The Flower-class mast was changed for naval service

Was the Flower-class mast position simply a fault inherited from a commercial design?

Commercial design left the mast there, and naval service moved it to improve the guns' field of fire.

Commercial practice explains the original Flower-class mast position. Its placement reflected collision-light rules familiar to commercial builders, while warships did not need to preserve the same arrangement. Once the corvettes entered service, moving the mast improved the guns' field of fire and brought the design closer to naval standards. Testing revealed a reason for a purposeful adaptation without invalidating the basic Flower-class concept. The resulting mast layout often distinguishes early and later production batches.