France continued to produce new ironclads and advertised a serious naval challenge. Hornby noticed, however, that unusually clean ships often owed their condition to spending little time at sea. When he examined which French squadrons operated regularly, he found relatively few with sustained seagoing experience. This watch point separates fleet inventory from operational readiness: exercised crews and ships represented a different fighting capability from impressive hulls retained in harbor.
Notable Point · 49:22-50:22
Clean French ironclads exposed a readiness weakness
Hornby judged French strength by how often its ironclad squadrons went to sea, not by the immaculate appearance of ships kept in harbor.