Kearsarge in its original appearance. The two double
turrets, fore and aft, turned as one. The secondary battery, amidships, is
prominent.
Bearing an already-famous name, Kearsarge as a member of
President Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘Great White Fleet’ became one of the best-known
of American warships. But it also had a valuable later incarnation.
The first Kearsarge, a screw sloop, sank the Confederate
commerce raider Alabama in the American Civil War on 19 June 1864. The next,
BB-5 on the Navy List, was laid down on 30 June 1896 at Newport News
Shipbuilding Co., launched on 24 March 1898, and completed on 20 February 1900.
It cost $1,849,380.
The freeboard was 0.9m (3ft) higher than Indiana, showing
that some lessons were being learned, but its nominal coal capacity was still
only 453 tonnes (500 tons). The side armour was thickened to 381mm (15in) and
the armoured deck sloped downwards towards the ends from the top of the main
belt.
A long central casemate carried seven 127mm (5in)
American-built guns on each side: its 152mm (6in) ‘Harveyised’ steel armour was
intended to resist 152mm (6in) enemy shells fired from 914m (1000yd). Splinter
bulkheads of 50mm (2in) steel separated each gun compartment within the
casemate.
Innovations
Among the ship’s innovations was 102mm (4in) bow armour.
Another was the mounting of a powerful secondary armament, consisting of four
203mm (8in) guns. Their turrets were placed directly on top of the 330mm (13in)
main turrets. While it resolved the problem of where to put them, it meant that
both turrets could not fire at the same time. The advantages were a shared
barbette and hoisting trunk, and control of both turrets by a single officer.
But the disadvantages included heavy weight on the main turret bearings and the
likelihood of all forward guns being put out of action by one hit. Though light
guns would often be placed on heavy turrets in the future, the experiment of
double-deck heavy and semi-heavy guns was not to be repeated. There had been ‘a
long, scientific and sometimes acrimonious discussion’ (according to a
contemporary newspaper) debate in Navy circles about the placing, as well as of
the respective merits and deficiencies of 305mm (12in) and 330mm (13in) guns.
But the bigger gun had a punch that was estimated by the Bureau of Ordinance as
30 per cent more powerful (the weight of a shell rises at least the cube of the
increase in calibre) and in tests the 330mm (13in) gun pierced 356mm (14in)
armour at 1372m (1500yd) while the 305mm (12in) shells failed to break through.
To many foreign observers, American battleships continued to be over-gunned for
their size. Kearsarge presented a rather austere appearance, with the long
blank sides of the casemate and two tall thin funnels between pole masts.
Draught
American naval tradition fondly remembered the heavily armed
frigate, packing a big punch within a relatively small hull, but more
up-to-date considerations weighed with the naval planners. Relations with
Mexico and other American states were of more concern than global strategy in
1900, and it was to make operations in shallow waters off Mexico possible that
Kearsarge’s draught was limited to 7.16m (23ft 6in); though fully loaded,
including coal to its maximum capacity of 1442 tonnes (1590 tons), the ship
would undoubtedly have exceeded that. The restriction of draught was ultimately
lifted, but it contributed to the double-turret design, as an attempt to save
overall weight even if it imposed a heavy strain on the hull at these points.
It was not until the 18,143 tonne (20,000 tons) Delaware class, laid down in
1907 and completed in 1910, that the draught of a US Navy battleship exceeded
7.47m (24ft 6in).
Years of activity
Kearsarge (incidentally the only US battleship not to be
named after a State of the Union) was deployed as flagship of the North
Atlantic Squadron. In the summer of 1903 it served as flagship of a special
squadron on a goodwill visit to European countries, including Great Britain and
Germany. On 1 December it left New York for Guantanamo, Cuba, for the formal
handover of the US base there. Further goodwill visits were to Spain and Greece
in June–July 1904. USS Maine took over as Atlantic flagship on 31 March 1905
but Kearsarge remained with the fleet until joining the ‘Great White Fleet’
which showed the American flag (and America’s new naval strength) around the
world between 16 December 1907 and 22 February 1909.
In September 1909 a long modernisation process was begun at
the Philadelphia Navy Yard and Kearsarge was not back in commission until 23
June 1915, again with the Atlantic Fleet, landing marines at Veracruz, Mexico,
during an operation between 28 September 1915 and 5 January 1916. On reserve
from 4 February until April 1917, it then served as a training ship while also
patrolling the east coast between Massachusetts and Florida.
New role
On 10 May 1920 Kearsarge was decommissioned and work began
on converting it into a crane ship, its superstructure replaced by a giant
226-tonne (250 tons) revolving crane for dockyard work and salvage. ‘Blisters’
were built on to the hull to improve stability when lifting. In this capacity
it raised the sunken submarine Squalus which had foundered off the New
Hampshire coast on 23 May 1939. The name was transferred on 6 November 1941 to
a new aircraft carrier, but as Crane Ship No. 1 it continued to serve after
1945, first at San Francisco, then at Boston, where it was finally struck on 22
June 1955, and sold for scrap on 9 August that year.
Specification
Dimensions
Length 114.4m (375ft 4in), Beam 22.02m (72ft 3in), Draught
(as designed) 7.16m (23ft 6in), Displacement 10,469 tonnes (11,540 tons)
Propulsion
2 vertical triple expansion engines, 7457kW (10,000hp), 2
screws
Armament
4 330mm (13in) guns, 4 203mm (8in) guns, 4 152mm (6in) guns,
20 6-pounder and 8 1-pounder guns, 4 457mm (18in) torpedo tubes
Armour
Main belt 419–127mm (16.5–5in), Barbettes 381–318mm
(15–12.5in), Main turrets 432-381mm (17–15in), Upper 279–15mm (11–6in), Conning
tower 254mm (10in)
Range
5556km (3000nm) at 10 knots
Speed
16 knots
Complement
553
