South Carolina class battleship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

South Carolina-class battleship

Class Overview
Class type:	Battleship
Class name	The State of South Carolina
Preceded by:	Mississippi class
Succeeded by:	Delaware class
Ships of the line:	South Carolina (BB-26), Michigan (BB-27)
General characteristics (USS South Carolina)
Displacement:	Standard:16,000 tons Mean War Service:
Length:	452 ft 8 in
Beam:	80 ft 2 in
Draft:	24 ft 5 in
Speed:	18.79 knots (trials - USS Michigan)
Complement:	51 officers and 881 enlisted
Max. cruising radius	6,950 nautical miles
Power:	16,500 ihp
Drive:	Triple Expansion
Fuel:	900/2200 (Coal)
Armament:	eight 12 inch, 22 three-inch, 2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt:11 - 9 in over mach and 12 - 10 in over mag (both 8 feet wide tapering uniformly from top to bottom. 10 - 8 in forward of forward magazine. 60 lb NS from belt forward (frame 8 to 17) and after from belt to stern (Frame 81 aft) Casemates: 8 - 10 in Bulkheads: Barbettes:10 - 8 in Turrets: 12 in / 2.5 in NS / 8 inch Decks: 50 lb NS + 30 lb over mag, 30 lb structural + 30 lb structural over mach; 70 lb NS + 30 lb forward of Forward mag over forward belt; 40 lb NS + 20 lb to bow; 80 lb NS +30 lb abaft belt; 100 lb NS + 20 sloping to stern.

The United States Navy's South Carolina class consisted of two battleships; USS South Carolina and USS Michigan, both of which were launched in 1908. They were designed before HMS Dreadnought, 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).

The all big gun Battleship had been discussed in "Proceedings" (The U.S. Navy's offical publication) as early as 1902. In design and characteristics, South Carolina represented an evolution of the preceding Connecticut class, 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. For that reason the South Carolina Class used less powerful but more fuel-efficient VTE (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 (the New York class battleships, USS Delaware and USS Oklahoma.) 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 build on the same tonnage as the preceding class while having the same broadside as the HMS Dreadnought 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 perceive as a problem with broadside fire. Testing on the old Monitor USS Florida 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 Orion in 1910. The class was severely constrained by 16,000-tonnage limitation imposed by Congress on the proceeding Connecticut class, the limit on battleship tonnage having just been raised by Congress. This left the C&R board to construct on 16,000 tons what foreign navys 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 18.5 knots. 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.

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.

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