The USS Alabama (BB-8) was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy, commissioned in 1900 as part of the Illinois class. Built during a period of rapid naval expansion, she represented America’s growing ambition to become a major sea power at the turn of the twentieth century. Armed with four 13-inch guns in two twin turrets and supported by a powerful secondary battery, Alabama combined heavy firepower with thick armor protection typical of battleships of her era.
USS Alabama served in the Atlantic Fleet and later with the Great White Fleet period of American naval development, although she did not participate in major combat operations. Her duties included training exercises, fleet manoeuvres, and diplomatic cruises that demonstrated American naval strength abroad. By the 1910s, advances in battleship technology had rendered pre-dreadnoughts obsolete. USS Alabama was decommissioned in 1920 and later used as a target ship before being scrapped.
