The Naval Institute Press does have some historical articles, but the majority of historical articles are published in their sister publication, Naval History. Unfortunately, you can't select it as an alternative to Proceedings. You have to get both.

Warship International is published by a private, non-profit group, The International Naval Researchers Organization (INRO). Some pretty significant naval researchers belong to that group and you can get virtually any question answered by some member.

BTW, Dave Sullivan, the editor for Warship International saw my post and had a good laugh. He emailed me and said it would make his day if someone sent $745 for one issue of their magazine.