The earliest real carriers (real world here) were indeed based on battlecruiser hulls (and a few slower ships such as the Eagle), and that made them indeed far faster then the older battleships, especially in Europe where capital ship construction had mostly ground to a halt due to the more pressing demands of WW I. But the new battleships build at the end of the 1930's were all as fast as the carriers, just a question of massive and massive amounts of horsepower. And another nice thing off size, in a seaway a big ship can outrace smaller and theoretically nimbler and faster craft with ease. The Japanese did sign the Washington Treaty by the way, they just decided to cheat. First with their big 8 inch cruisers, then with the Yamato and Musashi.

In each case, what I mostly wish to impress is that in the real world, mass and armour do not mean less speed. In real space I fully agree with those who stressed that as there is no friction, the more power you have the better. More power for your engines, more power for shields, more power for weapons. The speed differences here are mostly a game mechanic, just as the two-dimensional aspect of space confrontations. Asking real world physics question in warhammer is something better avoided if we wish to maintain the suspension of disbelief.

FvR