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The United States Navy's South Carolina class consisted of two battleships; USS ''South Carolina'' and USS ''Michigan'', both of which were launched in 1908. They were designed before HMS ''Dreadnought'', and according to the same all-big-gun principle as that famous ship, but their construction proceeded so slowly that Dreadnought was commissioned before them (in 1906). In design and characteristics, South Carolina represented an evolution of the preceding Connecticut class, rather than a revolutionary "clean sheet" design such as Dreadnought. They used less powerful but more fuel-efficient VTE (vertical triple expansion) engine machinery instead of the newer and faster steam turbines in Dreadnought, a machinery arrangement which would be repeated on only four more U.S. battleships (the ''New York'' class battleships, USS ''Delaware'' and USS ''Oklahoma''.) The class was originally intended to be a modest modification, with single 12" guns replacing the dual 8" guns on the superstructure corners, but the recoil proved to be too much of a problem and the 12" guns were reworked into superimposed (or "superfiring") turrets; South Carolina was the first battleship in the world to feature superfiring turrets and all subsequent US battleships would feature them. The failure of the dual-level 12/8" turrets in the ''Kearsarge'' and ''Virginia'' class battleships made superfiring turrets, then an unknown and untried technology, a risky gamble. However, they turned out to be highly successful in service, and all future US battleships would feature them. British battleships would not add this design feature until HMS ''Orion'' in 1910.
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