Why British warship machinery prioritized maintainability

How did German high-pressure steam compare with American machinery, and why did Britain avoid similar plants?

American systems were better organized, while Britain preferred machinery its crews could maintain reliably during worldwide deployments.

Later American high-pressure steam plants were arranged and manufactured more successfully than their German counterparts. Royal Navy ships, especially interwar designs, were built for reliable maintenance far from home dockyards. Britain could have pursued higher-pressure boilers earlier, but crews could not maintain them with the same confidence during global service. Overseas basing made machinery reliability a strategic requirement rather than a conservative engineering preference.