The sister ships' boiler rooms, engine rooms, and magazines help explain why the main guns were arranged as they were. Moving an after turret might appear to improve weight distribution, but it would also change which magazines sat beside the hottest machinery spaces. Powder and guns needed controlled temperatures, while boiler rooms produced far more heat than engine rooms. The magazines trapped between boiler and engine spaces therefore presented a different cooling problem from those at the ends of the ship. Turret layout was partly a propellant-safety and thermal-management decision as well as an arrangement of weapons on deck.
Notable Point · 18:32-20:11
Machinery layout, turret placement, and magazine heat
The Delaware-class internal arrangement links boiler and engine rooms to turret placement, with magazine temperature and powder safety helping explain the seemingly awkward layout.