The admirals of the armored fleets did not need any additional arguments in favor of creating squadrons of the same type of ships. From the point of view of supply, maintenance, training of crews, joint maneuvering, such a squadron would give a fair head start to any heterogeneous one. However, in an era of such a rapid development of military technology, as at the end of the 19th century, this was possible only with the relatively simultaneous laying and simultaneous construction of a large series of ships of the same type. Taking such a step in a situation where views on the future of an armored ship changed regularly turned out to be risky - you could get a whole squadron of ships of an unsuccessfully chosen type.In the early 1890s. the French nevertheless agreed that five ships should be built according to one technical task, but instead of choosing one of the presented projects, they preferred to lay down five battleships according to five different projects. The result was immediately nicknamed the Flotte d'échantillons, literally "the fleet of samples." this book.