Rebuilding a navy after losing its experienced people

The inherited ships are judged serviceable by First World War standards, while the fleet's overall force structure is considered inadequate. Rebuilding required experienced officers, specialist engineers and the teachers who trained their successors. Shipyards also depended on foremen and master tradespeople whose practical knowledge could not be replaced by adding more ordinary workers. Their role is compared with that of non-commissioned officers in an armed force. Better pay and living standards could make these specialists politically suspect as bourgeois, even though their expertise was essential. The comparison with attempts to produce politically reliable sergeants through schooling asks how much practical authority can be created without experience.