Go to May 29 on this thread, some really nice pics of New Jersey in dry dock, they specifically talk about the hull, oil canning etc. very smooth looking.
On USS New Jersey, I saw a diagram of the Iowa-class hull plating. It was striking how complex was. If you look at Titanic, the strakes alternate in-and-out with a regular pattern. On the Iowa-class, there is no regular pattern. Sometimes it's flush, others its in-and-out, others it's staggered.
My real puzzlement is that there are several places where the laps reverse. X laps Y then suddenly Y laps X. Such a lap reversal requires a lot of machining that seems pointless. It would also create a weak spot in the hull. A number of these reversals are visible above the waterline.
Does anyone know why anyone would build a ship in the rivet era with lap reversals in the strakes?
(Because we could?)
Example: The sheer strake is lapped by the strake below, until above the stern of the tugboat, the sheer strake laps the strake above.
https://navsource.org/archives/01/061/016104.jpg
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