The 1889 maneuvers reversed the roles and placed Tryon in command of the nominal British fleet. He again finished with the advantage. Although opposing cruisers raided ports successfully, Tryon's inability to catch them suggested that the Royal Navy needed faster cruisers. In a subsequent maneuver, captains were criticized for continuing to fight after exercise rules should have counted their ships as sunk or captured. A German critique put decisive fleet battle before coastal raiding. The contrasting British sequence used raids to draw the enemy out, then treated sea control as the condition for landings and wider operations. Exercise design therefore affected both cruiser requirements and competing ideas about how a navy could compel battle.
Notable Point · 47:14-50:04
The 1889 maneuvers and competing theories of naval war
Tryon's second exercise victory exposed a need for faster cruisers and a doctrinal divide over whether raiding followed fleet battle or helped force the enemy fleet to fight.