Here's a provisional answer:

The British navy had near total dominace over the seas of the world from about 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, until about 1890. During this period they adopted a policy of keeping their navy larger than the two other largest navies in the world (typically France and Russia). Starting in about 1890 Kaiser Wilhelm, probably due in party to a psychological inferiority complex because, while he was obsessed with ships, his first cousin the King of England had a much larger navy, began building up the German navy as part of Germany's attempt to become a 'Great Power'. In 1906 the Royal Navy launched the HMS Dreadnought, the first modern battleship, which instantly made every other warship in the world obsolete, including the rest of the British navy. At the same time Germany embarked upon a massive fleet expansion in an attempt to challenge Britain's supremacy. Germany theorized that if they could have a force equal to what Great Britain could keep in their home waters, Britain would be unwilling to risk that fleet and, at less expense, they would be able to achieve virtual naval parity with England. Britain responded in three different ways to this. First, they also set out on an even larger naval expansion program. Second, in 1907 they allied themselves with Russia and France, removing two potental enemies with large, up-to-date navies. Third, they allied themselves with Japan, freeing up most of their fleet from Asian colonial duties for wartime duties in home waters. While the Germans would challenge the British supremacy in the North Sea at the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland, these would result in draws. Following the war a naval race broke out between the victors - the UK, US, and Japan, in which each attempted to embark upon ruinously expensive naval expansion plans (in Japan's case, taking up 20% of the government's budget). This was halted at the 1920 London Naval conference in which the ascendancy of the United States was established and saw them given parity with England. The conference established a 5:5:3:1.75:1.75 ratio between the great naval powers: England, US, Japan, France, and Italy. It established a 10 year moratorium on the construction of new battleships, and limited cruisers to no more than 10,000 tons displacement. In 1930 these terms were renewed for another ten years with minor modifications, including an expansion of the 5:5:3:1.75:1.75 ratio from battleships to cruisers. A 1936 conference had high hopes (mostly from the British desperate to maintain a superiority they could really no longer afford), but the oncoming war rendered it a moot point. The onset of World War II saw Germany embark on it's 'Z' plan to achieve naval parity with Great Britain by 1945, and their U-boats challenged British supremacy, but as the war in the pacific began and American industrial might churned out ship after ship it became clear that after about a century of British rule of the sea a new master had taken over.