Q&A ยท 3:04:14-3:05:34

Renown and Repulse were razeed on the stocks, not in service

Renown and Repulse resemble razee frigates conceptually, but were redesigned before completion and entered service under the battlecruiser label.

Question

Could Renown and Repulse be considered the last razee frigates?

Short answer

Only loosely: they were radically redesigned before completion, but never served in an earlier form and were officially treated as battlecruisers.

Notes

A traditional razee begins as an existing ship and is cut down into a different form, whereas Renown and Repulse were altered while still on the stocks. Their redesign can therefore be called razee-like without making them literal in-service conversions. Fisher's choice to call the type battlecruiser rather than battle frigate also shaped how later navies understood its place in the battle line. A different label might even have complicated Washington treaty categories by separating the ships rhetorically from battleships and battlecruisers.