Tryon, HMS Victoria, and independent command judgement

Tryon's strong performance in naval manoeuvres and later Mediterranean command established him as an officer expected to think. His fatal expectation that subordinates would reinterpret an unsafe order exposed a longer institutional problem. Generations of training had taught officers to obey their superior precisely, frustrating Tryon's attempt to encourage independent judgement. The loss of Victoria illustrates how a navy can shed habits of adaptation during a long peace and then recover them only through painful experience. In this interpretation, that recovery helped the Royal Navy regain its ability to cope with the unexpected in the world wars.