Nova Scotia-class battleship (Alternity)

The Nova Scotia-class was a group of four battleships (originally six) built by the United States Navy in the early/mid 1920s and operated from 1924 through 1947, when the final ship, Florida (BB-52), was decommissioned. The original plan called for a total of six battleships, but even after the failure of the November 1921 Washington Naval Treaty, while construction resumed on the first four ships, the Navy was considering the cancellation of the final two, Iowa (BB-53) and Massachusetts (BB-54). A lengthened Iowa was converted into the fleet carrier Lake Erie (CV-4) starting in the spring of 1923, while the roughly 75% complete hulk of Massachusetts was sunk as a gunnery target off the New Jersey coastline in the fall of 1927. The remaining ships served uneventful careers right up until December 7, 1941, when the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor badly damaged and nearly sank Rhode Island (BB-50) at her moorings on Battleship Row. All four - including Rhode Island - were given major wartime refits in 1943 and 1944, respectively. Nova Scotia, Rhode Island, and Florida all served in the Pacific theater, while Vermont (BB-51) served as a convoy escort in the Atlantic from 1942 to 1945 and provided offshore support for the D-Day Landings in 1944.

Post-war, all four ships were decommissioned and met varying fates. Nova Scotia became a museum in Halifax Harbor in 1950, Rhode Island was sunk in the Operation Crossroads atomic tests in 1947, while Florida and Vermont were scrapped in 1947 and 1948, respectively.

Ships

 * USS Nova Scotia (BB-49) -


 * USS Rhode Island (BB-50) -


 * USS Vermont (BB-51) -


 * USS Florida (BB-52) -


 * USS Iowa (BB-53) -


 * USS Massachusetts (BB-54) -

Legacy

 * Every member of this class has had a ship of the same name since their construction in '20s. The second ship named for the 26th state, Nova Scotia (SSBN-744), a Dakota-class ballistic missile submarine was commissioned in 1987; three others were named Florida (SSBN-728), Rhode Island (SSBN-740), and Vermont (SSBN-741) and commissioned in 1981 and 1985, respectively. The lead ship of the BB-61 class was named Iowa, while the third Dakota-class battleship was named Massachusetts (BB-59); Iowa is still active as part of the Atlantic Fleet, while Massachusetts was decommissioned after the war and converted into a museum in her namesake state, near the city of Fall River, in 1965.