How the idea of Gloire prompted HMS Warrior

Britain began Warrior while the idea of France building an ironclad still mattered more than close knowledge of the completed Gloire. Seeing Gloire first might have made British observers less alarmed, but uncertainty encouraged them to combine available technologies in a much more capable response. Italy's reaction to the French carrier Béarn offers a similar case in which an imagined capability appeared more threatening than the finished ship. Expectations and incomplete information can drive naval competition as strongly as measured performance. A rival's announced innovation may therefore provoke a larger technological leap than the completed design warrants.