An injury kept him out of competition for a year, and at the end of 1931 Walter Salmon sold Battleship to Marion duPont Scott for $12,000.

A member of the prominent and wealthy Du Pont family of chemical manufacturing, Ms duPont had begun developing her Montpelier estate, formerly the home of James and Dolley Madison, near Orange, Virginia, into what became one of the leading horse-training centers in the United States.

In July 1936, Ms. duPont shipped Battleship to England, where trainer Reginald "Reg" Hobbs began to prepare the horse, on the mend with a bowed tendon, for the 1937 Grand National.

[1] The Sporting Life dwelt on his size, stating "he is too small to make appeal to me as a National horse ... he will be the smallest winner on record".

Notably, he sired War Battle and Shipboard, steeplechase champions in 1947 and 1956 respectively, plus Sea Legs, winner of the 1952 American Grand National.

He also sired the stakes winners Cap-A-Pie, Eolus, Floating Isle, Mighty Mo, Navigate, Navy Gun, Tide Rips, and Westport Point.