Python battleships random ship placement

Hi I have a program that randomly places ships on the battlefield but I've ran into some problems namely, ships sometimes overlaps or not all of them are placed or none of them are placed. Below is the whole program without class Ship initialized with size parameter.

import random
from Ship import Ship

def make_board(board):
    for x in range(0, 10):
        board.append(["_"] * 10)

def print_board(board):
    for row in board:
        print(" ".join(row))

def random_row(board):
    return random.randint(0, len(board) - 1)

def random_col(board):
    return random.randint(0, len(board) - 1)

def place(ships, board):
    hidden_board = []
    for x in range(0, 10):
        hidden_board.append(["_"] * 10)
    print("jestem w place")
    dir_list = ["North", "South", "East", "West"]
    for x in range(0, len(ships), 1):
        placed = False
        while not placed:
            ship_row, ship_col = random_row(board), random_col(board)
            print(ship_row, ship_col)
            if hidden_board[ship_row][ship_col] == "_":
                hidden_board[ship_row][ship_col] = "C"
                if board[ship_row][ship_col] == "_":
                    direction = random.choice(dir_list)
                    if validate(ships[x], ship_row, ship_col, direction):
                        place_ship(ships[x], ship_row, ship_col, direction)
                        placed = True

def place_ship(ships, ship_row, ship_col, direction):
    size = ships.get_size()
    print(direction)
    if direction == "North":
        for x in range(ship_row, ship_row - size, -1):
            board[x][ship_col] = "S"
    elif direction == "South":
        for x in range(ship_row, ship_row + size, 1):
            board[x][ship_col] = "S"
    elif direction == "East":
        for x in range(ship_col, ship_col + size, 1):
            board[ship_row][x] = "S"
    elif direction == "West ":
        for x in range(ship_col, ship_col - size, -1):
            board[ship_row][x] = "S"

def validate(ships, ship_row, ship_col, direction):
    size = ships.get_size()
    print("Jestem w can_place")
    is_free = True
    if direction == "North":
        if ship_row - size <= 0:
            is_free = False
        else:
            for x in range(ship_row, ship_row - size and is_free, -1):
                is_free = is_free
                board[x][ship_col] = "_"
    elif direction == "South":
        if ship_row + size > 10:
            is_free = False
        else:
            for x in range(ship_row, ship_row + size and is_free, 1):
                is_free = is_free
                board[x][ship_col] = "_"
    elif direction == "East":
        if ship_col + size > 10:
            is_free = False
        else:
            for x in range(ship_col, ship_col + size and is_free, 1):
                is_free = is_free
                board[ship_row][x] = "_"
    else:
        if ship_col - size <= 0:
            is_free = False
        else:
            for x in range(ship_col, ship_col - size and is_free, 1):
                is_free = is_free
                board[ship_row][x] = "_"
    return is_free


if __name__ == "__main__":
    board = []
    make_board(board)
    ships = [Ship(3), Ship(2), Ship(1)]
    place(ships, board)
    print_board(board)
    print("\n")