During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), while the Prussian army recorded a series of triumphs from Sedan to the gates of Paris, the modest north German fleet languished at anchor. Alfred Tirpitz, then a twenty-one-year-old Unterleutnant, spent most of the war at Wilhelmshaven aboard the König Wilhelm, one of three armored frigates in a German navy that was far too weak to take on a French fleet that featured seventeen ships of the same type. “We youngsters were…indignant at not being let loose on the enemy,” Tirpitz recalled later, but material inferiority dictated a passive posture. Thus, afterward, “the campaign which had been so glorious for the army lay heavy on the navy.” Admiral Prince Adalbert, cousin of King William I, and, since 1848, the greatest champion of Prussian sea power, underscored the navy’s irrelevance by spending the war with the army. Owing to the inconsequential role played by the navy, it was allowed a representation of just twenty-two officers and seamen in the massive postwar victory parade held in Berlin in June 1871. In a time of great national triumph, the younger generation of German sea officers had difficulty dealing with such humbling experiences. Within a year, more naval officers transferred to the army than had done so in the previous decade.