Balbous Bows

Christian;
The balbous bow has the effect of making a hole in the water there by allowing the hull to slip through the water with less resistance. The size and shape is determined in part by the size and shape and projected service speed of the hull it's fit on. Modern cruise ships and merchant vessals have very pronounced bulbs at the fore foot of their bows. These ships tend to have a service speed of twenty knots or less. The faster the ship, the smaller the bulb. Of course a tremendous ampunt of tank testing goes into the final determination of bulb size. By the way, the United States did have a bulbous bow. She owed more to Normandie that Gibbs would ever be willing to admit. The two Queens were very old fashioned and actually outdated in hull form even at the time of their comissioning.
Harry