USS Idaho (BB-24)

USS Idaho on the Hudson River
History
United States
Name:	Idaho
Namesake:	State of Idaho
Ordered:	3 March 1903
Builder:	William Cramp & Sons
Laid down:	12 May 1904
Launched:	9 December 1905
Sponsored by:	Louise Gooding
Commissioned:	1 April 1908
Decommissioned:	30 July 1914
Struck:	30 July 1914
Fate:	Transferred to Greece, sunk by German aircraft, April 1941
General characteristics
Class and type:	Mississippi-class battleship
Displacement:	13,000 long tons (13,209 t)
Length:	382 ft (116 m)
Beam:	77 ft (23 m)
Draft:	24.7 ft (7.5 m)
Speed:	17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Complement:	744 officers and men
Armament:	4 × 12 in (305 mm)/45 caliber Mark 5 guns (2x2) 8 × 8 in (203 mm)/45 cal Mark 6 guns (4x2) 8 × 7 in (178 mm)/45 caliber Mark 2 guns 12 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber guns 2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 7–9 in (178–229 mm) Barbettes: 6–10 in (152–254 mm) Turret (mains) 8–12 in (203–305 mm) Turret (secondary): 7 in (178 mm) Conning tower: 9 in

USS Idaho (Battleship No. 24), the second ship of the Mississippi-class battleships, was the second ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the US state of Idaho. After her career in the USN, she was sold to Greece and renamed Lemnos in 1914. Lemnos was sunk by German bombers in April 1941. Idaho and her sister Mississippi were designed in response to Congressional desire to cap the growth and expense of new battleships, whose size and cost had increased dramatically since the first US battleships, the Indianas of 1893, had been authorized. Displacement was limited to 13,000 long tons (13,209 tonnes), a reduction of 3,000 long tons (3,000 t) from the prior Connecticut class.

In the early twentieth century, the US Navy was growing rapidly. The Navy commissioned its first battleships in 1895, and by the middle of the next decade Jane's Fighting Ships ranked its battle line second only to the British Navy. However, this rapid growth was not universally supported either within the government or within the Navy. Compromises between powerful groups were frequently necessary in order to get funding.

The Mississippi-class ships were designed to meet Congressional and Navy Department objectives of reducing the escalating cost of new battleships, the quantity, size, and cost of which had increased dramatically over the first two decades of US battleship production.

Preliminary plans for the first two US battleships were completed in 1885. Construction was approved in 1886, and the first keel was laid down in 1888. However, technical difficulties, particularly with armor, delayed completion and neither was commissioned until 1895. By the time these were commissioned they were obsolete as newer, larger designs were being completed. By the end of fiscal 1902 ten battleships and two second class battleships had been commissioned, with seven more battleships authorized but not completed. The per-ship cost had doubled from the $4 million range for the Illinois class in the 1896 budget to nearly $8 million for Connecticut in the 1902 budget. The Mississippi-class ships would cost just under $6 million each.

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Wikipedia