2. Gigantic Hull
If greatness can be measured by size, Yamato was indeed the greatest
battleship ever built. Her hull was 863 feet long—longer than all but
America's Iowa-class ships. Fully loaded, Yamato displaced about
70,000 tons of water, outweighing even the biggest Allied battleships by more
than 20 percent. Her hull was so immense that in the mid-1930s no Japanese
shipyard could contain it. A dry dock in Kure had to be deepened by several
feet before construction could begin.
