(* my comment)On her preliminary trials (2 December 1940), Constructor H. S. Pengelly said of her general seaworthiness:
During full power trials (at 28 knots*) the ship was dry except for broken water over the bow
which was well cleared by the breakwaters. The fairing at the fore end of the
side armour and the streamlined refuse chute were effective in reducing spray.
The flying-off space and quarterdeck were dry, the latter even when going astern
at 10 knots.
The movement of the ship was generally easy, periods measured on many
occasions being about 7½ seconds’ pitch and 14 seconds’ roll. The ship was
remarkably free of vibration at all speeds and I was informed that the
rangefinders could be used without difficulty. The Captain and officers have all
expressed themselves as being pleased with the ship and her performance.
Burt notes that PoW was wet forward during operations against Bismarck but we have to remember that she was steaming at 28-29 knots, through rough seas, prior to intercepting Bismarck and any battleship would be wet forward under those conditions. Bismarck, for example, had Anton turret's RF removed because it was generally unusable at sea. While Scharnhorst and her sister were notoriously, cripplingly wet ships. In 1943 Massachusetts ran into moderately bad weather and this was the result:
(my bolding)Subject: Heavy Weather Damage, report of.
Enclosure: (A) Report of damage and recommendations under the cognizance of the Bureau of Ordnance.
(B) Report of damage and recommendations under the cognizance of the Bureau of Ships (Engineering).
(C) Report of damage and recommendations under the cognizance of the Bureau of Ships (Hull).
(D) Extracts from log of February 7, and 8, 1943.
1. During the morning watch of February 7 1943 while making passage off Cape Hatteras this vessel on course 196° true, speed 18.5 knots, encountered a moderate sea which did considerable damage to this vessel during the next twenty-four hours. This damage and recommendations are listed in enclosures (A), (B) and (C). The maximum force of the wind was 6, sea 4 which varied slightly on either side of the starboard beam.
2. The seas were only moderate with an occasional heavy wave. At 1614 on February 7, 1943 as the heavy weather was increasing slowed to 15 knots with no reduction in the water coming on board. At about 2030 a particularly heavy sea came on board which threatened to flood the engine rooms thru the ventilation intake ducts and short out the main switchboards. Speed was slowed to 12 knots with little reduction in the amount of water coming on board. As turret one was being flooded due to the bloomers carrying away it was impractical to head into the sea and to place the sea on or abaft the quarter would have cleared the stern of aircraft.
3. At 0707 on February 8, 1943 the seas having moderated went ahead at 15 knots and at 0225 resumed 18.5 knots.
4. Turret #1 was flooded because of the failure of the bloomers. The turret was trained to port in order to reduce the amount of water entering the gun ports but it was found that too much water was coming thru the after hatch and ventilation ducts. As at this time it was thought that no serious damage was being done to the turret the turret was trained on the port bow. After pumping the water down it was found that water had entered the center column. This in itself did no serious damage but this water flowing thru the conduit tubes to the main power connection boxes soaked the main power cables necessitating their renewal and placing the turret out of commission for ten days.
5. During this storm the maximum roll was 13 degrees and the maximum pitch as read from the trim indicator dampened
to give an average was 3 feet. This vessel is extremely wet. Even on a calm day with very little wind the weather decks are wet with spray. On this particular day no automatic weapons on the main deck could have been manned and only those on the lee side of the superstructure could have been manned. In fact, it would have been impossible to fight the ship to windward with anything except perhaps turret 2 and upper 5" mounts.
http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/ ... amage.html
En-route to Casablanca Massachusetts had her aircraft badly damaged during a storm despite reducing speed to a crawl. KGV, PoW and DoY pushed through heavier seas and/or fought lengthy actions in rougher weather. DoY, notably, pushed through extremely heavy weather at 24 knots to intercept Scharnhorst and then increased speed to 28 knots during the action.
It is a myth that the KGV class were unduly wet forward, or had inadequate freeboard forward. Any increase in freeboard forward, would have had to have been paid for by weight reductions elsewhere and the Admiralty requirements for low angle fire forward also meant considerable weight savings. However, KGV actually had more freeboard forward than the North Carolina class, or the Littorio class, and their hull design allowed for more flotation forward, so the bow had less tendency to bury itself in heavy seas. The NC and South Dakota class had short beamy hulls and consequently very fine bows, with little flotation and thus tended to bury the bow, so that water would overwhelm the breakwater. Bismarck also had a very fine bow, but her greater length helped mitigate the effects, but Scharnhorst was not so fortunate.