South Carolina-class battleship

Michigan in the Hudson River for the 1912 Naval Review.
Class overview
Name:	South Carolina-class battleship
Builders:	William Cramp and Sons New York Shipbuilding Corporation
Operators:	United States
Preceded by:	Mississippi class
Succeeded by:	Delaware class
In service:	1910–1922
Planned:	2
Completed:	2
Retired:	2
Preserved:	0
General characteristics
Type:	Battleship
Displacement:	16,000 long tons (16,257 t) (standard) 17,617 long tons (17,900 t) (full load)
Length:	452 ft 9 in (138 m) (overall) 450 ft (137 m) (waterline)
Beam:	80 ft 3 in (24 m)
Draft:	24 ft 6 in (7 m)
Installed power:	4 × Curtis direct-current turbogenerators (200 kW (268 hp)) 12 × coal-fired superheating Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers 16,500 ihp (12,304 kW)
Propulsion:	Vertical triple expansion steam engines 2 × screws
Speed:	18.5 kn (21 mph; 34 km/h)
Range:	6,950 nmi (7,998 mi; 12,871 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Complement:	51 officers and 881 enlisted men
Armament:	8 × 12 in (305 mm)/45 caliber Mark 5 guns 22 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber guns 2 × 3-pounder 47 mm (1.85 in)/40 caliber guns 8 × 1-pounder 37 mm (1.46 in) guns 2 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (submerged)
Armor:	Belt: 12–8 in (305–203 mm) Casemates: 10–8 in (254–203 mm) Barbettes: 10–8 in (254–203 mm) Turrets: Face: 12 in Side: 8 in Roof: 2.5 in (64 mm) Decks: 2.5 – 1 in (25 mm) Conning tower: 12 in – 2 in (51 mm)

The South Carolina-class battleships, also known as the Michigan-class, were built during the first decade of the twentieth century for the United States Navy. Named South Carolina and Michigan, they were the first American dreadnoughts—powerful warships whose capabilities far outstripped those of the world's older battleships.

In the opening years of the twentieth century, the prevailing theory of naval combat was that battles would continue to be fought at relatively close range using many small, fast-firing guns. As such, each of the ships in the United States' previous battleship class (the Connecticut class) had many medium-sized weapons alongside four large guns. This paradigm, however, was soon to be subverted, as American naval theorists proposed that a ship mounting a homogeneous battery of large guns would be more effective in battle.

As their ideas began to enjoy wider acceptance, the US Congress authorized the country's Navy to construct two small 16,000 long tons (16,257 t) battleships. This displacement was roughly the same size as the Connecticut class and at least 2,000 long tons (2,032 t) smaller than the foreign standard. A solution was found in an ambitious design drawn up by Rear Admiral Washington L. Capps, the chief of the navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair, which featured heavy armament and relatively thick armor, both favored by naval theorists. However, in balancing the congressionally mandated limits to displacement and the inherent design trade-offs between armament, armor, and propulsion, the South Carolina class' speed was severely limited—an ultimately fatal disadvantage that severely limited their utility in a conflict.

With their superfiring main armament, press accounts billed South Carolina and Michigan, alongside the British HMS Dreadnought, as heralding a new epoch in warship design. Both, however, were soon surpassed by ever-larger and stronger super-dreadnoughts. The class' low top speed of about 18.5 kn (21 mph; 34 km/h), as compared to the 21 kn (24 mph; 39 km/h) standard of later American battleships, relegated them to serving with older, obsolete battleships during the First World War. Thereafter, both South Carolinas were scrapped with the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty.