WesWorld

A question: historically, there were relatively few ships that were built with a bulged design, ie, laid down from the start with the bulges as part of the design. Most bulged ships were fitted with those bulges as part of a refit. Why is this? If bulges are A GOOD THING, why weren't ships built that way from the get-go? What's the downside?

Bulges aren't a good thing. They affect seakeeping, wave resistance and stability. To the detriment of all. Nowhere near as good for damage control either as you don't have as much volume.

Stable was probably the wrong word to use there. They are more stable in roll because of the larger beam, greater moment etc. but quicker in pitch and yaw. Look at the R-class

SS just thinks bulges are a good thing because it reduces the weight of deck armour needed. I'd argue that reducing the deck area is bad, because it means less armoured volume. Essentially the arguement about internal armour.

If anything, Italy is just using small bulges to represent the hullform like R+R, Hood, VV etc. that splays outwards slightly below the waterline. Only by about a metre or so.