The ships were no longer the newest battleship type, but the deployment still had military value. A long-distance fleet movement stressed machinery, crews, maintenance practices, and command arrangements on an unusual scale. It accumulated sea experience across many officers and sailors rather than within a single experimental ship. The resulting engineering and operational lessons could inform later design and fleet practice.
Notable Point · 34:15-35:02
A world voyage as a fleet-wide engineering trial
Sending many pre-dreadnoughts around the world promised engineering, operational, and sea experience that could inform later American warship designs.