Why a year's repair could still justify saving Prince of Wales

A less severely damaged Prince of Wales might have been guided home under tow, provided flooding could be controlled and a sufficiently powerful ship was available. Drag from the flooded hull would make towing harder. The proposal still requires a different damage state from the one that actually developed. Even a year of repairs would return the battleship to service sooner than building a replacement, for which the discussion gives a timescale of several years. British battleship armor arrangements are presented as partly shaped by the need to remove damaged plates and fit replacements. Those arrangements accepted some design compromises to make maintenance and battle-damage repair more practical.