Britain

The British Royal Navy of 1914 was the largest and most powerful the world had ever seen. Its creation had been driven by the mercurial genius of Lord "Jackie" Fisher and much of its power was a direct response to the challenge of a greatly enlarged and growing German Nany.

Most of its power was concentrated in The Grand Fleet. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 it dispersed to the bases of Scapa Flow, Invergordan, Rosyth and Harwich. From here it exercised a "distant blockade" of Germany.   Unlike the conflict of 1939-45, the ww1 campaign had very few high profile encounters. Jutland was the most significant but was mainly a frustrating "could have been". However, the cat and mouse game played  out by the naval forces in the North Sea is credited with being the decisive factor that brought Germany to the Armistice of 1918.