The Dover Patrol, which brought together an assortment of vessels ranging from the modern to the antique and included cruisers, monitors, destroyers, trawlers, drifters, yachts and airships, was commanded by a series of radical and polarising personalities and increasingly manned by citizen volunteers.

Between 1914 and 1918 the men of the Patrol sought to shut down German access to the Atlantic via the narrows of the English Channel, with the goal of preventing German bound trade going in and U-boats, commerce raiders and warships going out.