How naval reputations are built

Historians often rely on a standard work for context outside their specialty, allowing one characterization to pass through many later books. Public statements and newspaper attacks are easy to recover, while private conversations usually disappear. Royal Navy service files provide another source because First, Second, and Third Sea Lords, as well as admirals of the fleet, could add retrospective assessments. Cunningham and Pound did so even during the Second World War. Praise from respected senior officers can change an assessment, while conspicuous silence can carry weight when a senior officer or participant in a major event would be expected to receive comment. That inference needs care because not every officer receives such notes.