I agree 100%. I believe the Iowa class were the most beautiful warships ever built...a stunning design.
Nothing else comes close.
When I lived in Subic Bay as a kid, I was an altar boy, and the chaplain used to take me around to the ships when he served Mass on them. One of them was the USS New Jersey.
What I remember best, though, was how well those sailors treated me. After Mass, they let us have breakfast, and the cook asked me what I would like, and I said: “Jelly Doughnuts!”
They brought me out a plate piled high with them! I must have eaten eight or nine of those doughnuts, and I had a pretty severe stomach ache after that!
I remember another time me and my buddy were trying to make the Marine guard move. He was standing rock still at the bottom of the gangway at parade rest with a Garand (I think, but can’t remember if it was an M-14 or not)
We would run up, poke him in the side and run away. The guy refused to even flinch or look at us...I thought it was amazing. I bet he knew he was blowing our minds...:)
My favorites were the Desmoine class of heavy cruisers. The Newport News, Salem, and Desmoines were really something. Automatic 8 inch guns too! Yowza!