Infrastructure constrains capital-ship design

HMS Hood's usefulness depended on access to suitable floating docks around the world. The cancelled 1916 infrastructure round left the postwar Royal Navy expecting years of delay before new large docks could enter service. G3-era designers therefore had to extract maximum fighting value from the length and displacement that existing facilities could accept. Concentrating magazines rather than separating them around machinery reduced duplicated insulation and spacing, while upgrades to a 55,000-ton dock remained more plausible than funding an entirely new 60,000-ton facility. Hood's movements consequently followed the few overseas docks able to receive her.