Overview and historical setting
The Delaware class was the second U.S. dreadnought class and the first American design to meet the contemporary 21-knot fleet standard.
Delaware class belongs to the history of capital ships and heavily armed surface combatants. The class was developed for United States Navy during the dreadnought era and the First World War, and contemporary descriptions identify it as dreadnought battleship. This setting matters because the design should be read against the missions, technology, and fleet organization available to that navy at the time.
Development and program
The ships carried ten 12-inch guns in five centerline twin turrets; Delaware used reciprocating engines while North Dakota used turbines.
For Delaware class, the documented program can be summarized as construction activity is recorded from 1907 to 1910, 2 planned, 2 ordered, 2 completed, and 0 cancelled. Those figures separate the intended program from the ships that actually reached completion, a distinction that is especially important when requirements changed during a long construction cycle.
The recorded lineage links Delaware class to no explicitly identified predecessor. Lineage is treated as evidence of design relationship, not proof that equipment, protection, or operating doctrine remained unchanged from one class to the next.
Design and operational role
The technical character of Delaware class is described through dreadnought and all big gun. These characteristics are most useful when connected to the missions assigned to the class, including fleet combat; they explain what the navy expected the ships to do rather than serving as an isolated list of specifications.
Delaware class should not be treated as one permanently fixed configuration. Individual members could differ during construction and later change through refits, revised weapons, new sensors, altered boats or aircraft, and changes in crew or command facilities. The class page establishes the shared baseline, while dated ship evidence is needed for any claim about a particular hull.
Ships of the class
The documented roster for Delaware class contains 2 ships, and the roster is marked complete. The named members are USS Delaware and USS North Dakota.
The roster gives Delaware class a measurable production history rather than treating the class as an abstract design. Comparing the member pages can reveal construction differences, refits, transfers, renamings, losses, and preservation outcomes that a class-wide summary cannot assign safely to every ship.
Across the member records, the currently documented outcomes are 2 scrapped. This summary reflects the available ship records and should be revised when stronger evidence changes an individual vessel’s status.
Service history
Both served with the Atlantic Fleet; Delaware operated with the British Grand Fleet during World War I while North Dakota remained primarily a training ship.
Service within Delaware class was not necessarily uniform. Ships built to the same design could enter different theaters, receive different modernizations, or leave service under different conditions. For that reason, an operation documented for one member is not presented as a class-wide experience unless the supporting source makes that connection.
Historical significance and evidence
The class moved American battleship construction beyond the compact South Carolina design into the larger fleet dreadnought pattern.
The significance of Delaware class is best evaluated by comparing its intended roles, the design features selected to meet them, the number of ships actually completed, and the different outcomes recorded across the class. That approach turns the program and roster into evidence about naval priorities rather than treating the class only as a set of measurements.
The evidence used for Delaware class includes Robert Gardiner and Randal Gray, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906–1921, Conway Maritime Press, 1985, Naval History and Heritage Command, Delaware VI (Battleship No. 28), Naval History and Heritage Command, and Naval History and Heritage Command, North Dakota I (Battleship No. 29), Naval History and Heritage Command. These sources support the chronology and identification presented here; where they do not establish a ship-specific event or configuration, the profile says so rather than borrowing details from another vessel.
Ships in this class
Showing 2 recorded class members.
Sources and further reading
- Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906–1921Conway Maritime Press
- Delaware VI (Battleship No. 28) ↗Naval History and Heritage Command · accessed 2026-09-18
- North Dakota I (Battleship No. 29) ↗Naval History and Heritage Command · accessed 2026-09-18
- U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design HistoryNaval Institute Press