Q&A · 45:52-46:24

Could Revenge machinery turn Queen Elizabeth into a faster standard?

No. Reaching the desired speed required an oil-fired, small-tube-boiler layout designed into the ship from the beginning, not a machinery swap after construction.

Question

Could Revenge-class machinery be fitted to Queen Elizabeth after the First World War to create a common standard?

Short answer

No. Reaching the desired speed required an oil-fired, small-tube-boiler layout designed into the ship from the beginning, not a machinery swap after construction.

Notes

Boilers, framing, internal volume, and the rest of the machinery plant formed an integrated design. Retrofitting the historical Queen Elizabeths with another class's arrangement would amount to rebuilding much of each ship. A clean-sheet oil-fired design with small-tube boilers might have approached 28 knots. Major warship performance could not be changed by treating the power plant as a removable component.