When the U.S.S. Texas was launched, in 1912, it was arguably the most powerful weapon on the planet. The Texas was a dreadnought, one of several dozen big-gunned, heavily armored warships built by the era’s military powers in the years before World War I. Its most fearsome feature was a set of fourteen-inch guns, whose 1,400-pound shells could travel thirteen miles. There were ten such guns, each 53 feet long. A few years after its maiden voyage, the Texas became one of the first U.S. battleships to be equipped with antiaircraft guns, as well as to launch a plane and to test a novel device called radar. Its hull was protected by torpedo blisters: air-and-water-filled tanks welded to its sides to cushion against incoming explosives. The…The post The U.S.S. Texas, Once the World’s Most Formidable Battleship, Gets a Dramatic Makeover appeared first on Texas Monthly.