Question: The painter, photography and visual communication scholar, Sol Worth, after his 1943 graduation, boarded this United States Navy battleship, named after a U. S. State, of what class?

The "Gato"-class were a class of submarines built for the United States Navy and launched in 1941–1943; they were the first mass-production U.S. submarine class of World War II.  Together with their near-sisters the "Balao" and "Tench" class es, their design formed the majority of the United States Navy's World War II submarine fleet.  Named after the lead ship of the class, USS "Gato" , the "Gato"s and their successors formed the core of the submarine service that was largely responsible for the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine and a large portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.  "Gato"' s name comes from a species of small catshark.  Like most other U.S. Navy submarines of the period, boats of the "Gato" class were given the names of marine creatures.  In some references, the "Gato"s are combined with their successors, especially the "Balao" class. <SEP>  His parents, Ida and Jacob Wishnepolsky, were Russian immigrants who worked in the garment industry and were active members of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.  His first language was Yiddish, and he spoke virtually no English until he began school at age 5.  Worth attended the founding class of the High School of Music and Art in New York City as an art student from 1936 until 1940; in 1937 one of his paintings was chosen to be part of a student exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.  Upon graduation from high school he attended the State University of Iowa, where he studied with the painter Philip Guston. Sol Worth (born New York City; August 19, 1922 – August 29, 1977) was a painter, photography and visual communication scholar.  He graduated in 1943 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting, but entered the Navy before graduation and did not formally receive his diploma until already on board the USS "Missouri" in the Pacific.  While in the Navy, Worth served as helmsman on the "Missouri" and was later assigned to Military Intelligence at the Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii. <SEP>  "Missouri" was the last battleship commissioned by the United States and is best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II. USS "Missouri" (BB-63) ("Mighty Mo" or "Big Mo") is a United States Navy "Iowa"-class battleship and was the third ship of the U.S. Navy to be named after the U.S. state of Missouri. <SEP> USS "South Dakota" (BB-57) was a battleship in the United States Navy, in active service from 1942 until 1947.  The lead ship of her class, "South Dakota" was the third ship of the US Navy to be named in honor of the 40th state.  The four ships of the class are considered to be the most efficient battleships designed under the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty.  During World War II, the battleship first served a tour in the Pacific theater, where it fought in two battles in 1942 that earned the ship and its crew a Navy Unit Commendation before returning to New York in December 1942 for an overhaul and battle repairs.  In May 1943, "South" "Dakota" joined British Home Fleet patrols in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans before sailing again to the Pacific in August 1943.  There, "South Dakota" participated in combat operations preparatory to the invasion of Japan until returning to the United States in October 1945.