Why was HMS Unicorn not exceptionally expensive despite being a class of one?
Short answerBritain had competing yards and in-house naval construction expertise that constrained pricing, allowing Harland and Wolff to build her for about £2.531 million.
NotesHMS Unicorn was a class of one, but she was ordered within a much larger and more competitive British shipbuilding market. Numerous yards wanted naval work, while the Admiralty maintained its own constructors and dockyards. That institutional knowledge gave the customer a credible estimate of what design and construction should cost, limiting excessive profit claims. Harland and Wolff's price of about £2.531 million therefore remained useful rather than becoming the penalty often associated with a modern one-off ship.