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USS ''Nevada'' (BB-36), the second United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two s; her sister ship was . Launched in 1914, the ''Nevada'' was a leap forward in dreadnought technology; four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets, oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the "all or nothing" armor principle. These features made ''Nevada'' the first US Navy "super-dreadnought". ''Nevada'' served in both World Wars: during the last few months of World War I, ''Nevada'' was based in Bantry Bay, Ireland, to protect the supply convoys that were sailing to and from Great Britain. In World War II, she was one of the battleships trapped when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, making the ship "the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal and depressing morning" for the United States. Still, she was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs while steaming away from Battleship Row, forcing her to be beached. Subsequently salvaged and modernized at Puget Sound Navy Yard, ''Nevada'' served as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and as a fire-support ship in four amphibious assaults: the Normandy Landings and the invasions of Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. At the end of World War II, the Navy decided that ''Nevada'' was too old to be retained, so they assigned her to be a target ship in the atomic experiments that were going to be conducted at Bikini Atoll in July 1946 (Operation Crossroads). After being hit by the blast from the first atomic bomb, Able, she was still afloat but heavily damaged and radioactive. She was decommissioned on 29 August 1946 and sunk during naval gunfire practice on 31 July 1948. == Design == Being the first second-generation battleship in the US Navy, ''Nevada'' has been described as "revolutionary" and "as radical as 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 that of the obsolete 1890 pre-dreadnought , almost twice that of the 1904 battleship , and almost greater than that of one of the first American dreadnoughts, , 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 an oil-fired steam power plant. 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". ''Nevada'' was also the first US battleship with geared turbines, also increasing fuel economy and thus range compared to earlier direct drive turbines. 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 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 , 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 estimated that 100 firemen (stokers) and 112 coal passers could be adequately replaced by just 24 men, which would allow some crew's 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 US Navy's "Standard" type battleships. "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 Navy was to create a fleet of modern battleships similar in long-range gunnery, speed, turning radius, and protection. "Nevada" was followed by 11 other battleships of this type, although significant improvements were made in subsequent designs as naval technology rapidly progressed. An additional seven standard type battleships, the USS Washington (BB-47) and the South Dakota class were never completed due to the Washington Naval Treaty. 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, which had proven more fuel-efficient and reliable than the direct drive turbines of some earlier battleships, while ''Nevada'' received geared Curtis steam turbines. 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「USS Nevada (BB-36)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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