Learning to force a naval case through wartime politics

Jellicoe's early staff work introduced him to ministers and the politics surrounding naval resources. He appears to have used this experience deliberately, pressing a case until politicians gave the Navy the support it required even when doing so endangered his position. The government was not simply controlled by the Army, but its attention and resources were dominated by the visible crisis of the Western Front. At sea, the Navy was inventing a response to submarine warfare without a prior anti-submarine convoy campaign to copy directly. Securing equipment and political attention therefore required the forceful institutional advocacy that Jellicoe had begun learning under the Third Sea Lord.