USS Navada Battle Ship

THE NEVADA CLASS

These were the US Navys first all-or-nothing ships, with heavy armour plate over their essentials and none elsewhere, on the principle that thin armour only served to detonate AP shells. They reverted to four turrets, lost seen in the South Carolinas of 1908. USS Nevada was constructed by Fore River Shipbuilding. Laid down on 4 November 1912, she was launched on 11 July 1914 and completed on 11 March 1916. She saw service during the First World War, was substantially rebuilt from 1929, with new gun mounts, bulges, improved deck armour and a bigger secondary battery. She was the only battleship to get underway during the attack on Pearl Harbour, but was badly damaged nonetheless; repaired and largely rebuilt, she saw service from 1943 on. Used as a target for atomic bomb tests in 1946, she was sunk in 1948.

COMPARATIVE POWER PLANTS

Otherwise identical, Nevada and Oklahoma were used to compare turbine and reciprocating engines, Nevada being fitted with the former. She produced slightly more power than her sister, as a result, but had a shorter endurance. The real benefit came in much smoother running and the virtual removal of vibration at high speed a very significant improvement. She was re-engined with Parsons geared turbines, originally fitted to the North Dakota, scrapped in 1931, during her mid-life reconstruction.

TECHNICAL DATA

Type: Battleship
Machinery: 2-shaft turbines developing 26,500shp
Dimensions (overall): Length, 177.7m (583ft); beam, 29.1 m (95.5ft)
Displacement: 27,500t standard; 28,400t deep load
Draught: 8.7m (28.5ft) deep load
Complement: 864
Speed: 20.5 knots (38km/h)