Ten older battleships and the cost of protective bulges

The Royal Navy's ten older pre-dreadnoughts could form the converted leading force even if the French declined to modify their four ships. Agamemnon and Lord Nelson are excluded from that count because they were considered too new for this treatment. Large bulges would probably cost a couple of knots of speed. The penalty seemed acceptable because these old ships were thought unlikely to reach their former maximum speed anyway. The proposed exchange was slower ships with a better chance of surviving mines at the head of the advance.