Battleship USS Michigan. This magnificent model was built on a scale of 1:100 by Werner Schleith and is on display in our area dedicated to World War I naval forces on Deck 5 of the museum.
USS „Michigan“, and her sister ship USS „South Carolina“, were commissioned for the US Navy in 1910. Design work for the ships, authorized in 1905, had begun before the commissioning of HMS „Dreadnought“, the revolutionary British battleship that set standards in capital ship design in 1906 because of its „all big gun“ armament and its turbine propulsion – it gave its name to an entire generation of this type. The American ships of the „South Carolina“ class were completed later than HMS „Dreadnought“, therefore the British ship is considered the first of its kind.
The „Michigan“ had the qualities of a dreadnought: firepower, armour, speed. Her main armament consisted of eight 30.5 cm guns in four turrets. In contrast to the „Dreadnought“, these were arranged superimposed, two pairs each fore and aft in the center line. This was an innovative solution not yet followed in other navies because of fears of damage to the lower turrets caused by gas pressure when firing the upper ones.
The USS „Michigan“ spent her entire career as part of the Atlantic Fleet. She had her first deployment in 1914 as a support ship during the U.S. occupation of Veracruz during the Mexican Revolution. After the U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917, she served as an escort ship for convoys and a training ship. In 1919, she transported American soldiers back from Europe. The end of her career came with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, an international treaty aimed at avoiding a new naval arms race of the kind that had occurred before World War I. The treaty was signed in 1922. The signatory powers decided to reduce the size of their fleets and limit the striking power of their ships for a specified period of time. USS „Michigan“ as well as USS „South Carolina“ were scrapped in 1923.
This magnificent model was built on a scale of 1:100 by Werner Schleith and is on display in our area dedicated to World War I naval forces on Deck 5 of the museum.