Reserve warships bought mobilization time

HMS Pegasus and many V- and W-class destroyers entered the Second World War from active service, reserve, or ordinary and were adapted to urgent roles. Their availability supplied a bridge while new escorts reached the fleet. Flower-class corvettes and Hunt-class destroyers were designed and ordered before war began, but even those relatively simple ships could not appear instantly in the numbers required. The mobilization plan depended on a large stock of older vessels accumulated before treaty-era restrictions and retrenchment. Earlier governments often answered a hard procurement choice by ordering an imperfect but usable ship, while modern governments may defer the choice into committees and alliance meetings. These reserve ships did not need to be ideal to remain useful. A serviceable hull available now could protect shipping and buy time in a way that a better design still on the slipway could not.