Triple mounts and the 18-inch-gun question

Renown’s battery of seventeen 4-inch guns included five unusual triple mounts. Had that mounting become standard, later Royal Navy secondary batteries might have developed along a different path. The heavy secondary armament also offers one clue that the cancelled Agincourt may have been intended for a larger main battery. Small fittings can suggest links between otherwise obscure capital-ship programmes, although the proposed 18-inch connection remains speculative.