Q&A ยท 1:36:15-1:37:03

Vickers' imagined twelve-gun fast battleship

Given freedom before World War I, Vickers might pursue an all-oil-fired, thirty-knot battleship with twelve 15-inch guns in triple turrets.

Question

What might Vickers design if its engineers were allowed to create one pre-World War I ship without restraint?

Short answer

A fully oil-fired, roughly thirty-knot battleship carrying twelve 15-inch guns in four triple turrets.

Notes

The proposal extrapolates from ambitious designs already circulating before the First World War. Complete oil firing would help produce the power needed for a speed near thirty knots. Four triple 15-inch turrets would place twelve heavy guns on the ship. The combination is a plausible expression of a design team allowed to push an existing theoretical idea without normal restraint.