The Royal Navy often tested major innovations in a single ship before committing them to a class. An explicitly speculative 18-inch-gun test-ship theory is offered as an example of that institutional habit. If oil firing and triple turrets were active possibilities before the Queen Elizabeth class, the design sequence might contain a comparable experiment. A battlecruiser is a plausible place to look because it could combine speed, machinery, and armament in a one-off design. Documentary evidence would be needed to move the missing test ship beyond a hypothesis.
Notable Point · 2:49-3:39
Royal Navy test ships and the missing experiment
The Royal Navy's habit of testing major innovations raises an archival question: where is the oil-fired or triple-turret test ship before the Queen Elizabeth class?