USS Kentucky (hull number: BB-6), was the second and final Kearsarge-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy in the 1890s. Designed for coastal defense, the Kearsarge-class battleships had a low freeboard and heavy armor. The ships carried an armament of four 13-inch (330 mm) and four 8-inch (203 mm) guns in an unusual two-story turret arrangement. The Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Virginia laid down her keel on 30 June 1896. She was launched on 24 March 1898 and was commissioned on 15 May 1900.

In her twenty years of service, Kentucky participated in no combat. Between 1901 and 1904, she served in East Asia, and from 1904 to 1907 she cruised the Atlantic. In 1907, she joined the Great White Fleet on its world tour, returning to the United States in 1909. She was modernized between 1909 and 1911, but did not operate again until 1915, when she sailed to the Mexican coast to participate in the American intervention in the Mexican Revolution, where she stayed until 1916. From 1917 until her decommissioning on 29 May 1920, she served as a training ship. She was sold for scrap on 24 March 1923.

The Kearsarge-class battleships were designed to be used for coastal defense. They had a displacement of 11,540 short tons (10,470 t), an overall length of 375 feet 4 inches (114.40 m), a beam of 72 feet 3 inches (22.02 m) and a draft of 23 feet 6 inches (7.16 m). The two 3-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines and five Scotch boilers, connected to two propeller shafts, produced a total of 12,179 indicated horsepower (9,082 kW), and gave a maximum speed of 16.897 knots (19.445 mph; 31.293 km/h). Kentucky was manned by 40 officers and 514 enlisted men, a total of 554 crew.

Kentucky, like USS Kearsarge, had two double turrets, with two 13 in (330 mm)/35 caliber guns and two 8 in (203 mm)/40 caliber guns each, stacked on two levels. The guns and turret armor were designed by the Bureau of Ordnance, while the turret itself was designed by the Bureau of Construction and Repair. The configuration caused the guns to be mounted far back in the turret, making the ports very large. Admiral William Sims claimed that as a result of the gun mounting, a shell fired into the port could reach the magazines below, disabling the guns. In addition to these guns, Kentucky carried fourteen 5 in (127 mm)/40 caliber guns, twenty 6-pounder (57 mm or 2.2 in) guns, eight 1-pounder (37 mm or 1.5 in) guns, four .30 in (7.6 mm) machine guns, and four 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes. Kentucky had a very low freeboard, often making her guns unusable during bad weather.

The ship's waterline armor belt was 5–16.5 inches (127–419 mm) thick. Her main gun turrets were protected by 15–17 inches (381–432 mm) of armor, while the secondary turrets had 6–11 inches (152–279 mm) of armor. The barbettes were 12.5–15 inches (318–381 mm) thick, and the conning tower had 10 inches (254 mm) of armor. The ship's armor was made of harveyized steel.

Kentucky was authorized on 2 March 1895. The contract for her construction was awarded on 2 January 1896, and her keel was laid down on 30 June 1896 by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Virginia. The total cost was $4,998,119.43. In preparation for the Kentucky's christening, the Navy asked Kentucky Governor William O'Connell Bradley to select a member of his family to perform the ceremony. Bradley chose his daughter, Christine, who was attending school in Washington, D.C. The Bradleys were a family of teetotalers, so Governor Bradley sent a bottle of water from Lincoln Spring in Hodgenville, Kentucky, for Christine to use during the ceremony. Kentucky was christened on 24 March 1898, the same day as her sister ship, Kearsarge. Soon after Miss Bradley broke the bottle of water over the Kentucky's bow, a delegation from the Women's Christian Temperance Union, led by Frances Beauchamp, presented the governor's daughter with a gift of a silver tray, a water pitcher, and two goblets. The inscription read, "Kentucky Christian Temperance Union to Miss Christine Bradley, as a tribute to her loyalty to conviction in the christening of the Battleship Kentucky with water. March 10, 1898." Kentucky was commissioned on 15 May 1900, under the command of Captain Colby Mitchell Chester.

During the summer of 1900, Kentucky was fitted out in the New York Navy Yard. On 26 October, during the Boxer Rebellion, she left Tompkinsville, Staten Island for China, passing through Gibraltar and the Suez Canal. On 5 February 1901 she arrived at Manila, and on 23 March she replaced the protected cruiser Newark as the flagship of Rear Admiral Louis Kempff. Between 1901 and 1904, Kentucky visited numerous ports in China and Japan, including Yantai, Wusong, Nanjing, Taku Forts, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Nagasaki, Kobe, and Yokohama. In 1902, Kentucky became the flagship of Rear Admiral Frank Wildes, although he moved his flag to the distilling ship Rainbow on 12 April 1902. In November 1902, she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans.

On 13 March 1904 she sailed from Manila, passing through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, and arriving at New York City on 21 May. After receiving upgrades at the New York Navy Yard, including the addition of smoke ejectors, Kentucky joined the North Atlantic Squadron. The battleship participated in the welcome of the British North Atlantic Squadron at Annapolis, Maryland, in October 1905. During the 1906 Cuban Insurrection, she carried Marines to Cuba, embarking them from Provincetown on 23 September, and landing them at Havana, Cuba, on 1 October. She remained there until 9 October, and then returned to New England. Kentucky attended the Jamestown Exposition at Norfolk, Virginia, on 15 April 1907, and then participated in exercises off the New England coast.