. Crewmen jumped from red-hot decks to save themselves; in those flames, nothing could live. The Iowa stood off and sent in boats to rescue more than 200 Spanish crewmen from the sharks -- and the whining bullets of Cuban insurgents firing from shore. One by one, three of the four Spanish cruisers and the one remaining destroyer had been forced aground by a hot hail of American fire. The last cruiser, the Colón, brand new and somewhat faster than her squadron-mates, nearly got away, but surrendered to the superior firepower of the Oregon when cornered some 50 miles up the coast. The wrecks sizzled for days afterwards along the verdant coastline, while cameramen came by on chartered boats to film and photograph the dèbacle. Spain was decisively defeated. The besieged city of Santiago capitulated two weeks later, and the war was all but over. The crewmen of the Texas found they had shed their hoodoo reputation; were in fact minor popular heroes, fawned over by politicians and the press.
The Texas relinquished her name in 1910 so that it could be used for the dreadnought Texas then taking shape. Renamed San Marcos, the old tub met a suitably unglamorous fate as a target ship. She was sunk by salvos from the pre-dreadnought battleship USS New Hampshire in 1911.
Spain's Atlantic Squadron Defeated at Santiago, 1898
Cervera's war squadron is seen leaving Martinique for Santiago de Cuba in this contemporary illustration. A third destroyer was left at the Cape Verde Islands with engine trouble. All of the ships are packed into this one frame, in tight formation and the unlikely aspect of all cresting the swell at the same moment. Americans on the Atlantic coast panicked when the Spaniards disappeared from Cape Verde. Boston Brahmins demanded protection lest Cervera bombard their summer mansions at Nahant; old monitors were duly despatched to allay their jitters. But the fleet that slipped into Santiago was less formidable than it seemed: all had foul bottoms, several vessels had cranky engines, and all were short of coal, for the St. Paul and gunboat USS Nashville had intercepted their supply colliers. At Santiago, officers and men alike realized that theirs was a suicide mission.
The Spanish cruiser Vizcaya was one of three sister ships in the Spanish squadron: Vizcaya, Oquendo, and Infanta Maria Teresa -- the first two named for notable Spanish admirals; the last selected as Cervera's flagship. Closely modeled on the British Orlando class of 1887, but enlarged and up-gunned, they mounted two 11"/40 Canet guns in single turrets fore and aft, ten 5.5" guns, eight 3", ten 3-pdr. 47mm Hotchkiss guns, and eight 15" torpedo tubes. Displacement: 6,890 tons. Length: 340' Beam: 65' Draft: 21' Armor: Nickel-steel type. 12" belt, 11" barbette, 4" shields. Propulsion: two triple-expansion engines developing 13,700 HP, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 20.2 kts. Schematic
Metric Specs: Dimensions: 103.6m x 19.8m x 6.4m Displacement: 6,890 tons. Armament: (2) 280 mm/40 (2x1); (10) 140 mm; (8) 76 mm; (10) 3-pdr. 47 mm Hotchkiss guns; (8) 38 cm torpedo tubes. Armor: Nickel-steel type. 305 mm belt; 280 mm barbette; 102 mm shields. Propulsion: two triple-expansion engines developing 10,216 kW, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 37.4 km/hr.
Metric Specs: Dimensions: 103.6m x 19.8m x 6.4m Displacement: 6,890 tons. Armament: (2) 280 mm/40 (2x1); (10) 140 mm; (8) 76 mm; (10) 3-pdr. 47 mm Hotchkiss guns; (8) 38 cm torpedo tubes. Armor: Nickel-steel type. 305 mm belt; 280 mm barbette; 102 mm shields. Propulsion: two triple-expansion engines developing 10,216 kW, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 37.4 km/hr.
Shown here on acceptance trials, the Cristobal Colón was the oddball cruiser in the Spanish squadron: a Garibaldi class armored cruiser mass-produced for export at Ansaldo in Genoa, Italy. Newly purchased just before the war, she was to have mounted two 10" (254 mm) guns in single turrets along with her sided armament of ten 6-inch guns. However, she was hustled off to combat before her main guns could be delivered. She fought and died as a 6" cruiser. Length: 328' Beam: 59.7' Draft: 24' Displacement: 6,840 tons. Speed: 20 kts. Fought with ten 6-inch, six 4.7-inch guns. Metric Specs: Dimensions: 99.97m x 18.2m x 7.32m Displacement: 6,840 tons. Armament: (10) 152 mm and (6) 120 mm guns. Speed: 37 km/hr.
The Spanish destroyer Furor on her trials in Scotland, 1896. She and her near-sister Plutón were quickly knocked to pieces by big American projectiles in the battle. Tonnage: 370 (Furor), 400 (Plutón). Armament: (2) 18" torpedo tubes, (6) QF guns. Propulsion: 4 Normand boilers; 6,000-IHP 4-cylinder triple expansion engines; twin screw. Speed: 28 kts. Under the leadership of Capt. Fernando Villaamil, Spain was a leader in the development of the Torpedo Boat Destroyer -- in its early years, at least, part torpedo craft and part interceptor of enemy torpedo boats. The two Spanish destroyers at Santiago were members of the Terror class; they came across the Atlantic, their engineers nursing tempermental machinery every inch of the way. Terror was left behind at San Juan with engine trouble, and later with battle damage from an encounter with the auxiliary cruiser St. Paul. The two remaining destroyers were the last out of the harbor at Santiago, running behind the cruisers close to shore; they were promptly jumped by four American battleships and the converted yacht Gloucester and never had a chance.
On opening their sortie, the Spanish cruisers turned southwest to make good their escape, but the 2 destroyers, emerging last, ran behind them inshore. They didn't have a chance. Furor was riddled by small shot from the Gloucester -- formerly J.P. Morgan's yacht Corsair. Then the destroyer's stern was blown off by one dead-on 12" shell; Capt. Villaamil, mastermind of the Spanish destroyer program, was killed instantly. The Texas, the Gloucester, and the Iowa all laid claim to the kill. Plutón ran herself on the rocks rather than endure longer exposure to Yankee shellfire. There the flames licked into her magazines, scattering her fragments widely across the coastal rainforest.
Vizcaya put up the bravest fight of any of the Spanish ships, enduring some 200 hits, mainly from the Texas and the Brooklyn in an hourlong stern chase. Here, pierced by an 8" round from the Brooklyn, the Vizcaya's forward torpedo room explodes. Aflame from stem to stern, the ship staggered into the breakers to beach herself.
Riddled with shot and beached inshore, this burnt-out wreck was all that remained of Admiral Cervera's flagship; enlarge photo. A plume of smoke and steam still curled from her bow the day after the battle when Hearst cameraman J.C. Hemment shot this view. As against 2 dead and some 10 wounded in the U.S. fleet, the Spanish had sustained 474 casualties, many under the grisliest circumstances, as their ships turned to flaming ovens. The Texas' Capt. Philip had the decency not to gloat over the defeat and demise of his enemies du jour. It is doubtful Mr. Hearst felt himself bound by any such constraints.
Pertinent Webpages
- The Spanish Wrecks After the Battle - Complete Photo Essay by J.C. Hemment
- The Naval Battle of Santiago - The Classic Account by Walter Millis
- The Spanish Navy, 1880 - 1920
- The Battle of Tsushima: Climax of the Russo-Japanese War (1905)
- Notable Naval Battles, 1860-1918
- Bone Up on the Dreadnought USS Texas' History
- Visit the Dreadnought USS Texas Pictures Page
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