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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images -- Picture Data

Photo #: NH 89082 (extended caption)

USS Wisconsin (Battleship # 9)

Crewmen posed around the ship's forward 13"/35 twin gun turret, 1901.
Photograph published on a stereograph card by C.H. Graves, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1904 or later.
See below for text printed on the reverse of the original card.

Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN(MSC), 1979

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 126KB; 595 x 675 pixels

A stereo pair version of this image is available as Photo # NH 89082-A

Online Image of stereo pair: 93KB; 675 x 360 pixels

 


Text printed on the reverse of the original stereograph card:

AMERICAN GUNNERS IN LEAD.

Manila, Feb. 27, 1904 -- "The Battleship Wisconsin has beaten the world's record with 13-inch guns, its expert gunners having made nine bullseyes out of ten shots fired in ten minutes." Our stereograph shows, gathered on the fo'castle of the famous ship, the "men behind the guns" who performed this remarkable feat of marksmanship. The record of gunnery is not the only one held by the Wisconsin, for it should also be remembered that she has a record for speed. In October 1900, she made the trip from Seattle to San Francisco, 806 miles, in 59 hours, the previous record for the distance having been held by the steamer Queen, the fastest craft on the coast, which took 65 hours to cover the distance. The Wisconsin was launched Nov. 26, 1898, from the yards of the Union Iron Works, at San Francisco, and was christened by Miss Elizabeth Stephenson, daughter of Congressman Isaac Stephenson, of Wisconsin. She is a sister ship of the Illinois and the Alabama, and carries armor that weighs 2,800 tons. Her length is 366 feet, beam 72 feet; displacement, 11,525 tons; speed, 16 knots an hour, but she has excelled this several times. The Wisconsin carries four 13-inch breech-loaders, fourteen 6-inch quick-firing guns, seventeen 6-pounders, six 1-pounders and four machine guns. Her great engines develop 10,000 horse-power, and her complement is 490 men and officers. She is protected with a nickel-steel belt, varying from four to sixteen and one-half inches in thickness, and her conning tower is coated with ten-inch armor.

Note by Naval Historical Center: The above text implies that the men seen in the photograph are those on board Wisconsin on 27 February 1904. However, the caption on the card's front states that the photograph was copyrighted in 1901, which is the year the ship was first placed in commission.

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

If you want higher resolution reproductions than this digital image, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

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19 November 2002