Pre-Dreadnought battleships featured a few big guns and many smaller guns. The British commissioned the Dreadnought in 1906, and it had all 16 inch guns. Guns of that caliber were quickly matched by other navies, making all pre-Dreadnought battleships obsolete.

And Turkey had already paid for them and was ready to pick them up. As such this pushed the Ottoman Empire toward the Axis power- though this is disputed because it is believed that Turkey was already moving in that direction. That precipitated the Middle East to no longer being under the Ottoman Empire. This created the drawing of the countries borders without any real rhyme or reason other than the interests of the English and French and created divisions and issues that continue to the present day.

There was a steady progression of gun sizes. From 12" to 13.5" to 15" to 16". I believe the Nagato (1920) was the first battleship to carry 16" guns. The biggest battleships of WWI were 15" guns, but Jutland was mostly fought with 12" and 13.5" guns.

I believe those were the largest guns ever mounted on a warship.

The Yamato was sent out without enough fuel to even return to port, so it was a dead duck from the start. Talk about a flame to attract all of the moths...or in this case, everything that carried a torpedo or a bomb was unleashed upon it.