How slower battleships could obstruct Goeben

The counterfactual distributes older British dreadnoughts among overseas services and considers whether some would already be moving towards the Mediterranean during a crisis. Ships arriving from the Suez route could be placed ahead of Goeben rather than trying to chase her. Her eventual need to reach the Black Sea through the Dardanelles would restrict her choice of route. A slower battleship waiting in confined waters could force a fight in which a battlecruiser's speed offered less freedom to choose the range. Dominion-funded fire-control improvements would strengthen those ships while reducing expenditure from the Admiralty budget. The deployment and encounter are hypothetical.