The Royal Navy failed to explain its strategy

At the start of the war, Churchill did not effectively defend the Navy's long-war strategy to a cabinet hearing more from soldiers than admirals. The service had possible ideas for amphibious raids or Baltic operations, but it had not built a clear political understanding of how sea power would be used. The late Victorian and Edwardian Royal Navy had grown so accustomed to its central imperial role that it neglected the skill of explaining itself. Longer weapon ranges, mines, and torpedo craft made the age-of-sail model of close blockade hazardous, while control of global naval choke points let Britain cut trade without sitting off German ports. By 1916, politicians and the public wanted visible victories and an enemy fleet destroyed; retaining command of the sea through distant blockade did not look like the decisive success they had been promised through older naval imagery.