Keeping a substantial share of a fleet in reserve was normal in this period. Reserve ships and personnel allowed a navy to expand during a crisis without carrying the full cost of wartime strength in peacetime. Cold War expectations of very rapid or nuclear war later weakened the place of mobilization reserves. In the modern carrier example, a reserve hull and volunteer reservists could meet a surge demand without disrupting the maintenance cycle of commissioned ships. Complex machinery would still require a regular cadre for the most specialized systems, but it would not eliminate the reserve model.
Notable Point · 6:12-8:42
Reserve fleets made wartime expansion possible
Late nineteenth-century fleet comparisons included ships in reserve because mobilization was central to naval force structure.