The identity of Armstrong Whitworth design 781 remains uncertain. It may have resembled Queen Elizabeth, Revenge, or an earlier Agincourt concept. The Tyne and Wear Archives, Cambridge University Library, and the Caird Library are identified as possible homes for records that could settle the question. The competing comparisons show how easily an attractive drawing can acquire a firmer identity than the surviving documents justify. This is naval historiography as evidence work rather than a straightforward reading of specifications from a finished plan.
Notable Point · 7:26-9:25
An unbuilt Brazilian capital-ship design
The elusive Armstrong Whitworth design 781 for Brazil shows how archival gaps limit confident reconstruction of an intended capital ship.