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The ''South Carolina''-class battleships, also known as the ''Michigan'' class, were built during the first decade of the twentieth century for the United States Navy. Named and , they were the first American dreadnoughts—powerful warships whose capabilities far outstripped those of the world's older battleships. In the opening years of the twentieth century, the prevailing theory of naval combat was that battles would continue to be fought at relatively close range using many small, fast-firing guns. As such, each of the ships in the United States' previous battleship class (the ) had many medium-sized weapons alongside four large guns. This paradigm, however, was soon to be subverted, as American naval theorists proposed that a ship mounting a homogeneous battery of large guns would be more effective in battle. As their ideas began to enjoy wider acceptance, the US Congress authorized the country's navy to construct two small battleships. This displacement was roughly the same size as the ''Connecticut'' class and at least smaller than the foreign standard. A solution was found in an ambitious design drawn up by Rear Admiral Washington L. Capps, the chief of the navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair, which featured heavy armament and relatively thick armor, both favored by naval theorists. However, in balancing the congressionally mandated limits to displacement and the inherent design trade-offs between armament, armor, and propulsion, the ''South Carolina'' class' speed was severely limited—an ultimately fatal disadvantage that severely limited their utility in a conflict. With their superfiring main armament, press accounts billed ''South Carolina'' and ''Michigan'', alongside the British , as heralding a new epoch in warship design. Both, however, were soon surpassed by ever-larger and stronger super-dreadnoughts. The class' low top speed of about , as compared to the of later American battleships, relegated them to serving with older, obsolete battleships during the First World War. Thereafter, both ''South Carolina''s were scrapped with the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty. == Background == (詳細はbattleship designs reflected the prevailing theory of naval combat—that battles would initially be fought at some distance, but the ships would then approach to close range for the final blows, when shorter-range, faster-firing guns would prove most useful. The premier battleship class then under construction carried four large , eight , and twelve guns, a striking power slightly heavier than typical foreign battleships of the time.〔Campbell, "United States of America: 'The New Navy', 1883–1905," 137–38, 143; Friedman, ''US Battleships'', 52.〕 The Naval Institute's ''Proceedings'' magazine devoted space in two of its 1902 issues to possible improvements in battleship design. The first article was authored by Lieutenant Matt H. Signor, who argued for a ship with 13- (330 mm) and 10-inch (254 mm) 40-caliber guns in four triple turrets. The secondary battery would be composed of 5-inch (127 mm)/60 guns. This paper provoked enough thought that ''Proceedings'' published comments on the story from Captain William M. Folger, Professor P.R. Alger and naval constructor David W. Taylor—an up-and-coming officer and future head of the Bureau of Construction and Repair (C&R). These comments expressed doubt that the proposed vessel could be modified into a feasible design, but they praised his thoughts as a step in the right direction. Alger believed that Signor was on the right track in suggesting larger armament, though he thought that triple turrets would be unworkable and eight 12-inch guns in four twin turrets would be a much more realistic arrangement. Naval historian Norman Friedman believes that this was one of the "earliest serious proposals for a homogeneous big-gun battery."〔Friedman, ''US Battleships'', 51; Signor, "A New Type of Battleship"; Folger, Alger, Taylor, "Discussion".〕 The suggestion leading directly to the ''South Carolina'' class came from Homer Poundstone, a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, who became the principal proponent of an American all-big-gun design. In a December 1902 paper written for President Theodore Roosevelt, he argued for greatly increasing the size of current battleships, although he also supported retaining mixed main batteries.〔Friedman, ''US Battleships'', 52.〕 However, by the March and June 1903 editions of ''Proceedings'', Poundstone began advocating for an all-big-gun arrangement, featuring twelve guns mounted on a ship. In October of the same year, the Italian naval architect Vittorio Cuniberti presented a similar idea in an article for ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' entitled "An Ideal Battleship for the British Navy". He argued in favor of a ship with twelve 12-inch guns on a slightly larger displacement than the battleships in service at the time, . He believed that the higher weight would allow 12 inches of armor and machinery capable of propelling the ship at . Poundstone used what he believed to be the great popularity for this idea among Europeans to justify the all-big-gun design.〔Friedman, ''US Battleships'', 52; Cuniberti, "An Ideal Battleship"; Friedman, "South Carolina Sisters," Poundstone, "Size of Battleships for US Navy," 161–174; Poundstone, "Proposed Armament," 377–411.〕 In 1903, Poundstone's designs began receiving attention from American naval authorities. After being refined by Washington Irving Chambers, Poundstone's work was brought to the Naval War College, where it was tested in war games during the 1903 Newport Conference. The results indicated that a theoretical battleship that dispensed with the intermediate 8- and 7-inch armament and was armed with only twelve 11- or 12-inch guns, all able to fire on a single broadside, was worth ''three'' of the battleships then in service. According to the men who conducted the tests, the main reasoning for the finding was that the measure of effective gun ranges was directly related to the maximum length of an enemy's torpedo range. At this time, the latter was roughly ; at that distance, the 7- and 8-inch guns common to American intermediate batteries would not be able to penetrate the armor of enemy battleships. Worse still, it was certain that—as the United States was developing a torpedo—gun range would have to rise in the near future, making the intermediate guns even less useful. However, a homogeneous main battery of 11- or 12-inch guns would be able to penetrate the armor and have sufficient explosive power to disable an enemy capital ship, and adding as many guns as possible would provide a strong defense against torpedo-carrying but unarmored destroyers.〔Friedman, ''US Battleships'', 53; Friedman, "South Carolina Sisters".〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「South Carolina-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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