Strategic speed and Rodney's formative mentors

Rapid fleet movement was a signature of Rodney's command style and of the later Hood-Nelson lineage. Henry Medley gave Rodney his first sustained professional formation aboard Dreadnought, the Duke of Chandos opened court connections, and Thomas Mathews brought him onto the Mediterranean commander-in-chief's flagship. Those relationships helped Rodney reach post captain after roughly a decade of service. The later battleship HMS Rodney provides a revealing contrast: its emphasis on armour and gun power over speed would probably have frustrated an admiral who prized stealing a strategic march.