Monitors inside Britain's naval-versus-continental debate

Monitors are easy to overlook because the major Baltic operation associated with Fisher never occurred. They also belonged to the wider debate between a naval approach, associated here with Julian Corbett, and a continental strategy built around sending Britain's small army to Europe. Political leaders could appear to hedge between those approaches rather than publicly committing to one coherent design for the war. Judging the monitors only by the unrealized Baltic plan obscures the fire-support missions they actually performed successfully.