Palmer's only battlecruiser

Queen Mary was the only battlecruiser built by Palmer's, a yard that competed with familiar capital-ship builders such as Fairfield and John Brown. Palmer's strongly pursued the contract and applied careful workmanship to a design the Admiralty already understood. The yard later disappeared as an independent builder despite its industrial capability, making Queen Mary an unusual surviving example of its capital-ship work. Although contemporary Tiger studies offered a more radical possibility, choosing an improved Lion reduced the danger of a prestigious capital ship entering service with an unproven design.