for heavy guns of a uniform calibre. After being appointed Director of Naval Construction in early 1902, Philip Watts and the Third Naval Lord and Controller of the Navy, Vice-Admiral William May conducted studies that revealed the destructive power of smaller guns such as the was far smaller than that of larger guns like the . The greater damage inflicted at greater range by larger guns meant that there was a very real chance that the lightly protected smaller guns would be destroyed before they could open fire and that thicker armour was required over a greater area to resist large-calibre shells. The Board of Admiralty wished to keep the size of the 1903–1904 Naval Programme battleships to about the of the earlier and also required them to be able to use the drydocks at Chatham, Portsmouth and Devonport, even though these had been enlarged before the ships were completed. This latter requirement severely constrained the length and beam of the design. Preliminary design work began in mid-1902 and it became clear that a displacement at least equal to that of the preceding would be required. Lacking a consensus on the design, May called a conference in November to discuss the way forward. The participants agreed to increase the armour to a maximum of 12 inches and the maximum displacement to , eliminated the three-calibre gun armament that had proven so unpopular in the King Edward VIIs in favour of a mix of 12-inch and guns, and rejected the version armed with only guns proposed by Watts. The Admiralty formally approved a design armed with four 12-inch and a dozen 9.2-inch guns on 6 August 1903, but revoked it in October when they discovered that it could not be docked at Chatham. As it was now too late to revise the design in time for the 1903–1904 Programme, the Admiralty ordered three more King Edward VII-class ships instead. Watts refined the design to ensure that it could enter the Chatham docks, which required reducing the number of 9.2-inch guns to only 10, and it was approved on 10 February 1904. A planned third ship of the class was cancelled due to financial pressures arising from the purchase of the Swiftsure-class battleships. Description The Lord Nelson-class ships had an overall length of , a beam of and an extra deep load draught of . They displaced at normal load and at