E-Books →USS Texas BB–35 (Warship Pictorial No.4) (2024)

1910 June 24 - US Congress authorized Battleships Nos. 34 and 35 as the first 14" gunned ships in the US Navy and the world. 1911 Officially named USS Texas by the Secretary of the Navy, von L. Meyer. April 17 - Keel laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Virginia. 1912 May 18 - Launched. Event was recorded on film and is one of the first motion pictures of the launching of a US Navy ship. 1914 March 12 - Commissioned, with Capt. Albert W. Grant as the ship's first captain. May 19/November 23 - Supported US occupation forces at Vera Cruz, Mexico during that country's civil unrest. Summer - Began shakedown cruise from Bremerton to New York City via the Panama Canal. 1915-16 Engaged in fleet tactics and battle maneuvers from the coast of New England to the Caribbean Sea. 1917 Member of Battleship Force of the Atlantic Fleet, based on the York River off Yorktown, Virginia. April 6 - America enters the First World War on the side of the Allies. September 27 - Runs aground off Block Island, Long Island Sound. After lightening, the ship is pulled free by the sister ship, USS New York. Damage to the hull was considerable.