page_title: Kearsarge-class battleship
section_title: Armor
hierarchical_section_title: Kearsarge-class battleship / Design / Armor
caption_attribution_description: English: Sketch of the battleship Kearsarge class.
context_page_description: The Kearsarge-class was a group of two pre-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1890s. The two ships—USS Kearsarge and USS Kentucky—represented a compromise between two preceding battleship designs, the low-freeboard Indiana class and the high-freeboard USS Iowa, though their design also incorporated several improvements. Their primary advances over earlier designs consisted of new quick-firing guns and improved armor protection, but their most novel feature was their two-story gun turrets that consisted of a secondary 8-inch gun turret fixed to the top of their primary 13-inch turrets. The ships suffered from a number of problems, however, including a tertiary battery mounted too low in the hull and poorly-designed turrets, though the latter were attempted again with the Virginia class in the early 1900s, also with negative results.
  Kearsarge served as the flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron after entering service, while Kentucky was initially sent to East Asia. In 1904, Kearsarge was temporarily transferred to the European Squadron, also serving as its flagship.
context_section_description: The ships were protected with face-hardened Harvey armor, an improvement over earlier compound plates. The main strake of the belt armor extended from the forward boiler room
  to the aft main battery barbette, and covered a section of the hull from 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) above the waterline and 4 ft (1.2 m) below the line. It was 16.5 in (419 mm) thick at the top, gradually tapering to 13.25 in (337 mm) at the waterline, and reducing further to 9.5 in (241 mm) at the bottom edge of the belt. Forward of the boiler rooms, the belt was reduced to a maximum thickness of 10.5 in (267 mm), and from the forward barbette, slimmed further to 4 in (102 mm). Transverse bulkheads that were 10 in (254 mm) forward and 12 in (305 mm) aft connected the belt on both sides of the ships. Above the main strake was a second one that was 5 in thick, extending from the forward to aft barbette.
  The belt structure was reinforced by a curved armor deck that was curved at the sides and connected to the bottom edge of the belt. The flat portion of the deck was level with the upper edge of the belt, and it was 2.75 in (70 mm) thick. Forward, where the belt was significantly reduced in thickness, the deck was increased slightly to 3 in (76 mm); aft, where were was no side protection, the deck was more significantly strengthened, being 5 in thick. The conning tower had 10 in thick sides and a 2-inch-thick (51 mm) roof.
  Armor protection for the 13-inch turrets amounted to 15 to 17 in (381 to 432 mm) on the sides and 25 in (640 mm) on the rear to balance the turrets, while the 8-inch turrets received 6 to 11 in (152 to 279 mm) on the sides and 9 in (230 mm) on the rears. Their roofs were 3.5 in (89 mm) and 2 inches thick for the 13-inch and 8-inch turrets, respectively. The turrets rested in armored barbettes that were 12.5 to 15 in (318 to 381 mm) thick. The 5-inch gun battery, which was placed directly above the upper belt, received 6 in of armor plating. The casemate battery lacked splinter screens between each gun, a significant shortcoming since a single hit could disable numerous guns.
caption: Top and profile drawing as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual, showing the arrangement of the guns and armor
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