The main turret on the USS Massachusetts (1890), often labeled "the worst battleship" of all time, was part of a ship designed by an inexperienced oversight committee, making it barely seaworthy.

When the turret, which housed the largest guns ever built at the time, was rotated, the ship came dangerously close to capsizing. Despite its flaws, the USS Massachusetts played a notable role in the Spanish-American War.

After enduring several major accidents and being commissioned and decommissioned multiple times, the ship was scuttled in 1921 and used as target practice off the Gulf Coast of Florida.