takes another stab at building a more perfect flight stand.
The Pre-Dreadnoughts & Monitors That Fought the Spanish-American War
New Vanguard 271
Author: Brian Lane Herder
Illustrator: Paul Wright, Felipe Rodríguez, Alan Gilliland
Publication Date: 27 June 2019
Number of Pages: 48
After the American Civil War, the U.S. Navy had been allowed to decay into complete insignificance, yet the commissioning of the modern Brazilian battleship Riachuelo and poor performance against the contemporary Spanish fleet forced the U.S. out of its isolationist posture towards battleships.
The first true U.S. battleships began with the experimental Maine and Texas, followed by the three-ship Indiana class, and the Iowa class which incorporated lessons from the previous ships. These initial ships set the enduring U.S. battleship standard of being heavily armed and armored at the expense of speed.
This fully illustrated study examines these first six U.S. battleships, a story of political compromises, clean-sheet designs, operational experience, and experimental improvements. These ships directly inspired the creation of an embryonic American military-industrial complex, enabled a permanent outward-looking shift in American foreign policy, and laid the foundations of the modern U.S. Navy.