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The Panagaean Navy were late to the production of full battleships. All that had come out of the Royal Dockyards prior to 1900 had been two coast defence ships armed with 10" guns and six patrol cruisers for coast defence. Those vessels had given the dockyards the chance to practice with the different techniques of welding, riveting and the production of steel armour. All very necessary to the construction of large warships. The battleships being built to that point were up to 15,000 tons and armed with 4x12" (RN) and 4x13" (USN). The United States Navy was experimenting with double stacked turrets but only built one class. The Royal Navy built 12" armed ships right through their pre-dreadnought classes, and even the first three or four classes of Dreadnoughts carried 12" guns. Production line ships.
Panagaea was privy to the building practices of all the 'Allied' aligned nations. Japan, Royal Navy, United States Navy, Italy, Australis, Zealandia, France. All were building battleships with slightly different dimensions and features. Experiments with turbines were happening but these first offerings from Panagaea would feature triple expansion engines and lead to their early deletion from the navy lists. What made the ships different was the Panagaean need to give each of their ships a competitive edge over the potential enemy ships. That need lead to discussions on how to achieve that edge. It came down to two directions, bigger guns, 13.5" to 14" size, or multiple guns in turrets of triple or quadruple numbers. The Panganaean Navy had designs for 12"/45 caliber guns that could be easily produced as they were a known quantity through the Royal Navy and other Commonwealth nations. To go to a bigger sized gun would require the Panganaean Navy to do all the design work and proving of the gun themselves. A task which could add years to the building time of the ships.
The ships competitive edge would be being armed with two triple 12" turrets. A 50% increase in firepower on a ship not much bigger than what was already being built. This ship is what caused the Royal Navy to design and build the Dreadnought. The RN needed to go to an eight gun broadside to retain its supremacy. Multi gun turrets started being designed for use on battleships in Italy, Russia and other countries, the cat was out of the bag. What became the 12" battleship went right through 12, 13, and 14 gunned ships in twin and triple gunned turrets.
