The Z-Boat Really Floats!
Congratulations US Navy, you have the first new floating tumblehome hull battleship since the Battle of Tsushima in 1905!
October 28th, 2013, — The 87% complete Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer PCU USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) is floated out of dry dock at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard. The ship, the first of three Zumwalt-class destroyers, will provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operations forces and operate as part of joint and combined expeditionary forces. The lead ship and class are named in honor of former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo R. “Bud” Zumwalt Jr., who served as chief of naval operations from 1970-1974. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of General Dynamics/Released)
Above is not the Zumwalt but the 12,300-ton (only 700-tons lighter than the Mighty Z-boat!) French battleship Charles Martel with her tumblehome hull. Construction date: 1891. Incidentally, the great graveyard of tumblehome battleships is in the waters between Japan and China. There in May of 1905, an upstart Asian naval force with borrowed technology sank a modern European one and made it look simple.
Now if the the US Navy can just get the magic guns to work on their new 13,000 ton ‘destroyer’ that has 20% fewer VLS cells than the current 1980s technology Burke class destroyers, and 40% fewer cells than the 1970s technology Ticonderoga-class cruisers in a larger hull, things will start to look a lot better and less like 1905.