Indeed, it is still a mystery to me why the Kaiser even bothered with the time and effort into building a fleet for battle just to see it turned away again and again by the war fighting spirit of my battlecruisers. If it weren't for those dastardly submarines, scrounging the oceans for victims, I surely would have swept them from the seas by 1917 entirely.

I'm sure our belligerent Prussian naval enthusiast /u/Kaiser_WilhelmII will be along shortly to give his uniquely Teutonic view on things. But the view from Admiralty House is that other countries have their own reasons for having a navy. For any country with interests overseas, not having a navy would be the acme of an ass!! Take France - colonial possessions scattered all over the globe. While we might not have designs on them, the Germans, Italians or even the Japanese might. They need a navy not to challenge us, but to defend themselves from anyone weaker (or to take things off the weaker). Spending money on a navy can also boost a nation's economy - supporting steel industries, shipbuilding, arms manufacturers.

While any one nation might not be able to defeat the glorious Royal Navy alone, together two or more might. While the French and Spanish tried this disastrously at Trafalgar, in the modern world, where one of my splendid dreadnoughts costs millions of pounds and nearly a year to build, it's a lot more likely. We're officially on a 'Two-Power Standard'; we have enough ships to fight off the two nations with the biggest fleets. You add a third or fourth, and while the balance of professionalism and training's on our side, the balance of numbers is on theirs. Of course, we might be able to defeat them in detail, but if they were able to concentrate things might be touch and go!

I do not know of the tribe called the Britioi that you mention. Are they renowned for their naval skill? Do they have great reserves of silver to crew their fleet? How many swift triremes can they launch? If they live far to the west, have they, perhaps, acquired some of these new quadriremes that I hear the Syracusans have invented?

I will be honest - I doubt these Britioi could really stand against the naval might of the Athenians. We rule the sea. We have more experience, more skill, and better discipline than the sailors of any other city. I myself have had the honour of leading Athenian fleets to war, and even the Syracusans were no match for me; at Kerkyra, I captured 10 of their ships without the loss of even a single one of mine. Now tell me, can your Britioi match such skill, such sound preparation?

I'm sure you will say that the days of our thalassocracy are behind us. That the Spartans destroyed our fleet and that their nauarch Lysander brought us to our knees. But have you not heard of the battles we fought since then? Of Knidos, and Naxos, and Alyzeia? Three times the Spartan fleet was defeated. Now the Athenians rule the seas again. And while we used to demand that our subjects pay for the upkeep of our ships, we have since learned humility and justice, and now we pay for our fleet ourselves, so that no one can take it away from us. Every year we build more ships. We will soon have more than even Perikles commanded. Who could challenge the Athenians now?

Estimado señor Cook,

My name is Arturo Prat, a captain in the fleet of the Republic of Chile. I can offer but a grassroot perspective on your question which I hope you will accept. La Marina Real Británica is a majestic fleet, one to be admired the world around. In fact, in my nation, we celebrate your Lord Cochrane for his role in securing the independence of our great nation by leading the nascent Chilean fleet to victory. Your nation's formidable shipyards has brought the most beautiful and modern of ships, ironclads, to the arsenal of mine. I simply can not be more grateful for it. Many of our naval officers have gone through training on your beautiful ships. Unfortunately, I was not one of them.

It is here that I would like to speak about the present situation. 14 years ago, the Spanish navy descended upon my beautiful nation, seemingly determined to conquer it once again. After first attacking Peru, Spain unleashed itself upon us and bombarded the beautiful city of Valparaiso. Can you imagine the pain in seeing those once wonderful cerros burning? Our navy then was no match to the Spanish navy and in our desperation, we had to join forces with Peru to beat Spain back. During this fateful period the corvette that I am currently captain of, the Esmeralda, inflicted a defeat on Spain at the battle of Papudo. As recorded history tells us, Peru inflicted a defeat on the Spanish navy after their attack on the port of Callao. I would believe that this resulted in a victory for our brief alliance as Spain retreated shortly thereafter.

These events led us to ordering ships from your shipyards and to strengthen our navy so that the events of the mid-1860s do not happen again. We would never be vulnerable again! Yet this has led to some unfortunate consequences; it appears that Peru found itself threatened by our increasingly powerful navy and when a territorial dispute with Bolivia flaired up into war between us, it was revealed that Peru and Bolivia had entered a military alliance together. As I am writing to you, we find ourselves at war and my ship, the Esmeralda, is blockading the Peruvian port of Iquique while the strongest elements of our fleet is heading to Callao to face the Peruvian navy in a decisive battle.

I can only hope for victory.

My dear /u/Captain_J_Cook_FRSRN, why even bother, you ask?

I detect that you don't have a firm grasp of what true Weltpolitik means. You see, even though Germany is the most recent of the world's venerable empires, she is already one of her most advanced and prosperous -- rivalling even Britain herself! For a nation of Germany's size a fleet of adequate power is imperative, don't you agree? If Germany is Britain's equal in all manners, in numbers as in virtues, it is self-evident that she can maintain a fleet of similar size. As I used to say to my dear Prince Heinrich -- grandson of your Queen Victoria -- on his first naval command: "Imperial power means sea power, and sea power and imperial power require each other, so that one cannot exist without the other."^1 -- Haven't you read Mahan, my friend?

Already German trade, German merchants, German ships travel around the world! Does it not befit Germany that she can protect her interests, her children overseas? What kind of empire would that be that relies on other nations to assert sovereignty?

With that in mind, I'm sure you'll agree that Germany has the right, no, the duty to share Britain's responsibility in policing the world -- as the developed nations do. I assure you, all that I, all that we want is our rightful place in the sun alongside our English cousins. This is not directed at the Englishmen themselves, I surely have no quarrels with their people.

Yours sincerely,

His Imperial and Royal Majesty William II

^1 Ernst Johann, edit., Reden des Kaisers: Ansprachen, Predigten und Trinksprüche Wilhelms II. (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1977), p. 75.