re: #97 William Barnett-Lewis

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Eh, we had a lot of old crud and we were only building the good ones two at a time. Until we got the income tax amendment, there simply wasn’t enough money to build a modern nation.

I’ll also note that while we were building two at a time, our per-vessel superiority over many European designs meant that by 1915 the USA already had a better battle line than France. And our Pennsylvania-class BBs and the just-laid down New Mexico-class were a match for any BBs save the British Queen Elizabeth-class.

As a side note, given what you wrote: The New Mexico-class was the first US dreadnought class with more than two ships. The third ship, the USS Idaho was financed in large part by the sale of two old predreadnaughts to Greece, with Idaho and her sister Mississippi taking the old ships’ names.