User blog comment:Callumthered/Boer War starts WWI?/@comment-32656-20120129104448/@comment-32656-20120131021642

The Boer War was a land war. Not a war involving naval vessels, at all. Nor does any government use military vessels for transporting troops. Only a very small number of ships would be needed to keep an eye out for any raiders that by some miracle get past the Isles. And those are already on station.

1900 is a very different creature than 1914. There is almost no need to have any ships at all outside of Europe for fighting, and the local fleets would be more than enough for defense. Basically the entire Home Fleet is still in Britain.