How much weight does welded construction save compared with riveting on a warship?
Short answerThe saving grows with ship size and structural complexity, so it is substantial on a subdivided battleship but much smaller on a simple sloop or corvette.
NotesWelding removes more weight from a large, heavily subdivided warship than from a simple escort. A battleship contains many joints and structural boundaries where eliminating riveted overlaps and fasteners produces cumulative savings. A sloop or Flower-class corvette offers fewer such opportunities, so the proportional benefit is smaller. No construction technique has one universal weight-saving figure across every ship type.