 More pressing commitments forced the preliminary design work to be suspended again in June and , when it resumed in October , the design was modified again in light of recent war experience . Greater fuel capacity was added and the armour protection improved , but these changes deepened the design 's draught so that it exceeded the 34 @-@ foot ( 10 @.@ 4 m ) limit of the Suez Canal . The thickness of the main belt was reduced by 1 inch ( 25 mm ) to save weight , but the primary method chosen to reduce the draught was to increase the beam by 2 @.@ 5 feet ( 0 @.@ 76 m ) . This exceeded the width of the docks at Rosyth and Plymouth , which severely limited the number of docks that could handle the ship , but these changes were approved by the Board of Admiralty on 17 April 1941 . The ship had already been ordered on 14 March under the 1940 Emergency War Programme , although the drawings were not turned over to John Brown & Company until ten days later . 
