A destroyed High Seas Fleet opens the Baltic

With the High Seas Fleet destroyed, fast cruisers could enter the Baltic, bombard the coast, and symbolize a new blockade, while submarines would perform much of the practical work of closing German imports. The surface fleet could also run supplies toward St Petersburg and provide a visible demonstration that Germany had lost command of the sea. That victory would give the Royal Navy a much stronger claim to having won the war and undermine any later argument that Germany's armed forces remained undefeated. An end in late 1916 would also precede American entry and avoid much of Britain's historically severe 1917-18 debt and battlefield loss.