The closing counterfactual treats the transition as an infrastructure decision. If the Fuel Commission had judged the network too expensive or immature, the Queen Elizabeth class might have been designed around coal. Such a decision would have affected the ships' readiness and endurance while publicly signaling that the world's leading navy lacked confidence in oil. The question is how that choice might have altered the First World War and the later pace of energy transition.
Notable Point · 1:10:27-1:12:08
What if the Queen Elizabeth class had remained coal-fired?
The closing discussion prompt asks how a public Royal Navy retreat from oil would have changed fleet performance and wider adoption during the First World War.