An ordnance and torpedo specialist and brilliant military tactician, John Arbuthnot Fisher (1841-1920) boosted Britain's Royal Navy to new heights prior to World War I. In combat and on sea patrol, he served admirably in China, the Crimea, Egypt, the West Indies, and the Mediterranean. An able administrator, at a time when Germany vied for supremacy at sea, he oversaw officer training, manpower, ship construction, fuel efficiency, fleet formation, and ordnance.

Rose through the Ranks

Born in Ceylon on January 25, 1841, John "Jackie" Fisher joined the navy in 1854 as a penniless boy and, during service in the Crimean War in his mid-teens, rose to midshipman. At age 18 in China during the Second Opium War, he aided in the seizure of Canton and the Pei forts. After twenty years of experience, he helped to revise The Gunnery Manual, a handbook on marksmanship and gun maintenance.

By age 33, Fisher attained the...