ship of the class was assigned the name Kearsarge that yard personnel working on her slipway for months (BB-5) and the sistership the name (BB-6). after the launching reportedly became intoxicated from With due ceremony, the hulls of both ships were the fumes given off by the bourbon that had soaked into laid down on 30 June 1896 and March 1898 and was the ground. witnessed by one of the largest crowds ever gathered Though now afloat, it was to be another two long for a ship launching. Many Kentuckians were in years before the Kentucky would be ready for active attendance as special excursion trains had been run service. The major delaying factor was the inability of from Louisville, Lexington, and Cincinnati to Newport US industry to manufacture armor plate to Navy News by the Chesapeake Ohio Railroad. specifications. Much of the armor that was delivered was The first vessel down too brittle to stand up to the gunfire of existing naval the ways was the Kearsarge, weapons. The Kentucky was finally commissioned on 15 launched by Mrs. Herbert Winslow with May 1900 by Capt. Colby M. Chester some three-months the traditional bottle of champagne. The Kentucky, after the commissioning of the Kearsarge. unfortunately, was not to feel any wine over her bow The Kentucky and Kearsarge when when launched. Miss Christine Bradley, daughter of commissioned were the subjects of much discussion Kentucky Governor William Bradley, influenced by due to the arrangement of their 13- and 8-in guns. the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, chose to The 8-in guns were placed on top of the 13-in guns. launch the Kentucky with a bottle of spring The result was a two-storied turret, the upper turret Was Adm. ’ criticism he pre-dreadnought battleship water from the Lincoln Homestead at being bolted to the lower turret so that it had to be Kentucky (BB-6) was laid down in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Legend has it that trained in the same direction as the lower. Criticisms of the USS Kentucky overly T 1896, authorization for her con- the only thing that prevented a major to such a system were that the firing of the upper struction being provided in the Naval disaster, as a result of using spring turrets would render the lower harsh? This history of the Appropriation Bill of 2 March 1895. water, was that numerous turret uninhabitable due to the Kearsarge-class battleship The contract awarded to “Kentucky concussion produced by the guns, the disabling of Newport News Ship Building Colonels” christened the Kentucky the turret rendered all four guns useless and all will let readers draw their Company called for two ships with bottles of bourbon as she four guns had to fire on the same bearing. with a length of 375-ft 4-in, a slid down Those in favor of the turrets pointed out to a own conclusion beam of 72-ft 3-in, and the way — saving in armor weight due to only having to displacing not over 11,540- so much protect one turret instead of two. This saving in BY CHARLES H. tons. Armament was to bourbon weight allowed the mounting of more rapid-fire BOGART consist of four 13-in, four being 5-in guns and allowed an increase in speed. Also 8-in, and 14 5-in guns broken on only by mounting the two 8-in turrets this way plus numerous 6- and 1- her side could all four 8-in guns be fired on both pounders and four 18-in beams. Any other type of mounting using torpedoes. The the assigned displacement of the ships Vice Admiral William Sowden Sims ships were to be twin would have given the ships less was extremely critical screwed and capable of firepower than the preceding regarding USS Kentucky. reaching 16-kts. The lead four battleships of the Indiana-class. Conversely,

Magnificent study of USS Kentucky (BB-6) during 1900.

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