The best-designed battleships ever built

War is Boring:

USS Missouri, the third laid down but last completed of the Iowa class, carried a slightly heavier main armament than the South Dakotas and could make five extra knots. The Iowas were the first U.S. Navy battleships to make speed a primary value, and achieved the speed through a longer hull and more powerful machinery.

Indeed, the Iowas are the fastest battleships ever built, outpacing even the Italian Littorios by a knot or two. While no Iowa ever recorded a speed higher than 31 knots, rumors over the years suggested that the battleships might be able to make 35 knots over short distances.

Read this story if only for the amazing photos. I’ve always had a soft spot for these magnificent ships. Aircraft carriers are bigger, can project force further and are (arguably) better but the brutality of a battleship, and the images firing those guns creates, has always fascinated me.