Mississippi class battleship

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Mississippi-class battleship

Class Overview
Class type:	Second-class Battleship
Class name	The State of Mississippi
Preceded by:	Connecticut class
Succeeded by:	South Carolina class
Ships of the line:	Mississippi (BB-23), Idaho (BB-24)
General Characteristics (USS Mississippi)
Displacement:	Standard:13,000 tons Mean War Service:
Length:	382 ft
Beam:	77 ft
Draft:	24 ft7 in
Speed:	17 knots
Complement:	744 officers and men
Max. cruising radius
Power:
Drive:
Fuel:
Armour	Belt: Bulkheads: Barbettes: Turrets: Decks:

The Mississippi-class battleships, USS Mississippi (BB-23) and USS Idaho (BB-24), served in the US Navy from 1908 to 1914. The ships were built as part of a brief Congressional desire to restrain the ballooning tonnage and expense of new battleships (which had vaulted over 10,000 tons in the span of a decade, and promised to increase further with the new all-big-gun designs then on the boards). Neither ship was satisfactory in US service (they were second-class battleships in a navy which could not afford to tie up tonnage and money in second-tier designs) and both were sold to Greece in 1914 to finance the purchase of the new USS Idaho (BB-42). New Hampshire (BB-25) was then ordered as a repeat Connecticut, and would be the last American pre-dreadnought. The ships were essentially repeat Connecticuts which gave up a knot of speed, four 7" guns, eight 3" guns, two torpedo tubes and some freeboard. They were poor sea boats and instantly obsolete upon commissioning, as they hit the water after HMS Dreadnought. As Lemnos and Kilkis, they served the Greek navy until they were sunk by German aircraft at Salamis early in World War II.