HMS Warspite placed Somerville under Admiral Andrew Bickford and flag captain Colin Richard Keppel, officers who treated communications as a practical instrument of command. Bickford's distant-station experience emphasized directing dispersed forces, deterrence, and crisis management through long-range signaling. His focus on communications was strong enough that the signal tower at Esquimalt in British Columbia carried his name. Keppel's Nile gunboat and Fashoda experience supplied another model of measured naval power and diplomatic control. Their patronage reveals a communications-minded professional faction that identified junior officers who thought like its senior members. Their approaching retirements help explain why Somerville's apprenticeship preserved expertise that the Royal Navy risked losing before the First World War.
Chapter · 8:38-17:04
Bickford and Keppel made communications a tool of crisis management
Warspite placed Somerville under two officers who used signaling, dispersed forces, and restrained naval power to manage crises as well as fight wars.