I always wondered: It is obvious that the "noses" at the lower bow featured on vessels like the Normandie and the Andrea Doria are the product of painstaking studies of hydrodynamics and surely improve on the ship's performance/friction.
Why then does the great SS United States, last and deservedly winner of the Blue Ribband, built 17 years later than the Normandie have no nose-shaped lower bow but rather a plain bow similar to those found on the Cunard Queens?
Does anyone know how this shape of the lower bow came to being and if it really improves the performance?