The Pittsburgh Press (January 24, 1944)
Mightiest warship will join armada
New York (UP) –
The mightiest battlewagon of them all, the new 45,000-ton USS Missouri, will slide down the ways at the Brooklyn Navy Yard next Saturday to take her plate later in the greatest war armada of history, RAdm. Monroe Kelly, commandant of the yard, announced today.
More powerful than any craft ever to sail the seas, the Missouri, on completion, will be the fourth dreadnaught of the Iowa class to be put into service by the Navy since the start of the war.
The sponsor of the ship at Saturday’s launching will be Mary Margaret Truman, 19, the only child of Senator and Mrs. Harry S. Truman of Independence, Missouri. She is a sophomore at George Washington University.
Present plans call for completion of the Missouri nine months ahead of schedule because of accelerated production at the yard. Her keel was laid Jan. 6, 1941.