All-forward designs meet canal and turret limits

The scenario allows perhaps three British construction cycles to retain an all-forward arrangement before other navies seriously respond. The layout becomes awkward beyond nine guns because adding more conventional turrets would create an impractical concentration of machinery and magazines forward. An American twelve-gun answer could use three quadruple 16-inch turrets, but their breadth would threaten the beam limit imposed by the Panama Canal. Japan avoids that particular canal constraint yet still has to fit its own dockyard and port infrastructure. Institutional preference may also keep both navies with traditional layouts, or encourage them to trial the idea in only one ship or pair before committing a battle line.