The USS New York was an American super-dreadnought battleship launched in 1912; she and her sister USS Texas were the first American
warships armed with 356-millimeter cannons. A peculiarity of the design was the installation of triple-expansion engines instead of
turbines, due to economical reasons. The USS New York was part of the force sent by the United States Navy to reinforce the
British Grand Fleet in the North Sea, near the end of the First World War. During that time, she was involved in at least two incidents
with German U-Boats, and it is believed that she was the only American warship to have sunk one of those submarines, albeit during an
accidental collision. The drawing shows the USS New York as she was in 1918.
The USS New York served during the Second World War, performing patrols and escorting convoys during the early phase of the war. She
stormed coastal artillery positions around Casablanca during the operation Torch, to subsequently become a training ship. Later in the
war she operated in the Pacific, providing artillery support for the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In that time the two ships of
the class had been extensively modernized with new boilers, improved horizontal and underwater protection, radars (these were the first
American warships equipped with them, in December 1938) and 15 degrees more of elevation for the main armament to increase its range.
After the war, the USS New York was declared obsolete and used for the nuclear weapon tests carried in the Bikini Atoll in 1946. She survived the explosions and the effects of
the radiation on the ship were studied; but she was eventually used as a target and sunk in 1948. On the other hand, the USS Texas was
preserved as a museum ship in the vicinity of Houston, becoming the only surviving super-dreadnought battleship to the present day.
Class: New York (2 units - New York (BB-34), Texas (BB-35))
Type: Battleship
Length: 175 meters
Beam: 29 meters as built; 32.4 meters in 1945
Draught: 8.7 meters as built; 9.6 meters in 1945
Displacement (normal): 27430 tonnes as built; 29970 tonnes in 1945
Propulsion: 2 x shaft, vertical triple-expansion steam engines, 14 x coal boiler Babcock and Wilcox
(replaced by 6 x oil boiler Bureau Express in 1926-27), 28100 horsepower
Speed: 20 knots (37 kilometers/hour)
Range: 7060 nautical miles (13080 kilometers) at 10 knots
Fuel: 3010 tonnes of coal and 410 tonnes of petrol
Complement: 864 as built; 1530 in 1945
Armament (as built): 10 x 356-millimeter 45-caliber cannon, 18 x 127-millimeter 51-caliber cannon, 2 x 76-millimeter cannon,
4 x 533-millimeter torpedo tube
Armament (in 1945): 10 x 356-millimeter 45-caliber cannon, 6 x 127-millimeter 51-caliber cannon, 10 x 76-millimeter cannon,
42 x 40-millimeter cannon, 36 x 20-millimeter cannon, 3 x aircraft
Armor: 254-305 millimeters in belt, 152 millimeters in ends, 38 millimeters in torpedo bulwark, 76 millimeters in decks,
254-305 millimeters in barbettes, 51-356 millimeters in main turrets, 229 millimeters in casemates, 305 millimeters in conning tower
|