From May 1891 to February 1892, Fisher was Admiral Superintendent of the dockyard at Portsmouth, where he concerned himself with improving the speed of operations. was built in two years rather than three, while changing a barbette gun on a ship was reduced from a two-day operation to two hours. His example obliged all shipyards, both navy and private, to reduce the time they took to complete a ship, making savings in cost and allowing new designs to enter service more rapidly. He used all the tricks he could devise: an official who refused to step outside his office to personally supervise the work was offered a promotion to the tropics; he would find out the name of one or two men amongst a work crew and then make a point of complimenting them on their work and using their names, giving the impression he knew everyone personally; he took a chair and table into the yard where some operation was to be carried out and declared his intention to stay there until the operation was completed. He observed, "When you are told a thing is impossible, that there are insuperable objections, then is the time to fight like the devil".