A pictorial history of the U.S. Navy Battleship.

1. The Evolution of the United States Navy Battleship (Monitors to Missiles)

2. This is intended primarily as a pictorial history of U.S. Navy battleships. While researching the USS Delaware (BB 28) I found it interesting to see how the monitors slowly rose up from the waterline and, gaining armament, evolved into the battleships we know today. Monitors also initiated the development of armed cruisers but the Navy's method of classification prior to the early 1900's was a haphazard affair and cruisers are particularly hard to follow . The concept of hull numbering did not begin until the ‘New Navy Battle Monitors’ of 1882.

3. The Monitor Concept Designed in 1861 by John Ericsson, this was the US Navy's first armored monitor. The concept was meant to reduce the amount of required armor by using an extremely low freeboard. This also reduced the target area for the enemy gunners. Because of this design monitors were typically not suited to the open ocean as they were susceptible to taking on water. The Monitor was commissioned in 1862 and classified as a ‘ coastal monitor' but she sank in a gale off of Cape Hatteras that same year.

4. Monitor Class coastal monitor– 1862 (single ship)

5. Passiac Class coastal monitor – 1862 (10 ships) USS Comanche USS Catskill USS Lehigh USS Montauk USS Nahant USS Nantucket USS Passiac USS Patapsco USS Sangamon USS Weehawkeen

6. Neosho Class river monitor – 1863 (2 ships) USS Neosho USS Osage

7. Casco Class river monitor – 1863 (20 ship class but none saw action) USS Casco USS Chimo USS Cohoes USS Etlah USS Klamath USS Koka USS Modoc USS Napa USS Naubuc USS Nausett USS Shawnee USS Shiloh USS Squando USS Suncook USS Tunxis USS Umpqua USS Wasuc USS Waxsaw USS Yazoo USS Yuma

8. Milwaukee Class coastal monitor – 1864 (4 ships) USS Chickasaw USS Kickapoo USS Milwaukee USS Winnebago

9. Onondaga Class seagoing monitor – 1864 (single ship) Onondaga was the first ironclad to deploy rifled guns. Muzzle loading rifled cannons known as Parrott Rifles.

10. Ozark Class river monitor – 1864 (single ship) USS Ozark

11. Monadnock Class seagoing monitor – 1864 (2 Ships) USS Agamenticus USS Monadnock

12. Kalamazoo Class Planned as a class of four and first laid down in 1863, they were never completed. Designed to be built at U.S. Navy yards, which lacked the facilities to construct metal-ribbed vessels, she was built with improperly seasoned timber, and left exposed to the elements. All four hulls began to rot while still on the stocks and the last was broken up in 1884.

13. Kalamazoo Class monitor – 1863 (4 ships) USS Kalamzoo USS Passaconaway USS Quinsigamond USS Shakamaxon

14. Canonicus Class coastal monitor – 1864 (9 ships) USS Ajax USS Catawba USS Canonicus USS Mahopac USS Manhattan USS Oneota USS Saugus USS Tecumseh USS Wyandotte

15. Dictator Class seagoing monitor – 1864 (2 ships) USS Dictator USS Puritan

16. Miantonomoh Class seagoing monitor – 1865 (2 ships) USS Miantonomoh USS Tonawanda

18. Monterey Class battle monitor – 1893 USS Monterey (BM 6)

19. Amphitrite Class Battle Monitor – 1895 USS Amphitrite (BM 2) USS Monadnock (BM 3) USS Terror (BM 4) USS Miantonomoh (BM 5)

20. Indiana Class battleship - 1895 USS Indiana (BB 1) USS Massachusetts (BB 2) USS Oregon (BB 3)

21. Second Class Battleships Considered such owing to their armament and machinery, these were essentially a bigger gunned Armored Cruiser. The main batteries on the Maine were arranged in echelon with the forward turret on the starboard side and the after turret on the port side thus eliminating an effective broadside salvo. This arrangement was reversed on the Texas. Neither Maine nor Texas received hull designations The explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor was a prime catalyst for the Spanish-American War.

22. USS Maine (2 nd Class Battleship) – 1895 (single ship)

23. USS Texas (2 nd Class Battleship) – 1895 (single ship)

24. Puritan Class Battle Monitor – 1896 USS Puritan (BM 1)

26. Iowa Class Battleship – 1896 USS Iowa (BB 4)

28. Kearsarge Class Battleship – 1900 USS Kearsarge (BB 5) USS Kentucky (BB 6)

29. Illinois Class Battleship – 1901 USS Illinois (BB 7) USS Alabama (BB 8) USS Wisconsin (BB 9)

30. Arkansas Class Battle Monitor Laid down in 1899 but not commissioned until 1902 this was the end of the "New Navy" battle monitors. The battleships of the pre-dreadnought era had demonstrated their design superiority over the monitor concept.

31. Arkansas Class Battle Monitor – 1902 USS Arkansas (BM 7) USS Nevada (BM 8) USS Florida (BM 9) USS Wyoming (BM 10)

32. Maine Class Battleship – 1902 USS Maine (BB 10) USS Missouri (BB 11) USS Ohio (BB 12)

33. Virginia Class Battleship – 1903 (Virginia was sunk by Gen. Billy Mitchell in his air power demonstration of 1923) USS Virginia (BB 13) USS Nebraska (BB 14) USS Georgia (BB 15) USS New Jersey (BB 16) USS Rhode Island (BB 17)

34. Connecticut Class Battleship - 1906 USS Connecticut (BB 18) USS Louisiana (BB 19) USS Vermont (BB 20) USS Kansas (BB 21) USS Minnesota (BB 22) USS New Hampshire (BB 25)

35. Mississippi (2 nd Class Battleship) - 1908 USS Mississippi (BB 23) USS Idaho (BB 24)

36. South Carolina Class - 1910 USS South Carolina (BB 26) USS Michigan (BB 27) (This was the first US design of the ‘Dreadnought Era’.)

37. Delaware Class - 1910 USS Delaware (BB 28) USS North Dakota (BB 29) (This was the first true US ‘Dreadnought’ design)

38. Florida Class - 1911 USS Florida (BB 30) USS Utah (BB 31) * * Sunk Dec 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor

39. Wyoming Class - 1912 USS Wyoming (BB 32) USS Arkansas (BB 33)

40. New York Class - 1914 USS New York (BB 34) USS Texas (BB 35) (USS Texas became the first museum battleship in 1948. Moored at San Jacinto State Park.)

42. Nevada Class - 1916 USS Nevada (BB 36) * USS Oklahoma (BB 37) * Nevada Point at Pearl Harbor, HI is named in her honor

43. Pennsylvania Class - 1916 USS Pennsylvania (BB 38) USS Arizona (BB 39) * * USS Arizona remains as a memorial at Pearl Harbor, HI.

44. New Mexico Class - 1918 USS New Mexico (BB 40) USS Mississippi (BB 41) USS Idaho (BB 42)

45. Tennessee Class - 1920 USS Tennessee (BB 43) USS California (BB 44)

46. Colorado Class - 1921 USS Colorado (BB 45) USS Maryland (BB 46) USS Washington (BB 47) USS West Virginia (BB 48) (BB 47 was laid down but not completed.)

47. North Carolina Class - 1941 USS North Carolina (BB 55) USS Washington (BB 56)

48. South Dakota Class - 1942 USS South Dakota (BB 57) USS Indiana (BB 58) USS Massachusetts (BB 59) USS Alabama (BB 60)

49. Iowa Class - 1943 USS Iowa (BB 61) USS New Jersey (BB 62) USS Missouri (BB 63) USS Wisconsin (BB 64) USS Illinois (BB 65) USS Kentucky (BB 66)