Without treaties, battleships could pass 100,000 tons

How large could battleships become without treaty restrictions?

Eighty-thousand-ton ships would be easy to imagine, and designs exceeding 100,000 tons could plausibly follow continued pre-treaty growth.

Yamato and Musashi were not necessarily the upper engineering limit for a treaty-free battleship race. Capital ships had grown from roughly 20,000 to 40,000 tons in about fifteen years. Another comparable cycle could produce 80,000-ton ships and make 100,000 tons plausible, even if strategic and economic value remained separate questions.