The United States Navy's South Carolina class consisted of two battleships; USS South Carolina and USS Alabama, both of which were launched in 1908. They were designed before HMS Dreadnought, and according to the same all-big-gun principle as that famous ship, but their construction proceeded so slowly that Dreadnought was commissioned before them (in 1906).

In design and characteristics, South Carolina represented an evolution of the preceding Connecticut class, rather than a revolutionary “clean sheet” design such as Dreadnought. They used obsolete VTE (vertical triple expansion) engine machinery instead of the newer and faster steam turbines in Dreadnought, a machinery arrangement never repeated again. The class was originally intended to be a modest modification, with single 12“ guns replacing the dual 8” guns on the superstructure corners, but the recoil proved to be too much of a problem and the 12“ guns were reworked into superimposed (or “superfiring”) turrets; South Carolina was the first battleship in the world to feature superfiring turrets and all subsequent US battleships would feature them. Although it was unknown at the time of her construction whether superfiring turrets would work (especially given the failure of the dual-level 12/8” turrets in the Kearsarge and Virginia class battleships), they turned out to be highly successful in service. British battleships would not add this design feature until HMS Orion in 1910.

Both ships spent 1932 and 1933 in dry docks,receiving upgrades to try to repair twenty years of service. Both ships were sunk in the Global War, the South Carolina on the Battle of Wake and the Alabama on the Battle of the Marshalls.

USS South Carolina

USS Michigan

Displacement: 16,000 tons Length: 452.8 feet Beam: 80.2 feet Draft: 24.5 feet Speed: 18.8 knots Armament: eight 12-inch(4×2), 22 three-inch, two 21-inch torpedo tubes