Béarn's conversion removed a boiler room and nine boilers despite arguments for keeping them. The justification was that a carrier needed only to match the battle fleet's speed. Its lower weight after conversion appeared to make the extra machinery unnecessary for that requirement. Subsequent experience established that the carrier needed a speed margin over the battleships. The deleted machinery therefore illustrates how an inadequate operational requirement can make a cost-saving design decision appear reasonable.
Notable Point · 5:03:05-5:04:03
Why a fleet carrier must outrun the battle line
Deleting nine boilers from Béarn followed the assumption that a carrier only needed to match battleship speed, leaving it without the speed margin that later experience demanded.