To clear up some confusion on one question in trivia contest.<br /><br />from Wikipedia:<br /><br />Yamato (大和), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was the first built (the lead ship) of the Yamato class. She and her sister ship Musashi were the largest, heaviest battleships ever constructed , weighing 65,027 tons . She carried the heaviest armament ever fitted to a battleship; nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) guns.<br /><br /> As an aside, a third ship of this class was never completed as a battleship, but the hull was converted to the largest WWII carrier--the Shinano. This carrier was sunk by the USS Archerfish before operations could begin.--Jinx <br /><br />By comparison, the Bismark:<br /><br />Design of the ship started in 1930. The construction of the second French Dunkerque class battleship made redesign necessary, and Bismarck's displacement increased to 42,600 tons , although officially her tonnage was still only 35,000 tons in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. The prototype of the proposed battleships envisaged under Plan Z, she was intended primarily as a commerce-raider, having fuel stores as large as those of battleships intended for operations in the Pacific Ocean. Still, she was capable of engaging any enemy warship on at least equal terms.<br /><br />Her keel was laid down at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg on 1 July 1936. She was launched on 14 February 1939 and commissioned in August 1940 with Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann in command.<br /><br />Her armament was 8 15" guns.<br /><br /><br />Jinx
