Orders and cancellation At the end of the tendering process, the four G3 battlecruisers were ordered on 24 October 1921, without names, from John Brown, Swan Hunter, William Beardmore and Fairfield. Following the visit of an Admiralty delegation, detailed constructional drawings were sent to John Brown on 3 November with a request that copies be urgently circulated to the other successful contractors. Work at John Brown progressed on the keel blocks and hull plates for the subsequent two weeks. Notwithstanding other events, instructions and amendments continued to arrive from various departments within the Admiralty until 25 November. The Washington Naval Conference on arms limitation between the five leading naval powers which began negotiations on 11 November 1921, led to the suspension of building on 18 November. Outright cancellation followed on 21 February 1922 with the Washington Naval Treaty signatories agreeing not to build any ship larger than . As no photographic evidence is available to show the ships' keels were actually laid down, it is asserted by at least one historian that none were, although the Admiralty paid John Brown for work and materials which would have been incurred in doing so. Many of the aspects of their design ultimately were incorporated into the two s, and they are often described as being a cut-down G3. The Nelsons received the design designation 'O3', marking them as next in the design sequence from the 'N3' battleship design although they used the guns intended for the G3 class for cost reasons and to comply with the Treaty's 16-inch limitation on main armament. See also – a contemporary U.S. design also cancelled as a result of the Washington Treaty – a series of four battlecruisers planned for the Imperial Japanese Navy as part of their "Eight-eight fleet", cancelled as a result of the Washington Treaty Notes Bibliography Abandoned military projects of the United Kingdom Battlecruisers of the Royal Navy Cancelled ships Proposed ships of the Royal Navy Ship classes of the Royal Navy