USS Indiana Pre Dreadnought Battleship

~ USS Indiana Pre Dreadnought Battleship ~

The model has been built to a very high standard, with steel wire railings, anchor chains and rigging.

The model is presented in a perspex case on an oak board, modelled with a stormy sea.

~ USS Indiana ~

USS Indiana (BB-1) was the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time. Authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense and as a result, her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.

Indiana served in the Spanish–American War (1898) as part of the North Atlantic Squadron. She took part in both the blockade of Santiago de Cuba and the battle of Santiago de Cuba, which occurred when the Spanish fleet attempted to break through the blockade. Although unable to join the chase of the escaping Spanish cruisers, she was partly responsible for the destruction of the Spanish destroyers Plutón and Furor. After the war she quickly became obsolete—despite several modernizations—and spent most of her time in commission as a training ship or in the reserve fleet, with her last commission during World War I as a training ship for gun crews. She was decommissioned for the third and final time in January 1919 and was shortly after reclassified Coast Battleship Number 1 so that the name Indiana could be reused. She was sunk in shallow water as a target in aerial bombing tests in 1920 and her hull was sold for scrap in 1924.

~ Condition ~

Apart from one ripped flag, the model is in excellent condition.

~ Dimensions ~

The case is 62 cm (24.25 inches) wide at the base by 31 cm (12.25 inches) deep at the base and 31 cm (12.25 inches) tall.

#11594