Parsons turbines, U.S. procurement, and German dependence

Did early dreadnoughts retain triple-expansion engines because Parsons turbine licenses were too expensive?

Not mainly: U.S. political preference for domestic machinery mattered, while licensed German production still depended on specialist British-designed components.

Licensing cost was not the principal reason some early American dreadnoughts avoided Parsons turbines. Senators disliked buying major machinery abroad, encouraging alternatives associated with Curtis and Brown even though some U.S. ships did use Parsons equipment. Parsons licensed production internationally while retaining control over specialist components that required unusually capable engineering plant to reproduce. German yards could manufacture much of their machinery under license without becoming wholly independent of British-designed parts. War therefore turned a successful technology-transfer arrangement into a spare-parts vulnerability for the High Seas Fleet.