Parsons turbines and the international naval technology network

Seydlitz's 27 water-tube boilers fed four Parsons turbines, giving Britain a potential lever over German construction had deliveries been denied or delayed. Even an apparently legitimate delay could have tied up yard capacity and raised the cost of Germany's fast-capital-ship program. At John Brown & Company on the Clyde, an American led a yard that employed other Americans, while British engineers also worked in American yards. The wider point is that naval technology crossed borders through firms, yards, and engineers even while states competed in dreadnought construction. Those overlapping workforces made shipbuilding knowledge difficult to contain within national intelligence systems.