The comparison gives Arethusa-class cruisers an average build time of 851 days and the Town class an average of 900 days. Crown Colony cruisers were simplified from the Town design to make construction quicker, and Fiji herself took 767 days. Yet the Fiji subclass averaged 988 days, while the later Ceylon subclass averaged 1,323 days. The Dido subclass averaged 1,120 days and the Bellonas 1,397 days. These figures support the argument that growing delays came from the circumstances of construction rather than the simplified designs being intrinsically slower to build.
Chapter · 10:04-12:39
Simplified cruisers still took longer to build
The intended speed of Crown Colony and Dido designs contrasts with the much longer completion times of their later subclasses.