Other fleets rivaled the Second Pacific Squadron's dysfunction

Was any steam-and-steel fleet worse than Russia's Second Pacific Squadron?

Some Ottoman, British, and pre-Roosevelt American forces rivaled parts of its dysfunction, but the Russian squadron's particular combination of failures remained distinctive.

Periods of Ottoman weakness come close to the Russian Second Pacific Squadron's dysfunction. Individual Royal Navy formations also raise serious questions about readiness and leadership. The underfunded United States Navy before the Roosevelt-era expansion had comparable institutional problems before the developments associated with the Great White Fleet. The Russian squadron remains the benchmark because its combination of problems was unusually specific. This is a comparison of institutional weakness rather than a precise universal ranking.