This includes the mounting of her main armament en echelon to allow maximum end-on fire and a heavily-armored citadel amidships to ensure defensive strength.

Texas developed a reputation as a jinxed or unlucky ship after several accidents early in her career; she consequently earned the nickname "Old Hoodoo".

[1] These mishaps included problems during construction, a grounding off Newport, Rhode Island, and flooding shortly afterwards while at dock in New York City.

The Chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, Congressman Hilary A. Herbert characterized the situation thus: "if all this old navy of ours were drawn up in battle array in mid-ocean and confronted by the Riachuelo it is doubtful whether a single vessel bearing the American flag would get into port.

The first ship, laid down for the then-traditional cruiser mission of battleship substitute on overseas deployment and armed with four 10 in (250 mm) guns, became Maine.

[a] The Navy Department conducted an international design competition for Texas and the winner was the Naval Construction & Armaments Co. of Barrow-in-Furness, England.

[2] Even five years before Texas was complete, the blast effects from end-on fire were considered prohibitive and en echelon mounting of main guns was abandoned in European navies and new American builds.

Construction by this time was too far advanced for such a plan, however, and Navy Secretary Benjamin Tracy limited the Board to detail improvements.

[7] Her hull had two wing compartments on each side of her machinery spaces as well as a centerline longitudinal watertight bulkhead separating the engines and boilers.

[14] The antitorpedo boat armament consisted of a dozen 57 mm (2.2 in) six-pounder guns (of unknown type) in casemates spaced along the hull.

The lateral hydraulic pipes that ran along the underside of the gun deck were initially unprotected, but armored tubes were installed to protect them during Texas's 1902 refit.

But this raised issues regarding her structural integrity so a Board of Survey in January 1896 was formed to evaluate her condition and suggest improvements.

The Board received a reply on 4 February that they would increase her displacement by 31 long tons (31 t), deepen her draft by less than 2 in (51 mm) and raise her metacentric height to 2.76 ft (0.84 m).

[26] While under repairs in New York, the yoke that secured the main injection valve in the starboard engine room broke on 9 November 1896.

Water pressure unseated the valve and allowed the compartment to flood as the receiving pipe had earlier been removed for repair.

[27] After repairs Texas was assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron, and patrolled the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

[24] During this period, her bow and stern torpedo tubes were removed in June 1897 and additional telescopic sights were added to her turret roofs between 14 July and 12 August.

[24] Early in the spring, war between the United States and Spain erupted over conditions in Cuba and the supposed Spanish destruction of Maine in Havana harbor in February 1898.

She patrolled off that port until 11 June, when she made a reconnaissance mission to Guantánamo Bay in support of the Marine landings there.

The next day the Texas landed three field pieces and two M1895 Colt–Browning machine guns at the request of the Marine expeditionary commander, Lt. Col. Robert W.

On 16 June, the warship joined the cruiser Marblehead for a bombardment of the fort on South Toro Cay in Guantánamo Bay.

"[24] Texas was lightly damaged during the battle by a single 6 in (152 mm) high explosive shell that hit her on the starboard side above the main deck, immediately forward of the ash hoist.

Fragments from the shell badly damaged the ash hoist and destroyed the doors of both air shafts and the adjacent bulkheads.

Even before the peace protocol was signed in Washington, DC, on 12 August, American ships began returning home.

Though her primary field of operations once again centered on the northeastern coast, she also made periodic visits to such places as San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Havana, Cuba, where her crew could view some of the results of their own ship's efforts in the recent war.

[7] Regarded as obsolete by 1911, she was relegated for use as a gunnery target to allow the Navy to evaluate the effects of modern shells on armored and unarmored parts of the ship, the probabilities of underwater hits and their depths, the effects of shock loads on pipes, etc., the flammability of the ship's fittings and the direction in which shells were pointing when striking at long range.

"[24] A cage mast, a duplicate of those used on the Florida-class dreadnoughts, was built atop the San Marcos's remains in 1912 and tested against 12-inch (305 mm) shells fired by the monitor Tallahassee from a range of 1,000 yards (910 m) on 21 August 1912.

[33] San Marcos was used for gunnery practice throughout World War II, although generally as an anchor for a canvas target screen.

Sitting two to six feet below the surface and marked by an unlit buoy, she was responsible for the sinking of the cargo ship Lexington in 1940 following a collision.

[34] Tons of explosives were used to demolish her upperworks and drive her hull deep into the mud; by January 1959, they were successful and she remains there today.