The discussion returns to Admiral Sir John Fisher and the difference an unusually active First Sea Lord could make. Fisher's personal energy gave him greater ability to pull institutional and political levers than the officers who followed him. Those successors may sometimes have understood technological constraints more realistically. The comparison shows why naval innovation depends on forceful sponsorship and sound judgment about what industry can actually deliver.
Notable Point · 2:13:08-2:13:39
Fisher and the personal levers of naval policy
Fisher's ability to push policy personally is contrasted with successors who may have judged technological limits more cautiously.