Overview of the Naval Arms Race

The book is about the naval arms race between Great Britain and Germany from 1906 to 1914. Both nations aimed to build more Dreadnoughts than the other.

Intelligence and Espionage

Germany needed to know how many ships Great Britain planned to build. They found a close friend of Queen Alexandra, Rupert Von Wester-Wald, who attended many Royal Functions so he could overhear snippets of information.

Deception and Strategy

Naismith knew Von Wester-Wald was the eyes and ears of the Kaiser, and was planning to send bogus information to Germany to make them ease up in the arms race. Could he fool Von Wester-Wald into believing it was genuine?

The Chase

Rupert wanted to beat Naismith at his own game and was relishing the chase.