MILITARY AND TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF BATTLESHIP 
DESIGN. 
By Navat Constructor R. D. GaTEwoop, U. S. Navy, MEMBER. 
[Read at the twenty-fourth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 
New York, November 16 and 17, 1916.] 
The whole history of warship design has been a long series of steps toward 
increased displacement, and, except for our own battleships Idaho and Mississippi 
and one or two classic examples abroad, there have been thus far practically no 
backward steps. By studying, even casually, the progress of the science of build- 
ing warships, one is at once struck with the fact that the improvements effected in 
the various types have been made possible largely through this increase in dis- 
placement. The true influence that may be ascribed to increased size has been 
greatly confused because of many concurrent changes in other features of ship 
design and operation; stronger materials have made it possible to build lighter hulls, 
to use higher steam pressures and to install more powerful guns; new types of pro- 
pulsive machinery have resulted in increased speed or greater fuel economy; im- 
proved processes of manufacture have decreased cost of construction. Always, 
however, an inevitable law of growth has asserted itself and each successive vessel 
of every class has been larger than its predecessors. 
In the case of battleships the tendency toward greater displacement would 
have been even greater were it not for two very important and practical objections :— 
1. The extreme reluctancy on the part of governments to spend such large 
and always increasing sums on single units of power. 
2. The great difficulties in providing docking and harbor accommodations for 
vessels of the giant size demanded by those responsible for using these vessels in 
battle. 
Means have been devised, as, doubtless, means will continue to be devised, to 
overcome these objections, but is there not a limit to this increase in dimensions? 
If so, what are the governing considerations that are likely to determine this limit? 
The problem of the United States, or indeed of any other country, is not so 
much whether its needs may be served best by large or small battleships, because, 
after all, the terms “large” and “small” are vague and relative in the extreme, 
but rather, what are the minimum dimensions of the ship that will best meet our 
needs? 
These dimensions are influenced and determined by four factors:— 
1. Our national policies. 
2. Considerations of strategy and tactics. 
3. Technical limitations. 
4. Cost. 
