Greek battleship Limnos
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 Limnos - Θ/Κ Λήμνος |
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| Career (Greece) |  |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | Naval Battle of Lemnos |
| Laid down: | May 12, 1904 |
| Launched: | December 9, 1905 |
| Commissioned: | July 22, 1914 |
| Fate: | April 23, 1941 near Salamis |
| Notes: | previously USS Idaho (BB-24) |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Mississippi class battleship |
| Displacement: | Full load 14,095 tons Standard 13,000 tons |
| Length: | 382 ft (116 m) |
| Beam: | 77 ft (23 m) |
| Draft: | 24.7 ft (7.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | Engines: triple-expansion reciprocating engines, Shafts: 2 (twin screw ship), Power: 10,000 hp |
| Speed: | 17 knots maximium |
| Complement: | 744 |
| Armament: | 4×12-inch (305 mm), 8×8-inch (203 mm), 8×7-inch (178 mm), 12×3-inch (76 mm), 6×3 pdr, 2×1 pdr, 6×.30 MG, 2×21-inch (533 mm) T/T |
| Armour: | Belt: 9 in, Turrets: 12 in, Deck: 3 in, Conning Tower: 9 in |
Limnos, sometimes spelled Lemnos (Greek: Θ/Κ Λήμνος), was a 13,000 ton Mississippi-class Greek battleship (θωρηκτό) named for a crucial naval battle of the First Balkan War.
[edit] History of the ship
Laid down for the United States Navy in 1904, she served in that navy as the USS Idaho (BB-24) from 1908 until 1914, when both Mississippi-class ships were purchased from the United States by Greece. Taken over at Newport News, Virginia, late in July of that year, the ship was seized by France along with the rest of the Greek Fleet in 1916 due to Greece's neutrality in World War I (see the National Schism). When the Greek Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos was re-established as head of the entire country in June, 1917 and Greece entered the war on the side of the Entente, France turned both battleships over to the Royal Hellenic Navy, where she served in World War I and in the 1919 Allied Crimean expedition in support of White Russian forces, along with Kilkis, Leon and Panther under the command of Rear Admiral G. Kakoulidis, RHN. During the Asia Minor Campaign, she was flagship to the Second Fleet, based in Smyrna, under Rear Admiral G. Kalamidas RHN; her mission was the surveillance of the Black Sea, Dardanelles and Asia Minor coasts. In 1926-28, she underwent boiler repairs. In 1932, her armament was removed and she was employed as a coastal battery at the island of Aegina. She was sunk in the Salamis channel by Stuka dive bombers on April 23, 1941, during the German invasion of Greece. Her wreck was salvaged for scrap in the 1950s.
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