Continuous construction and evolutionary design

The Royal Navy's numerical lead rested on more than a count of hulls. Across the comparison, sixteen British launches exceeded the combined eleven French and Russian ships, giving the Two-Power Standard an industrial foundation. Steady orders gave designers, builders, and crews repeated opportunities to refine an established type through the Majestic, Canopus, Formidable, London, and Duncan sequences. French one-offs and small classes made continuity difficult, while other powers accepted sharper jumps between limited programmes. Britain changed battleship design almost imperceptibly from class to class until the later ships differed substantially from the Royal Sovereign starting point.