Fisher initially doubted whether one turret could fire safely over another, but later accepted that the arrangement was possible. The counterfactual gives a 1905-06 Dreadnought five triple 14-inch turrets, a fifteen-gun broadside, and six guns able to fire ahead. Such a ship would resemble an Orion-generation design years early and make twin-turret 12-inch contemporaries look obsolete before they entered service. Germany would have to answer a 14-inch standard instead of defending its 11-inch guns as equivalent to British 12-inch weapons, slowing any matching construction while Britain began follow-on ships. This enlarged lead might have reduced the intensity of the arms race and better served Fisher's deterrent purpose, although that remains a counterfactual argument rather than a prediction.
Notable Point · 1:16:00-1:19:37
A five-triple-turret Dreadnought before the dreadnought race
Combining superfiring turrets with 14-inch guns would have made the first Dreadnought resemble an Orion-era ship years early and widened Britain's opening lead.