USS South Carolina

[Daltron]

lol deez guise

 

Design studies for these radical ships started in 1901. The Spanish-American war told the US Navy that the current 8'' guns were becoming insufficient against foreign armor.

 

Naturally, America's response was 'bigger gun, yo'.

 

​Some guy thought up a great idea of having several 10'' secondaries and eight 12'' guns, which is pretty baller shot caller if you ask me (hello, 2008). I mean, they didn't use the design, but for that time (and even world war two) that would have been a ridiculous armament. All-Big-Gun proponents argued that smaller guns are for orphaned pansies who like getting shot, because bigger guns had longer range that meant the ship could stay out of torpedo range while making sure someone on the other end got a couple of pokes and had a bad day. One bad thing was that the guns had to wait to fire so that the spotters could see where their shells landed and correct the gun elevation, but who cares about that stupid crap this is America, son.

 

 

The initial design was superior to Dreadnought in a lot of aspects, and construction was even started before Dreadnought, however work proceeded slowly, thus losing the title of 'most awesome history changing ship in world history' or some bogus crap like that. The speed was three knots less than Dreadnought (18 knots), but the armament was awesome: superfiring turrets. She was 3,000 tons lighter and was the first battleship in the US Navy to have cage masts. Also, her broadside was a lot better.

 

That's right, Dreadnought, you can go suck it.

 

 

Her first few years saw her very active, hosting Teddy Roosevelt, going to France, Cuba, England, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Germany, Panama, Texas, carried the Big Stick around the Carribbean (American code term for LOOK AT HOW BIG OUR [edited] IS YOU PEOPLE BETTER LOOK OUT), Haiti, Santo Domingo, and all over the east coast.

 

During WWI she did a lot of battle practice around Cuba, training face-rip-offing and general K9 unit awesome tear gas flashbang 'care package inbound' stuff that granted her crew a +10 to awareness, accuracy, and attack.

 

Shoot, even after the US declared war on the Axis powers, she didn't do anything, due to the hard work and balls-outness presented by the Royal Navy in clearing the seas of anything but submarines.

 

So even more practice yaaaay! And holystoning. Lots of holystoning.

 

After wars end she went to France four times bringing home troops, and then pulled a tour of duty across the West Coast, seeing all the SanFran girls while trying to avoid the Bloods and Crips.

 

Then she went to Puerto Rico for even MORE training, transferred some midshipmen to Annapolis, and then was decommissioned.  

 

Wiki Stats:

 

Displacement: 16,000 tons

Length: 452.8 ft (138.0 m)

Beam: 80.2 ft (24.4 m)

Draft: 24.5 ft (7.5 m)

Installed power: 16,500 ihp

Propulsion: 12 Babcock & Wilcox Boilers

Speed: 18.86 kn (21.70 mph; 34.93 km/h)[2]

Range: 5000nm @ 10kts

Complement: 751 officers and men

Armament: 8 × 12 in (300 mm)/45 cal guns

22 × 3 in (76 mm) guns

2 × 3 pounders (47 mm (1.9 in)

2 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes

Armor:

  Belt:11 in – 9 in in over mach and 12 – 10 in over mag (both 8 ft (2 m) 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: n/a

  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.

 

Namesake: South Carolina

Builder: William Cramp and Sons[1]

Laid down: 18 December 1906

Launched: 11 July 1908

Sponsored by: Miss Frederica Ansel

Completed: 1 March 1910

Commissioned: 1 March 1910

Decommissioned: 15 December 1921

Fate: Stricken 1924, sold for scrap

[Krieg]

Could her motto have been "Gamecock"????

[Daltron]

joke.jpg has encountered an error and needs to close.

 

Seriously though, that went straight over my head.

[Windhover118]

South Carolinas armament wasnt that impressive considering the precendent set by HMS Dreadnought.These early Dreadnoughts never really got a chance to prove what they could do. Even HMS Dreadnought didnt see much action during the war. Considering the US only entered the war in 1917, it isnt very surprising that US battleships didnt see any major action during the war.