During a 1908 Channel Fleet manoeuvre, Charles Beresford signalled two parallel cruiser columns about six cables apart to turn inward together. Percy Scott recognized that the order would put the leading ships, Good Hope and Argyll, on a collision course and directed that it be disobeyed. The decision avoided a disaster comparable to the Camperdown collision, but Beresford sought to have Scott court-martialled. The Admiralty refused, although Scott's sea career was effectively over. In the counterfactual, discretionary research money could instead employ him ashore and fund the director-fire-control work that the service already wanted him to continue.
Notable Point · 2:06:50-2:10:35
Percy Scott refuses an order that would collide two cruisers
Scott disobeyed a 1908 manoeuvring signal that would have turned Good Hope and Argyll into one another, then faced Beresford's demand for a court martial.