ABSTRACT
Tirpitz ordered German yards to stockpile vital raw materials, especially nickel, and to step up ordnance capacities. Tirpitz refused to budge from a minimum of four new capital ships and accused Bethmann Hollweg and Wermuth of "surrounding the Imperial Treasury with barbed wire". Admiral v. Tirpitz is ready to take advantage of the public furor over the Agadir crisis and Churchill's speech in order to bring the new naval increases safely into port. Churchill revealed in 1912 that Britain would build five new "super" Dreadnoughts to act as a new wing of the main battle fleet. Furthermore, Tirpitz planned now to convert the 8 large cruisers on overseas service into an additional squadron of battle-cruisers, to be permanently stationed on Wilhelmshaven. The programme that Tirpitz had worked out for Wilhelm II by 1897 had been a comprehensive design to shore up internal dissension and to allow "great overseas" expansion.
