 The Admiralty asked for the design to be reworked ( ' B ' ) with a maximum beam of 90 feet ( 27 @.@ 4 m ) , but this was deemed unsatisfactory as it compromised the ship 's underwater protection . A pair of revised designs was requested with the speed reduced to 22 knots ( 41 km / h ; 25 mph ) to allow the hull to be shortened to better fit in existing floating docks and the minimum possible draught . The first of the two ( ' C1 ' ) was to have full bulge protection and the second ( ' C2 ' ) to have the best bulge protection possible without exceeding Queen Elizabeth 's length . ' C1 ' was shortened by 100 feet ( 30 @.@ 5 m ) in comparison with ' B ' and ' C2 ' was only 610 feet ( 185 @.@ 9 m ) in length , but draught increased by 1 foot 3 inches ( 0 @.@ 38 m ) . In both proposals it had been necessary to reduce the number of guns in the secondary armament and reduce the thickness of the armour . The Admiralty was not pleased with either design and asked for a revised version of ' A ' of the same draught , beam , armour and armament , but shortened and with the same speed as Queen Elizabeth . In addition the new five @-@ inch gun was rejected in favour of the existing 5 @.@ 5 @-@ inch ( 140 mm ) gun . 
