Corbett, Mahan, and Laughton as naval-history interlocutors

Which naval historians from the past would be most valuable to interview?

Julian Corbett, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and John Knox Laughton each illuminate a different link between strategy, political persuasion, and naval education.

Julian Corbett would offer a chance to question how his strategic thought related to his First World War work. Alfred Thayer Mahan would be valuable for understanding how naval argument could persuade the United States Congress to fund a larger fleet. John Knox Laughton adds the institutional and educational link because he helped train Corbett and other naval historians. The answer presents naval history as a conversation among writers, teachers, policy advocates, and later scholars rather than a sequence of isolated books.