Bidding on construction of the dry dock is expected to begin in mid-2014 with completion by 2017. Some vessels in England have already been dry birthed as planned, but nothing ever of this size.
Commissioned in 1914, the USS Texas is the oldest of the eight remaining US battleships and the last of the Dreadnaught class, patterned after the British warship of the same name. The Texas possessed unprecedented speed and armaments for the turn of the century a hundred years ago.
During World War II, it served as the American flagship. In 1940, it was again flagship od the US Atlantic Fleet. The ship participated in the D-Day invasion and was hit by a German shell off France, resulting in casualties.
Transferred to the Pacific, it was also at the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
The Texas' ten 14-inch guns fired 1,500 pound shells 12 miles. In 1948, the Texas was decommissioned and came under control of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and annually some 100,000 visit the ship.
Good News. --DaCoot.
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