Five triple 4-inch mounts on each Renown and six on each of Courageous and Glorious made a run of twenty-two mounts that could not have been improvised instantly. Furious’s 18-inch weapons had likewise been ordered before the large light cruiser concept could have created a fresh requirement for them. Small-tube boilers demanded advance industrial planning because wartime destroyer and cruiser programmes competed for the same machinery capacity. Fisher’s habit of cancelling ships and redirecting their components offers a mechanism by which work from an earlier capital-ship programme could reappear elsewhere. The combined evidence supports a longer procurement lineage, although it does not identify the cancelled design with certainty.
Notable Point · 3:20-5:23
Wartime components reveal pre-existing programmes
The sudden supply of triple 4-inch mounts, 18-inch guns, and small-tube boilers points to capital-ship work begun before Britain’s wartime designs were finalized.