Henderson's small ships spread deterrent presence

Naval theory matters only when procurement supplies enough ships to carry it into distant stations. Theorists such as Corbett, Mahan, James Cable, and Theodore Roosevelt can explain how ships should be used, while officials still have to win the grubby budget fight for actual hulls. Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson emphasized smaller ships that could sustain British visibility across several regions. Their distribution reduced the danger that a second crisis would erupt simply because the fleet had concentrated on the first. Presence therefore becomes a concrete force-structure and Treasury problem.