The truly great ships were great because of their deeds.
Warspite, Bismarck, Scharnhorst, Houston/Perth, Cossack, Norfolk, Adrias, Penelope, Derrflinger and Seydlitz and others all earned their reputation for what they did not their technical read outs no matter how impressive some of those have been.
Great ships by their newer equipment, often improved because of the deeds of earlier ships had the bad luck of showing up after the show as over.
The Iowa class was the all around best battleship but when commissioned the battleship no longer played the center stage role nor were they the deciding factor in the war's outcome just helpers to those that now were.
The Bismarck battle was crucial because it could have changed the course of the war but in 44 no such possibility existed for any battleship no matter how "super".
Wulfmann
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"The right to keep and bear arms should not be infringed upon, if only to prevent tyranny in government"
Thomas Jefferson,; Constitutional debates
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