USS Texas, laid down in 1889, can be compared with a much more capable Maine-class battleship laid down only ten years later. The contemporary-facing label 'Sovereign-type battleships' is preferred here to the retrospective term 'pre-dreadnoughts' because it follows the categories available during the development itself. The change involved more than hull numbers. The United States also had to create the industrial and naval infrastructure needed to build and sustain the fleet. Mahan's sustained advocacy, and his influence on political communicators such as Theodore Roosevelt, helped turn an abstract case for sea power into a decade of procurement and institutional growth.
Chapter · 40:03-42:36
A battle fleet and its infrastructure built within a decade
The leap from the first Texas to the Maine class shows how quickly political advocacy became ships, shipyards, and supporting naval infrastructure.