Fisher had been First Sea Lord previously from 1904 and 1910 at what seemed to be the climax of a notable career which included action in China in his teens, service as Lieutenant in the Navy’s first iron-hulled warship HMS Warrior and being one of the leading lights in the development of the Navy’s gunnery skills at the end of the nineteenth century. During his first stint as First Sea Lord Fisher had pioneered the development of HMS Dreadnought, which like Warrior 45 years before her had effectively made obsolete all other front-line warships and rewrote the battleship playing field. Now he was back, much to the pleasure of the Telegraph, as “the feeling of confidence evoked by his presence at the Admiralty will add immeasurable strength to the armoury which we are employing against a foe who hides his fleet in the Kiel Canal and trusts to mines and other devilish agents to win him victories,” (page 8) and as the caption accompanying his picture on page 5 notes “although 73 years of age, Lord Fisher is younger than most men of 60.”