Victorian admiral who served as a boy in the Crimean War and as a Rear Admiral on the China Station at the turn of the nineteenth century. A fine seaman and a progressive officer, his career was blighted by his own lack of tact when advocating change within the Royal Navy.

On the afternoon of 22 June 1893, the flagship of the Royal Navy's premier fleet was sunk in collision with a companion battleship, with the death of 358 men. The collision was caused by a minor, but fatal, error in the orders of the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Tryon. Although the error was immediately obvious to his captains, none of them took action to avoid the inevitable collision. Why?

In 1897, Korvettenkapitän August von Heeringen was chosen by Konteradmiral Tirpitz to play a key role in creating the German battle fleet which kicked off a naval race with Britain. In 1912, when Germany had lost that race, the then Vizeadmiral von Heeringen was faced with the insuperable problem of how to win a war with the fleet that Tirpitz built.