My Review and Build of Trumpeter’s 1/350 scale Kit #05340,
USS Texas, BB-35, Battleship
Last updated: Float Planes, Chains, Anchors, Props, Photo Etch details, Complete - Sep 7, 2015
Introduction and What’s in the Box - August 20, 2015
About the ship:
This is a 1/350 scale model of the battleship, USS Texas, BB-35, commissioned in 1914, served at Tampico, Mexico, in World War I with convoy and blockade duty, in World War II in the Atlantic, the invasion of North Africa, D-Day, the Ballte of Cherbourg, the invasion of southern France, the Iwo Jima invasion, and at the Okinawa invasion. Then made into a museum ship in 1948 after decommissioning, where she remains to this day.
In the early 1900s, the US Navy was expanding, and it was expanding rapidly. Before she was built, President Roosevelt had high regard for the ability of a strong navy to allow a major power to protect itself and its interests around the world. Building up a powerful Navy was part of his, “Speak soiftly but carry a big stick,” motto. In those dayys, the most powerful weapons on earth were battleships, parrticularly the readnought battleships.
USS Texas, even though it was the second named vessel of the class, it was actually laid down, launched, and commissioned before the the name-sake of the class the USS New York, BB-34. New York was laid down on September 11, 1911, launched on October 30, 1912, and commisisoned into the US Navy on May 15, 1914. The USS Texas was laid down on April 17, 1911, launched on May 18, 1912, and commissioned on March 12, 1914. Becasue of her being laid down, launched, and commissioned first, some like to refer to the class unofficially as the “Texas” class…not surprisingly, most of those doing so either reside in, or are from Texas.
At the time of her commissioning, with her ten brand new 14" 45 caliber main guns, and twenty-one 5" 51 calbier secondary guns, the USS Texas weas the most powerful battleship…of for that matter, weapon…on earth.
She saw immediate and extensive use.
Pre-World War I Service:
In the spring of 1914, President Woodrow Wilson ordered a number of ships of the Atlantic Fleet to Mexican waters in response to tension created when Mexican federal troops detained an American gunboat crew at Tampico. On April 20, 1914, President Wilson took it to the United States Congress and then sent orders to Rear Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher, commanding the naval force off the Mexican coast, instructing him to land a force at Veracruz and to seize the customs house there in retaliation for what is now known as the “Tampico Incident”. The landing and successful occuptationw were carried out on April 21-22, 1914.
USS Texas, served as a part of the covering force after the occupation. After her commisisoning in March, and before she had the benefit of a normal shakedown cruise, USS Texas was ordered to put to sea to join the naval force off Varacruz. After a five-day stop at Hampton Roads she joined Rear Admiral Fletcher’s force on May 26, 1914. She remained in Mexican waters for just over two months, deparing toward the end of July 1914.
In the end, the situation was resolved without need for USS Texas to fire its guns, but as the most ppowerful battleship on earth at the time, her very presence helped make that possible. In the end, Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo sought further redress from the Mexican regime by demanding an official disavowal of the Mexican army’s action by them giving a 21-gun salute to the American flag.
After this action, USS Texas sailed to New York for her “Shakedown” yard time, after which she returned to sea, joining the Atlantic Fleet and settling into a schedule of normal fleet operations. Between then and 1916, she would spend several more months on station off the Mexican coast.
Then in 1916, the USS Texas put into the yard to become the first US Navy battleship to receive anti-aircraft guns with the addition of two 3 inch 50 cal (76 mm) guns that were place on platforms over the boat cranes. At this time, she also became the first US Navy ship to control her gunfire with analog gun directors and rangefinders. Two of the numerous “firsts” the USS Texas would experince throughout her career.
She spent significant time integrating these new features and establishing procedures and policy for their use.
World War I Sevice:
In 1917, the USS Texas was called upon for active duty when the US entered World War I.
When war was declared, USS Texas was at anchor in the York River with the other Atlantic Fleet battleships. First she was ordered to conduct exercises training Naval gun crews for service on board merchant ships in convoys. One of the gun crews trained aboard Texas was assigned to the merchant vessel Mongolia. On April 19, 1917, that crew sighted a surfaced German U-boat and opened fire on the U-boat averting an attack on Mongolia and firing the first American shots of World War I.
After running aground in September 1917, Texas was repaired and set sail for Enlgand, arriving at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland on February 11, 1918, where she joined US Navy Battleship Division 9, which was officailly a part of Royal Navy’s 6th Battle Squadron of Britain’s Grand Fleet.
Texas’s service with the Grand Fleet consisted of convoy missions and forays to reinforce the British squadron on blockade duty in the North Sea when German heavy vessels would occassionally attempt to break out of the blockade.
Her very first activity, five days after she arrived at Scapa Flow, occurred when she sortied with the entire fleet to reinforce the 4th Battle Squadron. The Germans did not venture out and Texas took up convoy duty.
On April 24th, 1917, Texas again stood out to sea to support the a Royal Navy Battle Squadron after the German High Seas Fleet actually stood out to sea from Jade Bay toward the Norwegian coast, threatening Allied convoys. As the allied battline approached, the Germans retired. Forward vessels of the allied force caught sight of the retiring Germans on April 25th, but they were at extreme range and there was no possibility of engaging them. The next day, the Grand Fleet, including Texas, returned to Scapa Flow.
For the remainder of the war, USS Texas and the other US vessels acted as escorts for American minelayers, conducted tactical exercises and war games, and conducted routine convoy escort and othernaval operations until the Armistice on November 11, 1918. On November 21, 1918, she got underway to accompany the Grand Fleet to meet the surrendering German Fleet which rendevouzed east of the Isle of May where the Allied Grand Fleet escxorted the Germans to the Firth of Forth where they were anchored, having been defeated and now belonging to the allies.
Inter-war Sevice:
The USS Texas returned to the United States and entered New York Harbor, along with other US Navy vessels, on the day after christmas, 1918. After celebrations, Texas went into a repair and overhaul period.
She resumed operations with Atlantic Fleet in early 1919. In March of 1919, the USS Texas achieved another first for US Navy operations.
On March 10, 19919, USS Texas became the first American battleship to launch an airplane when Lieutenant Commander Edward O. McDonnell flew a British-built Sopwith Camel off the warship. As a result of this, later in 1919, USS Texas successfully employed aircraft to spot for her main batter gunfire during a main battery exercise. The resuls proved that gunfire being corrected by airborne spotters was significantly more accurate than gunfire relying on shipborne spotting. In an appearance before the Navy General Board, Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Whiting testafied that air spotting increased main battery accuracy by as much as 200%. As a result of the experiments and experinces aboard the USS Texas, the US Navy began adding floatplanes to all battleships
In July of 1919 Texas deployed to the Pacific Ocean as part of the newly formed US Navy Pacific Fleet. She would spend the next five and half years with the Pacific Fleet, and in July 1920, the following year, she was designated BB-35 under the Navy’s new alpha-numeric system of hull classification symbols.
Texas left the Pacific in January of 1924 and returned to the east coast for overhaul. Afterwards she particiapted in training, taking new US Navy Academy Midshipmen across the Atlantic. In a live fire, SINKEX in November 1924, the USS Texas sank the incomplete battleship Washington. This exercise was conducted to bring the US into compliance with the Naval Arms Limitation Treaty of 1922. In July of 1925, she began a major, sixteen month overhaul to modernize the vessel. During this time, she replaced both of her original cage masts with new tripod masts which she would carry throught the reaminder of her service life, and still carries today as a museum ship. Also, of major importance, her old coal-fired boilers were replaced with new oil-fired boilers. she also had her fire-control equipment upgraded, had her AA battery increased by adding six more 3 inch (76 mm) guns, and had her original torpedo tubes were removed. This extensive modernization overahaul was completed towards the end of November 1926. Also, sixof the 5 inch guns were relocated to new main deck casemates at this time.
Following completion of this overhaul, Texas became a much more modern and capable vessel. Her stature in the US fleet was well known by this time, and she was once again named as the flagship of the United States Fleet and resumed duty with the Atlantic Fleet.
In late 1927 she received orders sending her back to the Pacific Fleet from late September to early December. During this period, USS Texas achieved another of her “firsts,” when she showed a movie to her crew for entertainment. In January 1928, after returning to the Atlantic Fleet, USS Texas was asked to transport President Calvin Coolidge to Havana, Cuba, for the Pan-American Conference and then to use the Panama Canal to cross back into the Pacific to perfrom manuevers and exercises with the Pacific Fleet off of Hawaii. Texas was becoming well known in both the Atlantic and Pacific areas of operation.
After an overhaul in 1929, Texas conducted operations and deployments alternately between the Atlantic and Pacfic until 1934, when she was once again designated as the flagship for the entire Fleet while in the Pacfic.
In the summer of 1937, she was once again assigned to the east coast, as the flagship of the US Navy Training Detachment. While assigned to the training detachment, sometime in 1937 she received eight new 1.1 inch (28 mm) AA guns in two quadruple mounts to add to her AA armament. Then, in December 1938, Texas achieved another “fisrt,” when she had installed and then tested the first shipborne radar designed and made by a commercial company RCA for the US Navy.
Then, in late 1938 she was assigned as the flagship of the newly formed Atlantic Squadron. Through both organizational assignments, her duties were directed primarily to training missions, Midshipman cruises, Naval Reserve drills, and training members of the Fleet Marine Force. In December 1938, Texas received for testing the first shipborne radar designed and made by a commercial company RCA for the US Navy.
As a result of those tests, in 1941, Texas was one of fourteen ships to receive the RCA CXAM-1 radar
World War II Sevice:
Before Pearl Harbor, as the war in Europe continued to escalate, USS Texas began convoying duties for US ships carrying Lend-Lease materiel to the United Kingdom. In February 1941, the US 1st Marine Division was activated aboard the USS Texas, and, Admiral Ernest J. King hoisted his flag as Commander-in-Chief of the re-formed Atlantic Fleet aboard Texas. That same year, while on Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic, as post war records from Germany indicated, USS Texas was stalked unsuccessfully by the German submarine U-203.
Initial Convoy Duties:
On Pearl Harbor day, the day that will live forever in Infamy, December 7, 1941, USS Texas was at Casco Bay, Maine, undergoing a rest and relaxation period following three months of watch duty off Newfoundland. After 10 days at Casco Bay, she returned to duty until late January 1942. At that time she escorted a convoy to England. She then patrolled waters near Iceland until March. Texas then had a refit where the secondary battery was reduced to six 5 inch guns and two of her 1.1 inch (28 mm) quad mounts were replaced by six (later ten) 40 mm quad mounts and forty-four 20 mm cannon. She then continued convoy-escort missions. On one occasion, she escorted Guadalcanal-bound marines as far as the Panama canal, on another, she screened vessels carrying troops to Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. More frequently, she made voyages to and from the United Kingdom escorting both cargo- and troop-carrying ships
Operation Torch - the invasion of North Africa:
On October 23, 1942, the USS Texas sortied with Task Group 34.8, which was the Northern Attack Group for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. The objective was Port Lyautey in French Morocco. The warships arrived off the coast early in the morning of November 8th and began preparations for the invasion. USS Texas transmitted Lt. General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first “Voice of Freedom” broadcast, asking the French not to oppose Allied landings. When the troops went ashore, Texas did not go into action immediately. At that point, the doctrine of supporting amphibious invasesions was still developing. Many land force officers did not yet recognize the value of bombardments before landing, feeling it would give away the element of surprise. Texas first began firing her guns early in the afternoon when she was requested to fire on a Vichy French Army ammunition dump near Port Lyautey. Another gunfire mission was provided on the 10th before the cease fire on 11 November. Thus she expended only 273 rounds of 14 in ammunition. During her short stay, some of her crewmen went ashore to assist in salvaging some of the ships that had been sunk in the harbor. Texas departed North Africa on November 16th for the Atlantic seaboard of the United States.
An interesting note to this operation was that a young news reporter was on board Texas from Norfolk, Virginia, through the operation off of North Africa, and then back to the US. His name was Walter Cronkite, Afyter arriving back off the US, Cronkite was flown off of Texas in a OS2U Kingfisher aircraft to Norfolk. He was granted permission to do this so he could file his news report before rival correspondents, and to issue the first uncensored news reports about Operation Torch. This launched his career as a news correspondent.
Operation Overloard - D-Day Invasion:
Throughout 1943, the USS Texas carried out convoy escort duties across the Atlantic, making numerous voyages to Casablanca, Gibraltar, and frequent visits to ports in the British Isles. That routine continued into the Spring of 1944 for the Texas. But the routine ended on April 22, 1944 when she was ordered to remain at the Clyde estuary in Scotland to began training for the invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
Texas carried out many 14 in gun-firing exercises in preparation for supporting the landings with British battleships HMS Ramillies and HMS Rodney. The firing was done in conjunction with Royal Air Force airplanes as spotters. On April 29, USS Texas, USS Nevada (which had been refloated and repaired from Peal Harbor), and USS Arkansas relocated to Belfast Lough, in Northern Ireland, to make final preparations for the landings.
On June 3, USS Texas and the Western Taskforce sailed for Normandy. On June 4th, June, the task force reversed course due to bad weather off Normandy. Nut later, the taskforce reversed course and joined the invasion fleet and headed toward Normandy, navigating through channels cleared by minesweepers to Omaha beach. At 03:00 on June 6, 1944, Texas and the British cruiser Glasgow entered the Omaha Western fire support lane at their initial firing positions, 12,000 yds off the coast near Pointe du Hoc. At 04:41 AM, she was in position as part of a combined US-British flotilla totalling 702 ships, including seven battleships and five heavy cruisers.
The initial bombardment commenced at 05:50 AM, against six 5.9 in German guns, atop Pointe du Hoc. When Texas ceased firing at Pointe Du Hoc at 06:24 AM, two hundred and fifty five 14 in shells had been fired in thirty-four minutes, an average rate of fire of 7 1/2 shells per minute. This was the longest sustained fire rate for USS Texas in World War II. While this was going on, and thereafyter, her 5 in cuns were supporting the landing force, engagine multiple targets.
By noon, the assault on Omaha Beach was in danger of collapsing due to stronger than anticipated German resistance, and because of the inability to get needed armor and artillery units ashore… In an effort to help penned down soldiers on Omaha beach, destroyers providing gunfire support closed to very near the shoreline, almost grounding themselves to fire on the Germans. Texas followed suite, and the big ballteship closed to only 3,000 yds, firing her main guns to clear German resistance in front of Vierville. Her main and secondary batteries fired on any and all targets pointed out by the troops ashore or her own spotters, including firing on enemy snipers and machine gun nests hidden in defiles just off the beach. Numerous soldiers credited USS Texas with saving their lives that day and helping, along with other couragous ship crews, in opening up Omaha beach the afternoon of June 6th.
Texas continued to support the troops ashor through June 9th, including helping the Rangers who had taken Point Du Hoc. This included USS Texas obtaining and filling two LCVPs with provisions for those Rangers. Upon their return, the LCVPs brought thirty-five wounded Rangers to Texas for treatment within Texas’s ample sick bay. The ability for the big ballteship to attend to wounded and provide a place to gather forces extended to captured enemy as well. A total of twenty-seven prisoners (twenty Germans, four Italians, and three French) were brought to the ship.
Late in the day of June 7th, her main battery rained shells on the enemy-held towns of Formigny and Trévières to break up German troop concentrations. That evening, she bombarded a German mortar battery that had been shelling the beach. Not long after midnight, German planes attacked the ships offshore, and one of them swooped in low over Texas. Her anti-aircraft batteeries engaged, but the intruder escaped. On the morning of June 8th, her guns fired on Isigny, then on a shore battery, and then again on Trévières. At this point she retired across the channel to England to rearm and then returned to the coast on June 11th, to conttinue providing gun fire support missions.
By June 15th, allied forces had advanced far enough where the front lines were beginning to extend out of range of Texas 14 inch guns. Her last fire support mission was in fact out of range, but her captain, determined to support the troops as long as possible, had her starboard torpedo blister flooded which gave the Texas a list to that side, causing the guns to be able to be elevated a few more degrees. This gave the guns enough elevation to complete that final fire support mission. After this, Texas departed the coast for England on June 18th.
The Battle of Cherbourge:
USS Texas was ordered back into the fight on the morning of June 25th, one week after leaving Normandy. She sailed with battleships USS Arkansas and USS Nevada, along with four cruisers and eleven destroyers to the vital port of Cherbourg. The allies were in the process of assualting the town from land, but very a very strong battery of four 9.4 inch (240mm) guns, Battery Hamburg, was located there and needed to be supressed.
Task Group 129.2 was built around Arkansas and Texas, and ordered to move 6 miles off the coast to the east of Cherbourg and engage Battery Hamburgand. At 12:08 PM, Arkansas befgan firing at the German position. The German gunners waited for Arkansas and Texas to be well in range before they began returning fire. At 12:33 PM, Texas was straddled by three German shells. Five minutes later, at 12:38 PM Texas returned fire. The battleship continued firing in spite of geysers blossoming all around her (see the one picture above). She was having difficulty spotting the German targets because of smoke. The German gunners were stubborn and skilled. At 13:16 PM, a German shell skidded across the top of the Texas conning tower, sheared the top of the fire control periscope off which wounded the gunnery officer and three others in the conning tower, then hit the main support column of the navigation bridge and exploded. This explosion caused the deck of the pilot house to be blown upwards 4 ft, wrecked the interior of the pilot house, and wounded seven more peronnel. Of the eleven total casualties from the German shell hit, one man died, the helmsman on duty, Christen Christensen. The commanding officer, Captain Baker, escaped unhurt and quickly had the bridge cleared. The warship continued to deliver 14 in gun fire in salvos and, in spite of damage and casualties, scored a direct hit at 13:55 PM, penetrating a heavily reinforced gun emplacement and destroying the gun within.
At 14:02 ground troops of VII Corps radioed, “Thanks very much—we should be grateful if you would continue until 15:00.” At this point VII Corps was on the verge of breaking into Cherbourg’s city streets. Shore fire control called for more naval support. all the while, large-caliber rounds from Battery Hamburg continued to drop around the ships.
At 14:47 PM, an unexploded shell from another hit was reported aboard Texas. It had crashed through the port bow directly below the Wardroom and entered the stateroom of Warrant Officer M.A. Clark, but failed to explode. The unexploded shell was later disarmed by a Navy bomb disposal team in Portsmouth, England, and this shell is displayed aboard the ship to this day. The duel went on for three hours. The Germans straddled and near-missed Texas sixty-five times, but Texas continued her mission and fired two hundred and six 14 in shells at Battery Hamburg. At 15:01 PM, at the end of the priod requested by ground forces, Texas retired.
On June 29, all German resistance in Cherbourg ended. Field commanders indicated that during the battle, “naval bombardment of the coastal batteries and against strong points around Cherbourg results were excellent, and did much to engage the enemy’s fire while our troops stormed into Cherbourg from the rear.” The army liason officer reported that the many German guns tcould not be reactivated, and those that could have been turned towards the advancing ground forces if they had had the chance, but because of the engaging naval fir from allied warships, they were all pointed out to sea when the city fell. The engagement of those guns by USS Texas and her sister ships, saved many Ameriacn and allied lives while the ground forces were attacking the town.
Operation Dragoon - The invasion of Southern France:
After being repaired in England from the damage sustained off Cherbourg, USS Texas prepared for the invasion of southern France.
Then, on July 16, 1944, she headed for the Mediterranean via Gibraltar and Oran, Algeria. Texas rendezvoused with three French destroyers off Bizerte, Tunisia, on August 11th, and sailed to the French Riviera, arriving off Saint-Tropez in the evening of August 14th. She was joined early on the 15th by battleship USS Nevada and the cruiser USS Philadelphia[. At 4:44 AM on August 16th, these vessels moved into position for the pre-landing bombardment. At 6:51 AM they opened fire. The enemy beaches had been fortified and heavy resistance was expected. Because of extremely poor visibility that morning, Texas relied on her radar equipment to determine her position for both navigation and gunnery purposes. No landmarks were visible during the firing that morning up until near noon.
But the heavy opposition to the landings that was expected never matrialized, and ground forces moved inland rapidly. QUickly, fire support from Texas was no longer required, and she departed the southern coast of France the morning of August 17th, and utltiamtely headed for New York, arriving on September 14, 1944.
USS Texas involvement in the war in Europe was over…but her involvement in the War in the Pacific was about to begin.
Operation Detachment - The Invasion of Iwo Jima:
Texas was in Harbor in New York for a thirty-six day day repair period. The barrels on her 14 in main battery were replaced during this time. After a brief shakedown cruise, she departed in November, 1944, and travelled, via the Panama Canal, to the Pacific Ocean. Stopping at Long Beach, California, and then Oahu, Hawaii. She spent Christmas at Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, she conducted maneuvers off Hawaii for about a month and then steamed to Ulithi Atoll, from which she departed on February 10, 1945, travelling to the Mariana Islands.
For two days off of the Marianas she conducted exercises to prepare for the invasion of Iwo Jima. She arrived off of Iwo Jima on February 16th, three days before the landings. She opened up her big guns and spent three days pounding the Japanese on Iwo Jima in preparation for the landings by three Marine Corps Divisions. After the Marines landed on February 19th, Texas began providing naval gunfire support for them in response to requests from units ashore. Although Iwo Jima was not declared to be completely pacified until March 16th, USS Texas departed on MArch 7th, 1945 and returned to Ulithi Atoll to preapre for her next assignment.
Operation Iceberg - The Invasion of Okinawa:
At Ulithi Atoll the USS Texas prepared for the invasion of Okinawa. She departed with Task Force 54, on March 21st, and arrived in the Ryukyu Islands on the 26th. Texas immediately moved in close to Okinawa and began her prelanding bombardment that same day. For the next six days, she fired multiple salvos from her main guns to prepare the way for several Army and Marine divisions who would be landing on April 1st, 1945.
Each evening, Texas retired from her bombardment position close to Okinawa, to get further out to sea, but then returned the next morning to resume her bombardments. The enemy ashore, continued to prepare for a defense-in-depth strategy after the landings. But Japanese air units from Japann did respond. Numerous kamikaze raids were sent to attack US Navy ships off shore, and some were specifcally tasked against the bombardment group. Though attacks were fierce, and numerous US Navy ships in the huge armada off of Okinawawa were damaged and sunk, USS Texas escaped all damage.
On April 1st, after six days of bombardment, the troops went ashore. For almost two months, USS Texas remained in Okinawan waters and provided gunfire support for the troops, while continuiing to fend of Kamikaze air attacks. Texas claimed one kamikaze kill and three assists during those battles, but sustained no damge herself. She departed Okinawa on the 14th of May for the Philippines.
Operation Majic Carpet - After the end of the War:
Texas remained in the Philippine islands off of Leyte until the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945. She then returned to the Ryukyu Islands and stayed off of Okinawa until September 23, when she set sail fo the United States with a boatload of US troops as a part of Operation Majic Carpet. She took the troops to San Pedro, California where the troops disembarked on October 15, 1945. She celebrated Navy Day there on October 27th.
USS Texas made two more round-trip voyages in November, and a third in late December, ferrying troops back to the United States. On January 21,1946, USS Texas departed San Pedro and steamed via the Panama Canal to Norfolk where she arrived in February to prepare for inactivation. On June 18th, 1946, USS Texas, was officially placed in the US Navy reserve fleet at Baltimore, Maryland. She was officially decommissioned from the US Navy on April 21, 1947, after a long battleship career spannig both World Wars and thirty-four years.
Museum Ship:
After her decommissioning, the USS Texas was offered up for use as a museum ship. Very stringent requirements have to be met for the US Navy to allow one of its formerly commissione vessels to be maintained in this way.
But very quickly, the state of Texas responded. On April 17, 1947, only six days after she was decommissioned, the Battleship Texas Commission was established by the Texas Legislature to care for the ship. They quickly met all the requirments, including the $225,000 necessary to tow her from Baltimore to San Jacinto.
On March 17, 1948, the Texas began her journey to a brand new anchorage on the Houston Ship Channel near the San Jacinto Monument, at San Jacinto State Park in Texas. she arrived there on April 20, 1948, and was turned over to the State of Texas on the 21st to serve as a permanent memorial.
The 21st of April is significant in Texas history because it was the date of the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto against Santa Anna, when the Texas forces defeated him there, and Santa Anna, the president of Mexico at the time, surrendered and agreed to Texas Independence. This led to the creation of the Republic of Texas, which joined the US as a state in 1845. Afterwards, the USS Texas name was struck from the official US Navy Vessel Register on April 30, 1948.
In being establshed as a memorial museum ship, the Texas established another "first,&qu
