Before I even finished reading your first sentence, I knew you were talking about the Spence. The point I guess I was making is that unladen, with no ballast other than the machinery and boilers, the Fletcher is somewhat unstable but no more than any other warship. Furthermore, most if not all warships (or anything with a displacement hull) heel over in the opposite direction of a turn.

Here's some thoughts from another forum: "As for heeling in turns, yes the real ones did it too. If the model acts like the real one even in the less than desireable traits that makes it more fun to operate as you need to do all the same things that the real crew had to do!" Boater_Dave

"The real FLETCHERS where known as surface submarines, we would even rock tied up to the pier in Pearl Harbor, lots of fun during high speed turns. Rode three of them, decks always awash." tincanrider

Here's what I'm talking about with a more modern destroyer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzveUz-WRGQ

Regardless, people give the B Devil a bad rap when it actually performs like the real thing.