naval repositioning

Just reading this splendid tome and found two good entries for Richard's legendary repositionings competition.

1. Admiral Sir Edward Vernon - from rum as cause of drunkenness to rum as a cause of half-soberness

1700s. Vernon was responsible for some naval operations in 'the Americas'. The navy had always had problems with discipline there due to much shore-leave and easy availablity of rum. He decided that rather than trying to forbid his men rum he would instead give them free grog (half rum, half water). This meant that they would only be half-drunk. Which was better than completely drunk. Strategic genius.

2. William Pitt - the oceans don't divide up the British Empire, they unite it

Again 1700s. The way the British Empire was scattered all over the globe had always been seen as a problem by politicians and strategists. The Empire was connected by thin, fragile supply lines that had to be continually protected by the Navy - as opposed to the more compact Empires of some of our rivals. Pitt simply reimagined the oceans as oppotunities not problems (he should have been an account guy). He made the Empire's spread-outness an advantage - it meant we had bases all over the world from which to operate and the connectedness of the oceans gave the Navy vast playing fields on which to wage war and support British interests.