An alternate HMS Dreadnought with 14-inch guns and 24 knots

Experimental cruisers could prove superfiring arrangements before Fisher finalized Dreadnought, removing one reason for her historical wing-turret layout. Earlier triple-turret and gun work might already have placed 14-inch mountings in the preceding Lord Nelson design, reducing the number of untried ideas combined in the new battleship. The proposed ship has twelve 14-inch guns, eight 6-inch guns, eighteen 3-inch guns, and a speed of 24 knots. The eight 6-inch guns could fit four twin turrets to give a small secondary battery useful fields of fire. Funding multiple test pieces lets designers learn from destructive trials without ending a program after the first failure. It reaches roughly Orion-level capability one generation early because higher-risk components receive money and repeated testing from 1900 onward.