Commissioned in 1914, Battleship Texas stands today as the last surviving U.S. battleship to fight in both World Wars and the first American battleship ever designated a National Historic Landmark. When she entered service on March 12, 1914, she was considered the most powerful warship afloat, armed with ten 14-inch guns capable of firing 1,400-pound shells more than 12 miles - a technological leap that reshaped naval warfare.
Construction began in 1911 at Newport News Shipbuilding, and she launched in May 1912, just a month after the sinking of the Titanic. Shortly after commissioning, Texas was sent to Veracruz, Mexico during the U.S. occupation of the city, marking her first foreign deployment.
Later that year she made her first visit to Galveston, where she received the silver service from the earlier 1895 battleship Texas.
When the United States entered World War I, Texas joined the Grand Fleet in the North Sea, helping escort the German High Seas Fleet during its surrender in November 1918 - the largest naval capitulation in history. In 1919, she launched the first airplane ever flown from a U.S. battleship, a Sopwith Camel taking off from a temporary platform atop her forward turret.
During the interwar years, Texas underwent major modernization: tripod masts replaced her cage mast, anti-torpedo bulges were added, and she became the first U.S. battleship equipped with anti-aircraft guns and modern fire-control systems.
She later served as flagship of the U.S. Fleet and carried President Herbert Hoover to the Pan-American Conference in 1928.
Texas entered World War II as the Atlantic Fleet flagship of Admiral Ernest J. King. She supported Operation Torch in North Africa, where she broadcast General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first “Voice of Freedom” message.
On D-Day, she bombarded German positions at Pointe du Hoc and Cherbourg, where she sustained several hits - including an unexploded 240 mm shell that became a good-luck keepsake.
Following repairs, Texas supported landings in southern France, then shifted to the Pacific, providing fire support at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After Japan’s surrender, she made three “Magic Carpet” voyages, bringing more than 4,000 American troops home.
Decommissioned in 1948, Texas was turned over to her namesake state and became the world’s first permanent battleship museum.
Today she is undergoing extensive restoration in Galveston, with a planned 2027 reopening and permanent berth at Pier 15 - a fitting home for a ship whose last captain said, “Her wars are over; she has won the right to rest peacefully in Texas waters.”