Virginia Class Battleship (1904)
From The Dreadnought Project
Five Virginia class battleships were completed for the U.S. Navy in 1906 and 1907.
| Overview of 5 vessels | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citations for this data available on individual ship pages | |||||
| Name | Builder | Laid Down | Launched | Completed | Fate |
| Virginia | Newport News | 21 May, 1902 | 5 Apr, 1904 | 7 May, 1906 | Expended 1923 |
| Nebraska | Moran Brothers Shipyard | 4 Jul, 1902 | 7 Oct, 1904 | 1 Jul, 1907 | Sold 1923 |
| Georgia | Bath Iron Works | 31 Aug, 1901 | 11 Oct, 1904 | 24 Sep, 1906 | Sold 1923 |
| New Jersey | Fore River | 3 Apr, 1902 | 10 Nov, 1904 | 12 May, 1906 | Expended 1923 |
| Rhode Island | Fore River | 1 May, 1902 | 17 May, 1904 | 19 Feb, 1906 | Sold 1923 |
Design & Construction
The Virginias marked an unfortunate return to the impractical double-decker turrets of the Kearsarge and Kentucky. By the time they entered service improvements in gunnery and the launch of the Dreadnought had negated any small benefit these turrets might have provided.[1] Their double turrets as well as their varied secondary battery are an example of Sir John Fisher's comment about the practice of arming warships "as if you were peopling the Ark, and wanted representatives of all calibres".[2]
Armament
As Completed
- four 12-inch/40 caliber
- eight 8-inch/40 caliber
- twelve 6-inch/50 caliber
- twelve 3-inch/50 caliber
- twelve 3-pounders
- two 1-pounders
Torpedoes
- four 21-inch submerged tubes, twelve to sixteen torpedoes
See Also
Footnotes
- ↑ Friedman. U.S. Battleships. pp. 42-43.
- ↑ Fisher, "Rough Headings of 6th Lecture", 30 December 1901, in Extracts from Confidential Papers. Mediterranean Fleet, 1899-1902., p. 10, MSS 253/1/2, Box 1/2, Thomas E. Crease MSS, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth.
- ↑ Friedman. U.S. Battleships. p. 429.
- ↑ Bauer and Roberts. Register of Ships. p. 104.
Bibliography
- Bauer, K. Jack and Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. New York: Greenwood Press.
- Chesneau, Robert; Kolesnik, Eugene (editors) (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
- Friedman, Norman (1985). U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-715-1. (on Amazon.com).
- Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). The U.S. Navy Warship Series: The New Navy 1883-1922. New York: Routledge.
| Virginia Class Pre-dreadnought | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1899 Order | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Virginia | Nebraska | Georgia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1900 Order | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| New Jersey | Rhode Island | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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