Article 8 and the torpedo-boat opening

Article 8 offered small-vessel categories outside the destroyer allocation. The category outlined for ships above 600 and no more than 2,000 standard tons requires no torpedo equipment, a design speed no higher than 20 knots, guns smaller than 6.1 inches and no more than four guns over three inches. That could accommodate escorts and other small support combatants, while ships at or below 600 tons offered a separate route to torpedo armament. A further exemption covered support ships such as troop transports. A hypothetical evasion gives an ostensibly slow escort a machinery governor that can be removed in wartime. Another proposal builds three or four long-range escort and reconnaissance ships each year, with removable light superstructure and governors leaving room for conversion. These are counterfactual suggestions about using the exemption, with the governor story told as a joke.