Fubuki's enclosed guns and the protection tradeoff

Fubuki's three twin gun enclosures offered stated protection against weather, splinters and gas. Their thin armour prompts a comparison with Royal Navy studies of mounts and turrets. An open mount could put thicker steel between the crew and the direction of fire, while allowing a shell to pass through instead of confining an explosion inside an enclosure. This is the argument offered for the British preference. The first Fubuki batch was also completed before the London Naval Treaty, so later treaty weight limits do not explain the thin protection of those ships.