Britain's shipyard depth in the dreadnought race

A simplified three-yard game model contrasts with Britain's historically much deeper shipbuilding base, which included firms such as Brown, Cammell Laird, Vickers, and Fairfield. Britain possessed about a dozen major yards able to contribute to naval construction rather than relying on a few abstract capacity pools. During the naval race with Germany, Britain had enough spare capacity that some substantial yards could still face financial difficulty. Germany was straining its industrial resources while Britain could outbuild it without mobilizing every possible yard.