hours start from Berehaven before Tryon was allowed to sail from English ports, although Tryon was allowed to use cruisers to scout his movements. Obtaining supplies of coal for the ships was the limiting factor, and Seymour overcame this difficulty by arranging colliers to meet his fleet at sea. Thus he picked a spot off the trade routes he wished to attack, and stayed there. Tryon succeeded in defending the Channel, but could not prevent Seymour intercepting merchant ships 300 miles away at sea. Tryon commented that although this year's exercises were on the face of it the least exciting, they had still been the most useful of the three. The exercises were not without critics as to whether they accurately represented real war situations. A number of captains were criticised for not taking the rules sufficiently seriously, continuing to fight their ships after they should have considered themselves sunk or captured. Vice-Admiral Batsch of the German navy published a critique of the '88 and '89 exercises, arguing that the objectives of the admirals had become reversed from those of a real war, where coastal raids would follow opportunistically to main fleet engagements, rather than being main aims in themselves. In the '89 exercise the enemy fleet started at a 25% disadvantage, but steady attrition during raiding reduced it to 43% the size of the British fleet, so that any chance of a decisive victory steadily diminished. The result of dividing forces had been that they were picked off one by one. Nevertheless, the exercises served to improve morale for the sailors concerned, and to raise considerable interest amongst the general public in naval affairs. Wartime Marine Insurance Tryon became a strong supporter of the idea that in time of war there should be a national insurance scheme for merchant vessels. He was concerned that in the event of war insurance rates for vessels against loss by enemy action would immediately become impossibly high, so that merchant ships would simply stop trading with Britain, even if the numbers being lost were relatively small. This would be disastrous for the country, so it would be far better for the government to implement its own scheme to reimburse owners for lost cargoes and ships. Tryon claimed that he had first heard of the idea from Admiral Hopkins. Having become convinced of its importance he wrote an article explaining the idea in the