23 chapters
8 hour read
Selected Chapters
23 chapters
Publishers' Note
Publishers' Note
Just as this book was about to go to press an Admiralty Order was issued forbidding the publication of any text or illustrations likely to prove of service to the enemy. Proofs of The British Navy Book were submitted to the Admiralty, with the result that the book has been approved. Acting in accordance with instructions from the Lords Commissioners, we have substituted other illustrations for those more recent ships previously chosen to represent the Great War by sea....
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PROLOGUE
PROLOGUE
"It may truly be said that the Command of the Sea is an Abridgement or a Quintessence of an Universal Monarchy." It is a grey morning out on the North Sea, with but little wind. There is no swell, but considerable movement on the surface of the waters, with here and there an occasional tossing of the white manes of the sea-horses. Swimming majestically through the sea comes one of our monster slate-grey battle-cruisers. She is "stripped to a gantline", and in complete and instant readiness for a
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
The portability and rapid construction of these boats commended them to Cæsar's military eye, and later on, in one of his Continental wars, he ordered his soldiers to make some light boats in imitation of those he had seen in Britain, in order to carry his army across a river. But, though Cæsar especially mentions these vessels, he does not say that the British of his day had no other or larger vessels. Though they made use of hides and wicker, they must have known something of wooden vessels. T
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
"Piracy was the exercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue of the Scandinavian youth. Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the banquet, grasped their arms, sounded their horn, ascended their ships, and explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement." Gibbon. Observe the well-supported outer stem, the Dragon Head, the embroidered sail decorated with a variation of the "Swastika" design, which was much used by the Vikings on arms and ornament
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Among these was the system of feudalism and knight-service. The very word for knight— chevalier in French—signified a horseman; and the Norman and other feudal knights of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries looked at war and politics from the point of view of a cavalier armed cap-à-pie seated in his war-saddle. As for ships and sailors, they were merely unpleasant means to necessary ends. [4] But if one wanted to go to fight and plunder and raid across Channel he had to s
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
What were these old "matlows" [12] like, and how were they raised? The second question is easily answered. As Lord Haldane has stated, compulsory service was never foreign to the English laws and constitution. But we may observe that it has never been carried out in the fair and impartial manner which is now universal on the Continent of Europe, where "duke's son, cook's son", and everybody else has to serve his country alike. No; ours has always been a kind of bullying system or want of system.
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
The vessel is stated to have carried 1500 men—an enormous complement—which included 7 Emirs and 80 chosen Turks, for the defence of Acre. She was equipped with bows, arrows, and other weapons, many jars filled with the dreaded Greek fire, and "200 most deadly serpents prepared for the destruction of Christians". Most historians consider that these "serpents" were some kind of firework used as a missile, since "serpentine" was an early name for one of the smallest-sized cannon. Personally, I do n
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
At the death of Henry V, in 1422, the "Little Navy" disease broke out again, and nearly the whole of his fine fleet was sold. Things went from bad to worse, till the disgust and uneasiness of the nation found expression in a little work entitled The Libel of English Policie . The author, who is supposed to have been Bishop Adam de Molyns, exhorted the nation to "Keepe the Sea and namely the Narrow Sea", and also to secure both Dover and Calais. "Where bene our shippes", says he, "where bene our
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
Now this portion of our naval history is as near as possible all plain sailing, and its course as well known as that from the Mersey Bar to Sandy Hook to transatlantic travellers. I do not therefore propose to conduct my readers through the glorious, though, if I may be allowed to say it, somewhat hackneyed stories of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Drake's exploits on the Spanish Main, and the series of wars with the Dutch, in which we met the toughest opponents we have ever fought with for t
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
The most discreditable part of all was that played by the British renegades, who were, more than anyone else, responsible for the Turkish efficiency at sea. Left to themselves, the corsairs from Algiers, Tunis, and Salee would never have become formidable. In mediæval times, as has already been noted, the English had the reputation of being "good seamen, but better pirates", and piracy (including English piracy), though scotched, was not killed till some time after the days of "Good Queen Bess".
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
We are not in any doubt at the present moment of at least one meaning of the words. Had not our fleet instantly asserted its supremacy at the very outbreak of the great war with Germany we should have found it very difficult to get along at all, either with the war or with "business as usual". Does everybody realize, even now, that the war forced us to try to do two stupendous things at once—to carry on the biggest struggle in our history and to keep going the biggest trade and commerce in the w
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
The Phœnician war-vessels, it is said, came out of Cadiz—or Gades, as it was then called—with what their opponents took to be brazen lions at their bows. These turned out to be some kind of machine from which enormous flames of fire were projected by explosives, to consume and destroy the ships of the Iberians. But the most generally accepted theory now is that gunpowder was invented in China some centuries before the Christian era and gradually found its way to Europe by way of India, Arabia, a
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
Protective devices of various kinds and materials have been used for hundreds, nay thousands, of years for the defence of ships specially designed for fighting purposes, though never, it must be admitted, so generally and extensively as at the present day. Raw hides were constantly used in ancient and mediæval times to protect ships and the wooden towers used in sieges on shore. Thick felt was also utilized for this purpose. The Normans hung their galleys with this material in a battle with the
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
It is a sad reflection that after a century of much-boasted "advance in civilization", we none of us appear to have any chivalric scruples of this kind. But, in spite of our tremendous ascendancy at sea, Pitt—being a politician and not a naval officer—was, as St. Vincent said, "fool" enough to listen to Fulton when, repulsed from France, he took the name of Francis and brought his schemes over to this country. Experiments were made in the Downs, and Lieutenant Robinson of the Royal Marines carri
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
"Naval Brigade", by the way, is not a very ancient term, though in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries we often find references to the employment of a "regiment" or "battalion" of seamen. This may possibly be because, although embarked as part complement of our men-of-war, the marines, who were in those times organized in regiments and not in one large corps, did not actually belong to the Admiralty, but to the War Office. They were landed together, if possible, in their o
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
"The King's Navy exceeds all others in the World for three things, viz.: Beauty, Strength, and Safety. For Beauty, they are so many Royal Palaces; for Strength, so many moving Castles and Barbicans; and for Safety, they are the Most Defensive Walls of the Realm. Amongst the Ships of other Nations, they are like Lions amongst silly Beasts, or Falcons, amongst fearful Fowle."— Lord Cokes Fourth Institute. The Queen Elizabeth , then, is 600 feet in length—that is to say, just 200 yards. Think of th
30 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
Then arose the professional sailor. Ships carried but a few sails, so that comparatively few men were required to handle them, and the fighting-men on board and the commanders of ships and squadrons were once more soldiers. When the fully rigged ship arrived—in Tudor times—the sailor element naturally was considerably increased, and, the heavy gun making its appearance on shipboard at about the same time, the "gunners" seem to have been taken from that class rather than from the soldiers, who fo
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
Ordered by the Admiralty to be engraved upon a brass plate and fixed in a conspicuous position on board H.M.S. Arethusa , after the Battle of the Bight, 28th August, 1914. On the 19th and 20th July the magnificent naval force formed by the assembly of the first, second, and third fleets, with various flotillas of destroyers and submarines, was inspected at Spithead by King George. After a few days' fleet exercises in the Channel the great armament dispersed, the first fleet going to Portland, th
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
If we claim command of the sea we must face the risks of the position. The sinking of a few men-of-war by mines or submarines will not transfer the "trident of Neptune" to a fleet which only plays for safety, any more than the destruction of one or two public buildings by a dynamitard will give him the reins of government. The "silver lining" to the cloud of our losses in men and material is the magnificent bravery and discipline displayed by the crews of the vessels attacked, officers, seamen,
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
"The idea that an inferior power, keeping its battleships in port and declining fleet actions, can, nevertheless, bring the trade of an enemy to a standstill, has no basis either in reason or experience." For various reasons, which we have not room to discuss here, the Germans had made up their minds that in August, 1914, Great Britain would not fight, and that they would be able to carry out their programme against France, Russia, and Belgium, after which they would decide exactly their selecte
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
The German squadron, which was commanded by Admiral Graf von Spee, consisted of the Scharnhorst , Gneisenau , Dresden , Nürnberg , and Leipzig . The two former had been on the Chinese station and were big armoured cruisers of 11,600 tons, dating from 1907. They were sister ships, each mounting eight 8·2-inch, six 6-inch, and several smaller guns. The Scharnhorst (flag) was the crack gunnery ship of the German fleet. The other three ships were third-class cruisers of between 3000 and 4000 tons, s
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
On the 23rd November a patrol vessel rammed the German submarine U 18 off the north coast of Scotland. She was badly damaged and shortly afterwards foundered. Five days later the navy suffered a severe loss in the blowing up of the pre-Dreadnought battleship Bulwark as she lay at her buoy off Sheerness. The cause of this catastrophe was, of course, impossible to ascertain with any certainty, as the ship was sunk and destroyed with almost every soul on board. Encouraged by what they seem to have
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
"The human bird shall take his first flight, filling the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he sprang." Of course no exact figures can be quoted, but, according to an authority on aeronautic matters, [102] Germany alone was in possession of a thoroughly organized and equipped fleet of 1300 aeroplanes. According to the same authority, Austria had about 100, France 800, and Russia 300, while we ourselves are credited with 100 machines be
43 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter