How Ark Royal's name could influence a refit decision

Ark Royal's greater public recognition could affect decisions about which carrier to preserve even if Eagle were in better material condition. A refit could attract support as a shipyard employment programme or through the appeal of retaining a famous naval name. Once work began, political reluctance to abandon it could sustain increasingly expensive repairs. Victorious's reconstruction is offered as a precedent for continuing to spend on a refit that had become difficult to stop. In the Eagle counterfactual, even an initially modest Ark Royal refit could therefore develop into a much larger rebuild and alter which carrier survived.