the ballad of the Uss carolina

The CSS Carolina was built in 1917 during world war 1. Due to her being so powerful she remained in service until 1965. She received numerous upgrades over the years. This chapter is about her when she was built and what was added or taken during her refits.

When the CSS Carolina as built she was 1112 feet long, 135 feet wide, and had a 33 feet draft. Her main belt armor was 19 inches thick. Her main deck armor was 11 inches thick. And finally her pilothouse armor was 24 inches thick.

The Carolina was powered by four twin Westinghouse turbines generating about 11950 horsepower each. He was built with 15 Hanson coal fired boilers. When built she had a top speed of 25 knots and had a crew of 2810 men.

Her main armaments where five turrets with three 18 inch cannons, 24 eight inch cannons, and sixteen five inch guns, plus she had eight 3 inch anti air craft guns.

in 1934 the Carolina received a refit. Her armor was replaced with new experimental armor with the same thickness as before. She received four new Westinghouse high power gear steam turbines. Which where powered by 15 new Scottsdale oil-fired water jacketed boilers. Which increased her top speed from 25 knots to an incredible 29 knots. She also received new Armament witch consisted of 24 new 8 inch guns, sixteen new 5 inch navel guns, and 8 new 3 inch anti air guns

Finally in 1942 the Carolina received her final refit which resulted in her receiving anti air craft guns which where sixty twin 40 mm Bofors cannons, forty new 50 bmg machine guns, and eighty single 20 mm auto cannons, plus twelve new 3 inch anti air guns.