Inspired by the numerous aircraft threads I thought I would turn my limited talents to good rather than evil.
So which were the coolest battleships (and let’s include battle cruisers)?
Not the most efficient, deadly or best armoured. Perhaps if we exclude sailing ships just to narrow the parameters.
This site may help you with older battleships.
For me, the Warspite, after fighting her way through two world wars is a favourite.
The original HMS Dreadnought for the name alone.
It’s difficult to top the Iowa-class battleships. Huge, imposing monsters, and yet sleek and beautiful.
HMS Agincourt for having seven main gun turrets. (Full power broadsides were impressive.)
HMS Hood for pleasing lines.
IJN Yamato class for sheer displacement and main gun caliber.
USN Iowa class just to be patriotic. 
I agree- if it was called the “HMS Rabbit” it would have lacked class.
And from memory I think HMS Renown was the only battle cruiser that started WW2 and survived above the waves
The North Carolina class doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but I’ve always been drawn to them. Especially the way the USS Washington kicked the Kirishima’s butt in the Second Naval Battle of Guadacanal.
HMS Warspite - not many warships saw as much action and stayed afloat, scored the longest range hit on another warship - over 26k yards
The Massena, for being so mind-numbingly ugly. Pure steampunk nightmare fuel.
I love the pre-dreadnoughts, particularly the French ones. Their designers clearly had no idea what they were doing, so they let their imaginations run wild.
[nitpick]
The Hood was not a battleship. It was a battlecruiser. It never should have gone toe-to-toe with Bismarck.
[/nitpick]
To the OP:
The Iowa class. They looked great and while there have been bigger battleships with bigger guns the Iowa’s were just a superb design all around.
That thing is awesome! At least inasmuch as it is ghastly making it awesome.
WTF were they thinking? Looks like they put small cannons up on the masts. 
Psst… read the OP again.
Whoops! My bad.
Carry on…
Well, the line between battlecruisers and battleships began to be blurred with the Hood class and beyond. The Hood’s protection sceme was roughly similar to the Queen Elizabeth class battleships.
NO battleship built during WW1 had adequate horizontal protection by WW2 standards, nor did any navy equip their ships with a “proper” AA suite until they obtained combat experience.
Also, Battlecruisers (from the git-go) were treated as if they were fast battleships, and used tacticly and organisationally much the same way as the slower battleships were.
In its day, the HMS Tiger was considered the prettiest warship.
Heh. You pulled my desktop image. I shit you not.
(I had a hard time finding a good image of the Hood to use as a desktop.)
Despite the quad turrets forward, the Richelieu class French BBs had rather pleasant lines.
For pure awesome, I lean toward the Iowas. For level of fear inspired among enemies, it’s hard to beat Bismarck and Tirpitz – the allied Pacific fleet monitored the Tirpitz 'round the clock while she sat in a fjord in Norway. Now that’s badassery.
For looks, the Iowas, Scharnhorst, or the aforementioned HMS Tiger.
Do US Civil War ironclads fall into the category we’re discussing, or is that another thread?
I also go with the Iowas. This is due to the effectiveness of the ship on so many fronts. The all-or-nothing armor scheme proved very effective in mitigating combat damage. The bow and hull design allowed amazing speed. The Mark 1 and Mark 1A fire control systems were absolutely superior to anything else afloat. And the 16"/50 guns were badass.
And they looked sweet.
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