Corbett's influence on naval education

Corbett's naval teaching linked strategy with history so that senior officers could understand sea power as an instrument of statecraft. The educational problem also included the initial preparation of young entrants, addressed in the 1902-03 Selborne scheme. The Naval War Course was a setting for deeper professional study, but Corbett, college authorities and the officers attending it did not necessarily share the same aims. Books and personal influence also offered ways to explain maritime affairs to the state beyond the Navy. The author of the passage regretted the title The Education of a Navy because the figures studied had not necessarily educated a whole service. Mahan was offered as a possible exception.