An alternative design would have given Dreadnought superfiring turrets while keeping five main-battery positions and eliminating the wing turrets. If Jackie Fisher had ordered new triple mountings, he might also have sought 14-inch guns from the Elswick Ordnance Company. The resulting broadside of fifteen 14-inch guns is explicitly a counterfactual. It was never the completed design. The exercise exposes the choices hidden inside the famous ship, especially the way turret arrangement, gun manufacture, and construction timing constrained one another.
Notable Point · 4:22-6:34
How superfiring and triple turrets might have changed Dreadnought
A design counterfactual shows how superfiring turrets, triple mountings, and 14-inch guns could have produced an even more overwhelming ship.