Hydro Junkie

When I said the Pennsylvania's were repeats of the Nevada's, I was refering in general terms as yes, there were obviously upgrades and updates. That being said, the dreadnoughts of the US battle line was grossly outdated and obsolete when most of these ships were modernized in the 30s. In my opinion, the Pennsylvania's, Nevada's, Texas and Arkansas should have been scrapped prior to 1941 as they were all too old and slow to do anything more than shell landing beaches. The Tennessee, Maryland and New Mexico classes, being better gun platforms and not nearly as wet, could do the job as well or better than the older ships and, as proved after Pearl Harbor, could be modernized up to the standards of the North Carolina and South Dakota classes except in speed while the older ships couldn't .
As for the Nevada, it is generally known that she was already close to being ready to sail steam wise with part of her boilers lit prior to the first wave of Japanese planes arriving over Pearl Harbor. What is not generally known is had she gotten out of the harbor, she wouldn't have travelled very far as she was taking on water forward and would have sank not far from the harbor mouth due to damage already taken and additional damage she would have taken due to the Japanese efforts to stop her.
For the record, by the time of the Japanese attack, all of the US front line warships were oil burners. The Oklahoma was righted and raised as a matter of national pride and to recover the crew members that had died on board as it was established right after the attack that she was nothing more than scrap metal due to the 7 torpedoes that destroyed the port side of the hull.