Editing Indiana-class battleship (section)

=== Protection ===
With the exception of the deck armor, 8-inch turrets and [[conning tower]]—which consisted of conventional nickel steel—the ''Indiana'' class was protected with the new [[Harvey armor]]. Its main protection was a belt {{cvt|18|in|0}} thick, placed along two-thirds of the length of the hull from {{cvt|3|ft}} above to {{cvt|1|ft}} under the waterline. Beyond this point, the belt gradually grew thinner until it ended {{cvt|4|ft|3|in}} under the waterline, where the belt was only {{cvt|8.5|in}} thick. Below the belt the ship had no armor, only a double bottom. On both ends the belt was connected to the [[barbette]]s of the main guns with {{convert|14|in|adj=on}} armored [[Bulkhead (partition)|bulkheads]]. In the waterline sections outside this central citadel, compartments were filled with compressed cellulose, intended to self-seal when damaged. Between the deck and the main belt, 5-inch hull armor was used. The deck armor was {{cvt|2.75|in}} thick inside the citadel and {{cvt|3|in}} outside it. The hollow conning tower was a single forging 10 inches thick. The 13-inch gun battery had {{cvt|15|in}} of vertical turret plating and {{convert|17|in|mm|adj=mid|-thick}} barbettes, while the 8-inch cannons had only 6{{nbsp}}inches of vertical turret plating and {{convert|8|in|mm|adj=mid|-thick}} barbettes. The casemates protecting the 6-inch guns were 5{{nbsp}}inches thick and the other casemates, lighter guns, shell hoists and turret crowns were all lightly armored.{{efn|name=armor}}{{sfn|Reilly|Scheina|1980|pp=56, 58 & 68}}

[[File:Fire room Massachusetts.jpg|thumb|alt=Two dirty men feeding coal into an oven in a rather gloomy looking room| The fire room (boiler room) of ''Massachusetts'']]

The placement of the belt armor was based on the [[draft (hull)|draft]] from the design, which was {{convert|24|ft}} with a normal load of {{convert|400|LT|t ST|0}} of coal on board. Her total coal storage capacity was {{convert|1600|LT|t ST|0}}, and fully loaded her draft would increase to {{convert|27|ft}}, entirely submerging the armor belt. During actual service, especially at war, the ships were kept fully loaded whenever possible, rendering her belt armor almost useless. That this was not considered in the design outraged the Walker policy board–convened in 1896 to evaluate the existing American battleships and propose a design for the new {{sclass|Illinois|battleship}}s–and they set a standard that the load of coal and ammunition that future ships were designed for had to be at least two-thirds of the maximum, so similar problems would be prevented in new ships.{{sfn|Friedman|1985|p=29}}