Fisher, Churchill, and the compromise design

The 15-inch gun program grew from earlier ordnance work associated with Jellicoe and Rear Admiral Archibald Moore, while Fisher preferred revolutionary concepts built from comparatively conservative technology. Other serving officers and constructors were more willing to push particular technical boundaries, intensifying the disagreement around the design. Churchill admired Fisher but was not the strongest arbiter of technical detail, leaving constructors and serving officers to contest an absent idealized authority. The adopted class was a compromise that no faction had proposed in exactly that form. Its extra internal latitude later helped the ships accept substantial wartime modernization.