The two enlarged Towns were laid down twenty days apart in December 1936, Belfast at Harland and Wolff and Edinburgh at Swan Hunter. Edinburgh was launched only fourteen days after Belfast, erasing six days of that initial gap, and commissioned almost a month before her sister. The compressed schedule shows Swan Hunter's speed on its first Town-class build. The comparison turns completion dates into a concrete example of shipyard capacity immediately before the Second World War.
Notable Point · 4:29-6:18
Swan Hunter races Belfast to complete Edinburgh
Edinburgh overcame Belfast's twenty-day head start and commissioned almost a month earlier, a direct measure of Swan Hunter's prewar construction speed.