Admiral David Beatty pressed for heavy gun armament and eighteen fixed broadside torpedo tubes so Eagle could fight an enemy light cruiser at night. The arrangement would have required the carrier to present her broadside at very close range. Jellicoe and other critics instead asked why such a valuable reconnaissance and strike asset would be operating without cruisers and destroyers. The debate captures a formative doctrinal problem: whether a carrier was itself a conventional fighting ship or a platform whose aircraft fought at distance while escorts protected it.
Chapter · 19:45-23:53
Beatty's torpedoes expose an early carrier-doctrine conflict
A proposal for eighteen fixed torpedo tubes treated Eagle like a cruiser, while opponents argued that a carrier should rely on aircraft and escorts rather than fight surface ships directly.