US Navy Battleships 1886-98: The pre-dreadnoughts and monitors that fought the Spanish-American War

The US Navy's commissioning of the modern Brazilian battleship Riachuelo and poor performance against the Spanish fleet led to its exit from isolationism and the development of its first true battleships, which set the enduring US battleship standard of being heavily armed and armoured at the expense of speed. This study examines these ships' political compromises, clean sheet designs, operational experience, and experimental improvements, which inspired the creation of an embryonic American military-industrial complex, enabled a permanent outward-looking shift in American foreign policy, and laid the foundations of the modern US Navy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 48 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

After the American Civil War, the US Navy had been allowed to decline into obscurity, but the commissioning of the modern Brazilian battleship Riachuelo and its poor performance against the contemporary Spanish fleet forced the US out of its isolationist stance towards battleships. The first true US battleships began with the experimental Maine and Texas, followed by the three-ship Indiana class and the Iowa class, which incorporated lessons from the previous ships. These initial ships set the enduring US battleship standard of being heavily armed and armoured at the expense of speed. This fully illustrated study examines these first six US battleships, a story of political compromises, clean sheet designs, operational experience, and experimental improvements. These ships directly inspired the creation of an embryonic American military-industrial complex, enabled a permanent outward-looking shift in American foreign policy, and laid the foundations of the modern US Navy.

Weight: 174g
Dimension: 186 x 250 x 2 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472835024