The "Super Swift", the "Super Blonde", and the "Super Lion"

In the planning for the 1912 building program, Winston Churchill had behind the scene correspondence with Admiral Sir John Fisher, who was in retirement and acting as an unofficial adviser to the Churchill. For the light cruisers, there were two designs that were being pursued. One was for an improved version of the large destroyer, the Swift. The other was for an improved version of the scout cruiser Blonde.

The "Super Swift" was originally proposed to be unarmored, have 6-4in QF guns and have a speed of 37 knots. The "Super Blonde" would have had 2-inches of HT steel over 1 inch hull plating. The original "Super Blonde" would have had 10-4in QF guns, and would have been capable of 30 knots. The "Super Blonde" (which became the Arethusa class) was finally given an armament of 2-6in QF guns and 6-4in guns. The cruiser admirals thought that a cruiser needed some 6inch guns to be taken seriously.

The "Super Swift" design was modified to include a patch of 2in HT steel over the machinery spaces, with a reduction in speed to 36.25 knots. Admiral Fisher advised Churchill that he should have the "Super Swift" (and he should forget the armor) and also build the "Super Lion" (10-15in guns and 30 knots), with relatively thin armor. They would have been like the Lion, but with a superfiring turret aft, so that the ship would have been symmetrical. The armor would have been restricted (but still perhaps to 9inches, maximum).

In the end, they went with fast battleships (the Queen Elizabeth class) rather than battlecruisers. The cruisers ended up being the "Super Blondes" (the Arethusa class). The Queen Elizabeth class were seriously overweight, and they gave disappointing performance on speed trials. Realistically, they were more like 23 knot ships rather than the 25 knot ships that was intended.

Admiral Fisher had to wait for the outbreak of war, before he could get the sort of ships he desired. As it was, the unexpected character of the war eventually stopped progress on large ships after 1916. Only the Hood was eventually completed, and then to a revised design that satisfied noone, certainly not her designers. They wanted to build the "Super Hood" type (the cancelled 1921 designs). They had lost faith in the Hood by the time she was completed.

D.K. Brown has much good material on this subject. The first volume of Winston Churchill's book, The World Crisis also has a great deal of good material, besides being a good read for WWI naval junkies like me.