The fact became gradually evident to British officers that the German navy was proceeding along the same lines as had proceeded the German army.

Realizing the efficiency of the German Government, noting the public declarations of the German Emperor, observing the excellence of the German ships, the skill of the German naval officers, and the extraordinary energy which the German people were devoting to the improvement of the German navy--the British navy took alarm.
So did the other navies.
Beginning about 1904, Great Britain set to work with energy to reform her naval policy.

Roused to action by the sense of coming danger, she augmented the size and number of vessels of all types; increased the personnel of all classes, regular and reserve; scrapped all obsolete craft; built (secretly) the epochal _Dreadnaught_, and modernized in all particulars the British navy.

In every great movement one man always stands pre-eminent.

The man in this case was Admiral Sir John Fisher, first sea lord of the admiralty, afterward Lord Fisher.