The starting requirement is a second battleship mounting fifteen 16.5-inch guns. Machinery and protection settings come down to reduce the overweight design, followed by a nominal speed cut to 32 knots so the ship should still make 30 knots in practice. An American-looking forward concentration of triple turrets improves the foreweight balance while preserving the very heavy battery. The sequence shows how the desired armament fixes the rest of a capital ship's compromises before secondary guns and final armour are added.
Chapter · 20:59-26:48
Balancing a fast heavy-gun battleship design
The design works backward from a fifteen-gun main battery, reducing machinery, protection, and nominal speed until the fast battleship fits its displacement limit.