The North Carolina Class Battleships

I was amazed at how Garzke and Dulin blow off any criticism of the North Carolina and Washington. Norman Friedman makes clear how close they came to failing. My estimate as to the cause of the disease was the extreme measures taken to keep the design within the 35,000 tons standard displacement. They failed, but in doing so, they severely compromised the design. The worst feature was the severe longitudinal vibration. That problem was "bandaided" by trying various combinations of propellors, which partially helped. Almost as bad was the lack of hull strength. The symptoms showed up when the North Carolina was torpedoed, and flooding was much more extensive than should have been for a new ship. Another example was the collapse of the Washington's bow after a collision with the Indiana. A battleship should have been able to shrug off such a collision, but that was not the case with the Washington. The ships were also too wet, as the hull depth had been drastically reduced as another weight-saving measure. There is a picture showing whitewater breaking over the bow, almost continuously, and a huge wake, while escorting a carrier in wartime. The basic concept for the class was sound. They just had a poor implementation.