Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary

In 1903, D'Arcy encountered Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher at a spa. There they discovered a shared enthusiasm for oil, and D'Arcy's maps and papers on the Persian venture impressed Fisher. He was dedicated to modernizing the Royal Navy and convinced that converting the fleet to oil would produce greater speed, efficiency, and maneuverability. In 1904, Fisher became First Sea Lord and, convinced that war with Germany was inevitable, pushed to see D'Arcy's oil fields developed under British control.

Led by an overbearing, temperamental Kaiser Wilhelm, Germany in the 1890s began a full-scale drive for global political, strategic, and economic prominence, alarming its rival powers. This required breaking British control over the high seas, and Wilhelm launched a naval challenge in 1897. He was confident that Britain would quickly tire of the cost. Instead, the British resolved to maintain superiority. By 1904, a "runaway technological revolution...