Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:53:07-2:53:43

Why 300,000 horsepower needs a purpose-designed battleship hull

Machinery output alone cannot yield a safe speed estimate because the hull must be designed to withstand the resulting loads and behavior in the water.

Alternate HistoryBattleshipsHigh Speed WarshipsHull StrengthNaval PropulsionWarship Design
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Question

Would a battleship hull remain stable with 300,000 shaft horsepower, and how much speed would that produce?

Short answer

Only a purpose-designed hull could answer that safely; adding the power without sufficient structural and hydrodynamic design could make the ship fail at speed.

Notes

Horsepower alone cannot produce a safe knot figure. A battleship hull would have to be designed very carefully for the loads created by a 300,000-shaft-horsepower plant. A badly integrated design could make the structure fail at high speed rather than produce a useful fast battleship. Machinery output must be matched by hull strength and hydrodynamic form.