The Great White Fleet's vulnerability to losing its coaling network

How could the Great White Fleet get home if war with Britain began while it was sailing from India toward Egypt?

With great difficulty: it would need to avoid Suez, improvise access to coal, and retreat across the Pacific while accepting that Britain would reach U.S. waters sooner.

The answer places the Great White Fleet between India and Egypt and concludes that it could not sensibly force the British-controlled Suez Canal. Its battleships also depended on coal from stations and suppliers that war would suddenly deny them. The least impossible route home is therefore back across the Pacific while raiding coaling stations or seeking neutral fuel, with internment a risk if neutral ports provide too much assistance. Even then the Royal Navy could reach the American east coast before the fleet reached the west coast. The counterfactual makes overseas fuel infrastructure, not just battle strength, the decisive limit on a pre-dreadnought fleet.