USS Indiana (BB-1)

USS Indiana was the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time.[5] Authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense[6] and as a result, her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.

Quick facts: History, United States, General characteristi... ▼

USS Indiana between 1900 and 1908
History
United States
Name	Indiana
Namesake	State of Indiana
Ordered	30 June 1890
Builder	William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia
Laid down	7 May 1891
Launched	28 February 1893
Commissioned	20 November 1895
Decommissioned	24 December 1903
Recommissioned	9 January 1906
Decommissioned	23 May 1914
Recommissioned	24 May 1917
Decommissioned	31 January 1919
Renamed	Coast Battleship Number 1 on 29 March 1919
Fate	Sunk as target on 1 November 1920 Sold for scrapping 19 March 1924
General characteristics [1][2][3][4]
Class and type	Indiana-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	10,288 long tons (10,453 t) (standard)
Length	350 ft 11 in (106.96 m) (overall) 358 ft (109 m) (waterline)
Beam	69 ft 3 in (21.11 m) (wl)
Draft	27 ft (8.2 m)
Installed power	4 × Scotch boilers
Propulsion	2 sets triple-expansion steam engines 2 × screws
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Range	4,900 nmi (9,100 km; 5,600 mi)[note 1]
Complement	32 officers 441 men
Armament	2 × twin 13 in (330 mm)/35 caliber guns 4 × twin 8 in (203 mm)/35 cal guns 4 × 6 in (152 mm)/40 cal guns 20 × 6-pounder 57 mm (2.2 in) guns 6 × 1-pounder 37 mm (1.5 in) guns 4 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes[note 2]
Armor	Belt: 18–8.5 in (457–216 mm) 13" turrets: 15 in (381 mm) Hull: 5 in (127 mm) 8" turrets: 6 in (152 mm) Conning Tower: 10 in (254 mm) Deck: 3 in (76 mm)
General characteristics (Later refits)
Installed power	8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers (1905) 9,000 ihp (6.7 MW)
Armament	4 × 6 in/40 cal guns removed (1908) 12 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal guns added (1910)

Indiana served in the Spanish–American War (1898) as part of the North Atlantic Squadron. She took part in both the blockade of Santiago de Cuba and the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, which occurred when the Spanish fleet attempted to break through the blockade. Although unable to join the chase of the escaping Spanish cruisers, she was partly responsible for the destruction of the Spanish destroyers Plutón and Furor. After the war, she quickly became obsolete—despite several modernizations—and spent most of her time in commission as a training ship or in the reserve fleet, with her last commission during World War I as a training ship for gun crews. She was decommissioned for the third and final time in January 1919 and was shortly after reclassified Coast Battleship Number 1 so that the name Indiana could be reused. She was sunk in shallow water as a target in aerial bombing tests in 1920, and her hull was sold for scrap in 1924.