Spiteful's trials and a decade of technical work had already established the direction of the fuel transition. Winston Churchill created the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines as First Lord of the Admiralty and put former First Sea Lord John Fisher in charge. John Jellicoe and naval engineer Henry Oram served alongside naval architect Philip Watts and civil engineer William Matthews. Petroleum expert Thomas Boverton Redwood, geologist Thomas Henry Holland, chemists Thomas Edward Thorpe and Humphry Owen Jones, and shipbuilder Alfred Yarrow added scientific and industrial expertise. The commission had to justify the cost while designing the ships, infrastructure, fuel science, and supply system needed for oil at scale.
Chapter · 50:57-59:16
The Fuel Commission focused on implementing oil
By 1911 the direction of travel was settled; the Royal Commission assembled naval, engineering, chemical, geological, and industrial expertise to make oil workable at scale.