[Nisgeis]

If they appear black, but not a shaded black, just a black like a pure silhouette, then it's more than likely the textures, either diffuse or ambient occlusion are missing (or possibly both). There are quite a few key texture files missing and it causes pure black (for example in the interiors of the subs and missing gauge textures). There are two versions of the textures, a normal and a low res, if one of them is missing and that's what you need, you'll get black.

What battleships are you missing the textures of? If you can tell me which battleships, I can have a look on my install. It's probably something simple.