A narrow definition of decisiveness based only on an annihilating fleet action is rejected here. A battle can be strategically decisive when it secures the purpose for which it was fought, even if it does not resemble Trafalgar or the Japanese concept of kantai kessen. Local battles across a worldwide conflict may therefore be decisive within their own theatres. Quiberon Bay under Edward Hawke became an important template for the later idea of a decisive naval battle, and Hawke was Horatio Nelson's hero.
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Quiberon Bay and strategic decisiveness
The closing historical argument asks whether a battle is decisive only when it destroys a fleet or when it achieves its strategic purpose.