Battleship Texas (BB-35): The Last Dreadnought and Its Return to Galveston

Battleship Texas is not important because she is merely old. She is important because an extraordinary amount of twentieth-century naval history survives inside one steel hull. Commissioned on March 12, 1914, USS Texas (BB-35) belongs to the dreadnought generation that transformed battleship design before the First World War. She later crossed the Atlantic with the U.S. battle force, supported Allied invasions in North Africa and Europe, fired on German positions during the Normandy campaign, then moved to the Pacific for Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

The ship survived the war, survived scrapping and then survived decades of corrosion as a museum. Texas received her in 1948 and placed her beside the San Jacinto Battleground, creating one of the earliest permanent battleship memorial museums in the United States. In 2022 the ship left San Jacinto for the first time in more than seventy years and was towed to Galveston for what the Battleship Texas Foundation describes as a $75 million restoration and museum overhaul. The Foundation now plans a permanent museum berth at Pier 15 in Galveston, with a grand reopening targeted for 2027.

The timeline at a glance

• 1895 — The first U.S. Navy battleship named Texas was commissioned; she served during the Spanish-American War and was renamed San Marcos in 1911.
• 1914 — USS Texas (BB-35) was commissioned on March 12 with ten 14-inch guns and later supported U.S. operations during the Veracruz occupation.
• 1918 — Texas joined the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea during the final year of World War I.
• 1939 — Texas was among U.S. Navy ships receiving experimental air-search radar as radar moved toward fleet service.
• 1942–1945 — Texas supported Operation Torch, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa and earned five World War II battle stars.
• 1948 — The Navy decommissioned Texas and the ship began a new life as a permanent museum and memorial in Texas.
• 2022 — Texas left the San Jacinto berth and was towed to Gulf Copper on Pelican Island in Galveston for major restoration.
• March 5, 2024 — Texas was undocked and returned to the water after more than 700 tons of steel had been renewed during the dry-dock phase.
• 2027 — The Battleship Texas Foundation is targeting a grand reopening at the ship's permanent Pier 15 museum berth in Galveston.

Before BB-35: the first battleship named Texas

BB-35 was not the first U.S. Navy warship to carry the state's name. The earlier Texas was commissioned in 1895 as one of the Navy's first modern battleships. She served during the Spanish-American War, including operations around Cuba, and represented the awkward transition between the armored ships of the nineteenth century and the all-big-gun battleships that followed.

In 1911 that older Texas was renamed San Marcos, freeing the name for a much more powerful New York-class battleship under construction. The name change links two eras of American naval development: the experimental pre-dreadnought fleet of the 1890s and the turbine-driven, heavily armed battleship fleet that entered service just before World War I.

1914: a new Texas joins the fleet

USS Texas (BB-35) was commissioned on March 12, 1914. Her main battery consisted of ten 14-inch guns arranged in five twin turrets, weapons capable of throwing massive shells far beyond the range of earlier American battleships. The ship displaced roughly 27,000 tons in her original configuration and carried a large crew whose daily work ranged from gunnery and engineering to communications, navigation and damage control.

Texas entered service during the crisis surrounding Mexico and the U.S. occupation of Veracruz. The fighting that seized Veracruz had already occurred when Texas reached Mexican waters in May 1914, so it is more accurate to say the battleship supported the occupation and associated operations than to place her in the initial landing battle. That distinction matters because the ship's history is dramatic enough without compressing separate events into one.

World War I and the British Grand Fleet

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the Navy sent battleships to reinforce Britain's Grand Fleet. Texas joined the force in the North Sea in early 1918. The German High Seas Fleet never offered the decisive fleet battle that naval planners had spent years imagining, but the American battleships still served an important strategic purpose: they strengthened the blockade and helped ensure that Germany could not challenge Allied control of the North Sea without confronting a larger combined fleet.

That service places Texas inside a brief but important moment when American battleships operated as part of a British-led battle line. The ship's World War I story is therefore less about shells fired than about deterrence, coalition operations and the enormous naval forces required to contain the German fleet.

Between the wars: modernization and early radar

Texas changed substantially between the world wars. Like other surviving battleships, she received major modernization work that altered her superstructure, fire-control systems, protection and anti-aircraft capabilities. The ship that fought in 1944 looked very different from the vessel commissioned in 1914 even though the massive 14-inch turrets remained the visual center of the design.

Texas also participated in the Navy's early move toward radar. The safest way to describe the milestone is that Texas was among the pioneering U.S. Navy ships equipped with experimental air-search radar before World War II. USS New York received the experimental XAF set in 1938, while Texas and other ships followed as radar moved from laboratory and fleet experimentation toward wartime necessity. That is a more accurate claim than calling Texas the first Navy ship fitted with radar.

1941–1942: Atlantic patrols and Operation Torch

Before the United States formally entered World War II, Texas served in the Atlantic as the Navy tried to protect American interests and shipping during the Neutrality Patrol era. After Pearl Harbor, the old battleship became a gunfire-support platform whose heavy guns could do something aircraft and destroyers could not always do as reliably: place repeated large-caliber shells onto fortified coastal positions for troops fighting ashore.

In November 1942 Texas supported Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. The campaign opened a major new phase of American ground combat against Axis forces and established the pattern Texas would repeat during later amphibious operations: approach the coast, use naval gunfire to suppress or destroy defenses and remain available to troops who needed heavy support beyond the beach.

D-Day: Texas off Omaha Beach

Battleship Texas is most widely associated with Normandy. On June 6, 1944, she opened fire in support of the Allied invasion, engaging German positions around the western end of Omaha Beach and the Pointe du Hoc area. Naval gunfire could not remove every obstacle or strongpoint, but the battleships and cruisers offshore provided firepower that troops on the ground could call upon as the beachhead expanded.

Texas remained involved after D-Day as Allied forces fought inland. During the bombardment of Cherbourg later in June, the ship exchanged fire with German coastal batteries and was struck. Her Normandy service turned a battleship designed before World War I into direct support for the largest amphibious invasion of the European war.

One of the best-known Texas stories from Normandy came when the ship needed additional gun elevation to reach targets farther inland. Crew actions that increased the ship's list helped extend the effective elevation of the main battery. The story captures the improvisational character of naval gunfire support: a 30-year-old battleship was still being pushed to solve battlefield problems its original designers could not have imagined.

Southern France, then the Pacific

After Normandy, Texas supported the August 1944 invasion of Southern France. She then returned to the United States before transferring to the Pacific. The move illustrates the geographic scale of the war: the same ship that had fired on North Africa, Normandy and the French Mediterranean coast would soon be bombarding Japanese island defenses thousands of miles away.

In February 1945 Texas supported the invasion of Iwo Jima, firing on Japanese positions before and during the Marine landings. Weeks later she joined the enormous naval force supporting Okinawa. There, as kamikaze attacks threatened ships around the island, Texas continued shore bombardment and anti-aircraft defense during one of the war's most punishing amphibious campaigns.

A combat record spanning two World Wars

Texas ultimately earned five battle stars for World War II service. More important than the number is the range of operations behind it. The ship served in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific; supported invasions in North Africa, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa; and connected the battleship era of 1914 to the carrier-and-radar naval war of 1945.

That is why descriptions such as 'the last surviving dreadnought-era battleship' matter. Many preserved naval ships represent World War II, but Texas carries an earlier design lineage into the same artifact. Her machinery spaces, armored structure, main battery and heavily modified superstructure show how one ship adapted across three decades of rapid technological change.

1948: Texas becomes a museum

After postwar transport duty and deactivation, the Navy decommissioned Texas in 1948. The ship was transferred for preservation in Texas and permanently moored near the San Jacinto Battleground. At a time when most obsolete battleships were sold for scrap, saving Texas created a new model for preserving a large warship as a public memorial.

The San Jacinto berth was historically powerful: the ship sat beside the landscape where the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto effectively secured Texas independence. But the location also created preservation problems. A steel ship designed for constant maintenance was sitting in brackish water year after year. Corrosion, leaking and aging structure became increasingly serious as the decades passed.

Why the 2022 move was necessary

On August 31, 2022, Battleship Texas was towed away from San Jacinto and moved to Gulf Copper on Pelican Island in Galveston. The tow was itself a major preservation operation because the century-old hull had to survive a trip through the Houston Ship Channel after decades at one berth.

The restoration focused first on what visitors could not see from shore: the hull and structural steel. Workers replaced and repaired deteriorated plating, addressed tanks and internal spaces, stabilized structural areas and prepared the ship for a new museum life. By the time Texas left dry dock on March 5, 2024, the Foundation reported that more than 700 tons of steel had been renewed and hundreds of thousands of labor hours had gone into making the hull substantially watertight. Deck, superstructure, preservation and museum work continued after the ship returned to the water.

Galveston and Pier 15

The ship's move to Galveston changes the visitor experience as much as the restoration changes the vessel. The Battleship Texas Foundation has secured Pier 15 as the ship's permanent home. That puts the museum inside a working historic port city rather than at an isolated battlefield berth and places it close to the Strand, cruise terminals, harbor attractions, museums, restaurants and the island's larger tourism network.

The planned move also reconnects the ship visually with the Gulf. Texas spent her active career moving between oceans, ports and combat zones. A museum berth on Galveston's harbor gives visitors a much clearer sense of the vessel as a ship rather than a monument parked beside land.

Current status: restoration first, museum second

As of August 2026, Battleship Texas is not open for ordinary museum visitation. The Battleship Texas Foundation continues the $75 million restoration and museum overhaul in Galveston and targets a grand reopening at Pier 15 in 2027. Specialty opportunities may be announced separately, but travelers should not build an itinerary around boarding the ship unless the Foundation has specifically announced public access for that date.

• Current city: Galveston.
• Regular museum tours: closed during restoration.
• Current project: $75 million restoration and museum overhaul.
• Future permanent berth: Pier 15, Galveston.
• Targeted grand reopening: 2027.
• Best source for current access and restoration updates: Battleship Texas Foundation.

What to pair with Battleship Texas in Galveston

Once regular public access returns, Battleship Texas should be treated as the historical anchor of a harbor-focused Galveston day. The Strand adds nineteenth-century port architecture and commerce. Pier 21 and the harbor district add maritime museums and working-waterfront context. The Seawall and East End show how the island rebuilt and adapted after catastrophic storms.

Families can combine the ship with Moody Gardens or the Pleasure Pier for a less museum-heavy day. Travelers interested in military and technological history can connect Galveston with Space Center Houston or, on a separate day, return toward the Houston Ship Channel and San Jacinto Battleground to see the place where Battleship Texas spent most of her museum career.

Why Battleship Texas belongs in TexasDefined

Texas history is often told through missions, cattle trails, oil fields and political turning points. Battleship Texas adds another dimension: the state's connection to a century in which industrial power, naval technology and global war reshaped the United States. The ship is simultaneously a Texas landmark and a national military artifact.

More than a century after commissioning, the remarkable part is not simply that Texas fought in two world wars. It is that the ship still exists at all. The current restoration is the latest chapter in a preservation story that began when Texans chose not to let the battleship go to the scrapyard in 1948. When she opens at Pier 15, visitors will not be stepping into a replica of the dreadnought age. They will be stepping onto one of its last surviving ships.