Reconstructing a 27,000-ton carrier from a broken treaty record

The class's March and November 1939 laying-down dates place it within a naval program already moving from treaty planning toward war construction. Lion-class battleships, Flower corvettes, Hunt destroyers, Black Swan sloops, and submarines make continued adherence to the failed 23,000-ton carrier limit difficult to accept. Documentary archaeology, or forensic engineering, compares scattered design records with what Fairfield and John Brown actually built. Shipyard variations, thicker material, extra conduit, supports, and construction corrections make exact treaty figures poor descriptions of finished ships. Tribal-class destroyers provide a parallel: ships designed for a nominal 1,850-ton standard displacement did not all finish at that figure. The yard records point toward roughly 27,000 tons standard for Implacable, although no single conclusive document settles the question.