USS Nevada (BB-36) - Design

Design

Being both the first second-generation battleship and the first "super-dreadnought" in the US Navy, Nevada has been described as "revolutionary" and "as radical as Dreadnought was in her day" by present-day historians. At the time of her completion in 1916, The New York Times remarked that the new warship was "the greatest afloat" because she was so much larger than other contemporary American battleships: her tonnage was nearly three times as great as that of the obsolete 1890 pre-dreadnought Oregon, almost twice as great as that of the 1904 battleship Connecticut, and almost 8,000 long tons (8,100 t) greater than that of one of the first American dreadnoughts, Delaware, which had been built just seven years prior to Nevada.

Nevada was the first battleship in the US Navy to have triple gun turrets, a single funnel, and oil-fired steam power plants. In particular, using oil gave the ship an engineering advantage over the earlier coal-fired plants, as oil is much more efficient than coal because it yields "a far greater steaming radius for a given amount of fuel". The ability to steam great distances without refueling was a major concern of the General Board at that time. In 1903, the Board felt all American battleships should have a minimum steaming radius of 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) so that the US could enforce the Monroe Doctrine. One of the main purposes of the Great White Fleet, which sailed around the world in 1907–1908, was to prove to Japan that the US Navy could "carry any naval conflict into Japanese home waters". Possibly as a result of this, battleships after 1908 were mainly designed to "steam 8,000 miles at cruising speeds"; given the distance between San Pedro, where the fleet would be based, and Manila, where the Fleet was expected to have to fight under War Plan Orange, was 6,550 nmi (7,540 mi; 12,130 km), endurance was obviously a major concern for the U.S. Navy. Also, oil allowed for the boiler-room crew to be reduced — the engineer on Delaware estimated that 100 firemen (stokers) and 112 coal passers could be adequately replaced by just 24 men, which would allow some crew quarters to be eliminated; this would save weight and also reduce the amount of fresh water and provisions that the ship would have to carry.

In addition to all of this, Nevada had maximum armor over critical areas, such as the magazines and engines, and none over less-important places, even though previous battleships had armor of varying thickness depending on the importance of the area it was protecting. This radical change became known as the "all or nothing" principle, which most major navies later adopted for their own battleships. With this new armor scheme, the armor on the battleship was increased to 41.1% of the displacement.

As a result of all of these design modifications from previous battleships, Nevada was the first of the so-called "Standard" type of battleship. "Standards" were characterized by the use of oil fuel, the "all or nothing" armor scheme, and the arrangement of the main armament in four triple or twin turrets without any turrets located in the middle of the ship.

The two battleships of the Nevada-class were virtually identical except in their propulsion. Nevada and her sister were fitted with different engines to compare the two, putting them 'head-to-head': Oklahoma received older vertical triple expansion engines, while Nevada received Curtis steam turbines.