Why canals and dockyards limited battleship draft

What was the maximum viable draft for a Second World War capital ship?

There was no universal figure: about 37 feet was a practical US limit for the Panama Canal, while British limits depended on different canals and dockyard access.

For the US Navy, passage through the Panama Canal put a practical ceiling near 37 feet. Britain did not face that exact constraint because it could route ships through the Suez Canal, yet British designs also had to consider access to bases and dockyards such as Chatham. Draft was therefore an infrastructure and deployment constraint as well as a hydrodynamic design choice.