As dawn broke upon the 20th century, Britain’s naval might, represented by her Grand Fleet, stood as the paramount guardian of an empire upon which the sun seldom set. By 1914, the maritime struggle, veiled in diplomacy but fierce in strategic intent, had been firmly set: Britain's Royal Navy versus Germany's High Seas Fleet. It was a contest of titans, emblematic of two empires' desires to hold dominion over the oceans.

The core reason for the naval campaign during WWI stemmed from Britain's age-old policy – to ensure no single power could dominate continental Europe and thereby threaten British shores or her empire. With Germany's ambitions crystallising in the form of the High Seas Fleet under Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the scene was set for a maritime duel of epic proportions.

The British Royal Navy, under the stewardship of the formidable First Sea Lord Sir John Fisher, embarked upon a modernisation programme in the years leading up to the war. The dreadnought battleship – epitomised by HMS Dreadnought launched in 1906 – symbolised this new age of naval warfare. The naval race between Britain and Germany had begun in earnest.

Yet for much of the war, the two great fleets circled each other warily. The North Sea became a tense battleground, a vast expanse of water where fleets manoeuvred, submarines prowled, and mines threatened. The most significant clash came on 31 May - 1 June 1916, in the Battle of Jutland. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe led the Grand Fleet, while the High Seas Fleet was commanded by Admiral Reinhard Scheer. Though the British suffered greater losses in ships and men, the strategic outcome was in their favour. The High Seas Fleet, after this mammoth clash, would not again seriously challenge the Royal Navy’s dominance of the North Sea.

There were other significant theatres and aspects too. The U-boat menace posed by German submarines targeted British and Allied merchant shipping in an attempt to strangle Britain's economy and war-making capacity. Under Admiral Karl Dönitz, this submarine warfare brought Britain close to the brink, especially in 1917, but innovations such as the convoy system gradually turned the tide.

The Mediterranean and farther afield, the waters off the Falkland Islands, saw action as well. The British victory against Admiral Graf von Spee's East Asia Squadron off the Falklands in December 1914 was particularly resounding.

By war's end in 1918, the Royal Navy had firmly established its maritime supremacy. The High Seas Fleet, recognising its impending doom, scuttled itself at Scapa Flow in 1919.

In the grand tapestry of the First World War, the naval campaign stands out not for the attritional horror of trench warfare but for a strategic chess game played out on the vast expanses of the world's oceans. It was a campaign that, in its essence, was about Britain's will and determination to remain the preeminent maritime power, a status she had held for centuries and was not about to relinquish.