The vessels had four screws, with the two outboard screws mounted in skegs. Two semi-balanced rudders were mounted behind the two inboard screws. As completed, the ships had all four-bladed propellers, but vibration tests would result in the ships of the class having different propeller blade arrangements throughout the war. The "Massachusetts" and "Alabama" had five blades in the outboard propellers and four blades inboard, while the "Indiana" had three blades inboard. The power output was , while overloading permitted up to , which drove the ships at a design speed of . The displacement of the vessels gradually increased over World War II, mainly due to additional light anti-aircraft gun placements and greater fuel oil carriage to refuel smaller escorts. By 1945, the "Alabama" achieved 27.08 knots at 42,740 tons on . The ships carried about of fuel oil, which gave a range of at .