USS Texas

Commissioned in 1914 and active during World War I, the USS Texas also served in World War II. While serving in the final campaigns in the Pacific in early 1945, she was in combat more days than on all of her previous stations.

She had ten, 14-inch diameter guns that fired high explosives and armor-piercing projectiles weighing 1,500 pounds at targets over twelve miles away. The guns were controlled from fire control stations atop the foremast and in the tower aft of the stack, where the target was observed and the distance estimated using range finders.

She also had twenty-one 5-inch, 51 caliber guns mounted in casemates, that fired eight to ten 50 pound projectiles per minute, with a range of up to eight miles.

She was powered by two, four cylinder, triple-expansion steam engines with 14,050 horsepower. Each turned a propeller 18 feet, 8 inches wide, with her maximum rate of speed at over 20 knots.