South Carolina class battleship

The United States Navy's "South Carolina" class consisted of two battleships;USS|South Carolina|BB-26|6 and USS|Michigan|BB-27|6, both of which were launched in 1908. They were designed before HMS|Dreadnought|1906|6, and according to the same all-big-gun principle as that famous ship, but their construction proceeded so slowly that "Dreadnought" was commissioned before them (in 1906).

Design

The all big gun battleship had been discussed in "Proceedings" (The U.S. Naval Institute's official publication) as early as 1902. In design and characteristics, "South Carolina" represented an evolution of the preceding Sclass|Connecticut|battleship|4, rather than a revolutionary "clean sheet" design such as "Dreadnought". Design characteristics common to all U.S. battleships manifested themselves early in this design. One design mandate was that all U.S. battleships have large operational ranges and that the coal storage be figured into the design. The class was severely constrained by a 16,000 ton limitation imposed by Congress on the proceeding Connecticut class. This left the C&R board to construct on 16,000 tons what foreign navies were having problems constructing at 18,000 tons. The class had to be reduced by one deck and the secondary was limited to 3" weapons and speed was limited to convert|18.5|kn|km/h|1. The ship class was a very "wet" design shipping water from quartering seas. The next class would show a rise of over 4000 tons to correct issues found with the South Carolina class.

Engineering

It was for operational range that the South Carolina Class used less powerful but more fuel-efficient vertical triple expansion engine machinery instead of the newer and faster steam turbines in "Dreadnought", a machinery arrangement which would be repeated on only four more U.S. battleships (USS|Delaware|BB-28|6, USS|New York|BB-34|6, USS|Texas|BB-35|6 and USS|Oklahoma|BB-37|6.)

Armor Suite

The South Carolina class battleship armor suite provided better protection than HMS|Dreadnought|1906|6 with thicker side armor and all magazines well away from the sides. That being said, this class of battleships would suffer the same lack of deck and turret roof armor that all early dreadnoughts suffered from

Armament

The class was originally intended to be a modest modification, with single 12" guns replacing the dual 8" guns on the superstructure corners, and the poorly-performing 7" secondary removed, but the recoil proved to be too much of a problem and the 12" guns were reworked into superimposed (or "superfiring") turrets; "South Carolina" was the first battleship in the world to feature superfiring turrets and all subsequent US battleships would feature them. This allows all four turrets to fire on a broadside and conserve tonnage to allow the class to be built on the same tonnage as the preceding class while having the same broadside as the HMS|Dreadnought|1906|6 with one less turret and avoiding turrets mounted near the sides of hull. While there was concern among some engineers about shock damage with the superfiring turret firing direct forward, there was not perceived as a problem with broadside fire. Testing on the old Monitor USS|Florida|BM-9|6 was done for fire directly over the lower turret and was shown not to be a serious problem. The superfiring turrets turned out to be highly successful in service, and all future US battleships would feature them. British battleships would not add this design feature until HMS|Neptune|1909|6 Completed in 1911.

Operations

During World War One, both battleships operated with Pre-Dreadnoughts due to their slow speed. Both battleships of the South Carolina class were scrapped under the terms of the Washington Treaty.

References

Source: U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History Norman Friedman ISBN 0-87021-715-1

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/usnshtp/bb/bb26cl.htm Naval Historical Center - South Carolina class battleship]