Battleship Texas

Battleship Texas is one of the country's most important surviving naval vessels because one ship connects the pre-World War I dreadnought era with major campaigns of World War II. Commissioned on March 12, 1914, the New York-class battleship carried ten 14-inch guns and entered service as naval technology was changing rapidly.

During World War I, Texas joined the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea. Between the wars she underwent extensive modernization and became one of the U.S. Navy ships involved in early radar development as the fleet moved toward electronic air search and modern fire control.

World War II gave the ship her best-known combat record. Texas supported Operation Torch in North Africa, the Normandy landings and the campaign around Cherbourg, the invasion of Southern France, then Pacific operations at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She earned five battle stars for World War II service.

The Navy decommissioned Texas in 1948 and transferred the ship for preservation beside San Jacinto Battleground. The location made the vessel a major Texas memorial, but decades in brackish water produced serious corrosion and structural problems that eventually required a much larger preservation solution.

On August 31, 2022, the ship left San Jacinto and was towed through the Houston Ship Channel to Gulf Copper on Pelican Island in Galveston. The Battleship Texas Foundation describes the current work as a $75 million restoration and museum overhaul. Dry-dock and shipyard work has included extensive hull plating, structural steel, tanks, coatings, decks, superstructure and preservation work needed to stabilize the century-old vessel.

Texas was undocked and returned to the water on March 5, 2024 after 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. Additional steel, deck, superstructure, preservation and museum work continued after the dry-dock phase.

The Battleship Texas Foundation has secured Pier 15 in Galveston as the ship's permanent museum home and targets a 2027 grand reopening. Until the Foundation announces normal public access, TexasDefined keeps the destination out of ordinary Trip Planner recommendations so visitors are not routed to a closed attraction.

The new Galveston setting will change how visitors experience the ship. Pier 15 places Texas inside a working port and near the Strand, harbor museums, cruise terminals, restaurants and other island attractions, allowing a future visit to become part of a full maritime-history day rather than an isolated stop.

For the complete ship history—from the first battleship named Texas through BB-35's 1914 commissioning, both World Wars, D-Day, museum preservation and the Galveston restoration—use the linked TexasDefined Battleship Texas history guide and verify current access through the Foundation before traveling specifically to board the ship.