Q&A ยท 4:39:45-4:41:36

A faster twelve-gun Nelson class

Twelve 16-inch guns and high-pressure boilers could make Nelson a 28-knot treaty battleship that resets international construction limits.

Question

What is the impact of a Nelson class with quadruple turrets and higher-pressure boilers?

Short answer

It becomes a much faster twelve-gun battleship that raises the standard for every later naval treaty and design.

Notes

The Nelson class already used small-tube boilers, so the meaningful change is a higher-pressure plant near 600 psi. Combined with three quadruple turrets, the imagined ship carries twelve 16-inch guns and might reach about 28 knots. Such performance would dominate the slower Colorado class while remaining inside a nominal 35,000-ton limit if the designers could manage the weight. Its existence would make later agreement on 14-inch guns unlikely and might force treaty powers to raise the displacement ceiling.