Madden uses overage cruisers to bridge treaty limits

The London Naval Treaty defined when ships became overage and therefore eligible for replacement, but it did not require every older hull to disappear immediately. Madden's compromise depended on retaining and modernizing useful C-, D-, and E-class cruisers while accepting a smaller allowance of modern tonnage. He was also gambling that the United States would not build fully to its permitted limit. The policy aimed to reach seventy cruisers by accepting roughly fifty modern ships and making up the remaining numbers with overage units.