The big three-quarter ton shells that make the ship a formidable contender throughout her career are wheeled past the big guns in a cleaner and more deadly operation; and, at far right, the big guns speak!
Abaft the bridge is the smokestack. Originally she had two stacks to serve coal-fired boilers. In the World War I era every time a warship returned to port the first job was to coal ship, all hands turning to with shovels to get thousands of tons from lighters into the bunkers. It was filthy, backbreaking work and could take up to twelve hours. Underway, the stokers had to
"Every time the Texas fired a broadside the shock wave made the deck plates jump under his feet." balance on a rolling, pitching, deck plate in the steel inferno of a fireroom where the temperature was frequently over 100 ° and shovel coal for hours into the roaring furnaces. In action all hands would be at stations throughout the ship and there would be no relief at the change of watch. It was then that speed would be wanted most and if the engagement lasted long enough the stokers would start dropping from exhaustion. It is surprising to realize that for all the scientific sophistication involved in dreadnoughts, at the crucial hours they were totally dependent on the musclepower and stamina of a few hundred men armed with shovels. The Texas was the last class of coal-fired battleships in the US Navy. In 1925 she was converted to oil, her original 14 boilers being replaced by 6 larger, more efficient oil-fired boilers. The Texas's huge reciprocating engines are a National Engineering Landmark, among the largest of their kind ever built and the last of that size in existence. The engines were anachronistic even in 1911, high-speed rotary turbines being in common use for warships by then. The US Navy had already powered five earlier dreadnoughts with turbines but when the manufacturers refused to meet the specifications for the Texas the older type was reverted to. They are four-cylinder triple-expansion and built to a truly massive scale. Each 14,000hp engine stands three decks high . The cylinders range from 39in to 84in diameter, with a relatively short stroke of 48in . It would have run smoother with a longer stroke, but it had to be made to fit below the top of the belt armor and the armored deck-hunched down , as it were, to stay under cover. The greatest part of the ship's weight is not the guns and not the giant engines that enable her to move the guns-it is the armor that protects her vitals and enables her to keep fighting under the most extreme punishment. It was impossible to protect the whole ship. Only those areas essential to survival were covered . Most obvious are the gun turrets, with 14in faces and 12in sides tapering to Sin at the rear. The barbettes, the cylinders under the turrets, are 12in and protect the hoists down to the magazines . The magazines , engine rooms, and boiler rooms are all behind belt armor and under armored decks. Belt armor is vertically mounted plate along the ship's SEA HIS1DRY, SPRING 1984
The hitting power: Ten rifles of 14in diameter, each 52ft 6in long, mounted in twos in five revolving turrets. Each turret is heavilyannored, and turns upon an armored barbette-a three storey tower reaching down to the magazines in the bowels of the ship. This lethal assemblage spits forth over a tone of screaming metal a distance of up to 12 miles, every 40 seconds. The protective system: The sides of the ship are protected by a main 12in belt, closed in at the ends by lOin armored bulkheads running across the ship, and roofed over with two armored decks totaling 6in thick. The upper armored deck was strengthened by an additional 5!8in to increase resistance to bombs and long-range plunging fire in the 1925 rebuild, and 5ft 5in bulges were added on each side to bring the depth of anti-torpedo protection to 15ft. Six bulkheads would have to be breached before water could get into the vitals of the ship, and then only in the afflicted compartment. No ship is unsinkable, but the Texas after her rebuild qualifies as a very tough nut, even for World Uilr 11 ordnance to crack.
MIDSHIP SECTION 1945
MIDSHIP SECTION 1914 13