The USS Mississippi in her original rig, 1908: one mast, two funnels. "#" aft is pair of signaling staffs.
The Mississippi class of 2 small battleships were conceived as smaller, cheaper versions of the Connecticut class. One quarter shorter than this model, and 3,000 tons smaller, they still packed the greater part of the Connecticut class's firepower, with four 12"/40 and eight 8"/45. Intended as lower-value seagoing battleships, they disappointed because of their poor seakeeping qualities. With a length-to-beam ratio of 4:1 (versus 5:1 for the Connecticuts), top-heavy by reason of their weighty guns and armor, they had a sickening, sluggish roll. When steaming through a cross sea, they also pitched viciously. Their firepower was often wasted in the open sea, for they lacked the stability that makes a good battleship: a steady gun platform. Diminished bunker space meant more frequent absences to refuel. Due to their stability problems they could only deliver their designed speed in calm seas, making them poor partners for the larger, more seaworthy vessels with which they were expected to operate.
The Mississippi and her sister the Idaho were completed at the very end of the pre-dreadnought era in 1908, yet were endowed with perhaps the most florid bow ornaments of any U.S. Navy ships. By 1908 the U.S. was already well along in building its first dreadnoughts; hardly had the Mississippis completed their first year in commission when they were refitted and their hull decorations removed. After 6 years in commission -- much of it spent in the yard being tweaked for their stability problems -- the two ships were sold to the Greeks at a bargain price. With 2 wars on Turkey just concluded -- the second one a squabble over the spoils between the victors of the first -- and Balkan unrest about to kindle WWI, Greece wished to secure her interests with a more modern navy, already augmented with the Italian-built armored cruiser Georgios Averof.
The ship's styling was virtually identical to that of the Connecticut class. Above, elliptical forward 12" turret viewed from the bridge; the line of the "chisel cut" turret face is readily seen at the forward end: a straight line across the roof between the two pill-shaped sighting hoods. Below, the bridgeworks and big guns viewed from the foredeck.
Specifications for the Mississippi class:
Dimensions: Length: 382' x 77' x 24.7' (116m x 23m x 8m) Std displacement: 13,000 tons. Deep laden: 14,095 tons. Armament: (4) 12"/40 cal (305mm), (8) 8"/45 mounted 4x2 (178mm), (12) 6" (152 mm), and (12) 3" guns (76mm); (6) 3-pounders; (2) 1-pounders, and (6) .30-cal machine guns; (2) 21" (533 mm) torpedo tubes. Armor: Belt: 9", Turrets: 12", Deck: 3", Conning Tower: 9" Propulsion: (2) inverted vertical triple-expansion engines developing 10,000 SHP; twin screw. Speed: 17 knots. Crew: 744. Ships in class: Mississippi · Idaho.
The Kilkis, ex-Mississippi, at Malta in the 1920s. She appears virtually unchanged from her 1914 rig.
Negotiations for the sale of the ships commenced in 1912, but the transfer was not consummated until July 1914. Before the transfer, the Mississippi became an aviation support ship and played a key rôle in the establishment of the Pensacola Naval Air Station in December 1913. The following year, the Mississippis took part in the hostilities against Pancho Villa in Mexico. Idaho was sailed to Greece on a training cruise, whereupon her crew transferred to the Maine for the return voyage. Mississippi was formally decommissioned and handed over to a Greek crew at Newport News. The battleships arrived right on the brink of WWI, in which Greece at first remained very carefully neutral while war raged on all her borders. Upon transfer, Uncle Sam's treasury received a substantial part of its bad investment back; and Greece received two economical but powerful pre-dreadnoughts which sailed under the Hellenic cross as Kilkis and Lemnos -- a duty they performed through the early years of WWII.
In 1916 the entire Royal Hellenic fleet was seized by France to compel Greek intervention on the side of the Allies. This was forthcoming the following year, and the ships were returned to Greek control. They saw action in the Black Sea in 1919, supporting the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Both ships were active members of the Greek fleet until 1932, after which Kilkis became a training ship and Lemnos a coastal battery.
The Kilkis and Lemnos were sunk April 23, 1941 by Stuka dive bombers during the Nazi invasion of Greece. The Greeks had kept the ships' wire lattice masts intact for 3 decades: far longer than the USN employed them. Along with the already-defunct Russian battleships of the Andrei Pervozvanny class, they were the only European battleships to employ this type of mast. The wrecks remained in the Salamis Channel for more than a decade, being salvaged for scrap in the 1950s.
