This volume investigates the final operational phases and the subsequent transition of the Royal Navy during the closing months of World War I and the immediate post-war period. Arthur J. Marder, a preeminent naval historian, utilizes extensive archival research and official records to analyze the strategic decisions, command structures, and technical shifts that defined the British fleet under the influence of the Fisher era's legacy. The work provides a rigorous examination of how the Royal Navy managed the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet and the logistical challenges of the armistice.

Historians and naval scholars regard this series as a foundational reference for understanding the development of the modern Royal Navy. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the meticulous attention to operational detail provided by the author.