Design
In 1910 the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Ordnance had successfully designed and tested its 14-inch (356 mm) naval gun. The gun proved to have remarkable accuracy and uniformity of pattern. The expected move by other nation’s navies to greater calibers had begun with the British BL 13.5 in Mark V guns (343 mm) in its Orion class battleships. The German Navy's shift from 28 cm (11 in) to 30.5 cm (12 in) guns had also been noted. The New York class was the 5th class of battleship design created with a 6th design already starting on the Nevada class. At this time no U.S. dreadnought class battleship had yet hit the water as all were either at some stage of building or in design. Virtually the entire U.S. Navy battle line was being designed by drawing on experience from pre-dreadnought designs or from observation of foreign battleship design.
These two powerful battleships were improved versions of the Wyoming class ships, the main difference being that the New York class had five twin-turret 14-inch (356 mm) guns rather than six twin-turret 12-inch (305 mm) guns. Four guns were placed in two superfiring turrets in the front, four in a similar arrangement in the back. The fifth gun turret was located amidship, facing rearwards, and could only fire abeam. The amidships turret and magazines were difficult to properly cool as the machinery arrangement in the design had high-pressure steam lines running around the area. The New York class was the last full class to use Vertical Triple Expansion (VTE) engine equipment. The inclusion of forced lubrication of the bearings seemed to promise the reliability that VTE engines had lacked at full power and offered superior cruising range to the direct drive turbines that existed at this point in naval engineering. Use would prove that the choice was not a wise one as the VTE proceeded to give problems in use and while the U.S. Navy desired to revert to steam turbines this was never done.
The New York class was the first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, with 3 in (76 mm) guns mounted atop Texas's turrets. Texas was also the first US battleship with flying off platforms for aircraft.
Read more about this topic: New York Class Battleship
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