ABSTRACT
Formal invitations went out on 11 July, preparations for the 12 November conference in Washington were postponed until Billy Mitchell had successfully dispatched the Ostfriesland. The galleries filled quickly with a throng that included, it seemed, everybody who was anybody in Washington political circles. The British government had come to consider the submarine a lethal threat to the security of its empire, and its delegation went to Washington under official instructions to press for its total abolition. In a bit over half an hour the US secretary of state put 1,878,043 tons of dreadnoughts on the block and seized the initiative for the entire conference. Only from within the world's naval establishments came howls of dismay, and perhaps the most anguished cries emanated from the US Navy. Undeniably the naval conference dealt a crushing blow to the battleship. Nonetheless, Annapolites would manage to resuscitate the victim and keep it breathing until the final debacle at Pearl Harbor.
