Table of Contents
What was the largest battleship planned but never built?
Maximum Battleship III – also known as the Tillman III design – weighed 63,000 tons. It had the armor of the second design and the guns of the second design. It could even move at an absurd 30 knots, which is almost as fast as an Iowa-class ship and an insane speed for a ship of that size in 1916.
What was the biggest battleship ever planned?
Their maximum height reached some 183 feet (56 meters), about the height of a 16-story building. Armed with 46-centimeter main guns—the largest and most powerful of any warship—the Yamato and Musashi were designed to help Japan combat the much larger naval force of the United States during World War II.
What is a Tillman Battleship?
This page examines a series of World War I era design studies for extremely large battleships, known as the Tillman Battleships. These studies were prepared in late 1916 and early 1917 at the request of Senator Benjamin R. Tillman. The United States never had any serious intention of building a “Tillman” battleship.
The US Navy was not particularly interested in building these “maximum battleships”, however after Sen. Tillman requested the designs, the Navy’s Bureau of Construction and Repair dutifully did the design studies. They produced a series of four designs late in 1916.
Why did Tillman hate the battlecruisers?
Tillman was not happy. He believed that any future battleship needed to be able to make at least 25 kts, which C&R pointed out would mean a sacrifice of 4 guns and substantial protection, producing a battlecruiser instead of a battleship.
How did these designs differ from the battleships being built?
These designs differed from the battleships being built in two significant ways beyond just their size. Firstly, unlike preceding classes, the “maximum battleships” were designed with a continuous flush main deck. Most battleships in this era had a long forecastle deck.