“None of which could penetrate to the vitals of an armored ship.”
You don’t have to sink it in the moment.
Just blow the antennas off it and blind it.
Then send aircraft, or subs if you can spare them to finish it off. At leisure.
Without advanced radar every warship is little more than a barge. And A target barge at that.
After the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in Nov 42’, South Dakota had to go all the way back to New York for repairs and was out of the war for months.
Unarmored upper works were shot to pieces but propulsion was fine and she was in no danger of sinking.
Definition of mission kill.