A First World War cruiser completed at interwar pace

Laid down at John Brown in June 1918 and launched in December 1919, Enterprise did not commission until April 1926. The long interval reflected the Royal Navy's postwar contraction as well as deliberate fitting-out, machinery work, and trials of the new armament. John Brown and contemporary British steelmaking were among the world's leading shipbuilding capabilities, so Britain's later industrial decline gives a misleading picture of the 1910s and 1920s. The wider economic aside also separates industrial competence from government policy mistakes such as Britain's return to the gold standard.