the.com/battlewagon
a slang title so swaggering it made dreadnoughts sound like bar bouncers with cannons
means Naval slang for a battleship — a big, heavily armored, big-gunned warship.
from American naval slang from the first half of the 20th century, when battleships ruled the seas. It welds together the brute force of "battle" and the everyday haulage of "wagon," a comic mismatch that turns a floating fortress into a workhorse cart. "Wagon" had long been a sailor's affectionate tag for various vessels, and pairing it with "battle" gave the navy's heaviest hitters a nickname as solid and rumbling as the ships themselves.
- navy slang
- sailors' nickname for battleships, born early 20th century
- floating fortress
- Iowa-class carried sixteen-inch guns firing 2,700-pound shells
- long reach
- those shells could travel over twenty miles downrange
- second life
- battlewagons fired in combat into the 1991 Gulf War
- steel beasts
- a single one displaced more than 45,000 tons
uss iowa — iowa-class battleship commissioned 1942, served in wwii and korean war
hms warspite — queen elizabeth-class battleship, participated in both world wars with 14 battle honors
yamato — japanese yamato-class battleship, largest battleship ever built at 72,800 tons, sunk 1945