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The ''Illinois''-class was a group of three pre-dreadnought battleships of the United States Navy commissioned at the beginning of the 20th century. The three ships, , , and , were built between 1896 and 1901. They were transitional ships; they incorporated advances over preceding designs, including the first modern gun turrets for the main battery, and new rapid-firing secondary guns, but they were also the last American battleships to feature dated technologies like fire-tube boilers and Harvey armor. They were armed with a main battery of four guns in two twin turrets, supported by a secondary battery of fourteen guns. The ships had a designed speed of , though they exceeded that speed by a significant margin. The three ships served in a variety of roles and locations throughout their career. ''Illinois'' served with the North Atlantic Squadron and the European Squadron early in her career, while ''Wisconsin'' served as the flagship of the Pacific Fleet and then in the Asiatic Fleet. ''Illinois'' and ''Alabama'' started the cruise of the Great White Fleet in December 1907 from the east coast of the United States, though by the time they had rounded South America and stopped in California, ''Alabama'' was forced to leave the fleet due to machinery problems. ''Wisconsin'' joined the fleet there and continued on with it to the conclusion of its tour in February 1909. All three ships were modernized in 1909 and served in the Atlantic Fleet for a short time. By 1912, all three ships had been reduced to the reserve fleet and were primarily employed as training ships. They continued in this role during World War I, training men to operate the machinery of warships and transports for the war effort. They were all decommissioned by 1920. ''Illinois'' was loaned to the New York Naval Militia and was converted into a floating arsenal. Renamed ''Prairie State'' in 1941, she was eventually sold for scrapping in 1956. ''Wisconsin'' was broken up for scrap in 1922, while ''Alabama'' was expended as a target ship in September 1921 in bombing tests with the US Army Air Service. ==Design== Design work on what became the ''Illinois'' class began on 25 March 1896, when Rear Admiral J. G. Walker convened a board to consider future battleship designs. At this time, the only modern battleship in service was the low-freeboard ; the high-freeboard battleship and the low-freeboard were under construction. As the Navy had little experience with modern battleships, the question settled on whether to repeat one of the low-freeboard designs, which were suitable for coast defense, to build another ''Iowa'', or to request a new design altogether. The Walker Board determined that another coastal battleship design would be imprudent, since the United States had long coastlines and therefore the new ships would need to have better seakeeping qualities than the ''Indiana'' or ''Kearsarge'' designs. War games conducted by the fleet led the board to specify a draft of no more than to allow the ships to enter the comparatively shallow ports of the Gulf Coast. This limitation had a significant effect on the design; to meet it, weight would have to be kept to a minimum, which prevented copying the ''Iowa'' design outright, unless the main armament was reduced from to guns. The board was unwilling to make that concession, and so a new design would be required. In addition, the board had determined that the secondary gun was unnecessary, since though it could penetrate the thinner casemate armor on enemy battleships, it could not deliver a high-explosive shell through the armor. Instead, the board decided that a new rapid-firing gun would be superior. It would also simplify the ammunition supply, since there would be only one secondary caliber. The board determined that the armor layout of the ''Kearsarge'' design was sufficient and adopted it without change for the new ships. They did discard the superposed turrets of the ''Kearsarge''s, though, by mounting most of the secondary guns in a battery amidships. A new turret design for the main battery was adopted; instead of the old, round -style turrets of earlier ships, the ''Illinois'' design featured a balanced turret with sloped armor on the face. Since it was balanced, it would prevent the ship from listing when the battery was trained to either broadside, as was the case with the ''Indiana''s. The US Congress authorized three new battleships on 10 June 1896; the Bureau of Construction and Repair issued its requests for tenders from the various American shipbuilding companies twelve days later. Contracts for the new ships, to be named ''Illinois'', ''Alabama'', and ''Wisconsin'', were awarded on 28 August. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Illinois-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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