The sloop exemption and proposed design limits

HMS Bridgewater, described as a 1,045-ton wartime escort, introduces the treaty-exempt vessel category. Ships of 600 tons or less were exempt, while vessels between 600 and 2,000 tons qualified under restrictions including a 20-knot design speed and no torpedoes. The 1930 rules also constrained guns above 6.1 inches, the number above 3 inches, armour and equipment for mines or aircraft. The central opportunity was that qualifying sloops had no numerical limit. The alternative raises the speed ceiling to 24 knots, although a 20-knot ship could still escort convoys. It proposes a destroyer-like maximum calibre of 5.1 inches and permits six guns above 3 inches, with the Black Swan class as the model. A ship above 2,000 tons would count against cruiser tonnage. These changes are intended to improve an already equitable exemption rather than create an entirely new allowance.