Britain would have needed an emphatically superior answer because Dante Alighieri was too effective to dismiss as France's Gloire had been. HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince could readily eclipse a disappointing Gloire, whereas a rival more like USS New Ironsides would have made that recovery of benchmark status harder. The Lord Nelson class probably would not have proceeded unchanged, and the imagined replacement uses five triple turrets. A 22-knot Italian battleship would demand a clear speed advantage, perhaps 25 or 26 knots, supplied by very early small-tube boilers or a large number of conventional boilers. Elswick's 14-inch/45-calibre gun and turreted six-inch secondaries offer plausible ways to make the British design visibly superior.
Notable Point · 29:48-34:17
How Britain might answer a 1903 Dante Alighieri
A credible Italian all-big-gun ship could have pushed Britain toward triple turrets, higher speed, heavier guns, and superfiring layouts years earlier.