Texas’ favorite floating museum could be back in the water as soon as next month, but for now she’s packing a lot more firepower.
Posted earlier this week, the Battleship Texas Foundation’s latest update led off with the efforts to reinstall mounts and hardware for two of the ship’s deck guns, one of which was completed Wednesday; the other was scheduled to be reinstalled today. The first gun’s paint also needs to be touched up and all its parts refitted, the foundation said.
The guns are of the 5”/51 type, meaning they fire projectiles five inches in diameter and the barrel is 51 calibers, or just over 21 feet long. The U.S. Navy began using them in 1911, one year before the USS Texas was launched. With an effective range of nearly 16,000 yards, such artillery was designed to combat torpedoes, destroyers and surface targets, playing a key role in the WWII battle of Wake Island in 1943.
Interestingly, according to the website navweapons.com, in 1919 the captain of the Texas was apparently less than pleased with his 5”/51s, finding them “to be of little use and that their crews crowded the ship.” But by 1941, the ship sported sixteen of these bad boys.
