 Mississippi, while still in US Navy service
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Mississippi |
| Namesake | Mississippi |
| Builder | William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia |
| Laid down | 12 May 1904 |
| Launched | 30 September 1905 |
| Commissioned | 1 February 1908 |
| Decommissioned | 10 July 1914 |
| Identification | Hull number: BB-23 |
| Fate | Sold to Greece, 8 July 1914 |
 Greece | |
| Name | Kilkis |
| Namesake | Battle of Kilkis–Lachanas |
| Acquired | 21 July 1914 |
| Fate | Sunk on 23 April 1941 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Mississippi-class battleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 382 ft (116.4 m) |
| Beam | 77 ft (23.5 m) |
| Draft | 24 ft 8 in (7.5 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
| Crew | 744 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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USS Mississippi (BB-23) was the lead ship of the Mississippi class originally built by the US Navy in 1904–1908. The class was built to a design smaller than other American battleships as the result of a limit on displacement imposed by Congress as part of an effort to constrain costs. The ships were armed with a main battery of four 12 in (305 mm), the standard for pre-dreadnought battleships of the time, but to secure that heavy primary armament, significant compromises in speed, secondary batteries, and armor protection were necessary to keep the ship within the prescribed displacement limit.
Mississippi served with the Atlantic Fleet from 1909 to 1912, which consisted primarily of routine training operations. In 1910, she and other ships of the fleet visited Europe and in 1912, she carried marines to Cuba during civil unrest in the country. Too slow to operate effectively with the fleet, she was placed in reserve in 1912. Mississippi was reactivated in January 1914 for use as an aviation support ship assigned to the Naval Air Station Pensacola, and she supported flying boats during the occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in April 1914. By this time, the navy was prepared to dispose of the ship, and Greece, which had entered a naval arms race with the Ottoman Empire, sought to acquire warships as quickly as possible.
Greece bought Mississippi in July 1914 and renamed her Kilkis (Greek: Θ/Κ Κιλκίς); she thereafter became the flagship of the Greek fleet. She did not see action during World War I, as the Greek government remained neutral until 1917, and after entering the war she only served as a harbor defense ship. She saw service during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, supporting landings in Turkey and covering the final withdrawal of Greek forces in September 1922. Still plagued by her low speed, Kilkis was withdrawn from flagship duties in 1930, placed in reserve in 1932, and used as a training ship until the outbreak of World War II, after which she was used as a floating battery. During the German invasion of Greece on 23 April, she was attacked and sunk by German Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers at Salamis Naval Base, together with her sister ship Lemnos. The two ships were ultimately raised in the 1950s and broken up for scrap.