What a 24-knot Dreadnought might look like

The working design combines a 24-knot speed with twelve 14-inch guns, making that performance the new battleship baseline in this scenario. Earlier experiments on armoured cruisers could establish superfiring arrangements before their adoption in Dreadnought. Six-inch secondary guns would engage cruisers trying to constrain her speed while leaving the heavy guns available for enemy capital ships. A numerous three-inch battery would deal with destroyers and torpedo boats. Turreted secondary guns follow the Lord Nelson approach of improving firing arcs over casemates. Twin six-inch mountings are preferred because crews handling the guns manually could obstruct one another in a cramped triple wing turret. An alternative with a fifth triple 14-inch turret would lengthen the hull and might reach about 26 knots, although that remains a more ambitious possibility than the working design.