My meager amount of knowledge of this subject, compared to someone like David Manley or David K. Brown, originated with the published works of William Hovgaard. He started his career as a Danish naval constructor, and finished his career as a professor at MIT. He had become an advisor to the U.S. Navy by the time of World War I.
William Hovgaard had three important books, in his series about warship design. The first that I had encountered was The Modern History of Warships (1920). The second was The General Design of Warships (1920). I had first seen these books at the University of Michigan, in the mid-t0-late 1960's. I never had expected to find the latter book, but the first had been reprinted, so I expected that I would eventually own a copy. To my surprise, in the fall of 2001, I was able to purchase a very fine copy, after I had bought a photocopy from the Library of Congress.
The third book was perhaps more influential, and went to multiple editions. It was The Structural Design of Warships. Given that I have not done the detailed design for a warship, this is the volume with which I have the least experience.
I have since supplemented my knowledge by study of D.K. Brown's books and the other books that do analysis of warship designs. At my level of understanding, we are reduced to needing to essentially interpolate from existing designs. What I have found really helpful are the published lists of weights for various battleships and battlecruises (primarily British). Perhaps I just need to expand my library, but there is much less information available about cruisers and destroyers weights distribution. For destroyers, I rely on Marsh's classic book, British Destroyers. It is good, but not as good as it would be if there were detailed weights for all the ships.
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