I K ,1 If •
.1 'I- - «
Ami .
^1 •¦
¦1 • > •>•".. . .
* -; T.' ¦ I
¦>• ¦ ¦ - •„ *¦'

^pi^^%.^ f

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

^^^ //^/

Admiral Fisher, First
Lord of Admiralty, Dies
/4|^^llowing an Operation
LONDON, July 10. — Admiral John
Arburthnot Fisher, first baron of KU-
verstone and former first lord of th©
admiralty, died this morning. '
Lord Fisher underweht a serious
operation yesterday and failed to rally.

Lord Fisher began his naval ^areer
in 1854, and took part In the Crimean,
Chinese and Egyptian wars. He be
came lord of the admiralty in 1892,
and first sea lord of the admiralty in
1904, which post he held for six years.
He emerged from retirement in Octo
ber, 1914, to direct the naval warfare
against Germany. His vigorous policy
caused him to be termed "The Kitche
ner of the British navy," the chief
credit has been claimd for him in
the bottling up of the German navy.
Cabinet disputes led to his resignation
in May, 1915, but he continued to
serve the British government In vari
ous capacities.
Lord Fisher was for many years a
popular idol in " Great Britain. He
was known as the "Father of the
Dreadnaught," because he was the
first to realize the vast power of this
type of warship.

tff-^

M-

LORD FISHER
MEMORIES
AND RECORDS

VOLUME TWO

Photo J. Riisscli aud Sons

1882. CAPTAIN' OF n. M. s. "inflexible"

MEMORIES
AND RECORDS BY
ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET
LORD FISHER

IN TWO VOLUMES
WITH PORTRAITS AND
ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME TWO
RECORDS

NEW >iSJr YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1920,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

By37 2

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

THE main purpose of this
second Volume is obvious
from its title. It's mostly a col
lection of "Records" confirm
ing what has already been writ
ten, and relates almost exclu
sively to years after 1902. As
Lord Rosebery has said so well,
"The war period in a man's life
has its definite limits"; and that
period is what interests the gen
eral reader, and for that reason
all attempt at a biography has
been discarded.

In our present distress we
certainly want badly just now
Nelson's "Light from Heaven"!
Nelson had what the Mystics
describe as his "seasons of dark
ness and desertion." His enfee
bled body and his mind depres
sed used at times to cast a shade
on his soul, such as we now feel
as a Nation, but (if I remember
right) it is Southey who says
that the Sunshine which suc
ceeded led Nelson to believe
that it bore with it a prophetic
glory, and that the light that
led him on was "Light from
Heaven." We don't see that
"Light" as yet. But England
never succumbs.

PREFACE
Napoleon at St. Helena told us what all Englishmen
have ever instinctively felt — that we should remain a
purely Maritime Power; instead, we became in this War
a Conscript Nation, sending Armies of Millions to the
Continent. If we stuck to the Sea, said Napoleon, we
could dictate to the World; so we could. Napoleon again
said to the Captain of the British Battleship "Bellero-
phon" : "Had it not been for you English, I should have
been Emperor of the East, but wherever there was water
to float a ship, we were sure to find you in the way."
(Yes! we had ships only drawing two feet of water with
six-inch guns, that went up the Tigris and won Bagdad.
Others, similar, went so many thousand miles up the
Yangtze River in China that they sighted the Moun
tains of Thibet. Another British Ship of War went so
many thousand miles up the Amazon River that she
sighted the Mountains of Peru, and there not being room
to tum she came back stern first. In none of these cases
had any War Vessel ever before been seen till these British
Vessels investigated those waters and astounded the inhab
itants.) Again, Napoleon praised our Blockades {Les 'Anglcds
bloquent tres bien) ; but very justly of our Diplomacy he
thought but iU. Yes, alas! What a Diplomacy it has
been!!! If our Blockade had been permitted by the Dip
lomats to have been effective, it would have finished the
War at once. Our Diplomats had Bulgaria in their hands
and lost her. It was "Too Late" a year after to offer

viii PREFACE
her the same terms as she had asked the year before. We
"kow-towed" to the French when they rebuifed our re
quest for the English Army to be on the Sea Flank and to
advance along the Belgian Coast, supported by the Brit
ish Fleet; and then there would have been no German
Submarine War. At the very beginning of the War we
deceived the German Ambassador in London and the
German Nation by our vacillating Diplomacy. We
wrecked the Russian Revolution and turned it into Bol
shevism. I mention these matters to prove the effete, apathetic,
indecisive, vacillating Conduct of the War — the War
eventually being won by an effective Blockade.

CONTENTS
CHAPTEB PAGE
I Early Years  17
II Further Memories of King Edward and
Others  37
ni The Bible, and Other Reflections ... 49
IV Episodes  60
V Democracy  77
VI Public Speeches  86
VII The Essentials op Sea Fighting .... 94\
Vni Jonah's Gourd  102
IX Naval Problems  128
X Naval Education  154
XI Submarines  169
XII Notes on Oil and Oil Engines .... 184
XIII The Big Gun  197
XIV Some Predictions  203
XV The Baltic Project  208
XVI The Navy in the War  215
Postscript  237
ix

X CONTENTS APPENDIX I
Lord Fisher's Great Naval Reforms  241
APPENDIX II
Synopsis of Lord Fisher's Career  249
Index  259

RECORDS

RECORDS CHAPTER I
EABLY YEARS
Or all the curious fables I've ever come across I quite
think the idea that my mother was a Cingalese Princess of
exalted rank is the oddest! One can't see the foundation
of it! "The baseless fabric of a vision !"
My godfather, Major Thurlow (of the 90th Foot), was
the "best man" at my mother's wedding, and very full of
her beauty then — she was very young— possibly it was
the "Beaute du diable!" She had just emerged from the
City of London, where she was born and had spent her
hfe! One grandfather had been an officer under Nelson
at Trafalgar, and the other a Lord Mayor! He was
Boydell, the very celebrated engraver. He left his for
tune to my grandmother, but an alien speculator (a scoun
drel) robbed her of it. My mother's father had, I believe,
some vineyards in Portugal, of which the wine pleased
William the Fourth, who, I was told, came to his counting
house at 149, New Bond Street, to taste it! Next door
Emma, Lady Hamilton, used to clean the door steps!
She was housemaid there.
I don't think the Fishers at all enjoyed my father
(who was a Captain in the 78th Highlanders) marrying
into the Lambes! The "City" was abhorred in those days,
17

i8 RECORDS
and the Fishers thought of the tombs of the Fishers in
Packington Church, Warwickshire, going back to the
dark ages ! I, myself, possess the portrait of Sir Clement
Fisher, who married Jane Lane, who assisted Charles the
Second to escape by disguising his Majesty as her groom
and riding behind him on a pillion to Bristol.
The Fishers' Baronetcy lapsed, as my ancestor after
Sir Clement Fisher's death wouldn't pay £500 in the
nature of fees, I believe. I don't think he had the money
— so my uncle told me. This uncle, by name John Fisher,
was over 60 years a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford,
and told me the story of an ancestor who built a wing
of Balliol at Oxford, and they — the College Authorities —
asked him whether they might place some inscription in
his honour on the building! He replied:
"Fisher — non amplius,"
(but someone else told me it was: —
"Verbum non amplius Fisher !")
My uncle explained that his ancestor only meant just to
put his name, and that's all.
But the College Authorities put it all on:
"Fisher! Not another blessed word is wanted."
One of my ancestors changed his motto and took these
words (I have them on a watch!) : —
"Ubi voluntas — ibi piscatur."
(We fish where we like.)
A Poacher, I suppose! or was there a "double
entendre"? I'm told in the old days you could change your motto
and your crest as often as you liked, but not your coat of
arms!

EARLY YEARS 19
A succession of ancestors went and dwelt at Bodmin,
in Cornwall — all clergymen down to my grandfather,
who was Rector of Wavendon, in Bucks, where is a tablet
to his brother, who was killed close to the Duke of Well
ington at Waterloo, and who ordered his watch to be sent
to my uncle's relatives with the dent of the bullet that
killed him, and that watch I now have.
My uncle was telhng this story at a table d'hote at
Brussels a great many years afterwards, and said he had
been unable to identify the spot, when an old white-haired
gentleman at the table said he had helped to bury him,
and next day he took him to the place.
I remember a Dean glancing at me in a Sermon on the
Apostles, when he said the first four were all Fishers !
On the death of Sir Robert Fisher of Packington in
1739, a number of family portraits were transferred ap
parently to the Rev. John Fisher of Bodmin, bom Jan
uary 27th, 17O8. The three principal portraits are a
previous Sir Robert Fisher, his son Sir Clement Fisher,
who died 1683, and Jane Lane, his wife. Another por
trait is a second Sir Clement Fisher, son of the above and
of Jane Lane. This Sir Clement Fisher died 1709, and
was succeeded by his only brother. Sir Robert Fisher,
who died a.d. 1739, one year before his niece, Mary Fisher,
wife of Lord Aylesford. All these portraits were trans
mitted in direct inheritance to Sir John Fisher. The four
generations of Reverend John Fishers of Bodmin, com
mencing with John Fisher bom 1708, were none of them
in a position to incur the heavy expenses involved for their
assumption of the Baronetcy. They were descended from
a brother of the Sir Robert Fisher who lived before the
year a.d. 1600.
I was born in 1841, the same year as King Edward
VII. There was never such a healthy couple as my father

20 RECORDS
and mother. They never married for money — they mar
ried for love. They married very young, and I was their
first child. All the physical advantages were in my fa
vour, so I consider I was absolutely right, when I was
nine months old, in refusing to be weaned.
"She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow 'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies."
These hnes were written by Lord Byron of my god
mother. Lady Wilmot Horton, of Catton Hall, Burton-
on-Trent. She was still a very beautiful old lady at 73
years of age when she died.
One of her great friends was Admiral Sir William
Parker (the last of Nelson's Captains), and he, at her
request, gave me his nomination for entering the Navy.
He had two to give away on becoming Port Admiral at
Plymouth. He gave the other to Lord Nelson's own
niece, and she also filled in my name, so I was doubly
nominated by the last of Nelson's Captains, and my first
ship was the "Victory" and it was my last! In the "Vic
tory" log-book it is entered, "July 12th, 1854, joined Mr.
John Arbuthnot Fisher," and it is also entered that Sir
John Fisher hauled down his flag on October 21st, 1904,
on becoming First Sea Lord.
A friend of mine (a yellow Admiral) was taken
prisoner in the old French War when he was a Midship
man ten years old, and was locked up in the fortress of
Verdun. He so amused me in my young days by telling
me that he gave his parole not to escape ! as if it mattered
what he did when he was only four foot nothing! And
he did this, he told me, in order to learn French ; and when
he had learned French, to talk it fluently, he then can-

EARLY YEARS 21
celled his parole and was locked up again and then he
escaped; alone he did it by filing through the iron bars of
his prison window (the old historic method), and wended
his way to England. I consider this instance a striking
testimony to the inestimable benefit of sending little boys
to sea when they are young! What splendid Nelsonic
qualities were developed!
But it was quite common in those days of my old yel
low Admiral for boys to go to sea even as young as seven
years old. My present host's grandfather went to sea as
a Midshipman at seven years old! Afterwards he was
Lord Nelson's Signal Midshipman, his name was Hamil
ton, and his grandson was Midshipman with me in two
ships. He is now the 13th Duke of Hamilton! It is
interesting as a Nelsonic legend that the wife of the 6th
Duke of Hamilton (she was one of the beautiful Miss
Gunnings ; she was the wife of two Dukes and the mother
of four) peculiarly befriended Emma, Lady Hamilton,
and recognised her, as so few did then (and, alas! still
fewer now, as one of the noblest women who ever lived —
one mass of sympathy she was !
The stories of what boys went through then at sea were
appalling. I have a corroboration in lovely letters from
a httle Midshipman who was in the great blockade of
Brest by Admiral Comwalhs in 1802. This little boy
was afterwards killed just after Trafalgar. He describes
seeing the body of Nelson on board ship on its way to;
Portsmouth. This little Midshipman was only eleven
years old when he was killed! This is how he describes
the Midshipman's food: "We Uve on beef which has been
ten or eleven years in a cask, and on biscuit which makes
your throat cold in eating it owing to the maggots, which
are very cold when you eat them! like calves-foot jelly or
blomonge — ^being very fat indeed!" (It makes one shud-

22 RECORDS
der!) He goes on again: "We drink water the colour
of the bark of a pear tree with plenty of little maggots
and weevils in it, and wine, which is exactly like bullock's
blood and sawdust mixed together"; and he adds in his
letter to his mother: "I hope I shall not learn to swear,
and by God's assistance I hope I shall not!" He tried
to save the Captain of his Top (who had been at the
"Weather earing") from falling from aloft. This is his
description: "The hands were hurried up to reef topsails,
and my station is in the foretop. When the men began
to lay in from the yards (after reefing the topsails) one
of them laid hold of a slack rope, which gave way, and
he fell out of the top on deck and was dashed to pieces
and very near carried me out of the top along with him as
I was attempting to lay hold of him to save him!!!" Our
httle friend the Midshipman was eight years old at this
time! What a picture! this httle boy trying to save the
sailor huge and hairy! His description to his mother of
Comwallis's Fleet is interesting: "We have on board
Admiral Graves, who came in his ten-oared barge, and as
soon as he put his foot on shipboard the drums and fifes
began to play, and the Marines and aU presented their
arms. We are all prepared for action, aU our guns being
loaded with double shot. We have a fine sight, which is
the Grand Channel Fleet, which consists of 95 sail of the
hne, each from 120 down to 64 guns."
That is the Midshipman of the olden day, and one
often has misgivings that the modem system of sending
boys to sea much older is a bad one, when such magnifi
cent results were produced by the old method, more es
pecially as in the former days the Captain had a more
paternal charge of those little boys coming on board one
by one, as compared with the present crowd sent in
batches of big hulking giants, some of them. However,

EARLY YEARS 23
there is more to learn now than formerly, and possibly
it's impossible (all the entrance examination I had to pass
was to write out the Lord's Prayer, do a rule of three
sum and drink a glass of sherry!) ; but one would hke to
give it a trial of sending boys to sea at nine years old.
Our little hero tried to save the hfe of the Captain of his
Top when he was only eight years old ! Still, the Osborne
system of Naval education has its great merits; but it
has been a grievous blow to it, departing from the original
conception of entry at eleven years of age.
However, the hues of the modern Midshipman are
laid in pleasant places; they get good food and a good
night's rest. Late as I came to sea in 1854, 1 had to keep
either the First or Middle Watch every night and was
always hungry! DeviUed Pork rind was a luxury, and a
Spanish Onion with a Sardine in the Middle Watch was
Paradise !
In the first ship I was in we not only carried our fresh
water in casks, but we had some rare old Ship's Biscuit
supphed in what were known as "bread-bags." These
bread-bags were not preservative; they were creative. A
favourite amusement was to put a bit of this biscuit on
the table and see how soon all of it would walk away.
In fact one midshipman could gamble away his "tot" of
rum with another midshipman by pitting one bit of bis
cuit against another. Anyhow, whenever you took a
bit of biscuit to eat it you always tapped it edgeways
on the table to let the "grown-ups" get away.
The Water was nearly as bad as the Biscuit. It was
turgid — it was smelly — it was animally. I remember so
well, in the Russian War (1854-5), being sent with the
Watering Party to the Island of Nargen to get fresh
water, as we were running short of it in this old Sailing
Line of Battleship I was in (there was no Distilling Ap-

24 RECORDS
paratus in those days ) . My youthful astonishment was
how on earth the Lieutenant in charge of the Watering
Party discovered the Water. There wasn't a lake and
there wasn't a stream, but he went and dug a hole and
there was the water ! However, it may be that he carried
out the same delightful plan as my delicious old Admiral
in China. This Admiral's survey of the China Seas is
one of the most celebrated on record. He told me himself
that this is how he did it. He used to anchor in some
convenient place every few miles right up the Coast of
China. He had a Chinese Interpreter on board. He
sent this man to every Fishing Village and offered a dollar
for every rock and shoal. No rock or shoal has ever been
discovered since my beloved Admiral finished his survey.
Perhaps the Lieutenant of the Watering Party gave
Roubles !
I must mention here an instance of the Simple Genius
of the Chinese. A sunken ship, that had defied all Euro
pean efforts to raise her, was bought by a Chinaman for
a mere song. He went and hired all the Chinamen from
an adjacent Sponge Fishery and bought up several Bam
boo Plantations where the bamboos were growing hke
grass. The way they catch sponges is this — The China
man has no diving dress — he holds his nose — a leaden
weight attached to his feet takes him down to where the
sponges are — he picks the sponges — evades the weight —
and rises. They pull up the weight with a bit of string
afterwards. The Chinese genius I speak of sent the men
down with bamboos, and they stuck them into the sunk
ship, and soon "up she came"; and the Chinaman said:
"Ship hab Bamboo —
No hab Water!"

EARLY YEARS 25
It's a pity there's no bamboo dodge for Sunk Reputa
tions !
An uncle of mine had a snuff box made out of the Salt
Beef, and it was french-polished! That was his beef
— and ours was nearly as hard.
There were many brutalities when I first entered the
Navy — now mercifully no more. For instance, the day
I joined as a little boy I saw eight men flogged — and I
fainted at the sight.
Not long ago I was sitting at luncheon next to a dis
tinguished author, who told me I was "a very interesting
person!" and wanted to know what my idea of hfe was.
I replied that what made a life was not its mature years
but the early portions when the seed was sown and the
blossom so often blasted by the frost of unrecognition.
It was then that the fruit of after years was pruned to
something near the mark of success. "Your great career
was when you were young," said a dear friend to me the
other day. I entered the Navy penniless, friendless and
forlorn. While my mess-mates were having jam, I had
to go without. While their stomachs were full, mine was
often empty. I have always had to fight like hell, and
fighting like hell has made me what I am. Hunger and
thirst are the way to Heaven !
When I joined the Navy, in 1854, the last of Nelson's
Captains was the Admiral at Plymouth. The chief object
in those days seemed to be, not to keep your vessel effi
cient for fighting, but to keep the deck as white as snow
and all the ropes taut. We Midshipmen were allowed
only a basin of water to wash in, and the basin was inside
one's sea-chest; and if anyone spilt a drop of water on the
deck he was made to holy-stone it himself. And that
reminds me, as I once told Lord Esher, when I was a
young First Lieutenant, the First Sea Lord told me that

26 RECORDS
he never washed when he went to sea, and he didn't see
"why the Devil the Midshipmen should want to wash
now!" I remember one Captain named Lethbridge who
had a passion for spotless decks; and it used to put him
in a good temper for the whole day if he could discover a
"swab-tail," or fragment of the swabs with which the deck
was cleaned, left about. One day he happened to catch
sight of a Midshipman carefully arranging a few swab-
tails on deck in order to gratify "old Leather-breeches' "
lust for discovering them! And as for taut ropes, many
of my readers will remember the old story of the lady
(on the North American station) who congratulated the
Captain of a "family" ship (officered by a set of fools) be
cause "the ropes hung in such beautiful festoons!"
There was a fiddler to every ship, and when the anchor
was being weighed, he used to sit on the capstan and play,
so as to keep the men in step and in good heart. And on
Sundays, everyone being in full dress, epaulettes and all,
the fiddler walked round the decks playing in front of the
Captain. I must add this happened in a Brig commanded
by Captain Miller.
After the "Victory," my next ship was the "Calcutta,"
and I joined it under circumstances which Mr. A. G.
Gardiner has narrated thus : —
"One day far back in the fifties of last century a sail
ing ship came round from Portsmouth into Plymouth
Sound, where the fleet lay. Among the passengers was a
little midshipman fresh from his apprenticeship in the
'Victory.' He scrambled aboard the Admiral's ship, and
with the assurance of thirteen marched up to a splendid
figure in blue and gold, and said, handing him a letter:
'Here, my man, give this to the Admiral.' The man in
blue and gold smiled, took the letter, and opened it. 'Are
you the Admiral?' said the boy. 'Yes, I'm the Admiral.'
He read the letter, and patting the boy on the head, said:

EARLY YEARS 27
'You must stay and have dinner with me.' 'I think,' said
the boy, 'I should like to be getting on to my ship.' He
spoke as though the British Navy had fallen to his charge.
The Admiral laughed, and took him down to dinner.
That night the boy slept aboard the 'Calcutta,' a vessel
of 84 guns, given to the British Navy by an Indian mer
chant at a cost of £84,000. It was the day of small things
and of saihng-ships. The era of the ironclad and the
'Dreadnought' had not dawned."
I think I must give the first place to one of the first of
my Captains who was the seventh son of the last Vice-
Chancellor of England, Sir Lancelot Shadwell. The
Vice- Chancellor used to bathe in the Thames with his
seven sons every morning. My Shadwell was about the
greatest Saint on earth. The sailors called him, somewhat
profanely, "Our Heavenly Father." He was once heard
to say, "Damn," and the whole ship was upset. When,
as Midshipmen, we punished one of our mess-mates for
abstracting his cheese, he was extremely angry with us,
and asked us all what right we had to interfere with his
cheese. He always had the Midshipmen to breakfast with
him, and when we were seasick he gave us champagne and
ginger-bread nuts. As he went in mortal fear of his own
steward, who bossed him utterly, he would say: "I think
the aroma has rather gone out of this champagne. Give it
to the young gentlemen." The steward would reply:
"Now you know very well. Sir, the aroma ain't gone out of
this 'ere champagne"; but all the same we got it. He
always slept in a hammock, and I remember he kept his
socks in the head clews ready to put on in case of a squall
calling him suddenly on deck. I learned from him nearly
all that I know. He taught me how to predict eclipses
and occultations, and I suppose I took more lunar obser
vations than any Midshipman ever did before.

28 RECORDS
Shadwell's appearance on going into a fight I must
describe. We went up a Chinese river to capture a pirate
stronghold. Presently the pirates opened fire from a
banana plantation on the river bank. We nipped ashore
from the boats to the banana plantation. I remember I
was armed to the teeth, like a Greek brigand, all swords
and pistols, and was weighed down with my weapons.
We took shelter in the banana plantation, but our Cap
tain stood on the river bank. I shall never forget it. He
was dressed in a pair of white trousers, yellow waistcoat
and a blue tail coat with brass buttons and a tall white hat
with a gold stripe up the side of it, and he was waving a
white umbrella to encourage us to come out of the bananas
and go for the enemy. He had no weapon of any sort.
So (I think rather against our inclinations, as the gingall
bullets were flying about pretty thick) we all had to come
out and go for the Chinese.
Once the Chinese guns were firing at us, and as the
shell whizzed over the boat we aU ducked. "Lay on your
oars, my men," said Shadwell; and proceeded to explain
very deliberately how ducking delayed the progress of the
boat — apparently unaware that his lecture had stopped its
progress altogether!
His sole desire for fame was to do good, and he re
quested for himself when he died that he should be buried
under an apple tree, so that people might say: "God
bless old Shadwell!" He never flogged a man in his life.
When my Captain was severely wounded, I being with
him as his Aide-de-Camp (we landed 1,100 strong, and
463 were killed or wounded) , he asked me when being sent
home what he could do for me. I asked him to give me a
set of studs with his motto on them : "Loyal au mort," and
I have worn them daily for over sixty years. When this
conversation took place, the Admiral (afterwards Sir

EARLY YEARS 29
James Hope, K.C.B. ) came to say good-bye to him, and
he asked my Captain what he could do for him. He
turned his suffering body towards me and said to the
Admiral: "Take care of that boy." And so he did.
Admiral Hope was a great man, very stern and
stately, the sort of man everybody was afraid of. His
nickname was composed of the three ships he had com
manded: "Terrible. . . Firebrand. . . Majestic." He
turned to me and said: "Go down in my boat"; and every
one in the Fleet saw this Midshipman going into the
Admiral's boat. He took me with him to the Flagship;
and I got on very well with him because I wrote a very big
hand which he could read without spectacles.
He promoted me to Lieutenant at the earhest possible
date, and sent me on various services, which greatly
helped me.
My first chance came when Admiral Hope sent me to
command a vessel in Chinese waters on special service.
His motto was "Favouritism is the secret of efficiency,"
and though I was only nineteen he put me over the heads
of many older men because he believed that I should do
what I was told to do, and carry out the orders of the
Admiral regardless of consequences. And so I did,
although I made all sorts of mistakes and nearly lost the
ship. When I came back everyone seemed to expect that
I should be tried by Court-Martial ; but the Admiral only
cared that I had done what he wanted done ; and then he
gave me command of another vessel.
The Captain of the ship I came home in was another
sea wonder, by name Oliver Jones. He was Santanic; yet
I equally liked him, for, like Satan, he could disguise him
self as an angel ; and I believe I was the only officer he did
not put under arrest. For some reason I got on with him,
and he made me the Navigating Officer of the ship. He

30 RECORDS
told me when I first came on board that he thought he had
committed every crime under the sun except murder. I
think he committed that crime while I was with him. He
was a most fascinating man. He had such a charm, he
was most accomplished, he was a splendid rider, a wonder
ful hnguist, an expert navigator and a thorough seaman.
He had the best cook, and the best wines ever afloat in the
Navy, and was hospitable to an extreme. Almost daily
he had a lot of us to dinner, but after dinner came hell!
We dined with him in tail coat and epaulettes. After din
ner he had sail drill, or preparing the ship for battle, and
persecution then did its utmost.
Once, while I was serving with him, we were frozen in
out of sight of land in the Gulf of Pechili in the North of
China. And there were only Ship's provisions, salt beef,
salt pork, pea soup, flour, and raisins. Oliver Jones was
our Captain, or we wouldn't have been frozen in. The
Authorities told him to get out of that Gulf and that's why
he stayed in. I never knew a man who so hated Authority.
I forget how many degrees below zero the thermometer
was, and it was only by an unprecedented thaw that we
ever got out. And with this intense cold he would often
begin at four o'clock in the moming to prepare for battle,
and hand up every shot in the ship on to the Upper Deck,
then he'd strike Lower Yards and Topmasts (which was
rather a heavy business), and finish up with holystoning
the Decks, which operation he requested all the Officers to
honour with their presence. And when we went to Sea
we weren't quite sure where we would go to (I remember
hearing a Marine Officer say that we'd got off the Chart
altogether). Till that date I had never known what a
dehcacy a seagull was. We used to get inside an empty
barrel on the ice to shoot them, and nothing was lost of
them. The Doctor skinned them to make waistcoats of

EARLY YEARS 31
the skins — the insides were put on the ice to bait other
seagulls, and a rare type of onion we had (that made your
eyes water when you got within half a mile of them) made
into stuffing got rid of the fishy taste.
On the way home he landed me on a desert island to
make a survey. He was sparse in his praises ; but he wrote
of me : "As a sailor, an officer, a Navigator and a gentle
man, I caimot praise him too highly." Confronted with
this uncommon expression of praise from Oliver Jones,
the examiners never asked me a question. They gave me
on the spot a first-class certificate.
This Captain Oliver Jones raised a regiment of cav
alry for the Indian Mutiny and was its Colonel, and Sir
Hope Grant, the great Cavalry General in the Indian
Mutiny, said he had never met the equal of Oliver Jones
as a cavalry leader. He broke his neck out hunting.
When I was sent to the Hythe School of Musketry as
a young Lieutenant, I found myself in a small Squad of
Officers, my right hand man was a General and my left
hand man a full Colonel. The Colonel spent his time
drawing pictures of the General. ( The Colonel was really
a wonderful Artist.) The General was splendid. He
was a magnificent-looking man with a voice hke a bull and
his sole object was Mutiny! He hated General Hay, who
was in Command of the Hythe School of Musketry. He
hated him with a contemptuous disdain. In those days we
commenced firing at the target only a few hundred yards
off. The General never hit the target once! The Colonel
made a beautiful picture of him addressing the Parade
and General Hay: "Gentlemen! my unalterable convic
tion is that the bayonet is the true weapon of the British
Soldier!" The beauty of the situation was that the Gen
eral had been sent to Hythe to qualify as Inspector-
General of Musketry. After some weeks of careful drill

32 RECORDS
(without firing a shot) we had to snap caps (that was to
get our nerves all right, I suppose!) ; the Sergeant
Instructor walked along the front of the Squad and
counted ten copper caps into each outstretched hand. At
that critical moment General Hay appeared on the
Parade. This gave the General his chance! With his
bull-like voice he asked General Hay if it was believable
after these weeks of incessant application that we were
going (each of us) to be entrusted with ten copper caps!
When we were examined viva voce we each had to stand
up to answer a question (hke the little boys at a Sunday
School). The General was asked to explain the lock of
the latest type of British Rifle. He got up and stated that
as he was neither Maskelyne and Cooke nor the Daven
port Brothers (who were the great conjurers of that time)
he couldn't do it. Certainly we had some appalling ques
tions. One that I had was, "What do you pour the water
into the barrel of the rifle with when you are cleaning it?"
Both my answers were wrong. I said, "With a tin panni
kin or the pahn of the hand." The right answer was "with
care"! Another question in the written examination was,
"What occurred about this time?" Only one paragraph
in the text-book had those words in it "About this time
there occurred, etc."! All the same I had a lovely time
there ; the British Army was very kind to me and I loved
it. The best shot in the British Army at that date was a
confirmed drunkard who trembled like a leaf, but when
he got his eye on the target he was a bit of marble and
"bull's eyes" every time! So, as the Scripture says, never
judge by appearance. Keble, who wrote the "Christian
Year," was exceedingly ugly, but when he spoke Heaven
shone through; so I was told by one who knew him.
It's going rather backwards now to speak of the time
when I was a Midshipman of the "Jolly Boat" in 1854,

WlfO E&WABt) Vll. Ajrl) tHt CZAR, 1909

I3i

TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF KING EDWARD VII. AND SIR JOHN FISHEK ON BOARD II. -11, S. "uUE.iDNOUGHT"
ON HER FIRST CRUISE

[33

EARLY YEARS 33
in an old Sailing Line of Battleship of eighty-four guns.
I think I must have told of sailing into Harbour every
moming to get the Ship's Company's beef (gale or no
gale) from Spithead or Plymouth Soimd or the Nore.
We never went into harbour in those days, and it was
very unpleasant work. I always felt there was a chance
of being drowned. Once at the Nore in mid-winter all
our cables parted in a gale and we ran into the Harbour
and anchored with our hemp cable (our sole remaining
joy) ; it seemed as big round as my small body was then,
and it lay coiled like a huge gigantic serpent just before
the Cockpit. Nelson must have looked at a similar hemp
cable as he died in that corner of the Cockpit which was
close to it. All Battleships were exactly alike. You could
go ashore then for forty years and come on board again
quite up to date. On our Quarter Deck were brass Can
nonades that had fired at the French Fleet at Trafalgar.
No one but the Master knew about Navigation. I remem
ber when the Master was sick and the second Master was
away and the Master's Assistant had only just entered
the Navy, we didn't go to Sea till the Master got out of
bed again. There was a wonderfully smart Commander
in one of the other Battleships who had the utmost con
tempt for Science ; he used to say that he didn't believe in
the new-fangled sighting of the guns, "Your Tangent
Sights and Disparts!" What he found to be practically
the best procedure was a cold veal pie and a bottle of rum
to the first man that hit the target. We have these same
"dears" with us now, but they are disguised in a clean
white shirt and white kid gloves, but as for believing in
Engineers — "Sack the Lot"!
It is very curious that we have no men now of great
conceptions who stand out above their fellows in any pro
fession, not even the Bishops, which reminds me of a

34 RECORDS
super-excellent story I've been told in a letter. My corre
spondent met by appointment three Bishops for an
expected attack. Before they got to the business of the
meeting, he said, "Could their Lordships kindly tell him
in the case of consecrated ground how deep the consecra
tion went, as he specially wanted to know this for impor
tant business purposes." They wrangled and he got off
his "mauvais quart d'heure." My correspondent ex
plained to me that his old Aunt (a relation of Mr.
Disraeli) said to him when he was young "Alfred, if you
are going to have a row with anyone — always you be
gin!" I come to another episode of comparatively early
years. Yesterday I heard from a gentleman whom I had not
seen for thirty-eight years, and he reminded me of a visit
to me when I was Captain of the "Inflexible." I was
regarded by the Admiral Superintendent of fhe Dockyard
as the Incarnation of Revolution. (What upset him most
was I had asked for more water-closets and got them.)
This particular episode I'm going to relate was that I
wanted the incandescent hght. Lord Kelvin had taken
me to dine with the President of the Royal Society, where
for the first time his dining table was hghted with six
incandescent lamps, provided by his friend Mr. Swan of
Newcastle, the Inventor in this Country of the Incan
descent light, as Mr. Edison was in America (it was pre
cisely hke the discovery of the Planet Neptune when
Adams and Leverrier ran neck and neck in England and
France.) After this dinner I wrote to Mr. Swan to get
these lamps for the "Inflexible," and he sent down the
friend who wrote me the letter I received yesterday (Mr.
Henry Edmunds) and we had an exhibition to convert
this old fossil of an Admiral Superintendent.

EARLY YEARS 35
Here I'll put in Mr. Henry Edmunds's own words: —
At last we got our lamps to glow satisfactorily; and
at that moment the Admiral was announced. Captain
Fisher had warned me that I must be careful how I
answered any questions, for the Admiral was of the stern
old school, and prejudiced against all new-fangled no
tions. The Admiral appeared resplendent in gold lace,
and accompanied by such a bevy of ladies that I was
strongly reminded of the character in "H. M. S. Pina
fore" "with his sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts."
The Admiral immediately asked if I had seen the "Inflexi
ble." I replied that I had. "Have you seen the powder
magazine?" "Yes! I have been in it." "What would
happen to one of these little glass bubbles in the event of
a broadside?" I did not think it would affect them.
"How do you know? You've never been in a ship during
a broadside!" I saw Captain Fisher's eye fixed upon me;
and a sailor was dispatched for some gun-cotton. Evi
dently everjrthing had been ready prepared, for he quickly
returned with a small tea tray about two feet long, upon
which was a layer of gun-cotton, powdered over with black
gun-powder. The Admiral asked if I was prepared to
break one of the lamps over the tray. I replied that I
could do so quite safely, for the glowing lamp would be
cooled down by the time it fell amongst the gun-cotton. I
took a cold chisel, smashed a lamp, and let it fall. The
Company saw the light extinguished, and a few pieces of
glass fall on the tray. There was no flash, and the gun
powder and gun-cotton remained as before. There was a
short pause, while the Admiral gazed on the tray. Then
he turned, and said to Lord Fisher, "We'll have this light
on the 'Inflexible.' "
And that was the introduction of the incandescent
hght into the British Navy.
Talking about water-closets, I remember so well long
ago that one of the joys on board a Man-of-War on
Christmas Day was having what was called a "Free
Tank," that is to say, you could go and get as much fresh

36 RECORDS
water as ever you liked, all other days you were restricted,
so much for drinking and so much for washing. The
other Christmas Joy was "Both sides of the 'Head' open" !
What that meant was that right in the Bows or Head of
the Ship were situated all the Bluejackets' closets, and on
Christmas Day aU could be used! "aU were free." Usually
only half were allowed to be open at a time. It was a
quaint custom, and I always thought outrageous. "Nous
avons change tout cela."
When I was out in the West Indies a French Frigate
came into the Harbour with Yellow Fever on board. My
Admiral asked the Captain of the English Man-of-War
that happened to be there what kindness he had shown
the French Frigate on arrival ? He said he had sent them
the keys of the Cemetery. This Captain always took his
own champagne with him and put it imder his chair. I
took a passage with him once in his Ship, he had a Chart
hanging up in his cabin like one of those recording
barometers, which showed exactly how his wine was get
ting on. When he came to call on the Admiral at his
house on shore, he always brought a small bundle with
him, and after his Official visit he'd go behind a bush in
the garden and change into plain clothes! All the same,
this is the stuff that heroes are made of. Heroes are
always quaint.

CHAPTER II
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD AND OTHERS
King Edward paid a visit to Admiralty House,
Portsmouth, 19th February to 22nd February, 1904,
while I was Commander-in-Chief there; and after he had
left I received the foUowing letter from Lord KnoUys: —
Buckingham Palace,
22nd February, 1904.
My Dear Admiral,
I am desired by the King to write and thank you again
for your hospitality.
His Majesty also desires me to express his great
appreciation of aU of the arrangements, which were excel
lent, and they reflect the greatest credit both on you and
on those who worked under your orders.
I am very glad the visit was such a great success and
went off so well. The King was evidently extremely
pleased with and interested in everything. Yours sincerely, Knollys.
I can say that I never more enjoyed such a visit. The
only thing was that I wasn't Master in my own house,
the King arranged who should come to dinner and him
self arranged how everyone should sit at table; I never
had a look in. Not only this, but he also had the Cook up
in the morning. She was absolutely the best cook I've
ever known. She was cheap at £100 a year. She was
a remarkably lovely yoimg woman. She died suddenly
walking across a hay field. The king gave her some
decoration, I can't remember what it was. Some little
37

38 RECORDS
time after the King had left — one night I said to the
butler at dinner, "This soup was never made by Mrs.
Baker; is she iU?" The butler replied, "No, Sir John,
Mrs. Baker isn't ill, she has been invited by His Majesty
the King to stay at Buckingham Palace." And that was
the first I had heard of it. Mrs. Baker had two magnifi
cent kitchenmaids of her own choosing and she thought
she wouldn't be missed. I had an interview with Mrs.
Baker on her return from her Royal Visit, and she told me
that the King had said to her one morning before he left
Admiralty House, Portsmouth, that he thought she would
enjoy seeing how a Great State Dinner was managed, and
told her he would ask her to stay at Buckingham Palace
or Windsor Castle to see one! Which is only one more
exemplification of what I said of King Edward in my
first book, that he had an astounding aptitude of appeal
ing to the hearts of both High and Low.
My friends teU me I have done wrong in omitting
coimtless other little episodes of his dehghtful nature.
"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin!"
This is a sweet httle episode that occurred at Sand-
ringham. The King was there alone and Lord Redes-
dale and myself were his only guests. The King was very
fond of Redesdale, and rightly so. He was a most delight
ful man. He and I were sitting in the garden near dinner
time, the King came up and said it was time to dress and
he went up in the lift, leaving Redesdale in the garden.
Redesdale had a letter to write and rushed up to his bed
room to write the letter behind a screen there was between
him and the door; the door opened and in came the King,
thinking he had left Redesdale in the garden, and went to
the wash-hand-stand and felt the hot water-can to see if
the water was hot and went out again. Perhaps his water

MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD 39
had been cold, but anyhow he came to see if his guest's
was all right.
On another occasion I went down to Sandringham
with a great party, I think it was for one of Blessed Queen
Alexandra's birthdays (I hope Her Majesty will forgive
me for telling a lovely story presently about herself) . As
I was zero in this grand party, I slunk off to my room to
write an important letter ; then I took my coat off, got out
my keys, unlocked my portmanteau and began unpack
ing. I had a boot in each hand; I heard somebody fum-
bhng with the door handle and thinking it was the Foot
man whom Hawkins had allocated to me, I said "Come in,
don't go humbugging with that door handle!" and in
walked King Edward, with a cigar about a yard long in
his mouth. He said (I with a boot in each hand!) "What
on earth are you doing?" "Unpacking, Sir." "Where's
your servant?" "Haven't got one. Sir." "Where is he?"
"Never had one. Sir; couldn't afford it." "Put those boots
down; sit in that arm chair." And he went and sat in the
other on the other side of the fire. I thought to myself,
"This is a rum state of affairs ! Here's the King of Eng
land sitting in my bedroom on one side of the fire and I'm
in my shirt sleeves sitting in an armchair on the other
side!" "WeU," His Majesty said, "why didn't you come and
say, 'How do you do' when you arrived?" I said, "I had
a letter to write, and with so many great people you were
receiving I thought I had better come to my room." Then
he went on with a long conversation, until it was only
about a quarter of an hour from dinner time, and I hadn't
unpacked! So I said to the King, "Sir, you'U be angry
if I'm late for dinner, and no doubt your Majesty has two
or three gentlemen to dress you, but I have no one." And
he gave me a sweet smUe and went off.

40 RECORDS
All the same, he could be extremely unpleasant; and
one night I had to send a telegram for a special messenger
to bring down some confounded Ribbon and Stars, which
His Majesty expected me to wear. I'd forgotten the
beastly things (I'm exactly like a Christmas Tree when
I'm dressed up) . One night when I got the King's Nurse
to dress me up, she put the Ribbon of something over the
wrong shoulder, and the King harangued me as if I'd
robbed a church. I didn't like to say it was his Nurse's
fault. Some of these Ribbons you put over one shoulder
and some of them you have to put over the other; it's
awfully puzzling. But the King was an Angel aU the
same, only he wasn't always one. Personally I don't hke
perfect angels, one doesn't feel quite comfortable with
them. One of Cecil Rhodes's secretaries wrote his Life,
and left out all his defects ; it was a most unreal picture.
The Good stands out all the more strikingly if there is a
deep shadow. I think it's caUed the Rembrandt Effect.
Besides, it's unnatural for a man not to have a Shadow,
and the thought just occurs to me how beautiful it is —
"The Shadow df Death"! There couldn't be the Shadow
unless there was a bright light ! The Bright Light is Im
mortality! Which reminds me that yesterday I read
Dean Inge's address at the Church Congress the day
before on Immortality. If I had anything to do with it,
I'd make him Archbishop of Canterbury. I don't know'
him, but I go to hear him preach whenever I can.
The Story about Queen Alexandra is this. My
beloved friend Soveral, one of King Edward's treasured
friends, asked me to lunch on Queen Alexandra's sixtieth
birthday. After lunch all the people said something nice
to Queen Alexandra, and it came to my turn. I said to
Her Majesty, "Have you seen that halfpenny newspaper

MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD 41
about your Majesty's birthday?" She said she hadn't,
what was it? I said these were the words: —
"The Queen is sixty to-day!"
May she live till she looks it !"
Her Majesty said "Get me a copy of it!" (Such a thing
didn't exist!) About three weeks afterwards (Her
Majesty has probably forgotten aU about it now, but she
hadn't then) she said, "Where's that halfpenny news
paper?" I was staggered for a moment, but recovered
myself and said "Sold out, Ma'am; couldn't get a copy!"
( I think my second he was better than my first ! ) But the
lovely part of the story yet remains. A year afterwards
she sent me a lovely postcard which I much treasure now.
It was a picture of a little girl bowling a hoop, and Her
Majesty's own head stuck on, and underneath she had
written : — "May she live till she looks it!"
I treasure the remembrances of all her kindnesses to
me as well as that of her dear Sister, the Dowager
Empress of Russia. The trees they both planted at
Kilverstone are both flourishing; but strange to say the
tree King Edward planted began to fade away and died
in May, 1910, when he died — though it had flourished
luxuriantly up tiU then. Its roots remain untouched —
and a large mass of "Forget-me-nots" flourishes glo
riously over them.
For very many consecutive years after 1886 I went to
Marienbad in Bohemia (eight hundred miles from Lon
don and two thousand feet above the sea and one mass of
delicious pine woods) to take the waters there. It's an
ideal spot. The whole place is owned by a Colony of
Monks, settled in a Monastery (close by) caUed Tepl,

42 RECORDS
who very wisely have resisted aU efforts to cut down the
pine woods so as to put up more buildings.
I had a most serious illness after the Bombardment of
Alexandria due to bad hving, bad water, and great
anxiety. The Admiral (Lord Alcester) had entrusted
me (although I was one of the junior Captains in the
Fleet) with the Command on shore after the Bombard
ment. Arabi Pasha, in command of the Rebel Egyptian
Army, was entrenched only a few miles off, and I had but
a few hundreds to garrison Alexandria. For the first time
in modern history we organised an Armoured Train.
Nowadays they are as common as Aeroplanes. Then it
excited as much emotion as the Tanks did. There was a
very learned essay in the Pall Mall Gazette.
I was invalided home and, as I relate in my "Mem
ories," received unprecedented kindness from Queen Vic
toria (who had me to stay at Osborne) and from Lord
Northbrook (First Lord of the Admiralty), who gave
me the best appointment in the Navy. I always have felt
great gratitude also to his Private Secretary at that time
(Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont). For three years I had
recurrence of Malarial Fever, and tried many watering
places and many remedies all in vain. I went to Marien
bad and was absolutely cured in three weeks, and never
relapsed tiU two years ago, when I was iU again and no
one has ever discovered what was the matter with me!
Thanks be to God — I beheve I am now as weU as I ever
was in all my whole hfe, and I can stUl waltz with joy and
enjoy champagne when I can get it (friends,; kindly
note!). At Marienbad I met some very celebrated men, and
the place being so small I became great friends with them.
If you are restricted to a Promenade only a few hundred
yards long for two hours morning and evening, while you

MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD 43
are drinking your water, you can't help knowing each
other quite weU. How I wish I could remember aU the
splendid stories those men told me I
Campbell-Bannerman, Russell (afterwards Chief
Justice), Hawkins (afterwards Lord Brampton), the
first Lord Burnham, Labouchere (of Truth), Yates (of
the World), Lord Shand (a Scottish Judge), General
Gallifet (famous in the Franco-German War), Rumbold
(Ambassador at Vienna), those were some of the original
members. Also there were two Bevans (both dehghtful)
— ^to distinguish them apart, they called the "Barclay
Perkins" Bevan "poor" Bevan, as he was supposed to
have only two milhons sterling, while the other one was
supposed to have half a dozen! (That was the story.)
I almost think I knew Campbell-Bannerman the best.
He was very dehghtful to talk to. I have no Politics.
But in after years I did so admire his giving Freedom to
the Boers. Had he hved, he would have done the same to
Ireland without any doubt whatever. Fancy now 60,000
British soldiers queUing veiled Insurrection and a Mili
tary Dictator as Lord Lieutenant and Ireland never so
prosperous! I have never been more moved than in listen
ing to John Redmond's brother, just back from the War
in his Soldier's uniform, making the most eloquent and
touching appeal for the Freedom of Ireland ! It came to
nothing. I expect Lord Loreburn (who was Campbell-
Bannerman's bosom friend) wiU agree with me that had
Campbell-Bannerman only known what a literally over
whelming majority he was going to obtain at the forth
coming Election, he would have formed a very different
Government from what he did, and I don't beheve we
should have had the War. King Edward liked him very
much. They had a bond in their love of aU things French.

44 RECORDS
I don't beheve any Prime Minister was ever so loved by
his foUowers as was Campbell-Bannerman.
Sir Charles Russell, afterwards Chief Justice, was
equaUy delightful. We were so amused one day (when he
first came to Marienbad) by the Head Waiter whispering
to us that he was a cardsharper! The Head Waiter told
us he had seen him take a pack of cards out of his pocket,
look at them carefully, and then put them back ! Which
reminds me of a lovely incident in my own career. I had
asked the Roman Cathohc Archibishop to dinner; he was
a great Saint — we played cards after dinner. We sat
down to play — (one of my guests was a wonderful con
jurer). "HuUo!" I said, "Where are the cards gone to?"
The conjurer said, "It doesn't matter: the Archbishop
will let us have the pack of cards he always carries about
in his pocket"! The Holy Man furtively put his hand in
his pocket (thinking my friend was only joking!) and dash
it! there they were! I never saw such a look in a man's
face! (He thought Satan was crawling about some
where.) Lord Burnham was ever my great Friend, he was also
a splendid man. I should hke to pubhsh his letters. I
have spoken of Labouchere elsewhere. As Yates, of the
World, Labouchere, and Lord Burnham (those three)
walked up and down the Promenade together (Lord
Bumham being stout), Russell called them "The World,
the Flesh, and the Devil." I don't know if it was original
wit, but it was to me.
Old GaUifet also was splendid company; he had a
silver plate over part of his stomach and wounds all over
him. I heard weird stories of how he shot down the
Communists. Sir Henry Hawkins I dined with at some Legal
Assemblage, and as we walked up the HaU arm in arm

MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD 45
all the Law Students struck up a lovely song I'd never
heard before: "Mrs. 'enry 'awkins," which he greatly
enjoyed. On one occasion he told me that when he was
still a Barrister, he came late into Court and asked what
was the name of the Barrister associated with him in the
case? The Usher or someone told him it was Mr. Swan
and he had just gone out of the Court. (I suppose he
ought to have waited for Sir Henry.) Anyhow Sir Henry
observed that he didn't like him "taking liberties with his
Leda." I expect the Usher, not being up in Lempriere's
Dictionary, didn't see the joke!
Dear Shand, who was very small of stature, was
known as the "Epitome of all that was good in Man."
He reeked with good stories and never told them twice.
Queen Victoria fell in love with him at first sight (not
withstanding that she preferred big men) and had him
made a Lord. She asked after his wife as "Lady Shand" ;
and, being a Scottish Law Lord, he replied that "Mrs.
Shand was quite well." There are all sorts of ways of
becoming a Lord.
Rumbold knocked the man down who asked him for
his ticket! He wasn't going to have an Ambassador
treated like that (as if he had travelled without a ticket!)
As the Czechs hate the Germans, I look forward to
going back to my beloved Marienbad once more every
year. The celebrated Queen of Bohemia was the daugh
ter of an Enghsh King; her name was Elizabeth. The
Enghsh Ambassador to the Doge of Venice, Sir Henry
Wootton, wrote some imperishable lines in her praise and
accordingly I worshipped at Wootton's grave in Venice.
The lines in his Poem that I love are: —
"You Common People of the Skies,
What are You, when the Moon shall rise?"

46 RECORDS
In dictating the Chapter on "Some Personalities,"
that appears in my "Memories," I certainly should not
have overlooked my very good friend Masterton- Smith
(Sir J. E. Masterton- Smith, K.C.B.). I can only say
here (as he knows quite well) that never was he more
appreciated by anyone in his life than by me. Number
less times he was simply invaluable, and had his advice
been always taken, events would have been so different
in May 1915!
I have related in "Memories" how malignancy went
to the extent not only of declaring that I had sold my
country to the Germans (so beautifully denied by Sir
Julian Corbett), but also that I had formed "Syndicates"
and ''Rings" for my own financial advantage, using my
official knowledge and power to further my nefarious
schemes for making myself quickly rich! I have denied
this by the Income Tax Returns — and I have also ex
plained I am still poor — ^very poor — because one-third of
my pension goes in income tax and the remaining two-
thirds is reaUy only one-third because of depreciation of
the pound sterling and appreciation of food prices!
But let that pass. However, I've been told I ought to
mention I had another very brilliant opportunity of
becoming a millionaire in a.d. 1910, but declined. And
also it has been requested of me to state the fact that
never in all my life have I belonged to any company of
any sort beyond possessing shares, or had any place of
profit outside the Navy. That is sufficiently definite, I
think, to d  n my enemies and satisfy my friends.
My finances have always been at a low ebb (even when
a Commander-in-Chief), as I went on the principle of
"whatever you do, do it with all your might," and there is
nothing less conducive to "the fighting efficiency of a Fleet
and its instant readiness for war" than a Stingy Admiral!

MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD 47
The apphcations for subscriptions which were rained upon
me I countered with this inestimable memorandum in
reply, invented by my sympathetic Secretary: — "The
Admiral deeply regrets being unable to comply with your
request, and he deplores the reason — but his Expenditure
is in excess of his Receipts." I always got sympathy in
return, more especiaUy as the Local Applicants were
largely responsible for the excess of expenditure.
At an early period of my career I certainly did man
age on very httle, and it is wonderful what a lot you can
get for your money if you think it over. I got breakfast
for tenpence, lunch for a shilling and dinner for eighteen
pence and barley water for nothing and a bed for three
and sixpence (but my bedroom had not a Southern
aspect). The man I hired a bedroom from was hke a
Father to me, and I have never had such a pohsh on my
shoes. (I remember saying to a German Boots, pointing
to my badly-cleaned shoes, "Spiegel!" — looking-glass; he
took away the shoes and brought them back shining like a
dollar. Hardly anyone wiU see the joke!) But what I
am most proud of is that, financial necessity once forcing
me to go to Marienbad quite alone, I did a three weeks'
cure there, including the railway fare and every expense,
for twenty-five pounds. I don't believe any Economist
has ever beaten this. I preserve to this day the details of
every day's expenditure, which I kept in a httle pocket-
book, and read it all over only a couple of days ago, with
out any wish for past days.
I recall with dehght first meeting my beloved old
friend. Sir Henry Lucy ; he had with him Sir F. C. Gould,
who never did a better service to his country than when
he portrayed me as an able seaman asking the Conscrip-
tionists (in the person of Lord Roberts) whether there
was no iSritish Navy. The cartoon was reproduced in

48 RECORDS
my "Memories" (p. 48). In my speech at the Lord
Mayor's Banquet in 1907 (see Chapter VI of this vol
ume) I had spoken of Sir Henry Lucy as "gulled by some
Midshipman Easy of the Channel Fleet" ( Sir Henry had
been for a cruise in the Fleet), who stuffed him up that
the German Army embarking in the German Fleet was
going to invade England! And in the flippant manner
that seems so to annoy people, I observed that Sir Henry
might as well talk of embarking St. Paul's Cathedral on
board a penny steamer as of embarking the German Army
in the German Fleet! He and Gould came up to me at
a seance on board the "Dreadnought," and had a cup of
tea as if I had been a lamb !
On the occasion of that same speech, a Bishop looked
very sternly at me, because in my speech, to show how if
you keep on talking about war and always looking at it
and thinking of it you bring it on, I instanced Eve, who
kept on looking at the apple and at last she plucked it ; and
in the innocence of my heart I observed that had she not
done so we should not have been now bothered with
clothes. When I said this in my speech I was following
the advice of one of the Sheriffs of the City of London,
sitting next me at dinner, who told me to fix my eyes,
while I was spealdng, on the corner of the Ladies' Gallery,
as then everyone in the Guildhall could hear what I said.
And such a lovely girl was in that comer, I never took my
eyes off her, all the time, and that brought Eve into my
mind!

CHAPTER III
THE BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
I HAVE just been listening to another very eloquent
sermon from Dr. Hugh Black, whom I mention else
where in this book (see Chapter V). Nearly all these
Presbyterians are eloquent, because they don't write their
sermons. The one shp our eloquent friend made in his sermon
was in saying that the a.d. 1611 edition of the Bible (the
Authorised Version) was a better version of the Bible
than the Great Bible of a.d. 1539, which according to the
front page is stated to be as follows : —
"The byble in English that is to say the content of all
the Holy Scripture both of the old and new testament
truly translated after the verity of the Hebrew and Greek
texts by the diligent study of diverse excellent learned
men expert in the aforesaid tongues.
"Printed by Richard Grafton and Edward Whit
church. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum.
1539."
It is true, as the preacher said, that the 1611 edition,
the Authorised Version, is more the literal translation of
the two, but those "diverse excellent learned men" trans
lated according to the spirit and not the letter of the origi
nal; and our dear brother (the preacher) this moming in
his address had to acknowledge that in the text he had
49

50 RECORDS
chosen from the 27th Psalm and the last verse thereof,
the pith and marrow which he rightly seized on — ^being
the words "Wait on the Lord" — ^were more beautifully
rendered in the great Bible from which (the Lord be
thanked!) the Enghsh Prayer Book takes its Psalms, and
which renders the original Hebrew not in the literal words,
"Wait on the Lord," but "Tarry thou the Lord's leisure"
and goes on also in far better words than the Authorised
Version with the rest of the verse: "Be strong and He
shall comfort thine heart."
When we remonstrated with the Rev. Hugh Black
after his sermon, he again gainsaid, and increased his
heinousness by telling us that the word "Comfort," which
doesn't appear in the 1611 version, was in its ancient
signification a synonym for "Fortitude"; and the dehght
ful outcome of it is that that is really the one and only
proper prayer — to ask for Fortitude or Endurance. You
have no right to pray for rain for your turnips, when it
wiU ruin somebody else's wheat. You have no right to ask
the Almighty — ^in fact. He can't do it — ^to make two and
two into five. The only prayer to pray is for Endurance,
or Fortitude. The most saintly man I know daily ended
his prayers with the words of that wonderful hymn:
"Renew my will from day to day,
Blend it with thine, and take away
AU that now makes it hard to say.
Thy will be done."
It must not be assumed that I am a Saint in any way
in making these remarks, but only a finger-post pointing
the way. The finger-post doesn't go to Heaven itself, yet
it shows the way. AU I want to do is to stick up for those
holy men who were not hide-bound with a dictionary, and
gave us the spirit of the Holy Word and not the Dic
tionary meaning.

BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS 5 1
Here I feel constrained to mention a far more beauti
ful iUustration of the value of those pious men of old.
In Brother Black's 1611 version the most famous of
the Saviour's words: "Come unto me all ye that labour
and are heavy laden and I will give you rest," is, in the
1539 version, "I will refresh you!" There is no rest this
side of Heaven. Job (in, 17) explains Heaven as "Where
the wicked cease from troubhng and where the weary be
at rest." The fact is — the central point is reached by the
Saviour when He exemplifies the Day of Perfection by
saying: "In that day ye shall ask me nothing."
I have been told by a great scientist that for the tide
to move a pebble on the beach a miUionth of an inch
further would necessitate an alteration in the whole Crea
tion. And then we go and pray for rain, or to beat
our enemies !
Again, I say — The only thing to pray for is Endur
ance. Some people in sore straits try to strike bargains with
God, if only He will keep them safe or relieve them in the
present necessity. It's a good story of the soldier who,
with all the sheUs exploding round him, was heard to pray:
"O Lord, if You'll only get me out of this d  d mess
I will be good, I will be good!"
I am reminded of what I call the "Pith and Marrow"
which the pious men put at the head of every chapter of
the Bible, and which, alas ! has been expunged in the liter
ary exactitudes of the Revised Version. Regard Chapter
xxvi, for instance, of Proverbs — ^how it is all summed up
by those "diverse excellent learned men." They wrote at
the top of the chapter "Observations about Fools."
Matthew xxii: the Saviour "Poseth the Pharisees." Isaiah
xxi: "The set time." Isaiah xxvii (so tme and pithy of
the Chapter!) : "Chastisements differ from Judgments";

52 RECORDS
and in Mark xv: "The Clamour of the Common Peo
ple" — descriptive of what's in the chapter. All these
headings, in my opinion, as regards those ancient trans
lators, are for them a "Crown of Glory and a Diadem of
Beauty"; and I have a feeling that, when they finished
their wondrous studies, it was with them as Solomon said,
"The desire accomplished is sweet to the Soul."
Dr. Ginsburg March Z7th, 1918.
Dear Friend,
When I was at Bath I read in the local paper a beau
tiful letter aptly alluding to the Mount Fiesole of Bath
and quoting what has been termed that mysterious verse
of David's: "I will lift up mine eyes imto the hills  "

Well! the other day a great friend of that wonderful
Hebrew scholar. Dr. Ginsburg — ^he died long since at
Capri — told me that Ginsburg had said to him that all the
Revisers and Translators had missed a pecuhar Hebraism
which quite alters the signification of this opening verse of
the 121st Psalm: It should read:
"Shall I lift up mine eyes to those hills? DOTH my help
come from thence.?"
And this is the explanation:
Those hills aUuded to were the hills in which were
the Groves planted in honour of the idols towards which
Israel had strayed. So in the second verse the inspired
tongue says :
"No! My help cometh from the Lord! He who hath made
Heaven and Earth! (not these idols)."
I have had an admiration for Ginsburg ever since he
shut up the two Atheists in the Athenaeum Club, Huxley
and Herbert Spencer, who were reviling Holy Writ in
Ginsburg's presence and flouting him. So he asked the
two of them to produce anything anywhere in literature
comparable to the 23rd Psahn as translated by Wychf,

BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS 53
Tyndale, and Coverdale. He gave them a week to
examine, and at the end of it they confessed that they
could not.
One of them (I could not find out which it was) wrote:
"I won't argue about nor admit the Inspiration
claimed, but I say this — that those saintly men whom
Cromwell formed as the company to produce the Great
Bible of 1539 were inspired, for never has the spirit of the
original Hebrew been more beautifully transformed from
the original harshness into such spiritual wealth."
Those are not the exact words, I have not got them by
me, but that was the sense.
The English language in a.d. 1539 was at its very
maximum. Hence the beauty of the Psalms which come
from the Great Bible as produced by that holy company
of pious men, who one writer says: "Did not wish their
names to be ever known." I send you the title page.
Yours, etc.,
(Signed) Fisher.
27/3/18.
I enclosed with this letter the front page of the first
edition of the Great Bible, a.d. 1539, often known as
Cranmer's Bible, but Archbishop Cranmer had nothing
whatever to do with it except writing a preface to it; it
was solely due to Cromwell, Secretary of State to Henry
VIIL, who cut off Cromwell's head in July, 1540. Cran
mer wrote a preface for the edition after April, 1540.
Cranmer was burnt at the stake in Mary's reign. Tyndale
was strangled and burnt, Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter,
died of hunger. Coverdale headed the company that pro
duced the Great Bible, and Tyndale's translation was
taken as the basis. ( So those who had to do with the Bible
had a rough time of it!)
John Wychf, in a.d. 1380, began the translation of the
Bible into Enghsh. This was before the age of printing,
so it was in manuscript. Before he died, in a.d. 1384, he

54 RECORDS
had the joy of seeing the Bible in the hands of his country
men in their own tongue.
Wyclif's translation was quaint and homely, and so
idiomatic as to have become out of date when, more than
one hundred years afterward, John Tyndale, walking over
the fields in Wiltshire, determined so to translate the Bible
into English "that a boy that driveth the plough should
know more of the Scriptures than the Pope," and Tjnidale
gloriously succeeded! But for doing so, the Papists,
under orders from the Pope of Rome, half strangled him
and then burnt him at the stake. Like St. Paul, he was
shipwrecked ! (Just as he had finished the Book of Jonah,
which is curious, but there was no whale handy, and so he
was cast ashore in Holland, nearly dead!)
Our present Bible, of A.D. 1611, is almost word for
word the Bible of Tyndale, of roimd a.d. 1530, but in a.d.
1534, Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter, was authorised
by Archbishop Cranmer and Thomas CromweU (who was
Secretary of State to Henry VIII.) to pubhsh his fresh
translation, and he certainly beautified in many places
Tyndale's original!
In 1539, "Diverse exceUent learned men expert in
the 'foresaid tongues'" (Hebrew and Greek), under
CromweU's orders made a true translation of the whole
Bible, which was issued in 1539-40 in four editions, and
remained supreme till a.d. 1568, when the Bishops tried to
improve it, and made a heavenly mess of it ! And then the
present Authorised Version, issued in a.d. 1611, became
the Bible of the Land, and still holds its own against the
recent pedantic Revised Version of a.d. 1884. No one
likes it. It is hteral, but it is not spiritual!
In the opinion of Great and Holy men, Cranmer's
Bible (as it is called), or "the Great Bible"— the Bible of

BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS 55
1539 to 1568— holds the field for beauty of its English and
its emotional rendering of the Holy Spirit!
Alas! we don't know their names; we only know of
them as "Diverse excellent learned men!" It is said they
did not wish to go down to Fame !
"It is the greatest achievement in letters! The Beauty
of the translation of these unknown men excels (far
excels) the real and the so-called originals! All nations
and tongues of Christendom have come to admit reluc
tantly that no other version of the Book in the English or
any other tongue offers so noble a setting for the Divine
Message. Read the Prayer Book Psalms ! They are from
this noble Version — English at its zenith ! The English of
the Great Bible is even more stately, sublime, and pure
than the English of Shakespeare and Elizabeth."
Action
"Ye men of Galilee! Why stand ye gazing up into
Heaven?" (Acts, Chapter i., verse 11.)
The moral of this one great central episode of the
whole Christian faith (which, if a man don't believe with
his utmost heart he is as a beast that perisheth, so Saint
Paul teaches in I. Corinthians, Chapter xv. ) , the moral of
it is that however intense at any moment of our lives may
be the immediate tension that is straining our mental fibre
to the limit, yet we are to "get on!" and not stand stock
still "gazing up into Heaven!" Inaction must be no part
of our life, and we must "get on" with our journey as the
Apostles did — "to our own City of Jerusalem!"
It is curious that Thursday (Ascension Day) was not
made the Christian Sabbath. No scicjQtific agnostic could
possibly explain the Ascension by any such theories as
those that try to get over the fact of the Resurrection by

56 RECORDS
cataleptic happenings or an inconceivable trance! The
agnostic can't explain away that He was seen by the
Apostles to be carried up into Heaven when in the act of
lifting up His hands upon them to bless them "and a cloud
received Him out of their sight !"
Vide the Collect for the Sunday after Ascension Day!
Resentment
The prophet Zechariah says in Chapter xiv., verse 7:
"At evening time
It shall be light!"
And I conclude that in the last stage of life, as pointed out
so very decisively by Dr. Weir MitcheU (that great
American), "the brain becomes its best," and so we rear
range our hearts and minds to the great advantage of our
own Heaven and the avoidance of HeU to others! "Re
sentment" I find to fade away, and it merges into the
feeling of Commiseration! ("Poor idiots!" one says
instead of "D  ^n 'em!") But I can't arrive as yet at
St. Paul, who deliberately writes that he's quite ready to
go to Hell so as to let his enemy go to Heaven ! You've
got reaUy to be a real Christian to say that! I've not
the least doubt, however, that John Wesley, Bishop
Jeremy Taylor and Robertson of Brighton felt it surely!
Isn't it odd that those three great saints (fit to be num
bered "with these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job,"
Ezekiel, Chapter xiv., verse 14) each of them should have
a "nagging" wife!
Their Home was Hell!
And I've searched in vain for any one of the three
saying a word to the detriment of the other sex! They
might all have been Suffragettes! (St. Paul does indeed

BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS 57
say that he preferred being single! But Peter was
married!) But this "Resentment" section hinges entirely on
"Charity" as defined and exemplified by Mr. Robertson,
of Brighton, in one of the best of his wonderful Trinity
Chapel Sermons. Dean Inge
I heard the Dean of St. Paul's (Dr. Inge) preach m
Westminster Abbey on the 17th Chapter of St. Matthew,
verse 19: "Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and
said, 'Why could not we cast him out?' "
The sermon was really splendiferous !
The Saviour had just cast out a devil that had been
too much for the disciples, and He told them their inability
to do so was due to their want of Faith, and added:
"Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer." The
Dean explained to us that some ascetic annotator 400
years afterwards had shoved in at the end of these two ad
ditional words — "and fasting." That, of course, was
meant by the Dean as "one in the eye" for those who fast
like the Pharisees and for a pretence make long prayers!
Then the Dean was just too lovely as to "Prayer!" He
said he was so sick of people praying for victory in the
great War! And speaking generally he was utterly sick
of people praying for what they wanted! (as if that was
Prayer!) No! the Dean divinely said, "Prayer was the
exaltation of the Spirit of a Man to dweU with God and
say in the Saviour's words, 'Not my will but Thine be
done.' " "Get right thus with God," said the Dean, "and
then go and make Guns and Munitions with the utmost
fury. That (said the Dean) was the way to get Victory,
and not by silly vain petitions as if you were asking your
Mama for a bit of barley sugar." (I don't mean to say

58 RECORDS
the Dean used these exact words !) Then he said an inter
esting thing that "this event of the disciples ignominiously
failing to cast out the devil" happened to these chief of His
apostles just after their coming down from the Mount of
Transfiguration, where they had been immensely uplifted
by the Heavenly Vision of the Saviour talking with Moses
and Elijah. The Dean said "that it was really a curious
fact of large experience that when you were thus hfted up
in a Heavenly Spirit it was a sure precursor of a fierce
temptation by the Devil!" These highly-favoured disci
ples, after such a communion with God, thought that they
themselves, by themselves, could do anjrthing ! Pride had
a fall! They could not cast out that devil! They trusted
in themselves and did not give God the praise ! And so it
was that Moses didn't go over Jordan, for he struck the
rock and said, "How now, ye rebels!" (I'U show you
who I am!)
The Dean also observed that it was the Drains that
had to be put right when there was an Epidemic of
Typhoid Fever! "Prayer" wasn't the Antidote!
The holy man Saint Francis summed up aU rehgion
and the Christian hfe in his famous line:
"How we are in the sight of God! — That is the only
thing that matters !" Forgiveness
It fortuned this mormng that I read Joseph's inter
view with his Brethren just after the death of their Father
Jacob. They, having done their best to murder Joseph
quite naturaUy, thought that he would now be even with
them, so they told a lie. They said that Jacob their Father
had very kindly left word with them that he hoped Joseph
would be very nice with his brethren after he died. Jacob
said no such thing. Jacob knew his Joseph. But it gave

BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS 59
Joseph a magnificent opportunity for reading one of Mr.
Robertson's, of Brighton, Sermons — he said to them, "Am
I in the place of God?" Meaning thereby that no bread
and water that he might put them on, and no torturing
thumbscrews, would in any way approach the unquench
able fire and the undying worm that the Almighty so
righteously reserves for the blackguards of this life.
Which reminds me of the best Sermon I ever heard by the
present Dean of Salisbury, Dr. Page-Roberts. He said:
"There is no Bankruptcy Act in Heaven. No 10s. in the
<£l there. Every moral debt has got to be paid in fuU,"
and consequently Page-Roberts, though an extremely
broad-minded man, was the same as the extreme Calvinist
of the unspeakable Hell and the Roman Cathohc's Purga
tory. How curious it is how extremes do meet!

CHAPTER IV
episodes
I. — Mr. Gladstone's Final Resignation
I was Controller of the Navy when Lord Spencer was
First Lord of the Admiralty and Sir Frederick Richards
was First Sea Lord. Mr. Gladstone, then Prime Minis
ter, was at the end of his career. I have never read Mor-
ley's "Life of Gladstone," but I understand that the inci
dent I am about to relate is stated to have been the cause
of Mr. Gladstone resigning — and for the last time. I was
the particular Superintending Lord at the Board of
Admiralty, who, as ControUer of the Navy, was specially
responsible for the state and condition of the Navy; and
it was my province, when new vessels were required, to
replace those getting obsolete or worn out. Sir Frederick
Richards and myself were on the very greatest terms of
intimacy. He had a stubborn will, an unerring judgment,
and an astounding disregard of all arguments. When
anyone, seeking a compromise with him, offered him an
alternative, he always took the alternative as well as the
original proposal, and asked for both. Once bit, twice
shy; no one ever offered him an alternative a second time.
However, he had one great incapacity. No one could
write a more admirable and concise minute ; but he was as
dumb as Moses. So I became his Aaron. The moment
arrived when that magnificent old patriot. Lord Spencer,
had to choose between fidehty to his life-long friend and
60

EPISODES 6i
leader, Mr. Gladstone, and his faithfulness to his country.
Sir Frederick Richards, the First Sea Lord, had con
vinced him that a certain programme of shipbuilding was
vitally and urgently necessary. Mr. Gladstone would not
have it. Sir Frederick Richards and myself, in quite a
nice way, not quite point-blank, intimated that the Sea
Lords would resign. (My bread and cheese was at stake,
but I did it!) Lord Spencer threw in his lot with us, and
conveyed the gentle hkehhood to Mr. Gladstone; where
upon Sir WiUiam Harcourt and Sir Henry Campbell-
Bannerman were alternately turned on to the three of us
(Lord Spencer, Sir F. Richards and myself) sitting
round a table in Lord Spencer's private room. I loved Sir
Wilham Harcourt ; he was what might be caUed "a genial
ruffian," as opposed to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who,
when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, was a perfect
beast, without a single redeeming feature that I ever
found out. Sir Wilham Harcourt always started the
conversazione by insulting Lord Spencer (quite in a
friendly way) ; then he would say to Sir Frederick Rich
ards, "I always thought that one Englishman was equal
to three Frenchmen, and according to this table of ships
required, which has been presented to the Prime Minister,
it takes three Englishmen to manage one Frenchman."
Old Richards would grow hvid with anger; he wanted to
say, "It's a damned he!" but he couldn't get the proper
words out!
He had an ungovernable temper. I heard him once
say to one of the principal Officers in his ship: "Here;
don't you look sulky at me, I won't have it!" There was
a famous one-legged cabman at Portsmouth whom Sir
Frederick Richards hired at Portsmouth railway station
by chance to drive him to the Dockyard. He didn't recog
nise the man, but he was an old ship-mate who had been

62 RECORDS
with him when Sir Frederick Richards commanded a brig
on the coast of Africa, suppressing the Slave Trade — he
led them all a dog's life. The fare was a shilling, and
ample at that; and as old Richards got out at the
Admiral's door he gave the cabman five shillings, but the
cabby refused it and said to old Richards: "You drove
me for nothing on the Coast of Africa, I will drive you
for nothing now," and he rattled off, leaving old Richards
speechless with anger. He used to look at Sir Wilham
Harcourt in exactly the same way. I thought he would
have apoplexy sometimes.
Dear Lord Spencer was pretty nearly as bad in his
want of lucid exposition; so I usually did Aaron aU
through with Sir William Harcourt, and one of the conse
quences was that we formed a lasting friendship.
When I was made a Lord, Stead came to my house
that very morning and said he had just had a message
from Sir WiUiam Harcourt (who had then been dead for
some years), saying how glad Sir William was; and the
curious thing was that five minutes afterwards I got a
letter from his son, now Lord Harcourt, congratulating
me on my Peerage, which had only been made known an
hour before. I think Stead said Sir WiUiam was in
Heaven. I don't think he ever quite knew where the
departed were!
Campbell-Bannerman was a more awkward customer.
But it was aU no use. We got the ships and Mr.
Gladstone went.
II. — The Great Lord Salisbury's Brother-in-law
It reaUy is very sad that those three almost bulky
volumes of my letters to Lord Esher — ^which he has so
wonderfully kept — could not all have been published just
as they are. This is one of the reasons for my extreme

EPISODES 63
reluctance, which still exists, for these "Memories" and
"Records" of mine being published in my lifetime. When
I was dead there could be no libel action! The only
alternative is to have a new sort of "Pilgrim's Progress"
published — the whole three volumes — and substitute Bun
yan names. But that would be almost as bad as putting
their real names in — ^no one could mistake them !
I think I have mentioned elsewhere that Lord Ripon,
when First Lord, whom I had never met, had a design to
make me a Lord of the Admiralty, but his coUeagues
would not have it and called me "Gambetta." Lord
Ripon said he had sent for me because someone had
maligned me to him as "a Radical enthusiast." Well,
the upshot was that in 1886 I became Director of Ord
nance of the Navy ; and after a time I came to the definite
conclusion that the Ordnance of the Fleet was in a very
bad way, and the only remedy was to take the whole busi
ness from the War Office, who controlled the Sea Ord
nance and the munitions of sea war. A very funny state
of affairs! Lord George Hamilton was then First Lord and the
Great Lord Sahsbury was Prime Minister. Lord Salis
bury's brother-in-law was the gentleman at the War Office
who was solely responsible for the Navy deficiencies, bar
the pohticians. When they cut down the total of the
Army Estimates, he took it off the Sea Ordnance. He
had to, if he wanted to be on speaking terms with his own
cloth. I don't blame him ; I expect I should have done the
same, more particularly as I believe in a Citizen Army —
or, as I have called it elsewhere, a Lord-Lieutenant's
Army. (The clothes were a bit different; but Lord
Kitchener's Army was uncommonly hke it.) Lord
George Hamilton, having patiently heard me, as he
always did, went to Lord Sahsbury. Lord George backed

64 RECORDS
me through thick and thin. The result was a Committee —
the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, Chairman; W. H.
Smith, Secretary for War ; Lord George Hamilton, First
Lord of the Admiralty; the Director of Ordnance at the
War Office, and myself. It was really a very remarkably
unpleasant time. I had an awful bad cold — ^much worse
than General Alderson, the Prime Minister's brother-in-
law — and Lord Salisbury never asked after it, while he
slobbered over Alderson. I just mention that as a straw
indicating which way the vidnd blew. The result, after
immense flagellations administered to the Director of the
Sea Ordnance, was that the whole business of the muni
tions of war for the Navy was turned over to the Admir
alty, "lock, stock and gun barrel, bob and sinker," and by
Herculean efforts and the cordial co-operation of Engel-
bach, C. B., who had fought against me like a tiger, and
afterwards helped like an Angel, and of Sir Ralph Kiiox,
the Accountant-General of the Army, a big deficit, in fact
a criminal deficit, of munitions for the Fleet was turned
over rapidly into a miUion sterling of surplus.
They are nearly all dead and gone now, who worked
this enormous transfer, and I hope they are all in Heaven.
This story has a lovely sequel; and I forgave Lord
Sahsbury afterwards for not asking after my cold when,
in 1899, many years after, the Hague Peace Conference
came along and he submitted my name to Queen Victoria
as the Naval Delegate, with the remark that, as I had
fought so well against his brother-in-law, there was no
doubt I should fight at the Peace Conference. So I did,
though it was not for Peace; and M. de Staal, who was a
great friend of mine, and who was the President of the
Conference, told me that my remarks about boiling the
crews of hostile submarines in oil when caught, and so
forth, were really unfit for publication. But W. T. Stead

EPISODES 65
tells that story infinitely better than I can. It is in the
"Review of Reviews" for February, 1910.
But there is another providential sequel to the events
with which I began this statement. I made great friends
at the Peace Conference with General Gross von Schwarz-
hoff and Admiral von Siegel, the Military and Naval
German Delegates, and I then (in 1899) unbibed those
ideas as to the North Sea being our battle ground, which
led to the great things between 1902 and 1910.
III. — Ship-building and Dockyard Workers
I have been asked to explain how I got rid of 6,000
redundant Dockyard workmen, when Mr. Childers near
ly wrecked his Govemment by turning out but a few
hundred. Well, this was how it was done. We brought
home some 160 ships from abroad that could neither fight
nor run away; enough men were thus provided for the
fighting portion of the crews for all the new ships then
lying in the Dockyards, which were not only deteriorat
ing in their huUs and equipment for want of care, but
were inefficient for war because officers and men must
have practice in the ship they fight as much as the Bisley
shot with his rifle, the jockey with his race-horse and the
chef with his sauces. It is practice that makes perfect.
The original plan for mobilising the Navy for war was
that on the outbreak of war you disorganised the ships
already fully manned and efficient by taking a portion of
the trained crew, thus impairing the efficiency of that ship,
and putting them into the un-manned ships and filling
up both the old and the new — ^the former efficient ships
and those in the dockyards — ^with men from the Reserve.
So the whole Navy got disorganised. And that was what
they called "Preparing for War!" By what Mr. Bal
four caUed a courageous stroke of the pen, in his speech

66 RECORDS
at Manchester, when he was Prime Minister, every vessel
in the Fleet by the new system had its fighting crew
complete. Those who were to fill up the hiatus were the hewers
of wood and the drawers of water. The brains were
there; only the beef had to come, and the beef might
have been taken from the Army.
When are we going to have the great Army and Navy
Co-operative Society, which I set forth to King Edward
in 1903 — that the Army should be a Reserve for the
Navy? When shall we be an amphibious nation? This
last war has made us into a conscript Nation.
Well, to revert to the subject of how we got rid of the
6,000 redundant dockyard workmen. When that mass
of Officers and men set free by the scrapping of 160
ships that couldn't fight nor run away came back to Chat
ham, Portsmouth, Devonport, Pembroke, and Queens
town, then in those dockyard towns the tradesmen had
the time of their hves, for the money that had flowed
into the pockets of the Chinese, the Chileans, the Peru
vians, the Boers, the Brazilians, made the shopkeepers of
the dockyard towns into a mass of Liptons, so that when
the 6,000 Dockyard workers tried, as they had done in the
time of yore (in the time of Childers), to get the dock
yard tradespoeple to agitate and turn out their Members
of Parliament, the tradespeople simply replied, "You be
damned!" and I arranged to find congenial occupation for
these redundant dockyard workmen in private yards where
they were much needed.
When I became Admiral Superintendent of Ports
mouth Dockyard, I took another drastic step in concen
trating aU the worlfmen then leisurely building several
different ships, and put them all like a hive of bees on to
one ship and extended piece-work to the utmost limit that

EPISODES 67
was conceivable. The result was that a battle-ship which
would have taken three years to build was built in one
year; for the work of building a ship is so interlaced,
when they are working by piece-work especially, that if
one man does not work his fellow workmen cannot earn
so much, so this piece-work helps the overseers because the
men oversee each other.
But there is another great principle which this hides.
The one great secret of the fighting value of a battleship
is to get her to sea quickly: —
"Build few, and build fast.
Each one better than the last."
You will come across some idiots whose minds are so
deliciously symmetrical that they would prefer ten tor
toises to one greyhound to catch a hare, and it was one of
the principal articles of the ancient creed that you built
ships in batches. They strained at the gnat of uniformity
and so swallowed the camel of inferiority. No progress —
they were a batch. IV. — Jolly and Hustle"
I have just been asked by an aUuring, though some
what elusive friend, to describe to you quite an excellent
illustration of those famous words in "Ecclesiastes"
"Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after
many days." That's the text this alluring friend sug
gested to me to exemplify. For myself, I prefer the more
heavenly text where the Scripture says: "Be not for
getful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have en
tertained angels unawares." It was quite an angel that
I had to do with, and he ate my bread as follows : —
One day, when I was Admiral in North America, I
received a telegram: "The President of the Grand Trunk

68 RECORDS
Railway with forty distinguished American friends was
arriving in about an hour's time on some business con
nected with railway affairs, and could they be permitted
to see the battleship 'Renown.' " The "Renown" was
my flagship. I sent a reply to the next station their spe
cial train was stopping at, asking them to lunch on board
on their arrival at 1 p. m. I sent for Monsieur Auge,
my wonderful chef, who on the produce of his service
with me afterwards set up a restaurant in Paris (he
really was exceUent — but so extravagant!) and told him:
"Lunch for forty, in an hour's time." All he said was
"Oui, Monsieur," and he did it well! I myself being
really amazed.
The Company greatly enjoyed themselves. I had
some wonderful champagne obtained from Admiral Mc-
Crea — of immortal memory as regards that requisite —
which effectively seconded M. Auge's magnificent lunch.
Years after — it was in March, 1902 — I was in a seri
ous dilemma as to the completion of the necessary build
ings at Osborne for the new scheme of entry of Officers
to be inaugurated by the King in person, who was to
open the new establishment on the fourth day of August
following. Every effort had failed to get a satisfactory
contract, when after a prolonged but fruitless discussion,
I was sitting thinking what the devil I should do, when
an Officer came in to see me on some business and men
tioned casually that he had just come from limching at the
Carlton and had happened to overhear a man at an adja
cent table say that he would give anything to see Sir
John Fisher, as he had given him — ^with many others —
the very best lunch he had ever had in his hfe. I sent
the Officer back to the Carlton to bring him. On his ar
rival in my room I didn't remember him, but he at once
thanked me — ^not for seeing the "Renown" and all the

EPISODES 69
other things— but only for the lunch. He said he be
longed to St. Louis and was over in England on busi
ness. He had completed a big hotel in three months,
which no one else would contract to build under three
years. Then I thought of that angel whom I had entertained
unawares; certainly the bread that was cast came back
all right. I explained my difficulty to him — I had all the
particulars. He said he had his American staff over here,
who had been working at the Hotel, and he would attend
with the contract and the drawings in forty-eight hours.
And he did. The contract was signed, and King Edward
opened the buildings on August 4th.
An expert of our own who participated in the final pro
ceedings asked the American gentleman's foreman how
he did it, and especially how he had managed that hotel in
the three months. I overheard the American's answer:
"Well," he said, "this is how our boss does it; when he
is a-laying of the foundations he is a'thinking of the roof."
"What is his name?" said the Enghsh expert. "WeU,"
rephed the American, "his name is Stewart, but we al
ways caU him 'JOLLY & HUSTLE.' " "Oh!" said the
Enghsh expert, "Why that name?" "WeU," he says,
"I wiU tell you. There's not one of his workmen, not
even the lower grades, gets less than fifteen shillings a
day, and as much as he likes to eat and drink — free of
cost. Well, that's jolly. But we has to work sixteen
hours a day — that's hustle."
So when the defences of the Humber came into my
mind and no contractor could be got for so gigantic a
business, I telegraphed for "Jolly & Hustle," and when
he came over and said he would do it and that he was
going to bring everything, from a pin up to a pUe-driver,

70 RECORDS
from America, it made the contractors at home reconsider
the position — and they did the work.
V. — "Buying up Opportunities"
The words I take to head this section are as applicable
to the affairs of common life as they are to religion, with
reference to which they were originally spoken.
What these words signify is that Faith governs all
things. Victories on Earth have as their foundation the
same saving virtue of Faith.
One great exercise of Faith is "Redeeming the Time,"
as Paul says. (I'm told the literal meaning of the orig
inal Greek is "buying up opportunities.") Most people
from want of Faith won't try again. Lord Kelvin often
used to tell me of his continuous desire of "redeeming the
time." Even in dressing himself he sought every oppor
tunity of saving time (so he told me) in thinking of the
next operation. However his busy brain sometimes got
away from the business in hand, as he once put his neck
tie in his pocket and his handkerchief round his neck.
(Another wonderfully clever friend of mine, who used to
think in the Differential Calculus, I once met immacu
lately dressed, but he had his trousers over his arm and
not on.) And yet I am told he was an extraordinarily
acute business man. Every sailor owes him undying grati
tude for his "buying up opportunities" in the way he
utilised a broken thigh, which compelled him to go in a
yacht, to invent his marveUous compass and sounding
machine. At the Bombardment of Alexandria the firing
of the eighty-ton guns of the "Inflexible" with maximum
charges, which ^blew my cap off my head and nearly deaf
ened me, had no effect on his compasses, and enabled us
with supreme advantage to keep the ship steaming about
rapidly and so get less often hit whilst at the same time

EPISODES 71
steering the ship with accuracy amongst the shoals. So
it was with the ancient sounding machine : one had to stop
the ship to sound, and it was a laborious operation and
inaccurate. Lord Kelvin devised a glass tube which by
the height of the discoloration gave you the exact depth,
no matter how fast the ship was going; and the beauty
of it was you kept the tubes as a register.
It was an immense difficulty getting the Admiralty to
adopt Lord Kelvin's compass. I was reprimanded for
having them on board. I always asked at a Court-Mar
tial, no matter what the prisoner was being tried for,
whether they had Lord Kelvin's compass on board. It
was only ridicule that got rid of the old Admiralty com
pass. At the inquiry the Judge asked me whether the
Admiralty compass was sensitive (I was a witness for
Lord Kelvin) . I replied, "No, you had to kick it to get
a move on." But what most scandalised the dear old
Fossil who then presided over the Admiralty compass de
partment was that I wanted to do away with the points
of the compass and mark it into the three hundred and
sixty degrees of the circle (you might as well have asked
them to do away with salt beef and rum!). There could
then never be any mistake as to the course the ship
should steer. However, a landsman won't understand
the beauty of this simplicity, and the "Old Salts" said
at that time "There he is again — ^the d  d Revolution
ary!" But to revert to "buying up opportunities": I know
no more signal instance of the goodness of Paul's advice
both to the Ephesians and Colossians in things temporal
as in things spiritual than as exemplified by the Gunnery
Lieutenant of the "Inflexible" in discovering a fracture
in one of her eighty-ton guns. He was always thinking
ahead in everything — "Buying up Opportunities."

72 ^RECORDS
After the Bombardment of Alexandria we two were
walking along the shore; he stopped and said, "HuUo!
that's a bit of one of our shell, and it burst in the bore of
the gun." As there were no end of pieces of burst shell
about, which had exploded in striking the fort, I said,
"How do you know it is?" He pointed to the marks
of the rifling on the shell, which showed that it had burst
in the bore and had been pressed into the grooves of the
rifling, instead of being rotated by the copper bands on its
passage through the bore. Then he put his hand in his
pocket, took out his clinometer, laid it on the marks of
the rifling on the bit of burst shell; and the rifling of our
eighty-ton guns having an increasing spiral, he calculated
the exact spot in the gun where the shell had burst. And
when he got on board he had himself shoved up the bore
of the gun holding a piece of hot gutta percha, hke that
with which the dentist takes the impression of your mouth
for a set of false teeth, and brought me out the impres
sion of where the gun had been cracked by the explosion
of the shell. Younghusband was his name — perhaps the
most gifted man I ever met, but, as unusual with genius,
he was not indolent and was always practising himself in
seizing opportunities. When the constituted authorities
came to inspect the gun, though Younghusband put the
broken bit of shell before them, they took a long time to
find that crack. One night at Portsmouth someone told
Younghusband, who was having his third glass of port aft
er dinner, that he was too fat to walk. For a considerable
bet he got up there and then and walked seventy-two
miles to London. Younghusband never went to any
school in his life; he never left home; he never had a
governess or a tutor. He was taught by his mother.

EPISODES 73
VI. — How the Great War was Carreid on
Six weeks after I left the Admiralty on May 22nd,
1915 — that deplorable day, the particulars of which I am
not at present at liberty to mention — I received most cor
dial letters from both Mr. Asquith and Mr. Balfour wel
coming me to fill a Post of great magnitude.
I am impelled to digress here for a few moments to
tell a very exceUent story of Dean Hole (famous for the
cultivation of roses). He said to his Curate one day, "I
am sick of hearing the name of that poor man whom we
pray for every Sunday; just say 'the prayers of the Con
gregation are requested for a member of the Congrega
tion who is grievously iU.' " Next Sunday the Curate
said at the usual place in Divine Service, "The prayers
of the Congregation are requested for a gentleman whose
name I'm not at liberty to mention!" That's my case in
regard to what happened between Saturday, May 15th,
and Saturday, May 22nd, during which time I received
communications which I hold in my hand at this mo
ment, and which some day when made public wiU be just
astonishing! I am advised that the Law does not permit
even an outline of them to be given.
I was invited by Mr. Balfour to preside over an As
semblage of the most Eminent Men of Science for War
purposes; the chief point was the German Submarine
Menace. Also we had to consider Inventions, as weU as
Scientific Research.
My three Super-Eminent Colleagues of the Central
Committee of this great Scientific Organization were very
famous men: —
(1) Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., President of the Royal
Society and now Master of Trinity. I am told (and I
beheve it) a man unparalleled in Science.

74 RECORDS
(2) The Hon. Sir. Charles Parsons, K.C.B., the In
ventor of the Turbine, which has changed the whole art
of Marine Engineering, and enabled us to sink Admiral
von Spec. We couldn't have sunk von Spec without Par-
sons's Turbine, as those two great Fast Battle- Cruisers
"Invincible" and "Inflexible" could not have steamed
otherwise 14,000 miles without a hitch (there and back).
They only arrived at the Falkland Islands a few hours
before Admiral von Spec.
(3) Sir George Beilby, F.R.S., one of the greatest of
Chemists, who, if we don't take care, wiU give us a smoke
less England, by getting rid of coal in its present beastly
form, and turning it into oil and fertihsers, dyes, etc.,
etc. The Refuse he sells to the Poor fifty per cent.
cheaper than coal and without smoke or ashes.
The Advisory Panel of other Distinguished Men was
as famous as these Magi. There were also many Eminent
Associates. I felt extreme diffidence in occupying the Chair; how
ever, I put it to them all in the famous couplet of the
French author who, in annexing the thoughts of other
people, took this couplet as the text of his book: —
"I have cuU'd a garland of flowers.
Mine only is the string that binds them."
I said to them all at our first Assemblage: "Gentle
men, You are the Flowers, I am the String!"
You would have thought that such a Galaxy of Talent
would have been revered, welcomed, and obeyed — on the
contrary, it was derided, spurned, and ignored.
The permanent "Expert Limpets" did for us! All
the three First Lords at the Admiralty whom we dealt
with in succession were most cordial and most apprecia
tive, but aU three were equally powerless. Just a couple

EPISODES 75
or so of instances will suffice to illustrate the reason why
we at last said to Sir Eric Geddes: —
"Ave Geddes Imperator!
"Morituri te Salutant."
(1) The chief object of this magnificent Scientific
Organisation being to counter the German Sub
marine Menace, we naturally asked for a Submarine
to experiment with. The answer was "one could not
be spared." (2) We asked to be furnished with aU the de-
taUs of the destruction of German Submarines that
had already taken place, which of course lay at the
root of further investigation. This was denied us!
(3) A "Submarine Detector" was developed un
der the auspices of the Central Committee by May,
1916. A year was allowed to elapse before it was
taken up; and even then its progress was cancelled
because nothing more than a laboratory experiment
with a competing invention came to the notice of
the "Limpets."(4) The Scientific Members of Our Association
had conceived and practically demonstrated a most
astoundingly simple method of discovering the pas
sage of German Submarines. It was termed "The
Loop Detection" scheme. It was turned down — ^And
then two years afterwards was violently taken up,
with astoimdingly successful results.
I think I have said enough. And really, after aU, what
is the good of raking up the past?
I have had two pieces of advice given me referring to
the trials I had experienced. One was : —

76 RECORDS
"When sinners entice thee, consent thou not! —
But take the name and address for future reference."
And the other was : — "Fear less — hope more ; eat less
— chew more; whine less — ^breathe more (deep breathing) ;
talk less — say more; hate less — ^love more, and aU good
things are yours."

CHAPTER V
democracy
"Govemment of the people — by the people — for the peo
ple." {President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, 1863)
Some time ago the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge
University presided at a lecture on Democracy given at
Cambridge by the Professor of History at Chicago ( A. C.
McLaughhn). I gather that he implied that Democracy
is helpless in the game of secret diplomacy and secret
treaties. Democracy now all depends upon the purpose
and desire of the English-speaking people.
It's an opportune moment to repeat John Bright's
very famous speech on a great federation of the nations
that speak the Anglo-Saxon tongue.
The speech was given me when crossing the Atlantic
by a splendid citizen of the United States, where I had
just been receiving boundless hospitality and a wonderful
welcome, and had reahsed the truth about a prophet
when not in his own country, and had been asked to
"stump the Middle West" to advocate the cause of friend
ship amongst all those who speak our incomparable
tongue, and to establish a Great Commonwealth of Free
Nations. There can be no secret treaties and no secret
diplomacy when the Government is of the People, by the
People, for the People.
This is John Bright's speech :
77

78 RECORDS
"Now what can one say of the future of our race and
of our kinsmen? Is that merely a dream? By no means.
. . . Look where we are now? . . .
"In this country, in Canada, and in the United States
there are, or soon will be, one hundred and fifty miUions of
population, nearly all of whom owe their birth and origin
to the comparatively smaU country in which we live. It is
a fact that is not paralleled in any past history, and what
may come in the future to compare with it or excel it, it
is not for us to speak of, or even with any show of reason
to imagine ; but we have in all these millions the same lan
guage, the same literature, mainly the same laws and the
institutions of freedom. May we not hope for the highest
and noblest federation to be estabhshed among us ? That
is a question to which I would ask your special and sym
pathetic attention. The noblest kind of federation among
us, under different Governments it may be, but united by
race, by sympathy, by freedom of industry, by com
munion of interests and by a perpetual peace, we may
help to lead the world to that better time which we long
for and which we believe in, though it may not be per
mitted to our mortal eyes to behold it."
That was said by John Bright.
The time has now come for this great federation which
he desired — for this great Commonwealth of Free Na
tions. There is only one type of treaty which is effective —
"Community of Interests."
All other treaties are "Scraps of Paper."
It is maintained by eminent men that the late appal
ling and disastrous war, in which so many milhons of
human beings have been massacred or maimed, would
never have occurred had there been a real Democracy in
power in Englaoid. They say, as a small instance, that
the great Mutiny at the Nore and other mutinies were
brought about by tramphng on Democracy.

DEMOCRACY 79
This is what pure and unadulterated Democracy is,
and we have not got it in England: —
"EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL."
For instance, no parent with less than nearly a £1000
a year can now send his boy into the NaA^ as an Of
ficer! Nature is no respecter of birth or money power when
she lavishes her mental and physical gifts.
We fight God when our Social System dooms the briU
Uant clever child of the poor man to the same level as his
father. Therefore, we must have such State provision and
such State education as will enable the very poorest in
the land to let their eligible children rise to Admirals,
Generals, Ambassadors, and Statesmen.
Can it be conceived that a real Democracy would have
permitted secret treaties such as have been divulged to
us, or have scouted the terms of Peace which were al
lowed only to be seen by Kings and Prime Ministers ; or
would a real Democracy have flouted the Russian Revolu
tion in its first agonising throes when gasping for help
and recognition?
In a real Democracy, would true Labour leaders have
waited on the doormat?
Would a real Democracy wave the red rag of "Em
pire" in front of these noble self-governing peoples all
speaking our tongue in their own free Parliaments, and
all of them praying for the hastening of the tune when
"England, the Mother of Free Parhaments, shall herself
be free"? But the Glorious Epoch is now fast approaching!
A Prime Minister once complimented me on a casual

8o RECORDS
saying of mine at his luncheon table. I was accounting
for part of my success against
"Many giants great and tall,"
and I ventured to state that: —
"The secret of successful administration was the
intelligent anticipation of agitation."
Anticipate the Revolution. Do the thing yourself in
your way before the agitators get in before you and do it
in their way. Get rid of the present obsolete Forms and
Antique Ceremonies which grate on the masses, and of
Figureheads who are laughing-stocks, and of sinecures
which are exasperating — and so anticipate another Crom
well, who is certainly now coming fast along to "Remove
another Bauble!"
I forget what they did to the man who tried to import
poisonous snakes into New Zealand (finding that happy
island unblessed with this commodity) . It was something
quite drastic they did to him! They killed the snakes.
The Canadian House of Commons adopted by a ma
jority of 33 a motion by Sir Robert Borden, on behalf
of the Canadian Government, asking that no more heredi
tary titles should be bestowed in Canada, and declaring
that the Canadian Govemment should make aU recom
mendations for honours of any kind. This motion was
a compromise designed to damp down the popular outcry
against titles which has arisen in Canada. In one debate
Sir Wilfrid Laurier offered to throw his own title on a
common bonfire. He urged that all titles in Canada
should be abolished.
Why should Great Britain lag behind Canada and the
United States? Hereditary titles are ludicrously out of
date in any modern democracy, and the sooner we sweep

DEMOCRACY 8i
away aU the gimcracks and gewgaws of snobbery the bet
ter. The fount of so-called honour has become a deluge,
and the newspapers are hard put to it to find room for
even the spray of the deluge.
The war has not begotten simplicity and austerity in
this respect. On the contrary, it has made what used to
be a comedy a screaming farce. There was a time when
the Birthday Honours List could be printed on one day,
but it is now a serial novel. The first chapter of the
latest Birthday list was long, but the Times warned us
that it was only "the first of a series which already threat
ens to outlast the week — quite apart from the gigantic
Order of the British Empire."
Chicago's great Professor of History, Mr. McLaugh
lin, made the statement at the Kingsway Hall, in his ad
dress to British teachers, that now the United States have
over 100 mUlions of people, and fifty years from now
they may well have 200 millions — a great Atlantic and
Pacific Power. The Professor added that this great War
was "to protect Democracy against the greatest menace it
has ever had" (in the present rule of Kings and Secret
Treaties, etc., etc.). Another points out as a striking
example of present old-time conditions (so pernicious to
freedom and efficiency) the positive fact now existing that
our Military Leaders, by a class distinction, were only se
lected from one twenty-fifth of the ore which we have at
our disposal though we had brought five million men
under arms, as all our generals commanding armies, army
corps, divisions, and in most cases brigades, were drawn
from among the Regular Forces who handled our small
pre-War Army of two hundred thousand men. And the
writer adds:
"If considered purely from the standpoint of the law
of averages, one would expect to find more good brains

82 RECORDS
if one searched the entire Army than in merely looking for
material in one twenty-fifth of it."
General Currie, who so ably commands all the Cana
dian Forces, was a Land Agent before the War. Neither
Napoleon nor Wellington ever commanded a regiment.
Marlborough never handled an army tiU he was fifty-two
years of age. Chve was a Bank Clerk. Napoleon's
maxim was "La carrihre ouverte aux talents." Are we
ever going to adopt it? Peace
This truth is [and ever will be) the fact that the only
pact that ever holds, and the only treaty that ever lasts
is:
"COMMUNITY OF INTEREST!"
and we can only have Community of Interest in the
masses of a People always being on the side of Peace, be
cause it's the masses who are massacred, not the Kings and
Generals and Politicians (they are plentifuUy fed and
comfortably housed, and have the best white bread — vide
the American Dentist, Davies, when he stayed with the
German Emperor) .
Well! the only way the masses of the People can act
effectively is by means of Repubhcs. Because then no
secret diplomacy ever answers, and no one man can make
war, or no coterie of men. In a Repubhc we get "Gov
ernment of the People, by the People, for the People."
It's a cheap sneer to ask how long the same Govem
ment ever exists in Republican France! Nevertheless,
sooner milhons of changes of Government and Peace than
a stable Government with War! A Republic is always
Peace-loving! except when righteous fury in a gust of

DEMOCRACY 83
popular rage sweeps it into war, as lately in America;
but it took four years to move them I The People pushed
the President. We are going to have Bolshevism unless
we foster these German Repubhcs, and it will spread
righteously to England.
These Leagues of Nations and Freedoms of the Seas
and aU the other items are all d — d nonsense ! When War
does come, then "Might is Right." "La raison du plus
fort est toujours la meiUeure!" and every treaty is a Scrap
of Paper! The Essence of War is Violence.
Moderation in War is Imbecihty.
You hit first, you hit hard, and keep on hitting.
You have to be Ruthless, Relentless and Remorseless.
It's perfect rot to talk about "Civihsed Warfare!"
You might as weU talk about a "Heavenly Hell!"
From Lord Fisher to a Friend

My Dear  ,
I wrote to a distinguished friend to note (but not to
congratulate him) that he had been made "a Companion
of Honour" (what that is I don't know!), and told him
one of the disadvantages of even a "Limited Monarchy"
was the making of us all into Christmas Trees to hang
Decorations upon! He rephed he had declined it, as he
did not wish "to be regarded as a dab of paint to camou
flage this new Order instituted for Labour Leaders!"
Haven't I always told you we are a Nation of Snobs, and
that even the Labour Leaders don't resent being kept
hanging about on the door mat?
My dear friend adds: "I feel sure your conception of
Democracy will be realised." (I had sent him my Paper
on Democracy that you didn't like!) "Liberty means a
Country where every man or woman has an eqxial chance."

84 RECORDS
"The race of Life in a civihsed Country is a race car
ried out under a system of handicaps, and the people who
do the handicapping are the people of the least brains.
"The prophecy you send me is wonderful."
I think the words of this my friend will interest you,
though perhaps not convince you!
Yours till death, F. 9/6/18.
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
I have been sitting this moming under a Presbyterian
Minister, Dr. Hugh Black, whose eloquence so moved
the Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George (who kindly gave
me a seat in his pew, on the other side of me being Presi
dent Wilson, at the Presbyterian Church in Paris on May
25th, 1919), that the moment the service was ended the
Prime Minister went straight to him in the pulpit and told
him it was one of the best sermons he had ever heard.
And it probably was. One word Dr. Black used was
very descriptive. He described us all, except those home
less ones for whom the Saviour pleaded in Dr. Black's
text, as the "sheltered" classes. I think also our feehngs
in the congregation (not that I wish to derogate from the
sermon) had been intensely moved by the magnificent
singing on the part of the great congregation (mostly
American Citizens) of the Battle Hymn of the American
Repubhc, composed by Julia Ward Howe. The tune
("John Brown's Body"), as Mr. Sankey said, no doubt
has much to do with the glorious emphasis of the chorus ;
but certainly the words are magnificent : —
BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC.
Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are
stored ;

DEMOCRACY 85
He hath loosed the fatal lightning of His terrible swift sword.
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory ! Glory ! Halleluj ah ! His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.
His day is marching on.
Glory, etc.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal'
Let the Hero born of woman crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory, etc.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His Judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory, etc.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea;
With the glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.
While God is marching on.
Glory, etc.
It reminded me of the 76th Psalm, sung by those old
Covenanters when they vanquished Claverhouse at Drum-
clog. We see the Battle Field of Drumclog from the
room where we are now talking.
"In Judah's land God is well known.
His name's in Isr'l great."
I began a letter (but diffidence made me stop it) to
Sir WiUiam Watson the poet, to ask him if he couldn't
give us some such great Hymn for the Nation.
"God Save the King" is worn out. We don't indi-
viduahse now. It is as wom out as knee breeches for
Court Functions or Gold Lace Coats for Sea Officers.

CHAPTER VI
PUBLIC SPEECHES
I HAVE made four accurately reported pubhc speeches,
the fifth one (at Mr. Josephus Daniel's reception by the
American Luncheon Club) is too inadequate to include
here. For none of these four speeches had I any notes,
except for the one of a hundred words and one of fifty
words, both delivered in the House of Lords. The other
two were simply and solely my exuberant verbosity, and
they must be read with that remark in mind. I was satur
ated with the subject; and when the Times reporter came
and asked me for my speech before I'd made it, I told him
"with truth that I reaUy didn't know what I was going to
say. I might have been like Thackeray (What a classic
case his was!). He was the Guest of Honour. He got
up, was vociferously cheered, and was dumb. After a
death-hke silence he said these words, and sat down: —
"If I could only remember what I thought of to say to
you when I was coming here in the cab, you reaUy would
have had a delightful speech!"
I. — The Royal Academy Banquet, 1903
The Navy always readily appreciates the kind words
in which this toast is proposed, and also the kind manner
in which it is always received. I beg to thank you especial
ly, Mr. President, for your kind reference to Captain
Percy Scott, which was so weU deserved. He was indeed
a handy man. (Cheers.) Personally I have not the
86

PUBLIC SPEECHES 87
same pleasurable feelings on this occasion as I enjoyed
last year, when I had no speech to make. I remember
quite well remarking to my neighbour: "How good the
whitebait is, how excellent the champagne, and how jolly
not to have to make a speech." He glared at me and
said: "I have got to make a speech, and the whitebait
to me is b'ite noire, and the champagne is real pain."
(Laughter.) He was so ready with his answer that I
thought to myself: "You'll get through it aU right," and
sure enough he did, for he spoke thirty minutes by the
clock without a check. (Laughter.) I am only going to
give you three minutes (cries of "No.") Yes. I always
think on these occasions of the first time I went to sea
on board my first ship, an old sailing two-decker, and I
saw inscribed in great big gold letters the one word "Si
lence." (Laughter.) Underneath was another good
motto: "Deeds, not words." (Cheers.) I have put that
into every ship I have commanded since. (Cheers.) This
leads me to another motto which is better stUl, and brings
me to the point of what I have to say in reply to the toast
that has been proposed. When I was Commander-in-
Chief in the Mediterranean I went to inspect a small De
stroyer, only 260 tons, but with such pride and swagger
that she might have been 16,000 tons. (Laughter.) The
young Lieutenant in command took me round. She was
in beautiful order, and I came aft to the wheeH and
saw there the inscription: "Ut Veniant Omnes." "Hal
lo," I said, "what the deuce is that?" (Laughter.) Salut
ing me, he said: "Let 'em all come. Sir." (Great laugh
ter and cheers.) Well, that was not boasting; that was
the sense of conscious efficiency — (cheers) — the sense that
permeates the whole Fleet — (cheers) — and I used to
think, as the Admiral, it will be irresistible provided the
Admiral is up to the mark. The Lord Chief Justice,

88 RECORDS
sitting near me now, has kindly promised to pull me down
if I say too much! (Laughter.) But what I wish to re
mark to you is this — and it is a good thing for everybody
to know it — ^there has been a tremendous change in Navy
matters since the old time. In regard to Naval warfare
history is a record of exploded ideas. (Laughter and
cheers.) In the old days they were sailors' battles; now
they are Admirals' battles. I should hke to recaU to you
the greatest battle at sea ever fought. What was the cen
tral episode of that? Nelson receiving his death- wound!
What was he doing? Walking up and down on the
quarter-deck arm-in-arm with his Captain. It is dra
matically described to us by an onlooker. His Secretary
is shot down; Nelson turns round and says: "Poor Scott!
Take him down to the cockpit," and then he goes on again
walking up and down, having a yam with his Captain.
What does that mean? It means that in the old days the
Admiral took his fleet into action ; each ship got alongside
the enemy; and, as Nelson finely said, "they got into their
proper place." (Cheers.) And then the Admiral had not
much more to do. The ships were touching one another
nearly, the Bos'un went with some rope and lashed them
together so as to make them quite comfortable — (laugh
ter) — and the sailors loaded and fired away tiU it was
time to board. But what is the case now? It is conceiv
able that within twenty minutes of sighting the enemy on
the horizon the action wiU have begun, and on the dis
position of his Fleet by the Admiral — on his tactics — ^the
battle will depend, for all the gunnery in the world is no
good if the guns are masked by our own ships or cannot
bear on the enemy! In that way I wish to tell you how
much depends on the Admirals now and on their educa
tion. Therefore, joined with this spirit, of which the
remark of the young Lieutenant I mentioned to you is an

PUBLIC SPEECHES 89
indication, permeating the whole Service, we require a
fearless, vigorous, and progressive administration, open
to any reform — (loud cheers) — ^never resting on its oars
— for to stop is to go back — and forecasting every even
tuality. I will just take two instances at hazard.
Look at the Submarine Boat and Wireless Teleg
raphy. When they are perfected we do not know what a
Revolution will come about.
In their inception they were the weapons of the
weak. Now they loom large as the weapons of the strong.
Will any Fleet be able to be in narrow waters?
Is there the slightest fear of invasion with them, even
for the most extreme pessimist? I might mention other
subjects; but the great fact which I come to is that we are
reahsing — the Navy and the Admiralty are reahsing —
that on the British Navy rests the British Empire. (Loud
cheers.) Nothing else is of any use without it, not even
the Army. (Here the gaUant Admiral, amid laughter,
turned to Mr. Brodrick, the Secretary for War, who sat
near him.) We are different from Contuiental nations.
No soldier of ours can go anywhere unless a saUor carries
him there on his back. (Laughter.) I am not disparag
ing the Army. I am looking forward to their coming to
sea with us again as they did in the old days. Why, Nel
son had three regiments of infantry with him at the battle
of Cape St. Vincent, and a Sergeant of the 69th Regi
ment led the boarders, and. Nelson having only one arm,
it was the Sergeant who helped him up. (Cheers.) The
Secretary for War particularly asked me to allude to
the Army or else I would not have done it. (Loud laugh
ter. ) In conclusion, I assure you that the Navy and the
Admiralty recognise their responsibihty. I think I may

90 RECORDS
say that we now have a Board of Admiralty that is united,
progressive, and determined — (cheers) — and you may
sleep quietly in your beds — (loud cheers) .
II. — The Lord Mayor's Banquet, 1907
As to the strength, the efficiency, and the sufficiency of
the Navy, I am able to give you indisputable proofs. Re
cently, in the equinoctial season in the North Sea we have
had twenty-six of the finest battleships in the world and
twenty-five of the finest cruisers, some of them equal to
foreign battleships, and over fifty other vessels, under
eleven Admirals, and aU working under a distinguished
Commander-in-Chief, under very trying circumstances
and in a very stormy time, and I look in vain to see any
equal to that large Fleet anywhere. (Cheers.) That is
only a fraction of our power. ( Cheers. ) And that large
Fleet is nulli secundus, as they say, whether it is ships or
officers or men. (Cheers.) Now, I tum to the other
point, the gunnery of the Fleet. The gunnery efficiency
of the Fleet has surpassed aU records — it is unparaUeled
— and I am lost in wonder and admiration at the splendid
unity of spirit and determination that must have been
shown by everybody from top to bottom to obtain these
results. (Cheers.) I am sure that your praise and your
appreciation will go forth to them, because, remember,
the best ships, the biggest Navy — ^my friend over there
talked about the two-Power standard — a mUhon-Power -
standard (laughter) is no use unless you can hit.
(Cheers) . You must hit first, you must hit hard, and you
must keep on hitting. (Cheers.) If these are the fruits,
I don't think there is much wrong with the government
of the Navy. (Cheers.) Figs don't grow on thistles.
(Laughter and cheers.) But a gentleman of fine feeling
has lately said that the recent Admiralty administration

PUBLIC SPEECHES 91
has been attended with the devil's own luck. (Laugh
ter.) That interestmg personality (laughter) — ^his luck
is due to one thing, and one thing only — hesitates at
nothing to gain his object. That is what the Board of
Admiralty have done, and our object has been the fight
ing efficiency of the Fleet and its instant readiness for
war; and we have got it. (Cheers.) And I say it be
cause no one can have a fuller knowledge than myself
about it, and I speak with the fullest sense of responsi
bihty. (Cheers.) So I tum to aU of you, and I turn to
my countrymen and I say — Sleep quiet in your beds
(laughter and cheers), and do not be disturbed by these
bogeys — invasion and otherwise — ^which are being peri
odically resuscitated by all sorts of leagues. (Laughter.)
I do not know what league is working this one. It is
quite curious what reputable people lend themselves to
these scares. This afternoon I read the effusions of a
red-hot and most charmingly interesting magazine editor.
He had evidently been victimised by a Punch correspond
ent, and that Punch correspondent had been gulled by
some Midshipman Easy of the Channel Fleet. He had
been there. And this is what the magazine editor prints
in itahcs in this month's magazine — that an army of
100,000 German soldiers had been practising embarking
in the German Fleet. The absolute truth is that one soli
tary regiment was embarked for manoeuvres. That is the
truth. To embark 100,000 soldiers you want hundreds
and thousands of tons of transport. You might just as
weU talk of practising embarking St. Paul's Cathedral
in a penny steamer. (Laughter.) I have no doubt that
equaUy silly stories are current in Germany. I have no
doubt that there is terror there that the Enghsh Fleet will
swoop down all of a sudden and gobble up the German
Fleet. (Laughter.) These stories are not only siUy — ^they

92 RECORDS
are mischievous, very mischievous. (Hear, hear.) If Eve
had not kept on looking at that apple (laughter) — and
it was pleasant to the eyes — she would not have picked
it, and we should not have been now bothered with
clothes. (Loud laughter.) I was very nearly forgetting
something else that the PvMch correspondent said. I put
it in my pocket as I came away to read it out to you. He
had been a week in the Channel Fleet and he had dis
cussed everything, from the admiral down to the blue
jacket. He does not say anything about that Midship
man Easy. "In one matter I found unanimity of admis
sion. It was that in respect to the number of fighting
ships, their armament, and general capacity the British
Navy was never in so satisfactory a condition as it floats
to-day." (Cheers.) So we let him off that yam about
the 100,000 German troops. (Laughter.)
III. — The House of Lords, November 16, 1915
Lord Fisher, rising from the cross-benches imme
diately before public business was caUed, said: — "I ask
leave of your lordships to make a statement. Certain
references were made to me in a speech delivered yester
day by Mr. Churchill. I have been 61 years in the ser
vice of my country, and I leave my record in the hands
of my countrymen. The Prime Minister said yesterday
that Mr. Churchill had said one or two things which he
had better not have said, and that he necessarily and
naturaUy left unsaid some things which will have to be
said. I am content to wait. It is unfitting to make per«
sonal explanations affecting national interests when my
country is in the midst of a great war."
Lord Fisher, having delivered his brief statement,
immediately left the House.

PUBLIC SPEECHES - 95
IV. — The House of Lords, March 21, 1917
Lord Fisher addressed the House of Lords.
Immediately prayers were over he rose from a seat on
one of the cross-benches. He said: —
"With your Lordships' permission, I desire to make a
personal statement. When our country is in great
jeopardy, as she now is, it is not the time to tarnish great
reputations, to asperse the dead, and to discover our sup
posed weaknesses to the enemy; so I shall not discuss
the Dardanelles Reports — I shall await the end of the
war, when all the truth can be made known."

92

CHAPTER VII
the essentials of sea fighting
Sir William Allan, M.P., with the torso of a
Hercules and the voice of a bull and the affectionate
heart of Mary Magdalene, did not know Latin, and he
asked me what my motto meant:
"Fiat justitia — ^ruat coelum."
I had sent it to him when he was mahgnantly attacking
me because, as Controller of the Navy, I had introduced
the water-tube boiler. Sir William Allan was himself a
boiler-maker, and he had to scrap most of his plant be
cause of this new type of boiler.
I said the translation was: "Do right, and damn the
odds." This motto has stood me in good stead, for by attend
ing to it I fought a great battle in a righteous cause with
Lord Salisbury, when he was Prime Minister, and con
quered. I have related this elsewhere. Years after.
Lord Salisbury, in remembrance of this, recalled me from
being Commander-in-Chief in America to be British
delegate at the First Peace Conference at The Hague in
1899, and from thence I went as Commander-in-Chief of
the Mediterranean Fleet.
While I was in command of the Mediterranean Fleet,
from 1899 to 1902, when I became Second Sea Lord of
the Admiralty, I arranged to have lectures for the officers
of the Fleet. I extract now from the notes of my lec-
94

THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING 95
tures some points which may be of general interest, as
illustrating the new strategy and tactics necessitated by
the change from wind to steam.
After setting forth a few of the problems which
would have to be solved in sea-fighting under the new
conditions, the lecturer went on to elaborate the themes
from such rough notes as I give here of the principal
ideas. All Officers without exception should be unceasingly
occupied in considering the various solutions of these
problems, as who can tell who will be in command after
the first five minutes of a close engagement, whether in
an individual ship or in command of the whole Fleet!
Otherwise we may have a stampede like that of riderless
horses! The Captain or Admiral is hors de combat, and
the next Officer, and, perhaps, the next, and the next
don't know what to do when moments mean victory or
defeat! "The man who hesitates is lost!" and so it will be with
the Fleet if decision is wanting!
"Time, Twiss, time is everything!" said Nelson
(speaking to General Twiss when he was chasing the
French Fleet under Villeneuve to the West Indies) ; "a
quarter of an hour may mean the difference between Vic
tory and Defeat!"
This was in sailing days. Now it will be quarters of
a minute, not quarters of an hour!
It is said to have been stated by one of the most emi
nent of living men, that sudden war becomes daily more
probable because public opinion is becoming greater in
power, and that popular emotion, once fairly aroused,
sweeps away the barriers of calm deliberation, and is deaf
to the voice of reason.
Besides cultivating the faculty of Quick Decision and
consequent rapid action, we must cultivate Rashness.
Napoleon was asked the secret of victory. He rephed,
"L'audace, I'audace, I'audace, toujours I'audace!"

96 RECORDS
There is a rashness which in Peace is Folly, but which
in War is Prudence, and there are risks that must be
undertaken in War which are Obligatory, but which in
peace would be Criminal!
As in War, so in the preparation for War, Rashness
must have its place. We must also reflect how apt we are
to suppose that the enemy will fit himself into our plans !
The first successful blow on either side will probably
determine the final issue in sea-fighting. Sustained
physical energy will be the required great attribute at that
time for those in command as well as those who adminis
ter. Collingwood wrote two years before Trafalgar, when
blockading Rochefort — and Nelson then off Toulon,
Pellew off Ferrol, and CornwaUis off Brest — that "Ad
mirals needed to be made of iron!" The pressure then will
test the endurance of the strongest, and the rank of
Admiral confers no immunity from the operation of the
natural law of Anno Domini! Nelson was 39 years old at
the Battle of the Nile, and died at 47. What is our aver
age age of those actively responsible for the control, mo
bilisation, and command of our Fleets? As age increases,
audacity leaks out and caution comes in.
An instant offensive is obligatory. Mahan truly
says : —
"The assumption of a simple defensive in war is ruin.
War, once declared, must be waged offensively, aggres
sively. The enemy must not be fended off, but smitten
down. You may then spare him every exaction, rehn-
quish every gain. But till down he must be struck inces
santly and remorselessly." ^
All will depend on the instant start, the sudden blow!
Napoleon again, "Frappez vite et frappez fort!" That
was the whole of his orders.
The question of armament is all-important!
If we have the advantage of speed, which is the first
desideratum in every class of fighting vessel {Battleships
included), then, and then only, we can choose our distance
* Wat that our Sea Policy during the War? Did we not keep our Fleet in
cotton wool?

1.

3.

5.

0.

10.

11.

12.

PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN AND SENT TO SIR JOHN FISHER BY THE EMPRESS MARIE OF RUSSIA, OF A

1. Lord Hamilton of Dalzell.
2. The Chevalier de Martino.
3. Sir Arthur Nicholson.
4. M. Stolypin, Russian Prime
Minister.
5. The Czarina.

6. M. Isvolsky, Russian Minister
of Foreign Affairs.
7. Sir John Fisher.
8. Sir Charles Hardinge.
9. Baron Fredericks.
10. The Grand Duchess Olga.

GROUP ON BOARD H. M. S. STANDARD,
11. The Czar.
12. The Princess Victoria.
13. The Grand Duke Michael.
14. Count Benckendorff, Russian
Ambassador.

1909

[96

A GROUP ON BOARD II. M. S. "STANDARD," 1909
The Czar, the Gr;ind Duchess Olga, and
Sir ,Tohn Fisher.

A GROUP ON BOARD H. M. S. "STANDARD," 1909
1. The Empress Marie of Russi.n.
2. The Czarina.
3. Sir John Fisher,
4. The Gi'and Duchess Olga.
5. The Czar.

A GROUP AT LANGHAM HOUSE. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AND SENT TO SIR JOHN FISHER BY THE EMPRESS MARIE OF RUSSIA
1. Mrs. Neeld. 2. Miss Diana Neeld. 3. The Princess Victoria. 4. Lady Fisher.
5. Queen Alexandra. 6. Miss Kitty Fullerton. 7. Sir John Fisher.

[97

THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING 97
for fighting. If we can choose our distance for fighting,
then we can choose our armament for fighting! But how
in the past has the armament been chosen? Do we
arrange the armament to meet the proposed mode of
fighting? Doesn't it sometimes look like so many of each
sort, as if you were peopling the Ark, and wanted repre
sentatives of all calibres?
Whoever hits soonest and oftenest will win!
"The effectiveness of a fighting weapon," wrote
Mahan, "consists more in the method of its use and in
the practised skill of the human element that wields it
than in the material perfection of the weapon itself. The
sequel of a long period of peace is a demoralisation of
ideals. Those who rise in peace are men of formality and
routine, cautious, inoffensive, safe up to the limits of
their capacity, supremely conscientious, punctilious about
everything but what is essential, yet void altogether of
initiative, impulse and originality.
"This was the difference between Hawke and Mat
thews. Hawke represented the spirit of war, the ardour,
the swift initiative, the readiness of resource, the impa
tience of prescription and routine, without which no great
things are done ! Matthews, the spirit of peace, the very
reverse of all this!"
Peace brings with it the reign of old men.
The sacred fire never burnt in Collingwood. Nelson,
with the instinct of a genius, intended the Fleet to anchor,
turning the very dangers of the shoals of Trafalgar into
a security. Collingwood, simply a naval machine, and
never having been his own master all his hfe, and not being
a genius, thought a shoal was a thing to be avoided, and,
consequently, wrecked the ships unfitted to cope with a
gale, and so to weather these shoals ! Collingwood ought
to have had the moon given him for his crest, for aU his
glory was reflected from Nelson, the sun of glory! Col
lingwood was an old woman!
History is a record of exploded ideas. In what sense?
Fighting conditions are all altered. The wind formerly
determined the course of action; now it is onlv the mind

98 RECORDS
of man. One man and the best man is wanted — ^not a
fossil; not a careful man. Fleets were formerly days
coming into action, now only minutes.
Two Fleets can now be fighting each other in twenty
minutes from first seeing each other's smoke.
Formerly sea battles were Sailors' battles, now they
are Officers'.
At Trafalgar, Nelson was walking up and down the
Quarter-Deck and having a yarn with his Flag Captain,
Hardy, at the very zenith of the Action ! It was the com
mon sailors only who were then at work. How different
now! The Admiral everything!
Now, the different phases of a Naval War are as
capable of as exact a demonstration as a proposition in
Euclid, because steam has annihilated wind and sea. We
are now trained to a higher standard, and the arts of
strategy and tactics have accordingly been immensely
magnified. Make an initial mistake in strategy or tactics,
and then it may be said of them as of women by Congreve:
"Hell has no fury like a -woman scorn'd."
The last place to defend England wUl be the Shores of
England. The Frontiers of England are the Coasts of the
Enemy. We ought to be there five minutes before war
breaks out.
Naval Supremacy once destroyed is destroyed for
ever. Carthage, Spain, Holland, the great commercial
nations of the past, had the sea wrested from them, and
then they fell.
A successful Mercantile Marine leads to a successful
War Navy.
It is solely owing to our command of the sea that we
have been able to build up our magnificent Empire.
Admiral Mahan's most famous passage is : —
"The world has never seen a more impressive demon
stration of the influence of Sea Power upon its history.
Those far-distant, storm-beaten ships of Nelson, upon
which the Grand Army never looked, stood between it
and the dominion of the World."

THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING 99
"Secrecy and Secretiveness"
There are three types of Secrecy: —
I. The Ostrich.
II. The Red Box.
III. The Real Thing.
I. The ostrich buries his head in the sand of the desert
when pursued by his enemy, and because he can't see the
enemy concludes the enemy can't see him! Such is the
secrecy of the secretive and detestable habit which hides
from our own officers what is known to the world in
other Navies.
II. The secrecy of the Red Box is that of a distin
guished Admiral who, with great pomp, used to have his
red despatch box carried before him (like the umbrella of
an African King), as containing the most secret plans;
but one day, the box being unfortunately capsized and
burst open, the only contents that fell out were copies of
"La Vie Parisienne"!
Such, it is feared, was the secrecy of those wonderful
detailed plans for war we hear of in the past as having
been secreted in secret drawers, to be brought out "when
the time comes," and when no one has any time to study
them, supposing, that is, they ever existed; and, remem
ber, it is detailed attention to minutise and the considera
tion of trifles which spells success.
III. There is the legitimate secrecy and secretiveness
of hiding from your dearest friend the moment and the
nature of your rush at the enemy, and which of all the
variety of operations you have previously practised with
the Fleet you wiU bring into play! But all your Captains
will instantly know your mind and intentions, for you will
hoist the signal or spark the wireless message. Plan A,
or Plan B . . . , or Plan Z!
"After I have made known my intentions," began
Nelson's last order; and it expressed the experience of a
hundred battles — that the Second in Command (and in
these days it may weU be amplified into the individual offi-

100 RECORDS
cers in command) are to fulfil the spirit of the peace
manoeuvre teaching, and assist by the teaching in carry
ing out the meaning of brief signals to the destruction of
the enemy's Fleet. The secret of success lies in the first
part of the sentence: "After I have made known my
intentions." Confidence is a plant of slow growth. Long and con
stant association of ships of a Fleet is essential to success.
A new-comer is often more dangerous than the enemy.
An Army may be improvised in case of war, but not a
Navy. Immense importance of constant readiness at all times.
A Fleet always ready to go to sea at an hour's notice is a
splendid national life preserver! Here comes in the
water-tube boiler! Without previous notice or even an
inkling, we have been ready to start in one hour with
water-tube boiler ships. You can't exaggerate this!
One bucket of water ready on the spot in the shape of an
instantly ready Fleet will stop the conflagration of war
which aU the Fire Brigades of the world won't stop a
little later on ! Never forget that from the very nature of
sea fighting an initial Naval disaster is irretrievable,
irreparable, eternal. Naval Colensos have no Paarde-
bergs !
Suddenness is the secret of success at sea, because sud
denness is practicable, and remember that rashness may
be the height of prudence. How very rash Nelson was at
the Nile to go in after dark to fight the French Fleet with
no chart of the shoals of Aboukir !
But you must be sure of your Fleet and they must be
sure of you ! Every detail previously thought out. Trust
no one! (My friend, Maurice Bourke, used to tell a story
of the Yankee barber, who put up in his shop: "To trust
is to bust, and to bust is hell!" which means "no credit
given"). Make the very best of things as they are.
Criminal to wait for something better. "We strain at the
gnat of perfection and swallow the camel of unreadiness."

THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING loi
"The Gbeat Silent Navy"
The usual motto is "Silence" or "Deeds, not words,"
which you will see ornamenting some conspicuous place
in a ship.^ It has been said by landsmen that the most
striking feature to them in a British man-of-war when at
sea is the noiseless, ceaseless, sleepless, yet unobtrusive,
energy that characterises everyone and everything on
board ! If so, we sailors don't notice it, and it is the result
of nature! Gales of wind, sudden fogs, immense speeds,
the much multiplied dangers of colhsion and wreck from
these terrific speeds, as in Destroyers and even in large
ships, all these circumstances automatically react on aU
on board and are nature's education by environment.
There is no place for the unthinking or the lethargic. He
is a positive danger! Every individual in a man-of-war
has his work cut out! "Think and act for yourself" is to
be the motto of the future, not "Let us wait for orders!"
Such may be said of sea fights! No mountains delay
us, and, as Scripture says, the way of a ship is trackless!
The enemy will suddenly confront us as an Apparition!
At every moment we must be ready! Can this be acquired
by grown men? No! it is the force of habit. You must
commence early. Our Nelsons and Benbows began the
sea life when they first put their breeches on ! The brother
of the Black Prince (John of Gaunt) joined the Navy
and was in a sea fight when he was 10 years of age! Far
exceeding anything known in history does our future Tra
falgar depend on promptitude and rapid decision, and on
every eventuahty having been foreseen by those in com
mand. But these attributes cannot be acquired late in life,
nor by those who have lived the life of cabbages ! So begin
early and work continuously. Then if there is war your
opportunity must come! Like Kitchener, you will then
walk over the cabbages!
* These mottoes were painted up in my first ship, and I have had them in
every ship I have commanded since.

CHAPTER VIII
Jonah's gourd
"Came up in a night
And perished in a night."
Jonah, chap, iv, verse 10.
The above words came into my mind late last night
when tired out with destroying masses of papers and
letters (mostly malignant abuse or the emanations of
senile dotage), I sat back in my chair and soliloquised
over what had happened to all these pestilent attackers
of mine; and I said to myself in those immortal words
in Jonah, "Doest thou well to be angry?" and for a few
brief moments I really quite felt hke Stephen praying
for his enemies when they stoned him ! What has become
of all these stone-throwers and backbiters, I asked my
self! Like Jonah's Gourd — "A worm has smote them
all" — and they have withered into obscurity. But yet it's
interesting, as this is a Book of Records, to tear out
one sheet or so and reproduce here some rephes to the
nefarious nonsense one had to deal with at that time of
democratising the Navy. I reprint verbatim a few pages
I wrote in October, 1906. These particular words that
follow here were directed against those who assailed my
principles of (1) The fighting efficiency of the Fleet,
(2) Its instant readiness for war.
Admiralty Policy: Replies to Criticisms
[In the autumn of 1906 there was considerable criti
cism of the Government's naval policy, particularly in the
102

JONAH'S GOURD 103
daily and weekly Press. Just before the dissolution of
Mr. Balfour's administration. Lord Cawdor, then First
Lord, had issued a memorandum on "Admiralty Work
and Progress," dated November 30th, 1905, in which it
was stated that "At the present time strategic require
ments necessitate an output of four large armoured ships
annually." In July, 1906, however, it was announced in
Parliament that only three battleships would be included
in the current programme, the reason for the abandon
ment of the fourth ship being that there was a temporary
cessation of warship building on the Continent caused by
the advent of the "Dreadnought" and the "Invincibles."
Coming in the first year of office of the new Liberal
administration, however, the reduction in the British pro
gramme aroused genuine disquiet among certain people,
and by others was utilised for a political attack on the
Government, who were alleged to be jeopardising the
security of the country. In addition, there was another
body of opinion strongly adverse to certain features in the
design of the new "Dreadnoughts." The following notes
were prepared by Lord Fisher at the time for use by Lord
Tweedmouth and Mr. Edmund Robertson (afterwards
Lord Lochee), who were then First Lord and Parha-
mentary Secretary respectively.]
The most brilliant preacher of our generation has said
what a stimulus it is to have always some friends to save
us from that "Woe unto you when all men shall speak
weU of you"! When criticism goes, hfe is done! You
must squeeze the fragrant leaf to get the delicious scent!
Hence, it may be truly said that the Board of Admiralty
should just now heartily shake hands with themselves,
because Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (in the shape of
three Retrograde Don Quixotes) are trying to raise a
rebellion, but the earth wiU now open and swallow them
all up quick as in the days of Moses. They and all their
company, with their small battleships and their slow
speeds, and their invasion fright and foreign shipbuilding

104 RECORDS
houses of cards are each and all capable of absolute
pulverisation! Why people don't laugh at it aU is the
wonder! Here, for instance, is a military correspondent
lecturing the Board of Admiralty on types of ships; and
Admirals, whose names were bywords of inefficiency and
ineptitude when they were afloat, and who never — one
single one of them — ^left anything better than they found
it, are being seriously quoted by serious magazines and
serious newspapers as "a most distinguished Admiral,"
etc., etc. "These prophets prophesy falsely and the peo
ple love to have it so," as Jeremiah says! This is be
cause of the inherent pessimistic British instinct!
Perhaps the most laughable and silly emanation of
these Rip Van Winkles is the outcry against large ships
and high speeds, and an Admiral has gone so far as to
resort to mathematics and trigonometrical absurdities to
prove that slow speed and 6-inch guns are of primary
importance in a sea fight!!! Archbishop Whately dealt
with a similar critic by a celebrated jeu d' esprit entitled
"Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte."
The Archbishop by a process of faUacious reasoning dem
onstrated with aU the exactitude of a mathematical prob
lem the impossibihty of the existence of such a person as
Buonaparte! But as someone has weU said, if these
strange oddities can convert our enemies (the Germans)
to the priceless advantage of slow ships and small guns
they are patriots in disguise, and Providence is employ
ing them (as it employs worms and other such things)
in assisting to work out the unfailing and invincible
supremacy of the British Navy.
But to say no more — the plain man sees that it is of
vital importance that we should obtain the highest pos
sible speed in order that, in face of emergencies on the
south or east or west of the British Isles, we may be able

JONAH'S GOURD 105
to concentrate adequate Naval Force with as httle delay
as possible, and that had the British Admiralty held the
opinions expressed by "the Blackwood Balaam" our
battleships would still be steaming at about 10 knots an
hour, because he must remember that the progress
which has been made from 10 knots to 22 knots (as at
tained in "Dreadnought" at deep, or war load draught)
has been gradual, and at any period during this progres
sion it was quite open to other Balaams to retard the ac
tion of the Admiralty by pointing out that the shght gain
in speed which has been chronicled year by year in
battleships was really not worth the price which was be
ing paid for it! But, Blessed be God! In this and aU
other criticisms of Admiralty Policy the pubhc pulse is
totally unaffected, and the reputation of the Admiralty
unlowered. For 12 months past not a single battleship has been
laid down in Europe, and this simply and solely owing
to the dramatic appearance of the "Dreadnought," which
upset all the calculations in Foreign Admiralties and
deserved the calculated letter written by Lord Selborne
to the Committee on Designs. The Admiralty has done
more than all the Peace party with all their dinners to
arrest the contest for Sea Power!
In the criticisms we are dealing with, "Party" as
usual has come before "Patriotism," but the Sea Lords
can, each one of them, confidently say, with the poet's
version of a patriot's motto,
"Sworn to no party, of no sect am I,
I can't be silent and I will not lie,"
and so the Sea Lords have no desire to avoid any odium
the Tory papers ^ may be pleased to bring upon them.
*One Sample out op Many. — "Lord Tweedmouth and Mr. Robertson,
having tasted blood in their reduction of this year's Estimates, are about
to strike a blow at the vital efficiency of the Navy. But what are we to

io6 RECORDS
There is undoubted authority for stating that a skilfuUy
organised "Fleet Street" conspiracy aided by Naval Mal
contents is endeavouring to excite the British pubhc
against the Board of Admiralty, but it has fallen flat.
There is, however, a very serious danger in the prop
agation of the view so ably combated by Sir C. Dilke
in his speech at Coleford, Forest of Dean, on September
27th last, that this country requires a mihtary force of
640,000 men!
His comparison of Navy and Army expenditure is
illuminating but has been totally ignored by the Press
and the country. The "Fiery Cross" has been sent roimd
to resuscitate the "Invasion Bogey."
There has been for many years past a general feeling
in this country that questions of international relationship
and of national defence should be withdrawn as far as
possible from the arena of party pohtics. Such diver
gences of opinion as must exist on these topics have no
obvious connection with the divisions of our internal
politics ; and it is surely legitimate to go further than this,
and say that the main problems in these departments can
be dealt with in such a way as to win the assent of every
reasonable man, whatever his opinions may be on Trade
Unionism or Elementary Education.
At any rate successive Boards of Admiralty have for
something like 20 years acted on the assumption — ^which
has hitherto been justified — that their pohcy would be
accepted by the public as based on a fuUy considered
estimate of the requirements of national defence, and, if
criticised (as it was bound to be from time to time),
think of the naval officers on the Admiralty Board, men who cannot plead
the blindness and ignorance of their civilian colleagues? No one knows better
than Sir John Fisher the real nature and the inevitable consequences of those
acts to which he is a consenting party. And we are not speaking at random
when we assert that more than any one man, the responsibility and the guilt
for those reductions hes at his door." (The Globe, *1 Sept. 19<)6.)

JONAH'S GOURD 107
criticised on other than partisan grounds. Between the
date of the Naval Defence Act and 1904 the Navy
Estimates were approximately trebled. The increase was
continuous xmder four successive First Lords, and under
both Liberal and Conservative Governments. In 1904
the maximum of the curve of expenditure was reached,
and the Navy Estimates began to decline, at first rapidly,
under a Conservative Govemment, then more slowly, and
in part subject to certain provisos, under the present
Liberal Government. And this, it appears, is the mo
ment chosen for the first considerable outbreak of pohti-
cal rancour in naval affairs since the modern Navy came
into existence!
It is, however, of such supreme importance to the
Navy that the Admiralty Board should not be suspected
of being governed in its decisions on matters of national
defence by partisan considerations that it may be well
to set out again, and very exphcitly, what are the reasons
which have led the Board to adopt the policy now
impugned. Here we have to go back to first principles. It has
become too much the fashion to employ the phrase "a
two-Power standard" as a mere shibboleth. The prin
ciple this phrase embodies has been of the utmost value
in the past, and is hkely to be so in the future; but if
used unintelligently at the present moment it merely
gives the enemy cause to blaspheme. Great Britain
must, it is agreed, maintain at all costs the command of
the sea. Therefore we must be decisively stronger than
any possible enemy. Who then is the possible enemy?
Ten years ago, or even less, we should probably have
answered, France and Russia in alliance. As they were
then respectively the second and third naval Powers, the
two-Power standard had an actuahty which it has since

io8 RECORDS
lost. The United States and Germany are competing
for the second place which France has already ahnost
yitelded. Russia's fleet has practically disappeared.
Japan's has sprung to the front rank. Of the four Pow
ers which are primarily in question, Japan is our ally,
France is our close friend, America is a kindred State
with whom we may indeed have evanescent quarrels, but
with whom, it is scarcely too much to say, we shall never
have a parricidal war. The other considerable naval
Powers are Italy and Austria, of whom we are the secu
lar friends, and whose treaty obligations are in the high
est degree unlikely to force them into a rupture with us
which could in no possible way serve their own interests.
There remains Germany. Undoubtedly she is a pos
sible enemy. ^ WhUe there is no specific cause of dispute
there is a general commercial and — on the German side —
pohtical rivalry which has unfortunately but indisputably
caused bad blood between the two countries. For the
moment, it would be safe to build against Germany only.
But we cannot build for the moment: the Board of Ad
miralty are the trustees of future generations of their
countrymen, who may not enjoy the same comparatively
serene sky as ourselves. The ships we lay down this year
may have their influence on the international situation
twenty years hence, when Germany — or whoever our
most hkely antagonist may then be — ^may have the
opportunity of the co-operation (even if only temporary)
of another great naval Power. Hence a two-Power stan
dard, rationally interpreted, is by no means out of date.
But it is not a rational interpretation to say that we must
instantly lay down as many ships as any other two
Powers are at this moment laying down. We must take
long views; we must be sure what other Powers are do-
* This was written in October, 1908.

JONAH'S GOURD 109
ing; we must take the average of their efforts, and aver
age our own efforts in response.
Now this matter of averaging the shipbuilding, of
equalising the programme over a number of years, de
serves further consideration. Some Powers, notably Ger
many, attempt to achieve this end by creating long statu
tory programmes. The British Admiralty has abandoned
the idea since the Naval Defence Act. For us, in fact, it
would be a thoroughly vicious system. For a Power
which is trying to "set the pace," and which is glad to
avoid annual discussion of the financial aspect of the
question, it, no doubt, has its advantages. But Great
Britain does not build to a naval strength that can be
determined a priori; she builds simply and solely to
maintain the command of the sea against other Powers.
For this end the Admiralty must have its hands free to
determine from year to year what the shipbuilding re
quirements are. But, again, this does not mean that our
efforts must be spasmodic, that because foreign Powers
lay down six ships one year and none the next, therefore
we must do the same. For administrative reasons, which
should be obvious, and which in any case this is not the
place to dilate upon, it is very necessary that shipbuilding
should approximate year by year, so far as practicable,
to some normal figure, and that increases or decreases,
when they become necessary, should be made gradually.
This double principle, of determining the programme
from year to year, and yet averaging the number of ships
built over a number of years, has to be firmly grasped
by anyone who desires to understand the Admiralty ship
building policy.
With this preamble we are in a position to discuss the
actual situation. And first we have to consider what is
the existing relative strength of Great Britain and the

IIO RECORDS
other naval Powers. About this there is really no differ
ence of opinion — British naval supremacy was never bet
ter assured than at the present moment. Even admitting
the combination of two of the three next naval Powers
(France, Germany, and the United States) to be con
ceivable, it is certain that any two of them would hesitate
to attack us, and it is more than probable that if they
did they would be defeated, even without the assistance
of our Japanese allies. The alleged alarm as to our
naval strength is therefore admittedly in regard to the
future, not in regard to the present. And here (to
digress for a moment) we may remark that agitations
have occurred in earher years when it was supposed that
some foreign Power or combination of Powers was
actually in a position to sweep us off the Channel, but
never before have we been invited to panic by prophecy.
Is there not something slightly absurd in alarm — not cal
culation, for that is justifiable enough, but alarm — about
our position in 1920? At any rate, it is clear that it is
the future which we are called on to consider.
In this connection two facts have to be remembered:
first, that we start in a position of security, and need
therefore be in no undue haste to build more ships;
secondly, that we are on the threshold of a new era in
naval construction, and can therefore not rest content
with the advantage which we secured in an era which is
passing away. The problem need not be comphcated
by a somewhat futile attempt to bring the existing and
the new ships of our own and foreign navies to a common
denominator; we must build new ships to meet new
ships, always, however, remembering that until the new
ships are in commission we have got plenty of the old
ones to fight with.
But here it is really impossible to avoid commenting

JONAH'S GOURD iii
on the gross insincerity of some recent attacks on the
, Admiralty. It was no doubt only to be expected that the
four ships of the Cawdor memorandum, which were ex
phcitly stated to be a maximum, should always be quoted
as a minimum by anyone who wishes to belabour the
present Board. But there is a further point which the
convenient shortness of the joumahstic memory has suf
fered to be overlooked. When the Cawdor memorandum
was issued, it was generally (though wrongly) assumed
that only two of the four ships would be battleships, and
two "armoured cruisers." And at that time the public
had certainly no idea what the "Invincible" Fast Battle
Cruiser type was hke, with its 6 knots superiority of
speed to everything afloat, and the biggest guns ahve.
The "Invincibles" are, as a matter of fact, perfectly fit
to be in line of battle with the battle fleet, and cotdd
more correctly be described as battleships which, thanks
to their speed, can drive anything afloat off the seas.
But this was not known, and the calculations generaUy
made in the Press added only two units per annum to our
battle fleet. Yet there was no outcry; that was reserved
to a later date, when it was beginning to be understood
that the "Invincibles" could be reckoned side by side
with the "Dreadnought," and it had been announced that
three new "Dreadnoughts," instead of two, were to be
laid down this winter. Surely the ways of the party
joumahst are past finding out.
In this connection it may be well also to make some
observations on the diminution by the authority of the
Board of programmes of shipbuilding already approved
by Parliament. The allegation that there is anything un
constitutional in the procedure may be left to the consti
tutional lawyer to pulverise. Probably aU that is usually
meant by the statement is that it is desirable to let Par-

112 RECORDS^
hament know of the change in the programme as soon
as convenient after it has been decided, and to this there
would usuaUy be no possible objection. But the idea
that, because Parliament has voted a certain sum of
money for the current year's programme, and certain
commitments for future years (a much more important
matter), therefore the Board is bound to build ships it
really does not want, is not only pernicious, but also
ridiculous in the extreme. The only legitimate ground
for complaint, if any, would be that the Board had misled
Parhament in the first instance by overestimating the
requirements. The Board are faced each summer with
the necessity of saying what they expect to have to lay
down 18 months later. This, of course, is prophecy.
Generally it is found to be pretty accurate, but the ad
vent of the new era in shipbuilding (which is principally
due to the lessons of the only big naval war of modern
times) has made prophecy more than usually difficult.
Moreover, if the matter is at aU in doubt, the prophet
has special inducements to select the higher rather than
the lower figure. Increase of a programme during a
given year will involve a supplementary estimate with
all its accompanying inconveniences. If on the other
hand it is found that the original programme was unnec
essarily extensive, it is a comparatively simple matter to
cut it down. It is best of course to have the right num
ber of new ships in the Navy Estimates; but it is next
best to have a number in excess of that ultimately re
quired, which can be pruned as requisite.
Let us repeat : sufficient unto the year is the shipbuild
ing thereof. Panic at the present time is stupid. The
Board of Admiralty is not to be frightened by paper pro
grammes. They will cautiously do all that they judge
necessary to secure the existing naval supremacy of this

JONAH'S GOURD 113
country: the moment that is threatened they will throw
caution to the winds and outbuild our rivals at aU costs.

H.M. Ships "Dreadnought" and "Invincible"
The accompanying papers ^ contain arguments in
support of the "Dreadnought" and "Invincible."
The features of these novel designs, which have been
most adversely criticised, are: —
1. The uniform Big Gun armament.
2. The great increase in speed.
It is admitted that strategically speed is of very great
importance. It enables the fleet or fleets possessing it to
concentrate at any desired spot as quickly as possible,
and it must therefore exercise an important influence on
the course of a naval war, rapid concentration being one
of the chief factors of success.
Many adverse critics of high speed maintain that it is
the weapon of the weaker Fleet, the only advantage con
ferred being the abUity to refuse an action by running
away: two cases may be cited from the actions of the
late war in the East showing the fallacy of this argument
and that the Japanese successes were solely due to a
command of speed.
In the battle of the 10th August, 1904, after the pre-
hminary manoeuvres, the Russian Admiral turned to the
eastward at 2:30 p.m. to escape to Vladivostok. The
Japanese Fleet was then on the starboard quarter of the
Russian and practically out of range. Captain Paken-
ham, the British Naval Attache, who was on board Ad
miral Togo's flagship, in his report, states that the
" 'TzsBsarevitch' (leading the Russian hne) was almost
*Not reprinted.

114 RECORDS
out of sight." A slightly superior speed in the Russian
line would have ensured their escape, but the excess of
speed lay with the Japanese and they slowly drew up
into range and reopened the action; but it was late in the
evening before they drew far enough ahead to concen
trate a heavy fire on the leader of the Russian line and so
break up their formation. When this was accomphshed
it was nearly dark and the Russians, though thrown into
confusion and beaten, were not destroyed, for the ap
proaching darkness and the destroyer threat necessitated
the Japanese Battle Fleet hauhng off, yet the retreat to
Vladivostok was prevented.
A higher speed in the Japanese hne would have
wrought confusion to the Russians earlier in the day, and
probably have allowed a sufficient period of dayhght for
their total destruction.
Again. At the opening of the Battle of the Sea of
Japan in May, the Japanese Fleet, due to skUful han
dling, held a commanding position, giving a concentra
tion of fire on the heads of the Russian hues. Had they
not possessed superior speed, the Japanese would rapidly
have lost this advantage, as the Russians turned away to
starboard and compeUed the Japanese to move along a
circle of larger radius; their greater speed enabled the
Japanese to maintain their advantage and so continue
the concentration of fire on the Russian van untU so
much damage had been infficted that the Russians lost aU
order and were crushed.
These, therefore, are two of the most convincing in
stances that could now be given, where speed was of
overwhelming tactical value to the victorious side, and
such evidence is unanswerable and is a justification of the
speeds adopted in the designs of the new ships.

JONAH'S GOURD 115
Defects and Repairs
[Lord Fisher found fruitful scope for his reforming
energy in the Royal dockyards, and was very keen on
making them efficient in working as well as economical
in administration. The former tendency had been for
ships to accumulate defects until they went into dock,
when their stay was accordingly prolonged, and the
longer they were in dockyard hands the more work was
provided for the officials and workmen, so that there was
a double incentive to spend money. In the following
memorandum. Lord Fisher insists that this drain upon
the hmited funds available for the Navy must stop, and
explains how the Admiralty meant to discriminate
between vessels which it was essential to keep thoroughly
efficient and others which were not worth any, or so much,
money for repairs. Elsewhere in this volume Lord Fisher
has shown how he got rid of 6,000 redundant dockyard
workmen.] The head has got to wag the tail. The tail sometimes
now wags the head. It is for the Admiralty, and the
Admiralty alone, to decide whether, how, or when the
defects and repairs of the Fleet are to be taken in hand.
The sole governing condition is what the Admiralty
require for fighting purposes! It is desirable to put an
extreme case to accentuate this: —
In the secrets of Admiralty Fighting Pohcy undesir
able to make known to our enemies there are certain ves
sels never going to be used for actual fighting, but they
serve an extremely useful purpose for subsidiary pur
poses. In such vessels there are defects and repairs of a
particular character that might stand over till Doomsday!
whilst there are other vessels where only defects affecting
purely seagoing and actuaUy direct fighting efficiency
should be attended to. AU this entirely depends on our
probable enemy and may vary from time to time, and

ii6 RECORDS
the sole judge can only be the Admiralty. But what it
is feared now obtains is a blind rushing at all defects and
repairs of all kinds and classes in all vessels. It is per
fectly natural that the Commander-in-Chief and Ad
mirals Superintendent may wish for the miUennium of
having aU their vessels perfect — but this cannot be.
What does it lead to? Extreme local pressure accen
tuated by Parhamentary action to enter more Dockyard
workmen. What does this mean? It means in some
recent cases that practically the upkeep of three cruisers
is swallowed up in pay to Dockyard workmen! No — ^the
Admiralty Pohcy is sound, consistent and irrefutable,
which is never to exceed the normal number of Dock
yard workmen as now fixed by the recent Committee, and
have such a great margin of Naval strength — such as we
now possess — as admits of a leisurely and economical re
fit of ships without extravagant overtime or inefficient
husthng of work. Therefore, what it comes to is this: —
The Admiralty decide what vessels they require first and
what defects and repairs in those vessels are most mate
rial, and they give orders accordingly. It is not the re
sponsibility of the local authorities at all to say that this
vessel or that vessel must be completed at once, for, as
before-mentioned, it may be that in the Admiralty
scheme of fighting those vess^els are not required at all.
The Controller has great difficulties to contend with
because he has not the free hand of a private employer
who can discharge or enter men just as he requires. To
get rid of a Dockyard workman involves agitation in
every direction — in Parhament, at the Treasury and lo
cally, and even Bishops throw themselves into the fray,
like the Bishop of Winchester at Portsmouth, instead of
looking after his own disorganised and mutinous Estab
lished Church. There is now a plethora of shipwrights

JONAH'S GOURD 117
at Chatham, because the Treasury will not allow their
transfer to other yards, and a paucity of boilermakers
because unwanted men occupy their places, and the scan
dal exists of men being entered at Devonport with men
having no work at Chatham. But, of course, this is one
of the blessings of Parliamentary Government, Treasury
Control, and a Free Press!
Where the special influence of the Commander-in-
Chief is desired by the Admiralty is to bring before them
cases where defects have not been dealt with in the initial
stages by the ship's artificers and so allowed to increase
as to necessitate Dockyard intervention. Such cases
would be drastically dealt with by the Admiralty if only
they could be informed of them, but there is an amiable
desire to avoid severe punishments, and the dire result is
that the zealous and efficient are on the same footing as
the incompetent and the careless who get more leave and
time with their friends because their vessels are longer in
Dockyard hands.
It is desired to give prominence to the following facts :
— It is a matter of everyday occurrence that vessels come
home from Foreign stations, often immense distances, as
from China or Austraha, and are inspected by the Com
mander-in-Chief on arrival home and reported thor
oughly efficient, and praise is given by the Admiralty
accordingly, and the full-power steam trial is conducted
with great care, and the mere fact of the vessel having
steamed home those thousands of miles is itself a mani
fest evidence of her propelling machinery being efficient,
and yet instantly after paying off we are asked to believe
that such a vessel instantly drops down to a totally in
capable condition of either seagoing or fighting efficiency,
by our being presented with a bill of thousands upon
thousands of pounds.

ii8 RECORDS
The attention of the Commanders-in-Chief of the
Home Ports and of the Admirals Superintendent wiU be
specially drawn to a new series of instructions which will
specificaUy detail their responsibility in carrjdng out the
orders of the Admiralty in regard to defects and repairs.
It is admitted that no comprehensive statement has as yet
been issued as to the order and urgency in which both
Fleet and Dockyard labour should be applied.
This statement is now about to be issued — ^it is based,
and can only be based, on the knowledge of what vessels
are most required for war at that particular time, and so
must emanate direct from the Admiralty, who alone can
decide on this matter. For instance, at this present mo
ment there are vessels, even in the first hne as some might
suppose, which would not be employed until the last re
sort, whilst there are others almost beheved to be out of
the fighting category which under certain present condi
tions might be required for the first blow. This fact
came so notably into prominence some months since that
it has led to the adoption of what may be termed the
"sliding scale" of nucleus crews, with the Torpedo craft
and Submarines at ahnost full complement down to the
vessels in "Special Reserve" with only a "skeleton" crew
capable of raising steam periodicaUy and working only
the heavy armament. So no local knowledge could de
termine from day to day which are the first vessels re
quired. This is changing from day to day and it is the
duty of the necessarily very few to determine the daily
fighting requirements. The ideal is for only one to know,
and the nearer this is adhered to the more likely are we to
surprise our enemies.

JONAH'S GOURD 119
The Use or the Gunboat
[The notes and letters which follow were prepared by
Lord Fisher in the course of his advocacy that the Navy
Estimates and the Service itself should not be saddled
with establishments not directly contributing to the fight
ing efficiency of the Fleet and its instant readiness for war.
Such services, he maintained, not only reduced the sum of
money available for the real work of the Navy, but con
stituted elements of weakness in the event of hostilities.
The first document concerns the maintenance of small
craft on foreign stations, on which a number of "gun
boats" were kept to fulfil duties for departments other
than the Admiralty. Lord Fisher differentiates between
vessels which the Board should rightly supply, and others
which had no naval value but were retained for duties
connected with the Foreign or Colonial Offices — for which,
if necessary, a proper fighting ship could be lent tempo
rarily and then returned to her squadron. The second
document deals with the Coastguard, which no longer
served the purpose of a reserve for the Navy, and which
had come to be mainly employed on duties connected with
revenue, hfe-saving, etc., although paid for out of Navy
Votes and employing Navy personnel. Thirdly, the Ad
miralty letter on Observatories shows that heavy expense
was borne upon naval funds for duties no longer neces
sary to the Royal Navy.]
In the Cawdor memorandum of last year (1905) will
be found an exposition of the Admiralty policy in this
matter, and attention may particularly be drawn to the
foUowing passage: —
"Gunboats, and aU vessels of like class, have been
gradually losing value except for definite purposes under
special conditions. As far as this country is concerned,
the very places consecrated as the sphere of gunboat
activity are those remote from the covering aid of large
ships. Strained relations may occur at the shortest no-

120 RECORDS
tice; the false security of the period of drifting imper
ceptibly into actual hostilities is proverbial, and the nerv
ous dread of taking any action that might even be con
strued into mere precautionary measures of defence,
which experience has shown to be one of the peculiar
symptoms of such a period, is apt to deprive these small
vessels of their last remaining chance of security by not
allowing them to faU back toward material support.
The broadcast use of gunboats in peace time is a marked
strategic weakness, and larger vessels can generally do
the work equaUy well, in fact far better, for they really
possess the strength necessary to uphold the prestige of
the flag they fly, whereas the gunboat is merely an ab
stract symbol of the power of the nation, not a concrete
embodiment of it.
"It might be thought that the withdrawal of the small
non-effective vessels and the grouping of fleets and squad
rons at the strategic positions for war involved the loss of
British prestige, and of the 'Showing the Flag' (as it was
termed) . But the actual fact is that never before in naval
history has there been a more universal display of sea
power than during this year by this country. The Chan
nel Fleet in the North Sea and Baltic receiving the cour
tesies of Holland, Denmark, and Germany; the Atlantic
Fleet at Brest; the Mediterranean Fleet at Algiers; the
Fourth Cruiser Squadron, consisting of five powerful
fighting vessels, now in the West Atlantic; a powerful
squadron of six of the finest armoured cruisers in the
world visiting Lisbon, Canada, Newfoundland, and
United States; a squadron of cruisers, under a Commo
dore, proceeding from Labrador to Cape Horn and back
by the coast of Africa, and two cruisers visiting the Pacific
Coast and the adjacent islands; the movements of the
Cape Squadron and of the Eastern Fleet in China, Aus-

JONAH'S GOURD 121
traha, and the Indian Ocean: so imposing and ubiquitous
a display of the flag and of naval power has never before
been attained by our own Navy."
The statement goes on to explain the special circum
stances — use in shallow inland waters, etc., etc., which
alone are held by the Admiralty to justify the use of gun
boats. This policy is from time to time impugned by people
who have no need to count the cost of the alternative pol
icy. Doubtless it would be convenient, as a temporary
emergency arises here or there over the surface of the
globe, if at that very spot some British cruiser or gunboat
promptly appeared ready to protect British interests, or
to sink in the attempt. Indeed, for some time this was
the ideal at which the Admiralty aimed. But since thq
redistribution of the Fleet the Empire has had to do
without the ubiquitous gunboat, and, if the truth be told,
scarcely seems to have missed it. There are one or two
valuable cases in point. For a long time the Foreign
Office, or rather the Ambassador at Constantinople,
pressed for the restoration of the second stationnaire. The
Admiralty sternly refused. The only noticeable result of
this dangerous policy so far has been that the French
have foUowed our example and withdrawn their second
vessel. An even more remarkable case occurred in Uruguay.
A poaching Canadian sealer had been captured by the
Uruguayan authorities, and language was used as if the
disruption of the Empire would follow a refusal on the
part of the Admiralty to liberate her crew by force. For
a time the Admiralty was practically in revolt against
H.M. Government, and then — everything blew over. The
dispute was settled by diplomatic action and the local
courts of law.

122 RECORDS
The question of the small vessel for police duties will
long be with us. Vice-Consuls and Resident Commission
ers will, no doubt, continue to act on the great principle:
When in doubt wire for a gunboat. The Foreign and
Colonial Offices, to whom the dispatch of a gunboat means
no more than persuading a gentleman in Whitehall to
send a telegram saying she is to go, will probably never
quite reahse why the gentleman should be so perverse as to
refuse. But the matter is really now a "chose jugee" ; the
Admiralty battle has been fought and won, and it only re
mains for the Admiralty to adhere to its principles and
dechne to give way simply for the sake of a quiet hfe.
Coast Guard June, 1906.
The Coast Guard Service was transferred from the
control of the Commissioners of Customs to that of the
Admiralty by the Coast Guard Service Act, 1856, in order
to make better provision for —
(i) The defence of the coasts of the realm;
,(u) The more ready manning of His Majesty's
Navy in case of war or sudden emergency;
(iii) The protection of the Revenue;
and there is little doubt that at that time the Coast Guard
force was required for these three purposes.
Since that date, however, these requirements have been
greatly modified by the great developments that have
taken place in steam, in electricity, and generaUy in the
conduct of Naval warfare, and also as regards the induce
ments and facilities for smuggling.
It is now considered that about 170 War Signal and
Wireless Telegraphy Stations in the United Kingdom
are sufficient to give warning of the approach of an

JONAH'S GOURD 123
enemy's ships, and that, as far as the use of the Coast
Guard for Coast Defence is concerned, the remaining 530
Stations and their personnel are quite unnecessary.
As an Active Service force the Coast Guard is far
from fulfilling modern fighting requirements, which are so
exacting that a man's efficiency depends upon his being
continuously associated with highly technical duties on
board ship, and employment in the Coast Guard {even
with the arranged periodical training in the Fleet) is
found to be inconsistent with these requirements.
Again, as a Reserve, though it fulfils the requirements
of such a force, yet its cost (largely due to the heavy
expense of housing the men and their famihes) is out of
all proportion to that at which the efficient Royal Fleet
Reserve can now be maintained.
The Coast Guard being treated as an Active Service
force in the Estimates, the numbers are included in the
number of men voted for the Fleet, and help to make up
the total of 129,000; but as the 4,000 Coast Guard men
are appropriated for duties away from the chief Naval
ports, they are not available for the ordinary work of the
Fleet, and the peace resources are correspondingly
reduced, while the extra charges for the Coast Guard tend
largely to increase the expense of maintaining the Active
Service force.
If, on the other hand, the Coast Guard be treated as
a Reserve only, the expense is still more disproportionate,
as, in comparison with the smaU retainers, charges for a
week's annual drill and small prospective pension, which
make up the whole expense entailed in the maintenance of
the Royal Fleet Reserve, there are the Full Pay, Victual
ling, Housing, and numerous miscellaneous allowances
and charges of a permanent force maintained in small
units under the most expensive conditions.

124 RECORDS
Therefore, the maintenance of the Coast Guard by the
Admiralty not only entails a reduction of the number of
highly-trained active service ratings in the Fleet at sea,
but also an unnecessarily large expenditure on a Reserve.
As regards the use of the Coast Guard for the protec
tion of the Revenue, the arrangements made when the
Coast Guard was transferred to the control of the Ad
miralty might now be considerably modified. A large pro
portion of the coast of the United Kingdom is still
patrolled nightly by the Coast Guard as a precaution
against smugghng, but looking to the increase in popula
tion and the number of towns and villages round the
coasts, the development of telegraphic communication,
and the great reduction in the inducements to smuggling,
this service seems to be no longer required; and some other
adequate arrangement for the protection of the Revenue
might be made by a small addition to the present Customs
Force, assisted by the local Police, in addition to the watch
still kept at those Coast Guard Stations which would be
maintained as Naval Signal Stations.
Even in the cases in which the existing Coast Guard
may be considered to afford valuable protection to the
Revenue, it must be remembered that in case of War or
for Great Manoeuvres, the men would be withdrawn to
the Fleet from aU stations except the Naval War Signal
Stations. In any case the employment of highly-trained seamen
to perform simple police duties on shore cannot be justi
fied, and the expense is much greater than it would be
were a civihan force to be employed.
Certain other duties, principaUy in connection with life-
saving and wrecks, under the Board of Trade, have also
been undertaken by the Coast Guard; but these, however
valuable, do not constitute a raison d'etre for the Coast

JONAH'S GOURD 125
Guard, and it is quite feasible to make adequate local
arrangements for carrying out these services, should the
Coast Guard be removed. No more striking illustration
of the feasibility of this can be given than the National
Lifeboat Organisation, and to that body, aided perhaps
by a Government grant, these services could, no doubt,
be easily, economically, and efficiently transferred.
Owing to the growing naval armaments of other
Nations, and the consequent necessary increase in the
Navy, the Admiralty has found it necessary carefully to
consider the whole question of the expenditure under the
Naval Votes in order to eliminate therefrom any services
which are unnecessary from the point of view of immedi
ate readiness and efficiency for war. About £1,000,000
of the Naval Votes is diverted to services which only
indirectly concern the Navy, and are not material to the
fighting efficiency of the Service. Of this about half
(£500,000) is annually absorbed by the Coast Guard.
From a Naval point of view the greater part of this
heavy annual expenditure is wholly unnecessary, and it
is also very doubtful, from what has been before pointed
out, whether for Revenue purposes a force such as the
Coast Guard is now required; while if it be still required
in certain localities, it would be more economical to replace
the present expensive Naval detachments by a Civihan
service. By such a transfer the whole of the present
expense of training men as a fighting force would be saved
and there would be no deterioration in an important part
of the Naval active personnel such as is now inevitable.
There can be no comparison between the cost of a
Revenue force and that of a Naval force, the cost of Naval
training, which is very considerable, being dispensed with
in the former case. Therefore, there is no doubt that,
from the point of efficiency and economy, the substitution

126 RECORDS
of civilians for Naval ratings would be a great saving to
the State. Observatories 21st August, 1906.
In the past Greenwich Observatory has been of great
importance to the Navy, inasmuch as all the data neces
sary for the navigation of ships by astronomical observa
tion have been compiled there. The testing of chro
nometers has been carried out at Greenwich since their
invention in 1762, while the Cape Observatory was insti
tuted in 1820 in order to supply data concerning Southern
stars not visible from Greenwich.
In recent years, however, the familiarity with Ocean
routes that has been attained, the greatly extended area
of coast surveys, and the admirable system of hghts and
beacons established throughout the navigational zones of
the world, have in the course of years caused the work of
the Observatories to become of less importance to practical
navigation, and more a matter of scientific research. The
photographic mapping of the heavens, by which stars
invisible to the naked eye are discovered, is not a necessity
to navigation, nor to the Naval Service.
At the present time, therefore, it may be said that the
only work done by the Observatories which is directly use
ful to the Navy is the testing and storing of chronometers ;
observing the astronomical changes connected with the
heavenly bodies for the purpose of obtaining data for the
correction of the Nautical Almanack; supplying accurate
time for time signals and meridian distance work, and
taking magnetic observations.
This sphere of usefulness is not of advantage to the
Navy alone. The Mercantile Marine derives equal benefit
from the work of the Observatories. Greenwich time is

JONAH'S GOURD 127
indispensable to Railway Companies to enable them to
work their complicated systems with accuracy, and it is
equaUy indispensable to the Postal Authorities for the
proper working of every post and telegraph office in the
Kingdom. Although the staff of the Observatories is
very largely occupied upon services of this public char
acter, neither the Board of Trade, nor Lloyd's, nor the
various Mercantile Shipping Associations, nor the Rail
way Companies, nor the General Post Office, have made
any contribution towards their cost, whUe, on the other
hand, in one case, that of the Post Office, the Admiralty
is charged with a heavy annual payment for postal and
telegraphic communications. The London Water Com
panies are greatly assisted by the Greenwich rainfall
observations, but they pay nothing for them, neither do
they supply the Admiralty with water gratuitously.
It is fitting that the British Empire should possess a
National Observatory, but it is not equitable that Naval
funds should bear the whole expense.
When criticism is directed against the magnitude of
the Navy Estimates, it rarely happens that the critic takes
the trouble to ascertain of what Items the Votes are made
up; on the other hand, money voted for the Royal Ob
servatories is passed by the House without much question,
because it happens to form part of Estimates which are of
such great magnitude.
The present procedure tends therefore to obscure the
actual sum total of the Navy Estimates, and at the same
time it prevents the apphcation to the Royal Observa
tories of the same Parhamentary criticism which is applied
to the CivU Service Estimates.

CHAPTER IX
NAVAL PROBLEMS
[The three privately printed volumes entitled "Naval Necessi
ties," 1904, 1905, and 1906, contain papers written or collected by
Sir John Fisher, as Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth and as First
Sea Lord of the Admiralty, bearing upon the Naval Reforms which
he then introduced or contemplated. The following selections from
these papers tell their own story.]
Sir John Fisher to Lord Selborne, First Lord of
the Admiralty
Dear Lord Selborne, . . .
You remember you glanced through some manuscript
in my office at Portsmouth the day you embarked in
"Enchantress," and I gathered that you saw much in them
that commended itself to you. WeU! having thus more
or less got a favourable opinion from you, I elaborated
that manuscript which you had read, and printed it with
my confidential printer; . . . then I gave it secretly to
the five best brains in the Navy below the rank of Ad
miral to thresh out; and associated two other brains for
the consideration of the types of future fighting vessels;
then I selected out of those seven brains the one with the
most facile pen and . . . said to him : "Write a calm and
dispassionate precis for me to give the First Lord." You
may be confident (as confident as I know you are) that
the First Sea Lord won't ever sell you! that these seven
brains may be absolutely relied upon for secrecy. I have
tested each of them for many years!
These are the seven brains: Jackson, F.R.S., Jellicoe,
C.B., Bacon, D.S.O., Madden, M.V.O., Wilfred Hender-
128

NAVAL PROBLEMS 129
son (who has all the signs of the Zodiac after his name!),
associated with Gard, M.V.O., Chief Constructor of
Portsmouth Dockyard, and who splendidly kept the
Mediterranean Fleet efficient for three years, and Gracie,
the best Marine Engineer in the world!
This is the "modus operandi" I suggest to you. If
these proposals in their rough outline commend them
selves to you and our colleagues on the Board, then let
me have these seven, assisted by Mr. Boar (who is a mole
in the Accountant-General's Department — you know of
him only by upheavals of facts and figures!) , and secretly
these eight will get out a detailed statement supported by
facts and figures for consideration before we take a step
further! . . .
Please now just a few words of explanation at the
possibly apparent (but in no ways real) slight put on
those at the Admiralty who might be thought the right
persons to conduct these detailed inquiries instead of the
eight brains I've mentioned!
In the first place, any such heavy extraneous work
(such as is here involved) means an utter dislocation of
the current work of the Admiralty if carried out by the
regular Admiralty staff! and as any such extraneous
work must of necessity give place to any very pressing
current work, then the extraneous work doesn't get done
properly — so both suffer! — ^But further! these seven other
spirits (not more wicked than any of those at the Ad
miralty!) will be absolutely untrammelled by any remarks
of their own in the official records in the Admiralty, and
will not be cognisant (and so not influenced!) by the past
written official minutes of the High and Mighty Ones,
and so we shall get the directness and unfettered can
dour that we desire! (Parenthesis: — A most distin
guished man at the War Office used to think he had
gained his point and blasted the Admiralty by collecting
extracts 20 years old with opposing decisions! absolutely
regardless that what is right to-day may be wrong to
morrow! but he traded on what we all dislike — the charge
of inconsistency! — Why! the two most inconsistent men

130 RECORDS
who ever lived, the two greatest men who ever hved and
the two most successful men who ever lived, were Nelson
and Napoleon!)
Nelson most rightly said that no sailor could ever be
such a bom ass as to attack forts with ships {he was ab
solutely right), and then he went straight at them at Co
penhagen. Napoleon said, "L'audace, I'audace, toujours
I'audace!" and then he went and temporised at Warsaw
for three solid weeks (was it a Polish Countess?), and so
got ruined at Moscow in consequence of this delay.
Circumstances alter cases! That's the answer to the
charge of inconsistency. So please let us have this ex
cellent and unparalleled small working Committee to
thresh out all these details (when the general outlines have
been considered), but this very special point will no doubt
be borne in mind : — "Until you have these details how can
you say you approve of the outline?" So what has to be
said finally is that if the facts and figures corroborate
what is sketched out, then the proposals can be considered
for adoption, so the ultimate result is this: — "Let the
Committee get on at once." J. A. FiSHEB.
19/10/04.
Main Principles of Scheme
Future Types of Fighting Vessels
Four classes only of fighting vessels.
Uniform armament (except torpedo attack guns) in
aU classes of fighting vessels.
Inviolate watertight bulkheads.
Subdivision of magazines.
Protection of magazines.
Abohsh Ram.
No guns on main deck (so splendid light and airy
accommodation for officers, and crew, with huge square
ports and magnificent deck space).
Reduction of all weights and scantlings.

NAVAL PROBLEMS 131
"Out of Date" Fighting Ships
Removal as soon as possible of aU "out of date" ships
(that is, ships unfit for fighting).
To abolish graduaUy the employment of all slow
vessels below 1st Class Armoured Cruisers.
To substitute efficient fighting vessels with nucleus
crews for all the stationary obsolete vessels now in com
mission, and also for all the training vessels and all the
Coastguard Cruisers. Revision of Stations
South Atlantic, West Indies, and Cape to form a
squadron under chief command of the Admiral of the
Cape Station, who will be a Vice- Admiral in the future
with three Rear-Admirals under him.^
The Commander-in-Chief in China to have the chief
command and strategic handhng of the squadrons in
China, Austraha, East Indies, and Pacific. He can be a
full Admiral with two Vice-Admirals and two Rear-
Admirals under him. The object is to employ Flag Offi
cers as mv^h as possible at sea.
Effective Cruisers to be substituted for the present
varying types of vessels forming all these squadrons.
Personnel
Reduction in entry of Boys, and increase of entry of
Non-continuous Service Men and of "Northampton" lads.
Introduction of new system of Reserve (long service
tempered by short service!)
Nucleus Crews
Two-yearly commissions to be instituted, and with no
material change of officers and men during the two years.
There are two alternative schemes which may possibly be preferred to this.

132 RECORDS
All the fighting vessels in Reserve to have an efficient
nucleus crew of approximately two-fifths of the full crew,
together with all important Gunnery ratings as well as the
Captain of the ship and the principal Officers.
The periodical exercise and inspection of the ships by
the responsible Flag Officer who will take them to the war.
This Flag Officer will suffer for any want of efficiency
and preparation for war of these vessels. These vessels
to be collected in squadrons at Portsmouth, Pljrmouth,
and Chatham, according to the Station to which they are
going as the reinforcements. Signals
Revision of our methods of Signalling to be based on
the class of Signals that will be used in war.
To abolish all systems and all Signals that are only of
use in peace time.
The Signal and Exercise Books of the Fleet to be
ruthlessly revised and cut down with this in view.
The present establishment of Signalmen on board all
vessels to be reduced to the numbers that are necessary in
war (present system of superabundance of Signalmen
embarked in Flagships criminally wrong) .
Defence of Naval Ports
Modern conditions necessitate certain floating defences
requiring seamen to manipulate them. Soldiers appar
ently can't do it!
Divided control of defence of Naval Ports impossible
between Navy and Army.
Admiralty must have sole responsibility that all our
Naval Arsenals are kept open for egress and ingress of
our Fleet in war.

NAVAL PROBLEMS 133
Local defences should, therefore, apparently be under
the Naval Commander-in-Chief.
But all these arrangements for any such transfer of
responsibihty from War Office to Admiralty must be so
planned as to obviate all possibility of Fleet men being
used for shore work in war, and there must be no risk of
lessening the sea experience of the officers and men of the
Fleet; hence it will be imperative that there should be an
entire transference of the whole of the Garrison Artillery
from Army to Navy, as well as the responsibility for aU
ordnance. AU this involves so immense an addition to the respon-
sibihties of the Admiralty, apart from the one chief func
tion of the Navy of seeking out and fighting the enemy's
fleets, that we have to hesitate ; but we can't let matters go
on as at present.
Notes by Sir John Fisher on New Proposals
Organisation for War
"If the Trumpet give an uncertain sound, wha shall
prepare himself to the battle?"
(St. Paul, I Corinthians, xiv. 8.)
The object of the foUowing remarks is to make clear
what has now to be done to organise and prepare for war.
What are the two great essentials?
I. The Sufficiency of Strength and the Fighting Effi
ciency of the Fleet.
II. Absolute Instant Readiness for War.
To get these two essentials an immense deal is
involved ! It is believed they can both be got with a great
reduction in the Navy Estimates!
This reduction, combined with an undeniable increase
in the fighting efficiency of the Navy, involves great
changes and depends absolutely on one condition: —

134 RECORDS
The Scheme herein shadowed forth must be adopted as a
whole! Simply because all portions of it are absolutely essen
tial — and it is all so interlaced that any tampering wiU be
fatal! The country wiU acclaun it! the income-tax payer will
worship it! the Navy will growl at it! (they always do
growl at first!)
But we shall be Thirty per cent, more fit to fight and we
shall be ready for instant war!
and in time when we get rid of our redundancies in useless
ships and imnecessary men it wiU probably be 30 per cent.
cheaper! The outhne of the various proposals wUl first be given.
No one single point must be taken as more important than
another. Each is part of a whole; as St. Paul well
observes in the xii. Chapter of the I Corinthians : —
"The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of
thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem
to be more feeble, are necessary."
So is it of this scheme ! All its parts are essential for the
perfection we must have if England is to remain the
"Mistress of the Seas" !
The British Nation floats on the British Navy! So we
must have no doubt whatever about its fighting supremacy
and its instant readiness for war! To ensure this and at
the same time to effect the economy which the finances of
the country render imperative there must be drastic
changes ! To carry these out we must have the three R's !
We must be Ruthless, Relentless, Remorseless ! We must
tell interested people whose interests are going to be
ignored that what the Articles of War have said since the
time of Queen Elizabeth is truer than ever!

NAVAL PROBLEMS 135
"It is the Navy whereon under the good providence
of God, the wealth, peace, and safety of this country doth
chiefly depend!"
If the Navy is not supreme, no Army however large
is of the shghtest use. It's not invasion we have to fear
if our Navy is beaten.
It's Starvation!
What's the good of an army if it has got an empty
beUy? In Mr. John Morley's famous and splendid words
at Manchester on November 8th, 1893: "Everybody
knows. Liberals as well as Tories, that it is indispensable
that we should have not only a powerful Navy, but I may
say, an all-powerful Navy." And when we have that —
then History may repeat itself, and Mahan's glorious
words will be applicable in some other great national
crisis! the finest words and the truest words in the English
language !
"Nelson's far-distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which
the Grand Army never looked, stood between it and the
dominion of the world." — (Mahan, Vol. II. , page 118.)
And the Navy must always so stand! Supreme —
unbeaten! So we must have no tinkering! No pander
ing to sentiment! No regard for susceptibilities ! No pity
for anyone! We must be Ruthless, Relentless, and
Remorseless! And we must therefore have The Scheme!
The Whole Scheme!! And Nothing But The Scheme!!!
Just let us take one instance as an illustration of a
mighty reform (lots more will follow later, but the sledge
hammer comes in handy here!). During the 12 months
ending June 30th, 1904 (this last month!) the ships of
the Home Fleet, the Channel Fleet, and the Cruiser
Squadron were in Portsmouth Dockyard for over 30 per
cent, of the year! Disorganised and unfit for sea! See
what this means! A battleship costs over £100,000 a year

136 RECORDS
for its up-keep, irrespective of repairs, but it's not the
money waste! it's the efficiency waste!
Every day those Fleets and Squadrons are not
together, they are deteriorating!
It is only human nature that when in Portsmouth
Dockyard, from the Admiral downwards, all are hanker
ing after their homes! and somehow or other they get
there! the fictions are endless and ingenious, and extend
from "the cradle to the grave!" From an unexpected
confinement to the serious illness of an aged relative!
(nearly always a grandmother! and the baby is always
the first one!)
What is the remedy?
It's Nelsonic — and so simple !
Nelson could not leave Toulon with all his Fleet for
nearly four months out of the year! No! he stayed i;here
for two years without putting foot on shore! What he
did was to send one or two ships away at a time to get
provisions and water, and to effect any needed repairs.
Let us do the same ! We want a fixed base for each Fleet
(and so fixed for war reasons). Thus, for example, the
Channel Fleet at Gibraltar, the Home Fleet at Bantry,
or the Forth, and so on. But this is going into unneces
sary detail, and anticipating other parts of the scheme
which must be adopted to make this work! Thus it will
be seen later on that to enable this great economy in
money to be effected {putting aside increase of fighting
efficiency!), we must have two years' commissions! But
we can't have two years' commissions unless we have fewer
ships in commission! But we can't have fewer ships in
commission unless we have a redistribution of our Fleet!
But we can't have a redistribution of our Fleet until we
rearrange our strategy! and this strategy, strange to say,
depends on our reserves, and our reserves depend on a

NAVAL PROBLEMS 137
fresh aUocation of our personnel, and on a fresh system of
service. We mu^t have the new scheme of Long Service
tempered by Short Service! And this again largely hangs
on the types of fighting ships we are going to have ! But
what is the type of ship? Not one that goes to the bottom
in two minutes from the effect of one torpedo, and drowns
nearly a thousand men, and takes three years to replace,
and costs over a million sterling! How many types do we
want? This is quite easy to answer if we make up our
minds how we are going to fight! Who has made up his
mind? How many of our Admirals have got minds?
It will be obvious then that the whole of this business
is a regular case of "the house that Jack built," for one
thing f oUows on another, they are all interlaced and inter
dependent! That's why it was said to begin with : —
The Scheme! The Whole Scheme!! And Nothing
but the Scheme!!!
One essential feature which has been overlooked must
be mentioned before going further because imperatively
necessary to ensure instant readiness for war, but it hangs
on all the other points previously mentioned and which are
going to be examined in detail.
The reduction in the number of ships in commission
which is as necessary for fighting efficiency {when the
whole Navy is mobilised for war) as it is conducive to an
immense economy must be accompanied by and associated
with two vital requisites:
I. Every fighting ship in reserve must have a nucleus
crew. IL The reinforcements for the fighting fleets and
squadrons must be collected together while in the reserve
at the most convenient ports and be placed under the Flag
Officer, who will take them to their war stations, and this

138 RECORDS
Flag Officer to understand he will be shot like a dog in
case of any inefficiency in these ships in war.
Unless this is carried out the great strategic scheme in
contemplation could not be entertained nor could the num
ber of ships in commission be reduced as is absolutely
essential for the efficiency of those in reserve, not on the
score of economy at all, but the reduction of ships in com
mission is imperative for the fighting efficiency of the
whole fleet when mobilised.
So we thus get one more illustration of the inter
dependence of aU portions of the scheme and beg again
to refer to St. Paul as previously quoted.
It is convenient here to mention that the paucity of
efficient Admirals is a most serious matter, and wiU prob
ably compel the manufacture of Commodores or of Acting
Admirals under a resuscitated Order-in-CouncU. The
least capable in the respective ranks of the Navy are the
Admirals. It's not their own fault solely; they have had
no education, and this blot wiU continue tiU we have a
Naval War College established at Portsmouth, and Flag
Officers and Captains, hoping for employment, can prac
tically prove their capacity by manoeuvring two fleets of
destroyers against each other. This will be much cheaper
and less risky to the Empire than their manoeuvring with
the big ships. Experiments on the scale of 12 inches to a
foot are not economical!
Mr. Childers was our Attila! He was the "scourge"
of the Navy in many ways, but most of aU by his dis
astrous and frightfully costly retirement schemes. The
secret of efficiency lies in large lists of Officers! You have
then a large field of selection, and a great flow of promo
tion, and also no Officer considers it a stigma to be passed
over in company with forty others, and so not to pose as a
sohtary monument of ineptitude as he appears at present

NAVAL PROBLEMS 139
to himself and his friends when passed over with the pres
ent smaU hsts of Flag Officers.
Also "Selection by non-employment" goes so easily
with large hsts (and with large lists is accepted as a neces
sity, and not resented as a personal affront!) .
Purging the Navy of Obsolete Vessels
Out of 193 ships at present in commission (not count
ing destroyers) organised in fleets, 63 only are of such
calibre as not to cause an Admiral grave concern if
allowed to wander from the protection of larger ships.
There are among these several ships which should be paid
off as soon as possible, being absolutely of no fighting
value. And there are, further, several ships having trained
naval crews doing the work usuaUy performed by small
merchant tramps. Further still, there are in our Home
Ports many ships taking up valuable berthing space, re
quiring maintenance and repair, which never under any
circumstances whatever would be used in war time.
The above useless vessels being in commission means
awful waste of money.
Every ship that has defects taken in hand, and which
would not be of use in war, is a waste of money to the
country. Of course objections will be raised, and it wUl be
shown that the Navy cannot be run without them, but
wipe them out, and in a year no one will remember that
they ever existed.
It is well to review generally our distant stations and
the composition of their squadrons.
The Navy and the country have grown so accustomed
to the territorial nomenclature of our distant squadrons
Jthat their connection with the sea is considerably obscured.

140 RECORDS
and their association with certain lands has led to a tacit
belief that those particular squadrons are for the protec
tion of the lands they frequent, and not generally for the
destruction of the enemy's fleet wherever it may happen
to be. Of course no such idea is accepted by the Ad
miralty, but, in spite of the broad principles of strategy in
volved, certain fleets are composed largely with a view to
work in restricted waters, which vessels would be a source
of danger and weakness on the sudden outbreak of war
with a combination of Powers.
Take the combination of ships on each of the following
stations: North America, Cape of Good Hope, East
Indies, and Australia. Remember the "Variag." What
happened in the smaU area of the theatre of operations in
the present war will be repeated in the larger theatre of
operations of a conffict of European Powers when the
whole world will be involved. What wiU happen to our
"Odins," "Redbreasts," "Fantomes," "Dwarfs," etc.? aye!
and what wiU happen to our "Scyllas," "Katoombas," and
"Hyacinths," if caught sight of by first class cruisers of
modern armament on foreign stations?^ Lucky if they
can reach a neutral port, disarm, and have their crews
interned for the remainder of the war. Lucky, indeed, if
a far worse fate does not befall them. At all events, such
wholesale scattering of the British foreign fleets would
lead to irreparable loss of prestige among the smaller
States where these httle vessels were usually located.
Now is there any necessity for such numbers of useless
fighting ships? Cannot more efficient classes be substi
tuted for them, or, at all events, some of them?
What we have to face is the probability of a serious
combination of strong Powers against us, for then we will
be unable to spare two first class cruisers to go in search
'The "Pegasus" was massacred at Zanzibar by the Germans! — ^F. 1919.

NAVAL PROBLEMS 141
of individual enemy's first class cruisers, who, if not
caught, may sweep round and lick up or force into neu
tral ports all our inefficient small fry.
Surely the three Atlantic squadrons should be of such
strength as to be able to rendezvous and form a fieet more
or less absolutely self -protective, to say nothing of being
offensive. Such a squadron, under one Admiral in war
time, would be an effective Atlantic squadron, and would
protect our interests by holding the ocean against enemy's
cruisers. Such squadrons can be formed without increasing the
personnel of the Navy, and, moreover, the crews would
be in ships that would be used in war instead of being
in "floating anxieties."
Now for the present, sufficient cruisers, first class, do
not exist to meet the requirements of supplying ships to
take the place of smaUer obsolete ones, and also for
reserve purposes.
For the present a large proportion of cruisers, second
class, must be retained, but it is hoped that these will in
time be replaced by cruisers, first class, in the proportion
of one cruiser, first class, to three cruisers, second or third
class. No one can argue that one first class cruiser is not
a superior fighting unit to three cruisers second or third
class. Also one defect list instead of three !
If it should be insisted on that certain ports require
certain smaU vessels, then they should be earmarked for
that purpose, and only such places be recognised which
larger vessels cannot frequent, such as the rivers on the
West Coast of Africa (our territory), shallow rivers in
China where no question of neutrality can arise, or special
places of this nature. It should be overwhelmingly proved
to the satisfaction of the Admiralty that essential condi
tions necessitate the presence of useless fighting ships

142 RECORDS
before they relax their efforts to have such useless ships
removed. It should be accepted as a principle that the great aim
and object of the Admiralty is to have nothing floating
on the waters except the four fundamental types of fight
ing vessels, and that (for the present) lack of ships of
the necessary classes prevents this being realised, but that
as the dehvery of ships takes place, the substitution wUl
automatically foUow.
The Foreign Office will in time be bound to recognise
the real efficiency of the scheme, even if a consul is robbed
of the shadow of support of a gunboat under his window,
but has the substantial strength of a first class cruiser
substituted at the end of a telegraph wire.
The danger that is eternally present to the Navy is
over confidence in our preparedness for war.
The chief cause of unpreparedness for war is want of
appreciation of the cumulative effect of daUy smaU
changes in our ships and armament on the whole question
of strategy and shipbuilding.
Changes have slipped so gradually from wooden sail
ing ships through slow steam iron vessels to our present
splendid ships of war that the tendency has always been to
subordinate our strategy to our ship construction, rather
than to mould our war ship design to suit our strategy.
Strategy should govern the types of ships to be
designed. Ship design, as dictated by strategy, should govern
tactics. Tactics should govern details of armaments.
In approaching the important question of ship design
the first essential is to divest our minds totally of the idea
that a single type of ship as now built is necessary, or even-
advisable, then to consider the strategic use of each differ-

NAVAL PROBLEMS 143
ent class, especiaUy weighing the antagonistic attributes
of nominally similar classes in the old wars.
To commence with the battleship.
The sole reason for the existence of the old line of
battleship was that that ship was the only vessel that could
not be destroyed except by a vessel of equal class. This
meant that a country possessing the largest number of
best equipped battleships could lay them alongside the
enemy, or off the ports where the enemy were. Trans
ports with the escort of a few battleships could then pro
ceed to make oversea conquests. Squadrons of battle
ships or cruisers escorting the convoy of merchant ships
and keeping the hne of communications open. In each case
the battleship, being able to protect everything it had
under its wing from any smaller vessel, was the ultimate
naval strength of the country. Then it was that, by means
of the battleship only, was the command of the sea gained
and held. Let us be quite clear on the matter, it was solely
from the fact that the battleship was unassailable by any
vessel except a battleship that made the command of the
sea by battleships a possibility!
Hence battleships came to symbolise naval sea
strength and supremacy. For this reason battleships have
been built through every change of construction and
material, although by degrees other vessels not battleships
have arisen which can attack and destroy them.
Here, therefore, there is good ground for inquiry
whether the naval supremacy of a country can any longer
be assessed by its battleships. To build battleships merely
to fight enemy's battleships, so long as cheaper craft can
destroy them, and prevent them of themselves protecting
sea operations, is merely to breed Kilkenny cats unable to
catch rats or mice. For fighting purposes they would be

144 RECORDS
excellent, but for gaining practical results they would be
useless. This at once forces a consideration as to how a battle
ship differs from an armoured cruiser. Fundamentally
the battleship sacrifices speed for a superior armament
and protective armour. It is this superiority of speed
that enables an enemy's ships to be overhauled or evaded
that constitutes the real difference between the two. "^t
the present moment naval experience is not sufficiently
ripe to abolish totally the building of battleships so long as
other countries do not do so.
But it is evidently an absolute necessity in future con
struction to make the speed of the battleship
approach as nearly as possible that of the armoured
cruiser.x
Next consider the case of the armoured cruiser.
In the old days the frigate was the cruiser, she was
unarmoured, that is, her sides were so much thinner than
those of the battleship that she was not able to fight in the
line of battle, but the weak gun fire of those days per
mitted close scouting by such unprotected vessels; she
could approach a battleship squadron very closely without
fear of damage, she could sail round a fleet and count their
numbers without danger to herself, unless chased off by
other frigates, she was a scout and a commerce destroyer.
Similarly with present day armoured cruisers, they can
force their way up to within sight of a fleet, and observe
them, unless chased off by other armoured cruisers, but to
do this they have to be given a certain amount of pro
tective armour.
The range of eyesight has remained constant, that of
gunfire has increased. Speed is a necessity to ensure
safety, armour protection to ensure vision.
It is evident, from the above considerations, that the

NAVAL PROBLEMS 145
functions of the frigate have devolved on the armoured
cruiser to a greater extent than have the functions of the
line of battleship devolved on the modern battleship.
But how about the xmarmoured cruisers and those of
low speed?
With loss of protection a cruiser loses her power of
reasonable approach for observation purposes, and if to
this be added a loss of reasonable speed her safety is gone.
Cruisers without high speed and protection are entirely
and absolutely useless.
Every vessel that has not high scouting speed, or the
highest defensive and offensive powers, is useless for fight
ing purposes.
This is true of every class of vessel between the first
class armoured cruiser and the fast torpedo vessel.
Nucleus Crews
It is impossible to exaggerate the vital importance to
the nation of having all the reserve ships absolutely ready
for instant war.
Our reserve ships, as they are now, are not, and cannot
be made really efficient fighting units under several
months of commission. There is no doubt that great
strides towards rapid mobilisation have been made of late
years, but merely to hustle a complement of the required
ratings into a ship is not to make her a really efficient
fighting machine.
The keystone of our preparedness for war has now to
be inserted, namely, the provision of efficient nucleus
crews. This can be done to-morrow
A nucleus crew should consist of approximately two-
fifths of her engine-room complement, the whole of her

146 RECORDS
turret crews, gun layers and sight-setters for aU gims, all
important special ratings, and two-fifths of her normal
crew, her captain, and aU important officers.
The ship can proceed haff-yearly, or quarter^ , as may
be required, to sea with her fighting ship's company to
carry out firing exercises, or to work under the Admiral
or Commodore who will command her and her consorts in
war, and be as nearly perfectly efficient as any ship, not
always at sea, can be.
No more men above our present requirements need be
entered, training in gunnery and torpedo schools need not
be interfered with, and a saving of money to the taxpayer
effected. Subsidiary Services of War
We are now busUy engaged in perfecting each and aU
of these subsidiary services; but they are not yet perfect.
In some important respects we are as yet far from it
(Rome was not buUt in a day!), but we now emphasise
the fact in order that matters may be pushed on by aU
concerned, from the Prime Minister downwards, with the
utmost energy and vigour!
The items are not taken in the order of their relative
importance, but for convenience of argument.
There is the service of aU the auxiliary vessels of the
Fleet for supplying coal, ammunition, stores, provisions,
water, materials for repairs, &c., and also the multitudes
of fast mercantUe vessels we require as Scouts ; and there
is also the nature of the employment of the armed mer
cantile cruisers to be settled. AU these points have been
carefully considered in the past, but in aU and every one
of them there is that most deadly of aU deadly drawbacks
to fighting readiness, the leaving certain things to be dealt
with "when the time comes." The time wiU come hke the

NAVAL PROBLEMS 147
Day of Judgment! There won't be time for doing any
thing, not even for repentance! We must go to the very
utmost hmit of preparedness, not one little item must be
left to be dealt with "when the time comes." We want aU
these vessels, without any exception whatever, to be as
ready for a sudden emergency as is now the main Fighting
Fleet! So therefore, day by day, we must know by name
each vessel for every service, and the orders for every
captain of every single one of this multitude of mercantile
auxiharies must be prepared, and he (each several cap
tain) must thoroughly understand these orders before
hand ; they must be explained to him by "one who knows,"
and when that captain leaves England for his next trade
voyage* (and his ship is therefore no longer avaUable),
then the operation must be repeated with the captain of
the substituted vessel ! It must be laid down where every
ship is to load^ what route she is to foUow, what eventuali
ties she has to guard against! All, and together, must be
detailed and day by day kept perfect!
Again, who are the officers at every port superintend
ing the imparting of this information every day of the
year, to the daUy fresh captains of daily fresh ships, re
placing others daily, going on their usual trade voyages?
Who is the Flag Officer in supreme charge of aU these
superintending Port Officers? What are the names of the
retired Commissioned or Warrant Officers who may be
allocated to take passage in aU the more important aux-
ihary vessels? such, for instance, and above aU, as the
Ammunition and Repair ships, so as to ensure the proper
control and distribution of the cargo, as well as the efficient
and prompt action of the ship herself, to be at the right
place at the right time. Every Commander-in-Chief must
know in minute detaU every particular about every one of
these vessels that are coming to him. He must know it

148 RECORDS
now. He must know it day by day! He must have his
own agent at home to look after his interests and to be
responsible to him (the Commander-in-Chief) for the
completeness of all the arrangements, — if not complete,
then this agent must report the Superintending Port Offi
cers for their incompetency.
AU this scheme above sketched out may involve im
mense labour and great expense, but it has got to be done!
Not a bit of use having the Fleet at all if you don't feed
it, and also feed it well !
Quite as a separate service, apart from aU that has
been mentioned above, is the dissemination of intelhgence
and its suppression.
We must not (as has been hitherto accepted) permit
the splendid costly fighting vessels of the Fleet to be crimi-
naUy wasted by being sent here and there as messengers!
Fast unarmoured mercantile steamers must constitute the
squadrons of the Sea Intelhgence Department, and
instead of our Admirals running after information with
costly armoured cruisers, we must run after the Admirals
with the information, with easily obtainable cheap (be
cause non-fighting), fast mercantile vessels.
All this is but a brief review of what is in progress
and what has to be done, but there remains above all that
daily consideration at the Admiralty, and by every Ad
miral in command, of what would have to be done that
very day in case of war, with the most unexpected, as well
as the most expected, opponent!
A Retrospect (July, 1906)
The most striking fact to an outsider is the astonishing
confidence and loyalty of the Navy in its rulers which has
been exhibited during the last two years of relentless
reorganisation.

NAVAL PROBLEMS 149
Naval Officers, as a class, are conservative and dislike
change, and as a rule are prepared to resist it. The man
ner in which the recent changes have been received, root
and branch, and sweeping as they were, shows, as nothing
else can, the necessity for reforms. Compare the insignifi
cant agitation (which has, however, now entirely col
lapsed), in the Navy over the vast and drastic reforms of
the last two years with the agitation in the Army over the
trifling matter of getting rid of two battalions of Guards !
So let us be grateful — adequately grateful — to the offi
cers and men of the Navy for their splendid loyalty during
the introduction of reforms, some of which have hit them
very hard, notably the sudden bringing home and paying
off of the large number of vessels that were wiped out of
the Navy as not being up to the required standard of
fighting efficiency. And there was also the redistribution
of the Fleet, which deprived many officers of advanta
geous appointments and seriously disturbed domestic
arrangements. But the fact is that the Navy sees the fighting advan
tages we have gained, and so has loyaUy responded to the
demands on its sense of duty.
As an excellent writer in the "North American Re
view" for June so aptly expresses it, the Navy saw that it
was steam-manship that was wanted, and so, as a body,
they welcomed the new scheme of training both of officers
and men. They saw also that to have every vessel of the
Navy, large and small, mobihsed and efficient to fight
within three hours in the dead of night, as practically
exemplified in the recent Grand Manoeuvres, is a result
which justifies all the drastic measures of the Board of
Admiralty. The Navy also recognises the incomparable fighting
advantages of the new era in giving us an unparalleled

150 RECORDS
gunnery efficiency, as exemplified in the fact that before
that new era there were 2,000 more misses than hits in the
annual gunlayers' competition, while in the year after
there were 2,000 more hits than misses ! In the new order
the best ship is the one that can catch the enemy soonest,
and hit him hardest and oftenest; under the old system
these considerations were certainly not the primary ones.
The Navy sees also that, while the fighting efficiency
of the British Fleet and its instant readiness for war has
become a household word amongst the Admiralties of the
world, at the same time vast economies — ^to be reckoned in
many millions — ^have been effected ; for instance, our har
bours, docks, and basins are ridded of obsolete vessels and
thus made adequate for the accommodation of our fight
ing fleet, for which there was no room previously, and no
less a sum than 13 millions sterling was at one time con
templated as necessary to give the required accommoda
tion. The whole of that 13 millions in proposed works has
been cancelled.
Nor have the officers and men been forgotten. The
men have had a quarter of a million sterling practically
added to their pay; one item alone is £75,000 a year for
increase of pensions to petty officers, and another £47,000
a year in giving them their food allowance when on leave,
and other similar and just concessions make up the bal
ance. Further improvements in the position of the lower
deck are now under consideration and will shortly be
ready for announcement, i.e.. Ratings Committee.
The officers, again, no longer pay for the bands out of
their own pockets, and the system of Nucleus Crews gives
them an amount of Home Service combined with sea-time,
with all its domestic advantages, beyond anything ever
before obtaining in the Navy.
Again, it is recognised bj'^ all but a few misguided

NAVAL PROBLEMS 151
misanthropes that the new shipbuilding policy is a mag
nificent departure in fighting policy. We ask the officers
who are going to fight what they want, and we build
thereto. Formerly vessels were simply belated improve
ments on their predecessors. Admirals had to make the
best use they could of the heterogeneous assemblage of
vessels which the idiosyncrasies ,of talented designers and
Controllers of the Navy had saddled us with, to the em
barrassment of those whose business it was to use them
in battle, and to the bitter bewilderment of types in the
brain of the Board of Admiralty! Theory was entirely
divorced from practice, with the lamentable result that
when the two were recently brought together, and the
"Dreadnought" was evolved, it was found that the whole
Navy had practicaUy become obsolete!
"First catch your hare" is the recipe in Mrs. Glasse's
Cookery Book for "jugged hare," and so speed has been
put in the forefront in every class of vessel from battle
ship to submarine, and as it's no use having the speed
without the wherewithal to demolish the enemy, the arma
ment of our new ships, as so fully exemplified in the
"Dreadnought," has received such a development that
that vessel is equal to any two and a half battleships at
present existing.
The efficacy of the Nucleus Crew system has also been
obvious to the whole Fleet in the unprecedented exemp
tions from machinery defects, and the unexampled gun
nery efficiency, coupled with a saving of about 50 per
cent, in repairs of ships, which incidentally has led in a
large measure to the reduction of 6,000 Dockyard work
men. And it must never be forgotten that every penny
not spent in a fighting ship or on a fighting man is a penny
taken away from the day of battle!
The management of the Royal Dockyards has now

152 RECORDS
been placed on a much sounder footing, more akin to the
organisation in similar commercial establishments, where
any undue extravagance or unnecessary executive ma
chinery means loss of money to the shareholders, and is
visited by pains and penalties on the officials directly
responsible. At the same time the desirable possibilities
of ready expansion in war time to suit the varying require
ments of a purely naval repairing and building establish
ment have been maintained.
The Navy also sees the great strategic advantages of
our Fleets exercising where they are likely to fight. As
Nelson said, "The battle ground should be the drill
ground." The placid waters and lovely weather of the Mediter
ranean do not fit our seamen for the fogs and gales of the
North Sea, or accustom them to the rigours of a northern
winter, when the icicles hang down over the bed or the,
hammock of the Torpedo Boat Commander and his men,
as in the North Sea last winter when we sent 147 Torpedo
Craft suddenly to exercise at sea; and though sent on a
fuU power trial of many hours, on first being mobihsed,
not a single defect or breakdown was experienced. Since
that date the arrangements for the Torpedo Craft have
been still further perfected, and now the Destroyers are
all organised according to the strategic requirements of
the situation of the moment, and are definitely detailed in
flotillas and divisions, with their store and repair ships and
reserves, according to the approved modem methods
of torpedo warfare as exemplified in the Russo-Japa
nese War.
The Navy also sees and welcomes the untold advan
tage given by the Nucleus Crew system of instant war
readiness, as exemphfied when last July all our vessels,
large and small, in reserve went to sea unnoticed by the

NAVAL PROBLEMS 153
Press and engaged in fighting Manoeuvres in the Channel
with 200 pendants under the chief command of the Ad
miral of the Channel Fleet.
No caUing out of Reserves or such disorganisation as
was incidental to the old system, when the crews of ships in
commission had to be broken up to leaven the ships of the
Reserve that then had no crews at aU.

CHAPTER X
naval education
I. — Common Entry
{Written in 1905)
On the 25th of December, 1902, the new system of
entry and training of officers for the Navy was
inaugurated. The fundamental principles of this great reform are:
(a) The common entry and training of officers of the
three principal branches of the Service, viz..
Combatant or Executive, Engineer, and Ma
rine.
(&) The practical amalgamation of these three
branches of officers
(c) The recognition of the fact that the existence of
the Navy depends on machinery, and that,
therefore, all combatant officers must be En
gineers.
{d) The adoption of the principle that the general
education and training of all these officers
must be completed before they go to sea, in
stead of, as heretofore, dragging on in a per
functory manner during their service as mid
shipmen, to be finally completed by a short
"cram" at Greenwich and Portsmouth.
When the details of the new scheme were published,
it was stated that at about the age of 20 these officers, who
up till then had aU received an identical training, would
154

NAVAL EDUCATION 155
be appropriated by selected to the three branches, viz..
Executive, Marine, or Engineer; however, this is unlikely
to be carried out in its entirety, and when the tune comes,
the march of progress wiU have prepared us to recognise
that differentiation to this extent is unnecessary, and that
the Fleet will be officered by the combatant officer, who
wiU be equally an Executive, Marine, or Engineer Officer.
Let us assume this to be true. In spite of the great
revolution that has been brought about since Christmas,
1902, in the Navy, and the consequent awakening and
development of the minds of all officers, there is not one
in one hundred who realises fully what the effects of this
great reform will be.
The Cadets who are at present at Osborne College are
being educated primarily as Mechanical Engineers con
currently with the special training necessary to make them
good seamen, good navigators, and good commanders.
The most important training they have to receive is
undoubtedly that of the Mechanical Engineer, which will
ultimately make them capable of deahng with and han
dling anything of a mechanical nature. In process of
learning this they acquire a mathematical training of a
very high order, and, as pure mathematics are the same all
the world over, the various other subjects which the Naval
Officer of the future will be required to be proficient in
only necessitate a httle training in the special application
of the mathematics of which they possess a firm grasp.
Navigation and nautical astronomy are simplicity exem
phfied once the student has learned trigonometry and
algebra. Gunnery, torpedo, and electricity are simply
special cases of mechanical problems. Modern seaman
ship is practically nothing else but a practical apphcation
of simple mechanical "chestnuts."
What, therefore, is the meaning of it aU?

156 RECORDS
It means that the Naval Officer of the future will
regard machinery, mechanical work, and mechanical prob
lems as his "bread and butter." He will think no more of
handhng machinery of any sort than the ordinary mortal
does of riding a bicycle; guns, gun-mountings, torpedoes,
and electrical instruments and machines he will regard as
special types, but differing no whit in principle from the
primitive stock. Mystery will disappear. At present it
is an unfortunate thing that departmental jealousy leads
the members of each and every department of the Service
to make a mystery of their particular specialty. The Gun
nery Lieutenant, Torpedo Lieutenant, Engineer, and
Marine Officer each resent discussion by "outsiders" of
any point in connection with their specialty as a piece of
unwarrantable presumption, with the result that each
knows all about his own job, and pursues it dihgently,
taking care not to poach on anybody else's preserves, but
without any regard as to whether the Service might not
gain in efficiency by a httle more co-operation and col
laboration. From one pomt of view they are right in being exclu
sive, because they know that no one else knows anjrthing
about their work, and therefore discussion with "out
siders" is mere waste of breath, but in future all this will
be changed. Specialties wiU disappear ; the Naval Officer
of the future will see no greater difference between a gun-
mounting and a torpedo than an Engineer sees between
the main engines and the feed pump.
However, although specialties wiU disappear, it wiU
always be necessary to have "experts" in each department.
We shall still require our Lieutenants G., T., and E.; but
as at the present time when a Lieutenant G. is promoted
to Commander he drops the G., so also it seems logical to

NAVAL EDUCATION 157-
conclude that the future Lieutenant E. on promotion to
Commander should drop the E.
It is absolutely safe to predict that the Naval Officer
of 50 years hence will smile when he reads that his fore
fathers had to have an officer of Commander's rank
appointed to a ship solely for charge of the main engines.
Foreigners gasp when they hear that Lieutenants of two
or three years' standing command our destroyers ; in other
navies destroyers are usually commanded by Captains de
Corvette; and then we smile when we remember youngs
sters like Lieutenant Rombulow-Pearse of the "Sturgeon,"
who rescued the crew of the sinking "Decoy" in a gale of
wind, with only his small whaler to help him, and with the
loss of only one man, who disappeared nobody knows how.
The ideal complement of officers of the future there
fore wiU be: 1 Captain, 1 Commander, 1 Lieutenant G.,
1 Lieutenant E., 1 Lieutenant T., 1 Lieutenant M., 1
Lieutenant N., 1 Lieutenant P., and as many other watch-
keepers as necfessary. Enough has been said in the
meantime to show how completely the new system of entry
and training of officers has remodelled the British Navy,
and it is with the object of using the case of the officers as
an argument in considering the case of the men that it has
been dilated on at such length.
State Education in the Navy
{This Paper was prepared in 1902 under great obligations
to Mr. J. R. Thursfield)
Everyone must now feel that the new system of Entry
and Education of Naval Officers must have a fair trial,
and all reasonable people will hold that it deserves one.
There still remains to be faced an argument which
is certain to appeal to democratic sentiment. Broadly

158 RECORDS
stated, it is this — that the new system, as at present organ
ised, must of necessity take all officers of the Navy from
among the sons of parents who can afford to spend about
£120 a year on their sons from the age of 12% until they
become Lieutenants at the age of about 20, or even over.
In other words, the officers of the Navy will be drawn
exclusively from the well-to-do classes.
Democratic sentiment will wreck the present system ill
the long run, if it is not given an outlet. But let us take
the far higher ground of efficiency: is it wise or expedient!
to take our Nelsons from so narrow a class? i
Surely some small percentage of promising and intelli
gent boys from the other classes could be secured and (if
caught early enough, as is now the case) trained to be offi
cers and gentlemen by the time they are grown up.
Nor is it the money barrier alone which excludes them.
An exclusive system of nomination is distasteful, if not
ahen, to the democratic sentiment. Combined with the
cost of the subsequent training, our present system abso
lutely excludes all but a very small fraction of the popu
lation from serving the King as naval officers. It admits
the duke's son if he is fit, but it excludes the cook's son
whether he is fit or not. It ought to admit both, but only
if both are fit. The cook's son may not often be fit, but
when he is, why exclude him? Brains, character, and man
ners are not the exclusive endowment of those whose
parents can afford to spend £1,000 on their educa
tion. There seems to be only one way of solving this prob
lem. Initial fitness must be secured, as at present, by
careful selection at the outset, and if the promise is not
fulfiUed as time goes on, ruthless exclusion, whether of
duke's son or of cook's son, must be the inflexible rule.
But do not exclude for poverty alone, either at the outset

NAVAL EDUCATION 159
or afterwards. Let every fit boy have his chance, irrespec
tive of the depth of his parents' purse. This might, of
course, be done by a liberal system of reduced fees for
cadets, midshipmen, and sub-lieutenants whose parents
were in poor circumstances. But in the first place there
would be a certain element of invidiousness in the selection
of the recipients of the national bounty, and, in the second,
mischievous class distinctions would inevitably arise
among the cadets themselves — between those who were
supported wholly or partially by the State and those who
were not. It is most essential that there should be no such
distinctions — ^that the cadets should be taught to look up
only to those who are eminent in brains, character, and
manners, and to look down only on those who are idle,
vicious, vulgar, or incorrigibly stupid. Now, a common
maintenance by the State would put them all on a com
mon level of equality. Though the additional cost to the
State would doubtless be great, the result would be well
worth the extra expenditure.
The quarter of a million sterling required would be
lost and unnoticeable in the millions of the Education
Vote, yet it would be worth all the millions of the Educa
tion Vote if it makes the Navy more efficient, because
The British Nation Floats on the British Navy.
It would put the Navy once for all on a basis as broad as
the nation; it would immeasurably widen the area of selec
tion, and place at the disposal of the Admiralty all the
inteUect and all the character of all classes of the peo
ple. The New Naval Education
Masts and sails disappeared irretrievably with the de
mand for high speed.
Now, what went with them? Why! The education

i6o RECORDS
that the sole use of sail power gave to the eye, brain, and
body, in battling with the elements !
It was a marveUous education which we had in the
pure sailing days!
One was alert by instinct! You never knew what
might happen! A topsail-sheet carrying away, or a
weather brace going, or a sudden shift of wind, or squall!
One thus got habituated to being quick and resource
ful, and it was more or less a slur and a stigma not to be
so! Also {as Officer of the Watch) men's lives were in
your hands! For instance, with men on the yards, and
any lubberly stupidity with braces or hehn!
Both for Officers and Men then we no longer have this
magnificent education by the Elements!
Steam has practicaUy annihilated the wind and the
sea! What are we to do to get the same ready and re
sourceful quahties by other methods?
The answer is: The Gymnasium, Boat Sailing, the
Destroyer, the Submarine, and the Engine Room.
Apparently, we are in this country in the infancy of
Gymnastics for the training of the body when one reads
of the Swedish system and its results. {"31 ens sana in
corpore sano.")
The one solitary element in which we are behind,
and must be behind all nations, is "Men." We have no
Conscription with the unhmited resources it gives ! How
should we counterbalance this want? "By introducing
every possible form of labour-saving appliance," regard
less of cost, weight, and space; for instance, is it really
impossible to devise mechanical arrangements for feeding
the fires with coal instead of using the mass of men we
now are obhged to employ for the purpose? The coal
is got out of the bunkers in the same way now as in the

SIR JOHN FISHER GOING ON BOARD THE ROYAL YACHT

[160

sir JOHN FISHER AND SIR COLIN KEPPEL (cAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL YACHt)

"THE DAUNTLESS THREE," PORTSMOUTH, 1903
Sir John Fisher, Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth.
Viscount Esher, President of the Committee of War Office
Reconstruction.
Sir George Sydenham Clarke, late Governor of Victoria,

NAVAL EDUCATION i6i
first steamship ever built. It is not only we thereby save
men — we ensure success (for the next Naval War will be
largely a question of physical endurance and nerves).
"A machine has no nerves and doesn't tire!"
The other point necessary to consider is "not to waste
educated labour, and to utihse and cultivate spelciali-
ties!" The present system of education both of Men and
Officers is that we all go in at one end like the pigs of every
type at Chicago, and come out a uniform pattern of
sausages at the other !
Thus, what we want is, above all things, a "Corps
d'Elite" of gun-firers ! I should caU them the "BuU's Eye
Party" (and give them all 10s. a day extra pay!)
They must do nothing else but practise hitting the
target and lose their pay when they don't!
Where would your violin player be if he didn't daily
practise? And if you made him pick oakum, where would
his touch be?
This is what Paganini said: "The first day I omit to
practise the violin I notice it myself!
"The second day my friends notice it!!
"The third day the public notice it!!!"
But if the "BuU's Eye Party" are to hit the enemy as
desired (and as they can be made competent to do!) then
the Admirals and Captains, and all others, must equaUy
play their parts to aUow the "Bull's Eye Party" to get
within range and sight of the enemy. Their education is
therefore equally important. Scripture comes in here
appropriately, "The eye cannot say to the hand, nor the
hand to the foot," etc., etc.
To put the matter very briefly:
"The education of all our Officers, without distinction.

i62 RECORDS
must be remodeUed to cope with machinery, instead of
sails!" The Gymnasium, the Engine-room, the Destroyer, the
Submarine, and Boat Sailing must be our great educa
tional instruments.
Not for a single moment is it put forward that a year
in a workshop and a year in an engine-room will make
an efficient Engineer Officer! It is long experience in such
work that does that! — as in every other thing! But in a
smaU way, the argument of the abolition of the old Navi
gating Class applies here very forcibly. It was said their
abolition would be absolutely fatal to the efficient naviga
tion of the Fleet.
But what has been the result? There have been fewer
cases of bad navigation since the old Navigating Class
was done away with than in the whole history of the
Navy! And with this immense gain — that the knowledge
of navigation is now widely diffused through the Fleet.
One can suppose cases where it would be of the utmost
value to us were engineering knowledge and the handling
of mechanical apphances more widely diffused amongst
our Officers!
But that is not the vital point! The vital point is that
were a Midshipman to be continuously serving in the
engine-room of Destroyers and larger vessels (continu
ously under weigh) at high speeds, he would get a train
ing assimilating in its nature to that marvellous training
of the old sailing days, which kept the wits of Officer
of the Watch in the utmost state of tension, and pro
duced the splendid specimens of readiness and resource
which we read of in the sea Officers of Nelson's time
and later!
Training or Boys : No masts and sails — Gymnasium
— Rifle and gun practice — Boat sailing — Little or no

NAVAL EDUCATION 163
school. (No Binomial Theorem) — ^Destroyer work for
sea-sickness — Sent straight from training-ships to hot for
eign stations on the hot-house principle before bedding-
out — Select from the very beginning the good shots and
the smart signalmen and train them specially.
Training or the Men: Re-model instruction in
Gunnery and Torpedo Schools — "Corps d'Elite" of three
classes of (1) gun firers or "Marksmen"; (2) gun load
ers; (3) gun manipulators — ^From the time the boy enters
the Navy in the training-ship till he gets his pension, the
sole object to be to select, train, and improve and re
tain "the good shot," and all trainmg subordinated to
this! Training of Officers: Return to early entry at 12
years of age — A much lower standard of entrance, edu
cational exammation, and a high standard of physical en
trance examination — Colloquial French obhgatory, no
grammar, and no other language, dead or alive ! — A com
bined course of "Britannia" and "Keyham" Colleges with
at least two years of engine-room and shop work and De
stroyer practice.
These great changes are not fanciful ideas!
The stubborn fact that we cannot provide what is
required on the present system forces the change both as
regards Officers as well as Men and Boys.
Naval Officers' Training
Some Opinions on the Admiralty Scheme (1902)
1. Admiral Lord Charles Beresford
In 1902 Lord Charles Beresford, in an interview on
the then recent Admiralty memorandum on the subject of

i64 RECORDS
the entry, training, and employment of officers and men of
the Royal Navy, said : —
"The strongest opponent of the scheme will acknowl
edge that it is a brilliant and statesmanlike effort to
grapple with a problem upon the sound settlement of
which depends the future efficiency of the British Navy.
To-day the commander of fleets must possess a greater
combination of characteristics than has ever before been
required of him. He must not only be a born leader of
men, but he must have the practical scientific training
which the development of mechanical invention renders
an absolute and indispensable essential. The executive
officer of to-day should possess an intimate knowledge
of all that relates to his profession. Up to now he has
been fairly educated in the different branches. The
most important, however — in that we depend entirely
upon it — ^that relating to steam and machinery, has been
sadly neglected. The duties of this branch have been
delegated to, and well and loyally performed by, a body
of officers existing for this special purpose, and there
have been two results. The executive officer has remained
ignorant of one of the most important parts of his pro
fession; the engineer officer has never received that recog
nition to which the importance of his duties and responsi
bilities so justly entitled him. The Board of Admiralty
have now unanimously approved a plan which provides
that naval officers shall have an opportunity of adding to
their professional attainments the essential knowledge of
marine engineering. Further than this, the Board have
recognised that the present status of naval engineer offi
cers could not continue, in fairness either to themselves or
to the Service. The abolition of distinction regarding
entry has settled this point once and for ever, and it is
satisfactory to find that constituted authority has taken
the matter in hand before it became a political or party
question. "There seems to be a doubt as to whether it will be
possible under the new scheme for an executive officer to

NAVAL EDUCATION 165
have the knowledge he should possess of marine engineer-
mg. There is no cast-iron secret or mystery with regard
to marine engineering, as some seem to imagine. This
being so, there is no reason why lieutenants (E.) should
not be just as good and useful experts in their specialty as
the gunnery, torpedo, or navigating lieutenant of the pres
ent day, without in the slightest degree detracting from
their ability to become excellent executive officers. It is
imperative that all officers of the present day should be
well acquainted with all the general duties connected with
the management of ships and fleets. The wider and fuller
the education the naval officer receives in matters relating
to science within his own profession, the more likely the
Service is to produce men who will be capable of seeing
that the fleet in its entirety is perfect for its work, and
that there is no weak hnk in the chain that may jeopardise
the whole.
"The memo, referring to the marines will be, I believe,
received with the greatest satisfaction by that splendid
corps as a whole as by the Service as a whole. It is a
marvel that the zeal and ability of the officers of the Royal
Marines has not been effectively utilised long ago. Many
important positions will now be open to them, and they
will feel that they are taking a real part in the executive
working of the ship and fleet which is so proud to own
them as a component part. It is to be hoped the way will
now be open to give them appointments as general officers
commanding at many of the naval bases. No part of the
scheme will give the Service in its entirety more sincere
pleasure than the improvements promised with regard to
the position of the warrant officers. Promotion of war
rant officers to lieutenant's rank has long been urged by
those who argued that the lower deck were fully entitled
to a right that had from time immemorial been engaged
by the non-commissioned ranks of the sister Service.
Placing the signal ratings on an equality with gunnery
and torpedo ratings is of far more importance than is gen
erally realised. The vital necessity of a good line of com-

i66 RECORDS
munication and good signalmen has never been thoroughly
appreciated. "I consider the return to the early age of entry of
infinite value. It has not yet been decided whether on first
going to sea midshipmen will be appointed to ships ordi
narily in commission or to ships specially in commission
for training purposes. I am strongly of opinion that it
would be by far the best plan to send them to learn their
duties in the ordinary ships of the regularly commissioned
fieet. With regard to the proposed arrangement of nomi
nation to branches, I consider it a fair contract, and it
keeps the power of appointment to the various branches
in the hands of the constituted authorities. In my opinion
this gives the best young officers the fairest chance of hold
ing the best positions.
"In conclusion, I am of the opinion that the plan is one
that has been thoroughly matured and well thought out,
and I believe that when its details have been definitely
settled it will make more complete the well-being, content
ment, and efficiency of that Service on which the safety of
the empire absolutely depends."

2. Sir John Hopkins
I succeeded Admiral Sir John Hopkins, one of the
most distinguished Officers in the Navy, in seven different
appointments — as Head of the Gunnery School at Ports
mouth, as Director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty,
as Admiral Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard, as
Controller of the Navy, as 3rd Sea Lord, as Commander-
in-Chief in North America, and as Commander-in-Chief
in the Mediterranean. In each of these appointments
force of circumstances compeUed me to have a revolution.
So the following spontaneous letter, which he wrote me
long after, is the more gratifying and shows his mag
nanimity:

NAVAL EDUCATION 167
Greatbridge, Romset,
16th AprU, 19O6-
My Dear Fisher,
There is a small band of writing critics "making
mouths and ceasing not" at the Education Scheme; but
let them not trouble you. The wonder will be in twenty
years' time how such a bold forecast could have been made,
that produced such excellent results; and, in my opinion,
the "Common Entry" man will be as great a success as the
best friends of the Service could wish.
Believe me,
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) J. O. Hopkins.
3. Chief Inspector of Machinery, Sir Henry
Benbow, K.C.B., D.S.O., R.N.
Habeshi, Dorman's Park,
Surrey,
20th April. 1908.
Dear Sir,
Permit me to congratulate you on the success of the
new system of Entry and Education of Naval Cadets,
which has always elicited my warmest sympathy as the
only means of doing away with class prejudice. A rela
tive and namesake of mine, a Lieutenant in the Service,
only the other day spoke to me most highly of the mental
and physical development of the present-day Cadets, and
remarked how very favourably they compared with the
Cadets entered under the old regime.
I remain, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Henry Benbow.
Admiral of the Fleet
Sir John Fisher, G.C.B., O.M.
A Naval Candidate's Essay
I give here an essay written on 20th February, 1908,
by a candidate for entry at Osborne as a Naval Cadet.

i68 RECORDS
His age was 12%; his height four foot nothing. The
subjects were suddenly set to the candidates by the Inter
view Committee, and they were allowed only ten minutes
to write the essay in. The original of this essay I sent
to King Edward.
What Nation ought we to protect ourselves mosft
against — amd why?
"In my opinion we should protect ourselves most
against Germany.
"The most important reason is that they have the
second largest Navy in the world; to which (their Navy)
they are rapidly adding. They are also building three
ships equal to our 'Dreadnought.' Their Army also is
very formidable ; though they are suffering from flat-feet.
It is also rumoured that the present German Emperor has
a feud against King Edward; namely, when they were
young King Edward punched the German Emperor'^s
head ; how far that is true, I don't know.
"I always think that Englishmen and Germans are,
more or less, natural enemies. One of the reasons for this
is, I think, that Englishmen and Germans are so different;
for most of the Germans I've met in Switzerland were not
quarter so energetic as our English friends. They (the
Germans) would never go much above the snow line.
Also I think we rather despise the Germans, because of
their habit of eating a lot. The Germans also would like
a few of our possessions."

CHAPTER XI
SUBMARINES
I BEGIN this chapter with a letter written to me on
April 18th, 1918, by Colonel Sir Maurice Hankey, Sec
retary to the War Cabinet: —
My Dear Lord Fisher,
Last night I dined with Lord Esher. He showed me,
letters of yours dated 1904 describing in detail the Ger
man Submarine Campaign of 1917. It is the most amaz
ing thing I have ever read ; not one letter only, but several.
Also some astonishing remarks of yours about the
Generals who ought to man the War Office in case of war.
AU men who have come to the top were your nominees.
Finally, General Plumer (whom few people knew about)
you picked out for Quartermaster-General, with this
remark: "Every vote against Plumer is a vote for paper
boots and insufficient shells !" ^
Priceless, the whole thing! Neck-busy though I am,
I have come to the Office early to pay this tribute of my
undying admiration, and to beg you to get hold of these
astounding documents for your Memoirs. But anyhow,
. they wUl appear in Lord Esher's Memoirs, I suppose.
Yours ever,
(Signed) M. P. A. Hankey.
Now follows a letter which I wrote to a High Official
in 1904, and which I had forgotten, until I came across it
recently. It's somewhat violent, but so true that I insert
'For these predictions, see Letter to Lord Esher of (?) Jan., 1904
"Memories," p. 173. 169

170 RECORDS
it. I went as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty shortly
after— very unexpectedly — and so was able to give effect
(though surreptitiously) to my convictions. Not only
Admirals afloat, but even Politicians ashore, dubbed sub
marines as "playthings," so the money had to be got by
subterfuge (as I had explained in Chapter V. of my
"Memories"). Admiralty House,
Portsmouth.
April 20th, 1904.
My Dear Friend,
I will begin with the last thing in your letter, which is
far the most important, and that is our paucity of sub
marines. I consider it the most serious thing at present
affecting the British Empire! — That sounds big, but it's
true. Had either the Russians or the Japanese had sub
marines the whole face of their war would have been
changed for both sides. It really makes me laugh to read
of "Admiral Togo's eighth attack on Port Arthur!"
Why! had he possessed submarines it would have been one
attack and one attack only! It would have been aU over
with the whole Russian Fleet, caught hke rats in a trap!
Similarly, the Japanese Admiral Togo outside would
never have dared to let his transports full of troops pursue
the even tenor of their way to Chemulpo and elsewhere!
It's astounding to me, perfectly astounding, how the
very best amongst us absolutely faU to realise the vast
impending revolution in naval warfare and naval strategy
that the submarine will accomplish! (I have written a
paper on this, but it's so violent I am keeping it!) Here,
just to take a simple instance, is the battleship "Empress
of India," engaged in manoeuvres and knowing of the
proximity of Submarines, the Flagship of the Second
Admiral of the Home Fleet nine miles beyond the Nab
Light (out in the open sea), so self-confident of safety
and so oblivious of the possibilities of modern warfare that
the Admiral is smoking his cigarette, the Captain is cahnly
seeing defaulters down on the half-deck, no one caring an

SUBMARINES 171
iota for what is going on, and suddenly they see a White
head torpedo miss their stern by a few feet! And how
fired? From a submarine of the "pre-Adamite" period,
small, slow, badly fitted, with no periscope at all — it had
been carried away by a destroyer lying over her, fishing
for her! — and yet this submarine followed that battleship
for a sohd two hours under water, coming up gingerly
about a mile off, every now and then (like a beaver!) , just
to take a fresh compass bearing of her prey, and then
down again!
Remember, that this is done (and I want specially to
emphasise the point), with the Lieutenant in command of
the boat out in her for the first time in his life on his own
account, and half the crew never out before either! why,
it's wonderful ! And so what results may we expect with
bigger and faster boats and periscopes more powerful
than the naked eye (such as the latest pattern one I saw
the other day), and with experienced officers and crews,
and with nests of these submarines acting together?
I have not disguised my opinion in season and out of
season as to the essential, imperative, immediate, vital,
pressing, urgent (I can't think of any more adjectives!)
necessity for more submarines at once, at the very least
25 in addition to those now ordered and building, and a
hundred more as soon as practicable, or we shall be caught
with our breeches down just as the Russians have been!
And then, my dear Friend, you have the astounding
audacity to say to me, "I presume you only think they
(the submarines) car act on the defensive I" .... Why,
my dear fellow! not take the offensive? Good Lord! if
our Admiral is worth his salt, he will tow his submarines
at 18 knots speed and put them into the hostile Port (like
ferrets after the rabbits!) before war is officially declared,
just as the Japanese acted before the Russian Naval Offi
cers knew that war was declared!
In all seriousness I don't think it is even faintly
realised —
The immense impending revolution which the submarines
will effect as offensive weapons of war.

172 RECORDS
When you calmly sit doTi^m and work out what will
happen in the narrow waters of the Channel and the Medi
terranean — how totally the submarines will alter the effect
of Gibraltar, Port Said, Lemnos, and Malta, it makes
one's hair stand on end!
I hope you don't think this letter too personal!
Ever yours, J. A. Fisher.
Note made on January Sth, 1904 :
Satan disguised as an Angel of Light wouldn't suc
ceed in persuading the Admiralty or the Navy that in the
course of some few years Submarines will prevent any
Fleet remaining at sea continuously either in the Mediter
ranean or the English Channel.
Now follows a paper on "The Effect of Submarine
Boats," which I wrote while I was Commander-in-Chief
at Portsmouth, October, 1903.
These remarks can only be fully appreciated by those
who witnessed the Flotilla of Submarine Boats now at
Portsmouth practising out in the open sea.
It is an historical fact that the British Navy stub
bornly resists change.
A First Sea Lord told me on one occasion that there
were no torpedoes when he came to sea, and he didn't
see why the devil there should be any of the beastly
things now!
This was a propos of my attracting the attention of his
serene and contented mind to the fact that we hadn't got
any torpedoes at that time in the British Navy, and that
a certain Mr. Whitehead (with whom I was acquainted)
had devised an automobile torpedo, costing only £500,
that would make a hole as big as his Lordship's carriage
(then standing at the door) in the bottom of the strongest
and biggest ship in the world, and she would go to the
bottom in about five minutes.
Thirty-five j^ears after this last interview, on Septem
ber 4th, 1903, at 11 a.m., the ironclad "Belleisle," having

SUBMARINES 173
had several extra bottoms put on her and strengthened in
every conceivable manner that science could suggest or
money accomplish, was sent to the bottom of Portsmouth
Harbour by this very Whitehead automobile torpedo in
seven minutes.
This Whitehead torpedo can be carried with facihty
in Submarine Boats, and it has now attained such a range
and such accuracy (due to the marvellous adaptation of
the gyroscope), that even at two miles' range it possesses
a greater ratio of power of vitaUy injuring a ship in the
line of battle than does the most accurate gun. This is
capable of easy demonstration (if anyone doubts it).
There is this immense fundamental difference between
the automobile torpedo and the gun — ^the torpedo has
no trajectory: it travels horizontally and hits below water,
so all its hits are vital hits ; but not so the gun — only in a
few places are gun hits vital, and those places are
armoured. It is not feasible to armour the bottoms of
ships even if it were effectual — ^which it is not.
But the pith and marrow of the whole matter hes in
the fact that the Submarine Boat which carries this auto
mobile torpedo is up to the present date absolutely unat-
tackable. When you see Battleships or Cruisers, or
Destroyers, or Torpedo Boats on the horizon, you can
send others after them to attack them or drive them away!
You see them — ^you can fire at them — ^you can avoid
them — you can chase them — ^but with the Submarine Boat
you can do nothing! You can't fight them with other
Sutz"°nne Boats — they can't see each other!
Now for the practical bearing of all this, and the spe
cial manner it affects the Submarine Boat and the Army
and the Navy — for they are all inextricably mixed up
together in this matter : —
As regards the Navy, it must revolutionise Naval Tac
tics for this simple reason — that the present battle forma
tion of ships in a single line presents a target of such a
length that the chances are altogether in favour of the
Whitehead torpedo hitting some ship in the line even
when projected from a distance of several miles. This

174 RECORDS
applies specially to its use by the Submarine Boat; but in
addition, these boats can, in operating defensively, come
with absolute invisibility within a few hundred yards to
discharge the projectile, not at random amongst the
crowd of vessels but with certainty at the Admiral's ship
for instance, or at any other specific vessel desired to be
sent to the bottom.
It affects the Army, because, imagine even one Sub
marine Boat with a flock of transports in sight loaded each
with some two or three thousand troops! Imagine the
effect of one such transport going to the bottom in a few
seconds with its living freight!
Even the bare thought makes invasion impossible!
Fancy 100,000 helpless, huddled up troops afloat in
frightened transports with these invisible demons known
to be near.
Death near — ^momentarily — sudden — awful — invisible
— ^unavoidable! Nothing conceivable more demoral
ising. It affects the existence of the Empire, because just as
we were in peril by the non-adoption of the breech-loading
gun until after every Foreign nation had it, and just as
we were in peril when Napoleon the Third built "La
Gloire" and other French ironclads, while we were still
stubbornly building wooden three-deckers, and just as v/e
were in peril when, before the Boer War, we were
waiting to perfect our ammunition and in consequence had
practically no ammunition at all, so are we in peril now
by only having 20 per cent, of our very minimum require
ments in Submarine Boats, because we are waiting for
perfection! We forget that "half a loaf is better than no
bread" — we strain at the gnat of perfection and swallow
the camel of unreadiness! We shall be found unready
once too often!
In 1918 I wrote the following letter to a friend on
"Submarines and Oil Fuel."
You ask for information in regard to a prophecy I
made before the War in relation to Submarines, because,

SUBMARINES 175
you say, that my statement made in 1912 that Submarines
would utterly change Naval Warfare is now making a
stir. However, I made that same statement in 1904, four
teen years ago.
I will endeavour to give you a brief, but succinct,
synopsis of the whole matter. I have to go some way
back, but as you quite correctly surmise the culmination
of my beliefs since 1902 was the paper on Submarine
Warfare which I prepared six months before the
War.^ ....
In May, 1912 (I am worldng backwards), Mr.
Asquith, the Prime Minister, and Mr. Churchill, First
Lord of the Admiralty, came to Naples, where I then was,
and I was invited to be Chairman of a Royal Commission
on Oil Fuel for the Navy, and on Oil Engines. What
most moved me to acceptance was to push the Submarine,
because oil and the oil engine had a special bearing on its
development. Continuing my march backwards in regard to the Sub
marine, there was a cessation in the development of the
Submarine after I left the Admiralty as First Sea Lord
on January 25th, 1910. When I returned as First Sea
Lord to the Admiralty in October, 1914, there were fewer
Submarines than when I left the Admiralty in January,
1910, and the one man incomparably fitted to develop the
Submarine had been cast away in a third-class Cruiser
stationed in Crete. No wonder ! An Admiral, holding a
very high appointment afloat, derided Submarines as
playthings !
In one set of manoeuvres the young officer command
ing a Submarine, having for the third time successfully
torpedoed the hostile Achniral's Flagship, humbly said so
to the Admiral by signal, and suggested the Flagship
going out of action. The answer he got back by signal
from the Admiral was: "You be damned!"
I am still going on tracing back the Submarine. In
1907, King Edward went on board the "Dreadnought"
for a cruise and witnessed the manoeeuvres of a Sub-
^ See below, p. 176.

176 RECORDS
marine Flotilla. I then said to His Majesty: "The SuK
marine will be the Battleship of the future !"
In February, 1904, Admiral Count Montecuccoli, the
Austrian Minister of Marine, invited himself to stay with
me at Portsmouth, where I was then Commander-in-
Chief. He had been Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian
Navy at Pola when I was Commander-in-Chief in the
Mediterranean. We became very great friends out there.
The Austrian Fleet gave us a most cordial reception. He
also was an ardent believer in the Submarine. That's why
he invited himself to stay, but I refused to let him see our
Submarines at Portsmouth, which were then advancing
by leaps and bounds. Admiral Bacon was then the admir
able Captain in charge of Submarines, and he did more to
develop the Submarine than anyone living. The Sub
marine is not the weapon of the weak. Had it only been
properly used and developed, it's the weapon of the
strong, if you use your Naval Supremacy properly, and
seize the exits of the enemy, and make a blockade effectual
by Submarines and Mines, which our predominant and
overwhelming naval superiority renders feasible.
AU that was required to meet a German Submarine
Menace was the possession of Antwerp, the Belgian
Coast, and the Baltic. We could quite easily have accom
phshed these three objects.
Nearly three months before the War, before the meet
ing of the Committee of Imperial Defence held on May
14th, 1914, I sent the Prime Minister the foUowing
Memorandum which I had written in the previous Janu
ary; and added: —
The Submarine is the Coming Type of War Vessel
FOR Sea Fighting
But for that consummation to be reached we must per
fect the oil engine and we must store oil.
There is a strong animus against the submarine — of
course there is !

SUBMARINES 177
An ancient Admiralty Board minute described the
introduction of the steam engine as fatal to England's
Navy. Another Admiralty Board minute vetoed iron ships,
because iron sinks and wood floats !
The whole Navy objected to breech-loading guns, and
in consequence sure disaster was close to us for years
and years.
There was virulent opposition to the water-tube boiler
(fancy putting the fire where the water ought to be, and
the water where the fire should be!)
The turbine was said by eminent marine engineers to
have an "insuperable and vital defect which renders it
inadmissible as a practical marine engine — its vast num
ber of blades — it is only a toy." 80 per cent, of the steam-
power of the world is now driving turbines.
Wireless was voted damnable by all the armchair
sailors when we put it on the roof of the Admiralty, and
yet we heard what one ship (the "Argyll") at Bombay
was saying to another (the "Black Prince") at Gibraltar.
"Flying machines are a physical impossibility," said a
very great scientist four years ago. To-day they are as
plentiful as sparrows.
"Submarines are only playthings!" was the official
remark of our Chief Admiral afloat only a little while ago,
and yet now submarines are talked of as presently ousting
Dreadnoughts. The above texts, extracted from comparatively mod
ern naval history (history is a record of exploded ideas!),
should make anyone chary of ridiculing the writer when
he repeats :
THE SUBMARINE IS THE COMING TYPE
OF WAR VESSEL FOR SEA FIGHTING.
And what is it that the coming of the submarine reaUy
means? It means that the whole foundation of our tradi
tional naval strategy, which served us so well in the past,
has been broken down! The foundation of that strategy
was blockade. The Fleet did not exist merely to win bat
tles — that was the means, not the end. The ultimate pur-

178 RECORDS
pose of the Fleet was to make blockade possible for us
and impossible for our enemy. Where that situation was
set up we could do what we liked with him on the sea, and,
despite a state of war, England grew steadily richer. But
with the advent of the long-range ocean-going submarine
that has all gone! Surface ships can no longer either
maintain or prevent blockade, and with the conception of
blockade are broken up all the consequences, direct and
indirect, that used to flow from it. All our old ideas of
strategy are simmering in the melting pot! Can we get
anything out of it which will let us know where we are
and restore to us something of our former grip? It is a
question that must be faced.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Sea-fighting of to-day, or at any time, entails the
removal of the enemy's sea forces. If, as is maintained,
the submarine proves itself at once the most efficient
factor for this purpose and also the most difficult sea
force to remove, let us clear our minds of all previous
obsessions and acknowledge the facts once and for all.
Hostile Submarines
It has to be freely acknowledged that at the present
time no means exist of preventing hostile submarines
emerging from their own ports and cruising more or less
at Will. It is, moreover, only barely possible that, in the future,
mining and other blocking operations on a very extensive
scale may so develop as to render their exit very hazar
dous; but it is plain that such operations would require
a large personnel, unceasing energy and vigilance, and an
immense quantity of constantly replaceable materials.
^ ^ -tS: * * *
The Submarine and Commerce
Again, the question arises as to what a submarine can
do against a merchant ship when she has found her. She
cannot capture the merchant ship ; she has no spare hands
to put a prize crew on board; little or nothing would be

SUBMARINES 179
gained by disabling her engines or propeller; she cannot
convoy her into harbour; and, in fact, it is impossible for
the submarine to deal with commerce in the light and pro
visions of accepted international law. Under these cir
cumstances, is it presumed that the hostile submarine will
disregard such law and sink any vessel heading for a Brit
ish commercial port and certainly those that are armed or
carrying contraband?
There is nothing else the submarine can do except sink
her capture, and it must therefore be admitted that (pro
vided it is done, and however inhuman and barbarous it
may appear) this submarine menace is a truly terrible one
for British commerce and Great Britain alike, for no
means can be suggested at present of meeting it except by
reprisals. All that would be known would be that a cer
tain ship and her crew had disappeared, or some of her
boats would be picked up with a few survivors to tell the
tale. Such a tale would fill the world with horror, and
it is freely acknowledged to be an altogether barbarous
method of warfare; but, again, if it is done by the Ger
mans the only thing would be to make reprisals. The
essence of war is violence, and moderation in war is im
becility. It has been suggested that it should be obligatory for
a submarine to fire a warning gun, but is such a proceed
ing practical? We must bear in mind that modern sub
marines are faster on the surface than the majority of
merchantmen, and will not necessarily need to dive at all.
Therefore, as the submarine would in most cases be
sighted, and as she has no prize crew to put on board, the
warning gun is useless, as the only thing the submarine
could do would be to sink the enemy; also, the apparently
harmless merchant vessel may be armed, in which case
the submarine may but have given herself away if she
did not sink her.
The subject is, indeed, one that bristles with great dif
ficulties, and it is highly desirable that the conduct of sub
marines in molesting commerce should be thoroughly con
sidered. Above all, it is one of overwhelming interest to

i8o RECORDS
neutrals. One flag is very much like another seen against
the light through a periscope, should he have thought it
necessary to dive; and the fear is natural that the only
thing the officer of the hostile submarine would make sure
of would be that the flag seen was not that of his own
country. Moreover, under numerous circumstances can a sub
marine allow a merchant ship to pass unmolested? Harm
less trader in appearance, in reality she may be one of the
numerous fleet auxiliaries, a mine-layer, or carrying
troops, and so on. Can the submarine come to the surface
to inquire and lose all chance of attack if the vessel should
prove to be faster than she is? The apparent merchant
ship may also be armed. In this hght, indeed, the recent
arming of our British merchantmen is unfortunate, for it
gives the hostile submarine an excellent excuse (if she
needs one) for sinking them; namely, that of self-defense
against the guns of the merchant ship.
What can be the answer to aU the foregoing but that
(barbarous and inhuman as, we again repeat, it may
appear) , if the submarine is used at aU against commerce,
she must sink her captures?
For the prevention of submarines preying on our com
merce, it is above all necessary that merchant shipping
should take every advantage of our favourable geograph
ical position, and that we should make the Straits of
Dover as difficult as we possibly can.
It is not proposed here to enter into the technical
details oi such arrangements; but even after every con
ceivable means has been taken, it must be conceded that
there is at least a chance of submarines passing safely
through ; while at night, or in thick weather, it is probable
that they would not fail to pass in safety.
I conclude with some details of British Submarines
before and during the War : —
I. When I left the Admiralty in January, 1910 :
Submarines ready for fighting 61
Building and on order 13

SUBMARINES i8i
II. When I returned to the Admiralty, in October,
1914, as First Sea Lord:
Submarines fit for fighting 53
Building and on order 21
But of these 21, only 5 were any good!
2 were paid off as useless.
8 sold to the Italians, not of use to us.
4 sold to the French, not of use to us.
7 of unsatisfactory design.
16 leaving only 5 of oversea modern ("E") Type.

Nommally, there were 77 Submarines when I returned in
October, 1914, but out of these 24 were useless, or had
gone to the Antipodes, as follows:
2 to Austraha.
8 to Hong Kong.
1 sold to Italy useless.
8 "A" Class scrapped, 10 years old.
10 "B" Class scrapped, 9 years old.
24
77 — 24 — 53 total Submarines fit for Service when I
returned in October, 1914.
There were 61 Submarines efficient when I left the
Admiralty in January, 1910.
Of those that were on order when I returned, 14 were
of "G" Class, but were of an experimental type, and so
were not ready till June, 1916, or one year after the Sub
marines were ready which I ordered on my return to the
Admiralty in October, 1914.
Here may be stated the great service rendered by Mr.
Schwab, of the Bethlehem Steel Works. I specially sent
for him. I told hhn the very shortest tune hitherto that a

1 82 RECORDS
Submarine had been built in was 14 months. Would he
use his best endeavours to deliver in six months? He
delivered the first batch in flve months! And not only
that, but they were of so efficient a type ("H" Class)
that they came from America to the Dandanelles with
out escort, and were of inestimable service out there, and
passed into the Sea of Marmora, and were most effective
in sinking Turkish Transports bringing munitions to Gal-
lipoli. The type of Submarine ("H" Class) he built hold the
field for their special attributes. I saw one in dock at
Harwich that had been rammed by a Destroyer — I think
a German Destroyer — and had the forepart of her taken
clean away, and she got back to Harwich by herself all
right. The Commander of her, an aged man, was in the
Merchant Service. (What a lot we do indeed owe to
the Merchant Service, and especially to those wonderful
men in the Trawlers!)
But Mr. Schwab did far more than what I have nar
rated above. He undertook the delivery of a very im
portant portion of the armament of the Monitors.
The idea was followed up in making old Cruisers im
mune from German Submarines — the "Grafton," an old
type Cruiser (and so also the "Edgar"), thus fitted, was
hit fair amidships by a torpedo from a German submarine
off Gibraltar, and the Captain of the "Grafton" reported
himself unhurt and going all the faster for it (as it had
blown off a good bit of the hull!), and those vessels were
ever so much the better sea boats for it!
It is lamentable that no heed was given to the great
sagacity of Mr. Churchill in his special endeavour to give
further application to this invention.
In the Submarine Monitor Ml, which carries a 12-
inch gun, and which is illustrated in this volume, we have

SUBMARINES 183
the type of vessel I put before the Admiralty in August,
1915. She is the forerunner of the Battleship of the
future; but her successors should be built in a much
shorter time than she was.

CHAPTER XII
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
How War and Peaceful Commerce will be Revolutionised
by the Oil Engine
On September 17th, 1912, at 3 a.m., I invited two very
eminent experts. Sir Trevor Dawson and his coadjutor
McKechnie, to leave their beds and come into my room
to see an outline of the Fast Ship of the Future, both
for War and Commerce, carrying sufficient fuel to go
round the Earth with and with an increased capacity of
30 per cent, as compared with similar vessels of the same
displacement using steam. At length a special Govern
ment Research Department has been set up to develop
the Oil Engine, and a sum prohibitive in peace time has
been cheerfully accorded by War reasoning to set up this
estabhshment on a big basis. I reiterate what is said else
where, that the Oil Engine will revolutionise both War
and Commerce when once it is perfected — through the
enormous gain it affords in space and smaUer crews
through riddance of stokeholds and firemen, and facility
of re-fueUing and cleanliness and absence of funnels, etc.,
etc, Here is a descriptive outline of H.M.S. "Incompar
able," as set forth in the early morning of September 17th,
1912: Really a Gem ! She can be riddled and gutted outside
the Central Diamond-shaped Armoured Citadel because
1S4

NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES 185
nothing vital outside that Citadel! So lightly built she'll
weigh so little as to go Fast, with a hundred and fifty
thousand horse power! She'll shake to pieces in about 10
years ! What's the good of a warship lastuig longer? The
d — d things get obsolete in about a year !
Ten 16-inch guns to begin with (afterwards 20-inch
guns) for main armament.
Eight broadside Torpedo Tubes (21-inch Torpedo).
Thirty-two knots speed at least.
Sixteen-inch armour on citadel and belt amidships,
thinning towards the end.
Eight hundred and fifty feet long — ^to be afterwards
1,000 feet; 86 feet wide.
Four Torpedo Tubes each side to be well before the
Citadel (submerged Tubes) so as not to interfere with
machinery space.
Quadruple screws.
Anti-Submarine guns in small single turrets.
A Turtle-backed armoured huU, with light steel un
inflammable structure before and abaft the armoured
Diamond-shaped Citadel.
Two Conning Towers.
Hydraulic crane each side (very low in height) for
hfting boats.
The light central steel hollow mast only for wireless
and for ventilation, made of steel ribbon to wind up and
down at will.
Jam up the Citadel all that is possible right in centre
of Hull, and squeeze the last inch in space so as to lessen
amount of 16-inch armour.
Curved thick armour deck.
Ammunition service by Hydraulic power.
Oil right fore and aft the whole ship. Enough to go
round the earth !

1 86 RECORDS
Very high double bottom — honeycombed.
Coffer dams everywhere stuffed with cork.
This, then, is the Fast Battle Cruiser "Incomparable"
of 32 knots speed and 20-inch guns and no funnels, and
phenomenal light draught of water, because so very long
and built so flimsy that she won't last 10 years, but that's
long enough for the War!
I have just found copy of a letter I sent Mr. Winston
Churchill dated two months later, when those two very
eminent men, having cogitated over the matter, very kind
ly informed me that the Visionary was justified. I omit
the details they kindly gave me, as I don't wish to deprive
them of any trade advantage in the furtherance of their
great commercial intentions with regard to the oil engine,
for it is just now the commercial aspect of the internal
combustion engine which enthrals us. A ship now exists
that has a dead weight capacity of 9,500 tons with a speed
of eleven knots (which is quite fast enough for aU cargo-
carrying purposes) and she burns only a little over ten
tons of oil an hour. Having worked out the matter, I
conclude she would save roughly a thousand pounds in
fuel alone over a similar sized steamship in a voyage of
about 3,000 miles (say crossing the Atlantic) ; and, of
course, as compared with coal, she could carry much ad
ditional cargo, probably about 600 tons more. Then the
getting rid of boilers and coal bunkers gives another im
mense additional space to the oil engine ship for cargo,
as the oil fuel would be carried in the double-bottom. A
Swiss firm has put on board an ocean-going motor-driven
ship a Diesel engine which develops 2,500 indicated Horse
Power in one cylinder, so that a quadruple-screw motor
ship could have 80,000 Horse Power with sixteen of these
cyhnders cranked on each shaft, I don't see why one
shouldn't have a sextuple-screw motor ship with a hundred

NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES 187
thousand Horse Power. So it is ludicrous to say that the
internal combustion engine is not suited to big ships. For
some reason I cannot discover, "Tramp" owners are hos
tile to the internal combustion engine. I hope they will
not discover their error too late. I sent two marvellous
pictures of a Motor Battleship to Mr. Winston Churchill
on November 17th, 1912, saying to him: —
"These pictures will make your mouth water!"
However, this type of ship is obsolete for war before
she has been begun, as we have got to turn her into a sub
mersible — ^not that there is any difficulty in that — it has
already been described that in August, 1916, a submersible
vessel with a 12-inch gun was proposed and after ex
treme hesitation and long delays in construction was built,
but she was completed too late to take part in the war. She
might have sunk a goodly number of the German Fleet at
the Battle of Jutland. But our motto in the war was
"Too Late." ^
The whole pith and marrow of the Internal Combus
tion Engine lies in the science of metallurgy. We are
lamentably behind every foreign nation, without excep
tion, in our application of the Internal Combustion En
gine to commercial purposes, because its reliability de
pends on Metallurgy, in which science we are wanting, and
we are also wanting in scientific research on the scale of 12
inches to a foot. We have no scale at all!
We are going to be left behind!
The Board of Invention and Research, of which I was
President, after much persistence obtained the loan of a
small Laboratory at South Kensington, greatly aided by
Professor Dalby, F.R.S., for research purposes as re-
*0nly this morning (November Sth, 1919), I have arranged to deal with
the drawings of a proposed Submersible Battleship carrying many Big Guns,
ana clearly a practicable production.

1 88 RECORDS
gards the Internal Combustion Engine; but its capabih-
ties were quite inadequate. Then the President of the
Council (Earl Curzon) was to undertake the whole ques
tion of Research on a great and worthy scale, and I got
a most kind letter from him. It ended with the letter!
In this connection I have had wonderful support from
Sir Marcus Samuel, who staked his all on Oil and the OU
Engine. Where should we have been in this War but for
this Prime Mover? I've no doubt he is an oil million
aire now, but that's not the point. Oil is one of the
things that won us the War. And when he was Lord
Mayor of London he was about the only man who pub-
hcly supported me when it was extremely unfashionable
to do so.
Oil is the very soul of future Sea Fighting. Hence
my interest in it, and though not intending to work again,
yet my consuming passion for oil and the oil engine
made me accept the Chairmanship of a Royal Commis
sion on Oil and the Oil Engine when Mr. ChurchiU and
Mr. Asquith found me at Naples in May, 1912.
I have come to the conclusion that about the best thing
I ever did was the following exuberant outburst over Oil
and the Oil Engine. I observe it was printed in Novem
ber, 1912, written "currente calamo," and now on reading
it over I would not alter a word. I am only aghast at the
astounding stupidity of the British Shipbuilder and the
British Engineer in being behind every country in the de
velopment of motor ships.
Oil and the Oil Engine (1912)
I. — With two similar Dreadnoughts oil gives 3 knots
more speed — ^that is if ships are designed to
burn oil only instead of oil and coal — and speed
is everything.

coaL

NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES 189
II. — The use of oil fuel increases the strength of the
British Navy 33 per cent., because it can re-fuel
at sea off the enemy's Harbours. Coal necessi
tates about one-third of the Fleet being absent
re-fueUing at a base (in case of war with Ger
many) some three or four hundred miles off! —
i.e., some six or eight hundred miles unneces
sary expenditure of fuel and wear and tear of
machinery and men.
III. — Oil for steam-raising reduces the present engine
and boiler room personnel some 25 per cent.,
and for Internal Combustion Engines would
perhaps reduce the personnel over 60 per cent.
This powerfully affects both economy and
discipline.
IV. — Oil tankers are in profusion on every sea and as
England commands the Ocean {she must com
mand the Ocean to live!!) she has peripatetic
re-fuelling stations on every sea and every oil
tanker's position known every day to a yard!
Before very long there will be a million tons of
oil on the various oceans in hundreds of oil
tankers. The bulk of these would be at our
disposal in time of war. Few or none could
reach Germany.
V. — The Internal Combustion Engine with one ton
of oil does what it takes four tons of coal to
do!^ And having no funnels or smoke is an
indescribable fighting asset! (Always a chance
of smoke in an oil steam-raising vessel where
of course the funnels which disclose a ship such
an immense distance off are obligatory. Each
enemy's ship spells her name to you by her fun
nels as they appear on the horizon, while you
are unseen!)
VI. — The armament of the Internal Combustion Ship
is not hampered by funnels, so can give all-
round fire, an inestimable advantage because the
* Note. — For steam raising 3 tons of oil arc only equivalent to 4 tons of

190 RECORDS
armament can all be placed in the central por
tion of the Hull with all-round fire, and giving
the ship better seaworthy quahties by not hav
ing great weights in the extremities, as obliga
tory where you have funnels and boilers.
VII. — But please imagine the blow to British prestige
if a German warship with Internal Combustion
Propulsion is at sea before us and capable of
going round the World without re-fuelling!
What an Alabama!!! What an upset to the
tremblers on the brink who are hesitating to
make the plunge for Motor Battleships!
According to a reliable foreign correspondent,
the keel of a big Oil-Engine Warship for the
German Navy is to be laid shortly. Krupp
has a design for a single cyhnder of 4,000 H.P. !
He has had a six-cylinder engine of 2,000 H.P.,
each cyhnder successfully running for over a
year.
VIII. — ^Anyhow, it must be admitted that the burning of
oU to raise steam is a roundabout way of get
ting power! The motor car and the aeroplane
take little drops of oil and explode them in
cyhnders and get all the power required with
out being bothered with furnaces or boilers or
steam engines, so we say to the marine engi
neer, "Go and do thou likewise!"
The sailor's life on the 70,000 H.P. coal using
Lion is worse than in any ship in the service
owing to the constant coalings.
It's an economic waste of good material to keep
men grilling in a baking fire hole at unneces
sary labour and use 300 men when a dozen or
so would suffice!
Certainly oil at present is not a cheap fuel! but it
is cheap when the advantages are taken into
consideration. In an Internal Combustion
Engine, according to figures given by Lord
Cowdray, his Mexican oil would work out in

NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES 191
England, when freights are normal, as equiva
lent to coal at twelve to fifteen shillings a ton!
Oil does not deteriorate by keeping. Coal does.
You can store millions of tons of oil without
fear of waste or loss of power, and England has
got to store those millions of tons, though this
reserve may be gradually built up. The initial
cost would be substantial but the investment is
gilt-edged! We must and can face it. Si vis
pacem para bellum!
You can re-fuel a ship with oil in minutes as com
pared with hours with coal!
At any moment during re-fuelling the oil-engine
ship can fight — the coal-driven ship can't — she
is disorganised — the whole crew are black as
niggers and worn out with intense physical
exertion! In the oil-driven ship one man turns
a tap!
It's criminal folly to allow another pound of coal
on board a fighting ship! — or even in a cargo-
ship either! — Krupp has a design for a cargo-
ship with Internal Combustion Engines to go
40,000 (forty thousand) miles without re
fuelling! It's vital for the British Fleet and
vital for no other Fleet, to have the oil engine.
That's the strange thing! And if only the
Germans knew, they'd shoot their Dr. Diesel
like a dog!
Sir Charles Parsons and others prefer small units.
It is realised in regard to the multiplication of
small units (as the Lilliputians tied up Gulli
ver) that though there is no important reason
why cylinders shall not be multiplied on the
same shaft yet the space required will be very
large — ^the engines thus spreading themselves
in the fore and aft direction — but here comes in
the ingenuity of the Naval Constructor and the
Marine Engmeer in arranging a complete fresh
adaptation of the hull space and forthwith

192 RECORDS
immense fighting advantages will accrue! Far
from being an insuperable objection it's a bless
ing in disguise, for with a multiplicity of
internal combustion engines there undoubtedly
follows increased safety from serious or total
breakdown, provided that suitable means are
provided for disconnecting any damaged unit
and also for preventing in case of such failure
any damage to the rest of the system. The
storage of oil fuel lends itself to a remarkable
new disposition of the whole hull space. Thus
a battleship could carry some five or six
thousand tons of oil in her double bottoms —
sufficient to go round the earth without re
fuelling. The "Non-Pareil" (being the French
for the "Incomparable") will carry over 6,000
tons of oil in her double bottoms, with an extra
double bottom below those carrying the oil.
This is equal to 24,000 tons of coal!
This new arrangement of the hull space permits
some dozen motor boats being carried in a cen
tral armoured pit (where the funnels used to
be). These 60-feet motor boats would carry
21-inch Torpedoes and have a speed of 40
knots. Imagine these hornets being let loose in
a sea fight! The 21-inch Torpedo which they
carry goes 5 miles! And the silhouette of an
Internal Combustion Battleship is over 30 per
cent, less than any living or projected Battle
ship in the target offered to the enemy's fire.
IX.— Finally: To be first in the race is everything!
ust consider our immense gains in having been
first with the water-tube boiler 1 First with the
turbine! First with the 13%-inch gun! Just
take this last as an illustration! We shall have
16 ships armed with the 13l/2"iiich gun before
the Germans have a single ship with anything
bigger than the 12-inch, and the 18%-inch is as

NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES 193
superior to the 12-inch as the 12-inch is to a
peashooter.
And yet we hesitate to plunge with a Motor Bat
tleship! Why boggle at this plunge when we
have plunged before, every time with success?
People say Internal Combustion Propulsion in a
hundred thousand horse-power Dreadnought
is similarly impossible! "Wait and see!" — The
"Non-Pareil" is coming along!
The rapid development of the oil engine is best
illustrated by the fact that a highly influential
and rich German syndicate have arranged for
six passenger steamers for the Atlantic and
Pacific Trade, of 22 knots speed and 36,000
H.P. with nine of Krupp's cyhnders of 4,000
H.P. each on three shafts.^
There need be no fear of an oil famine because of
the immense sure oil areas recently brought to
notice in Canada, Persia, Mesopotamia and
elsewhere. The British oil area in Trinidad
alone wiU be able to more than supply all the
requirements of the British Navy. Assuming
the present coal requirements of the Navy at
1% million tons annually, then less than half a
million tons of oil would suffice when the whole
British Navy is oil engined, and, as recently
remarked by the greatest oil magnate, this
amount would be a bagatelle compared with the
total output of oil, which he expects before
many years to reach an output of a hundred
million tons a year in consequence of the great
demand for developing its output and the dis
covery of new oil areas and the working of shale
deposits.
We turned coal-burning Battleships that were build
ing in November, 1914, into oilers, with great increase of
efficiency and speed.
^The War stopped this.— F. 1919.

194 RECORDS
I have chanced upon a Memorandum on "Oil and its
Fighting Attributes," which I drew up on March 3rd,
1913, for the First Lord of the Admiralty. It shows what
a Great Personality can effect. I was told by an enemy
of Mr. Deterding (of whom I am speaking) that when he
came in as Manager of the Great Shell Oil Combine, the
Concern could have been bought for £40,000. When I
wrote my Memorandum, it was valued by a hostile Oil
Magnate (who told me this himself) at forty million
sterling. Whether it is Oil, or Peace, or War, it's the
Man, and not the System that Wins. And Mr. Deterding
is the man who shifted the centre of gravity of oil (to
gether with an immense assemblage of clerks and chem
ists and all the paraphernalia of a huge financial web)
from abroad to this country.
"The ideal accumulator which everybody has been
after for the last 50 years is oil. There wiU never be
found another accumulator or source of power of such
small volume as oil.
"Just fancy! Get a gallon of oil and a man can go
to Brighton and back again, carrying the weight of his
bicycle and himself by means of it. . . .
"It's a shame that anybody is allowed to put oU under
a boiler — for this reason, that when oil is used in an oil
engine it realises about five times greater effect. . . .
"The moment the price of oil is £5 a ton it will not be
used anywhere under a boiler for steam raising, and the
whole world's supply will be available for the Navy and
the Diesel Engine. . . .
"I am going to raise every penny I can get and build
storage, and even when I have built five million tons of
storage I am still going on building it and filling it, even
if it is only for the pleasure of looking at it. It is always
so much condensed labour stored for the future. . . .
"Oil fuel when stored does not deteriorate as coal
does. The stocks would therefore constitute a national
asset, the intrinsic value of which would not diminish."

NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES 195
. . . (Mr. Deterding before the Royal Commission on Oil
and Oil Engines.)
My Memorandum was as follows: —
Mr. Deterding in his evidence before the Royal Com
mission, confesses that he possesses in Roumania, in
Russia, in California, in the Dutch Indies, in Trinidad,
and shortly in Mexico, the controlling interest in oil. The
Anglo-Persian Company also say he is getting Mesopo
tamia and squeezing Persia, which are practically
untouched areas of immense size reeking with oil. With
out doubt Mr. Deterding is Napoleonic in his audacity
and Cromwellian in his thoroughness. Sir Thomas
Browning in his evidence says that the Royal Dutch-Shell
Combination is more powerful and aggressive than ever
was the great Standard Oil Trust of America.
Let us therefore listen with deep attention to the words
of a man who has the sole executive control of the most
powerful organisation on earth for the production of a
source of power which almost doubles the power of our
Navy whilst our potential enemies remain normal in the
strength of their fleets. What does he advise?
He says : "Oil is the most extraordinary article in the
commercial world and the only thing that hampers its sale
is its production. There is no other article in the world
where you can get the consumption as long as you make
the production. In the case of oil make the production
first as the consumption will come. There is no need to
look after the consumption, and as a seller you need not
make forward contracts as the oil sells itself." Only what
you want is an enormously long purse to be able to snap
your fingers at everybody and if people do not want to
buy it to-day to be able to say to them: "All right; I wiU
spend a million sterling in making reservoirs and then in
the future you will have to pay so much more." "The
great point for the Navy is to get oil from someone who
can draw supplies from many spots, because no one spot
can be absolutely relied on." There is not anybody who
can be certain of his supply; oil fields in my own experi-

196 RECORDS
ence which at the time yielded 18,000 barrels a day within
five days went down to 3,000 barrels without the shghtest
warning. The British Empire "has the long purse"; build reser
voirs and store oil. Keep on building reservoirs and buy
oil at favourable rates when they offer. November 21st, 1917.
The report below of the Secretary of the United States
Navy is interesting. I have just been looking up the
record in 1886, when high officials said I was an "Oil
Maniac." I was at that time at the Admiralty as Direc
tor of Naval Ordnance, and was sent from that appoint
ment to be Admiral Superintendent of Portsmouth Dock
yard, prior to being appointed Controller of the Navy,
where I remained six years. At Portsmouth Dockyard,
while I was Admiral Superintendent, we paved the way
for rapid shipbuilding in the completion of the Battle
ship "Royal Sovereign" in two years. Afterwards, with
the same superintendence but additional vigour, we com
pleted the "Dreadnought" in one year and one day ready
for Battle! Oil Burning Battleships Washington.
Mr. Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, issues a report
urging that Congress should authorise the construction of
three Battleships, one Battle Cruiser, and nine Fleet Sub
marines. He favours oil-burning units, and says that the
splendid work which has been accomplished by these ves
sels would not have been done by coal-burning ships. The
use of any other power but oil is not now in sight.

CHAPTER XIII
THE BIG GUN
Perhaps the most convincing speech I ever read was
made impromptu by Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon at a
meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects on March
12th, 1913.
First of all Admiral Bacon disposed of the fallacy
brought forward by one of the speakers, as to which is
more effective in disabling the enemy, to destroy the struc
ture of the ship or destroy the guns — the fact being that
both are bound up together — if you utterly destroy the
hull of the ship you thereby practically destroy the gun
fire. (This is one of those things so obvious that one
greatly wonders how these clever experts lose them
selves.) Then Admiral Bacon in a most lovely parable disposed
of tl^e "Bow and Arrow Party," who want a lot of small
guns instead of, as in the Dreadnought, but one type of
gun and that the heaviest gun that can be made. This is
Admiral Bacoja: —
"I should like to draw your attention to some advice
that was given many years ago by an old Post Captain to
a Midshipman. He said, 'Boy, if ever you are dining and
after dinner, over the wine, some subject like politics is
discussed when men's passions are aroused, if a tman
throws a glass of wine in your face, do not throw a glass
of wine in his : Throw the decanter stopper!' And that is
what we advocates of the Heavy Gun as mounted in the
197

198 RECORDS
Dreadnought propose to do — ^not to slop the six-inch shot
over the shirt-front of a battleship, but to go for her with
the heaviest guns we can get ; and the heavier the explosive
charge you can get in your shell and the bigger explosion
you can wreak on the structure near the turrets and the
conning tower and over the armoured deck the more likely
you are to disable that ship. We object most strongly to
the fire of the big guns being interfered with by the use
of smaller guns at the same time with all the smoke and
mess that are engendered by them. The attention of the
Observing Officers is distracted; their sight is to a great
extent obhterated, and even the theoretical result of the
small guns is not worth the candle. . . . The ordinary six-
inch gun in a battleship is, as regards torpedo-boat attack,
of just as much use as a stick is to an old gentleman who is
being snow-balled : it keeps his enemy at a respectful dis
tance but still within the vulnerable range of the torpedo.
In these days the locomotive torpedo can be fired at ranges
at which it is absolutely impossible even to hope or think
of hitting the Destroyer which fires the torpedoes at you.
You may try to do it, but it is quite useless. Very well,
then; the six-inch gun does keep the Destroyer at a longer
range than would be the case if the six-inch gun were not
there, that's aU. . . . Then the problem of speed has been
touched upon. I quite see from one point of view that to
lose two guns for an extra five-knot speed seems a great
loss ; but there is one question which I should hke to ask,
and that is whether you would send out to sea a whole
fleet, the whole strength of the nation, with no single ship
of sufficient superior speed to pick up a particular ship of
the enemy? That is the point to rivet your attention
upon. We must always in our Navy have ships of greatly
superior speed to any one particular ship in the enemy's
fleet, otherwise over the face of the sea you will have ships
of the enemy roaming about that we cannot overhaul and
that nothing can touch."
The above words were spoken by Admiral Bacon two
and three-quarter years before Admiral von Spec and his

THE BIG GUN 199
fast Squadron were caught up and destroyed by the Brit
ish fast Battle Cruisers, "Invincible" and "Inflexible."
Admiral Bacon was a prophet! In other words. Admiral
Bacon had Common Sense, and saw the Obvious.
It's difficult for a shore-going person to realise things
obvious to the sailor. For instance: in the case of a Big
Gun, if twice two is four, then twice four isn't eight, it's
sixteen, and twice eight isn't sixteen, it's sixty-four; that
is to say, the bursting effect of a shell varies with the
square. So the bigger the calibre of the gun the more
immense is the desolating effect of the shell, and, inci
dentally, the longer the range at which you hit the enemy.
The projectile of the 20-inch gun that was ready to
be made for H.M.S. "Incomparable" weighed over two
tons, and the gun itself weighed 200 tons. Such a projec
tile, associated with a Howitzer, may effect vast changes
in both Sea and Land War, because of the awful and im
mense craters such shell explosions would effect.
To illustrate the frightful devastating effect of such
huge shell I will tell a story that I heard from a great
friend of mine, a Japanese Admiral. He was a Lieu
tenant at the time of the Chino-Japanese War. The
Chinese vessels mounted very heavy guns. One of their
shells burst on the side of the Japanese ship in which my
friend was. The Captain sent him down off the bridge
to see what had happened, as the ship tottered under the
effect of this sheU. When he got down on the gun deck,
he saw, as it were, the whole side of the ship open to the
sea, and not a vestige of any of the crew could he see.
They had all been blown to pieces. The only thing he
rescued was the uniform cap of his friend, the Lieutenant
who was in charge of that division of guns, blown up
overhead between the beams. The huge rope mantlets
that acted as splinter nettings hung between the guns

200 RECORDS
had utterly disappeared and were resolved into tooth
powder! (so he described it).
I digress here with an anecdote that comes to my mind
and which greatly impressed me with the extraordinary
humility of the Japanese mind. I had remonstrated with
my Japanese friend as to Admiral Togo not having been
suitably rewarded for his wonderful victory over the Rus
sian Admiral Rozhdestvensky. He replied: "Sir, Ad
miral Togo has received the Second Class of the Order of
the Golden Kite!" We should have made him a Duke
straight off! Togo was made a Count afterwards, but not
all at once — for fear, I suppose, of giving him a swelled
head. He was a great man, Togo ; he was extremely dif
fident about accepting the English Order of Merit, and
even then he wore the Order the wrong way out, so that
the inscription "For Merit" should not be seen. The
Mikado asked him, after the great battle, to bring to him
the bravest man in the Fleet ; the Mikado expecting to see
a Japanese of some sort. I am told that Admiral Togo
brought Admiral Pakenham, who was alongside him dur
ing the action. I quite believe it ; but I have always been
too shy to ask my friend if it was true. All I know is that
I never read better Despatches anywhere than those of
Admiral Pakenham.
Somewhat is said in my "Memories" of the unmis
takable astoundingness of huge bursting charges in the
shell of big guns. ( I should be sorry to limit the effects
to even Geometrical Progression!) I don't think Science
has as yet more than mathematically investigated the
amazing quality of Detonation. Here is a picture (see
opposite) of only eighteen-inch gun shells, such as
the Battle Cruiser "Furious" was designed and built to
fire. Her guns with their enormous shells were built to
make it unpossible for the Germans to prevent the Rus-

THE BIG GUN 201
sian Millions from landing on the Pomeranian Coast! In
this connection I append a rough sketch by Oscar Parkes
of a twenty-inch gun ship. The sketch will offend the
critical eye of my very talented friend. Sir Eustace Ten
nyson d'Eyncourt, but it's good enough for shoregoing
people to give them the idea of what, but for the prodigious
development of Air-craft, would have been as great a New
Departure as was the "Dreadnought." The shells of the
"Incomparable" fired from her twenty-inch guns would
each have weighed over two tons! Imagine two tons
being hurled by each of these guns to a height above the
summit of the Matterhorn, or any other mountain you like
to take, and bursting on its reaching the ground far out
of human sight, but yet with exact accuracy as to where
it should fall, causing in its explosion a crater somewhat
hke that of Vesuvius or Mount Etna, and consequently
you can then easily imagine the German Army fleeing for
its life from Pomerania to Berlin. The "Furious" (and
all her breed) was not built for Salvoes! They were built
for Berlin, and that's why they drew so little water and
were built so fragile, so as to weigh as httle as possible,
and so go faster.
It is very silly indeed to build vessels of War so
strong as to last a hundred years. They are obsolete in
less than ten years. But the Navy is just one mass of
Tories! In the old days a Sailing Line of Battleship
never became obsolete; the winds of Heaven remained as
in the days of Noah. I staggered one Old Admiral by
teUing him that it blew twice as hard now as when he was
at sea; he couldn't go head-to- wind in his day with sails
only, now with the wind forty miles against you you can go
forty miles dead against it, and therefore the wind is equal
to eighty miles an hour. He didn't quite take it in. I
heard one First Sea Lord say to the Second Sea Lord,

202 RECORDS
when scandalised at seeing in a new ship a bathroom for
the midshipmen, that he never washed when he went to sea
and he didn't see why the midshipmen should now! But
what most upset him was that the seat of the water-closet
was mahogany French-polished, instead of good old oak
holystoned every morning and so always nice and damp to
sit on. (Another improvement is unmentionable!)
I must not leave this chapter without expressing iriy
unbounded dehght in having to do business with so splen
did a man as Major A. G. Hadcock, the Head of the
Ordnance Department at the Elswick Works, who fought
out single-handed all the difficulties connected with the in
ception of the eighteen-inch and the twenty-inch guns of
the "Furious" and "Incomparable." I have another
friend of the same calibre, who has consistently been in the
forefront of the Battle for the adoption of the biggest pos
sible gun that could be constructed — ^Admiral Sir Sydney
Eardley- Wilmot; he was also the most efficient Chief of
the Munitions Department of the Admiralty. When I
was gasping with Hadcock over a 20-inch gun, Wilmot
had a 22-inch gun! I really felt small (quite unusual with
me!) . Now I hope no one is going to quote this line when
they review this book: — "Some men grow great, otiiesa^
only swelL"

CHAPTER XIV
SOME PREDICTIONS
When I was "sore let and hindered" in the days of
my youth as a young Lieutenant, a cordial hand was
always held out to me by Commodore Goodenough. He
was killed by the South Sea Islanders with a poisoned
arrow. Being on intimate terms with him, I sent him, in
1868, a reasoned statement proving conclusively that masts
and sails were damned as the motive power of warships.
(As a parenthesis I here insert the fact that so late as
1896 a distinguished Admiral, on full pay and in active
employment, put forward a solemn declaration that unless
sixteen sailing vessels were built for the instruction of the
Officers and men of the Navy the fighting efficiency of the
Fleet would go to the devil.)
Commodore Goodenough was so impressed by my
memorandum that he had a multitude of copies printed
and circulated, with the result that they were all burnt and
I was damned, and I got a very good talking to by the
First Sea Lord. I hadn't the courage of those fine old
boys — Bishops Latimer and Ridley — and ran away from
the stake. Besides, I wanted to get on. I felt my day had
not yet come. Years after, I commanded the "Inflexible,"
stiU with masts and sails. She had every sort of wonder
ful contrivance in engines, electricity, etc.; but however
well we did with them we were accorded no credit. The
sails had as much effect upon her in a gale of wind as a
fly would have on a hippopotamus in producing any move-
203

204 RECORDS
ment. However, we shifted topsails in three minutes and
a half and the Admiral wrote home to say the "Inflexible"
was the best ship in the Fleet. Ultimately the masts and
sails were taken out of her.
It was not till I was Director of Naval Ordnance that
wooden boarding pikes were done away with. I had a
good look round, at the time, to see if there were any
bows and arrows left.
What my retrograde enemies perfectly detested was
being called "the bow and arrow party." When later they
fought against me about speed being the first desidera
tum, the only way I bowled them over was by designating
them as "the Snail and Tortoise party." It was always
the same lot. They wanted to put on so much armour to
make themselves safe in battle that their ideal became like
one of the Spithead Forts — it could hardly move, it had so
much armour on. The great principle of fighting is sim
plicity, but the way a ship used to be built was that you
put into her everybody's fad and everybody's gun, and she
sank in the water so much through the weight of all these
different fads that she became a tortoise! The greatest
possible speed with the biggest practicable gun was, up to
the time of aircraft, the acme of sea fighting. Now, there
is only one word — "Submersible."
But to proceed with another Prediction :
The second prediction followed naturally from the
first. With machinery being dictated to us as the motive
power instead of sails, officers and men would have to be
come Engineers, and discipline would be better, and so
you would not require to have Marines to shoot the sailors
in case of mutiny. Now this does sound curious, but again
it is so obvious. When the sails were the motive power, the
best Petty Officers — that is to say, the smartest of the sea
men — got their positions, not by good conduct, but by

SOME PREDICTIONS 205
their temerity aloft, and the man who hauled out the
weather-earing in reefing topsails in a gale of wind and
balanced himself on his stomach on a topsail yard, with
the ship in a mountainous sea, was a man you had to have
in a leading position, whatever his conduct was. But once
the sails were done away with and there was no going aloft,
then the whole ship's company became what may be caUed
"good conduct" men, and could be Marines, or, if you liked
to caU them so. Sailors. One plan I had was to do away
with the sailors; and another plan I had was to do away
with Marines. I plumped for the saUors, though I loved
the Marines.
In December, 1868, I predicted and patented a sym
pathetic exploder for submarine mines. In the last year
of the war this very invention proved to be the most dead
ly of aU species of submarine mines.
Quite a different sort of prediction occurs in a letter
I wrote to Sir Maurice Hankey in 1910, and of which he
reminded me in the foUowing letter:
Letter from Sir M. Hankey, K.C.B. (Secretary to
THE War Cabinet)
Offices op the War Cabinet,
2, Whitehali. Gardens, S.W.
May 28th, 1917-
My Dear Lord Fisher,
I am sending your letter along to my wife and asking
her to write to you and send both a copy of your letter
to me in 1910 about Mr. Asquith's leaving office in
November, 1916,^ and also to write to you about your
prophecy of war with Germany beginning in 1914, and
Sir John Jellicoe being in command of the Grand Fleet
when war broke out.
'This was said in 1910, and Mr. Asquith did leave office as here predicted,
in November, 1916, six years afterwards! And Sir John Jellicoe toolc com
mand of the Grand Fleet forty-eight hours before war was declared, and the
war with Germany did break out as predicted in 1914!

2o6 RECORDS
I have the clearest recollection of the incident. My
wife and I had been down to you for a week-end to
Kilverstone. You had persuaded us not to go up by the
early train on the Monday, and you took us to the rose-
garden, where there was a sundial with a charming and
interesting inscription. You linked one arm through my
wife's and the other through mine, and walked us round
and round the paths, and it was walking thus that you
made the extraordinary prophecy —
"The War will come in 1914, and Jellicoe will command
the Grand Fleet."
I remember that my practical mind revolted against the
prophecy, and I pressed you for reasons. You then told
us that the Kiel Canal, according to experts whom you
had assembled five or six years before to examine this
question, could not be enlarged for the passage of the new
German Dreadnoughts before 1914, and that Germany,
though bent on war, would not risk it until this date. As
regards Jellicoe, you explained how you yourself had so
cast his professional career in such directions as to train
him for the post, and, after a brief horoscope of his normal
prospects of promotion, you indicated your intention of
watching over his career — as you actually did.
All this remains vividly in my mind, and I believe in
that of my wife, but, as I am not going home for a few
days, she shall give you her unbiassed account.
The calculation itself was an interesting one, but what
strikes me now as more remarkable is the "flair" with
which you forecasted with certainty the state of mind of
the German Emperor and his advisers, and their intention
to go to war the first moment they dared. . . .
No more now. In haste. Yours ever,
(Signed) M. P. A. Hankey.
The grounds for my prophecies are stated elsewhere.
I won't repeat them here. They reaUy weren't predic
tions ; they were certainties.

SOME PREDICTIONS 207
I remark in passing that what the sundial said was: —
"Forsitan Ultima."
By the way, I was called a sundial once by a vitupera
tive woman whom I didn't know; she wrote a letter abus
ing me as an optimist, and sent these lines : —
"There he stands amidst the flowers,
Counting only sunny hours.
Heeding neither rain nor mist.
That brazen-faced old optimist."
Another woman (but I knew her) in sending me some
lovely roses to crown the event of a then recent success,
sent also some beautiful lines likewise of her own making.
She regretted that I preferred a crown of thorns to a
crown of the thornless roses she sent me. The rose she
alluded to is called "Zephyrine Drouhin," and, to me, it
is astounding that it is so unknown. It is absolutely the
only absolute thornless rose ; it has absolutely the sweetest
scent of any rose; it is absolutely the most glorious col
oured of all roses; it blooms more than any rose; it re
quires no pruning, and costs less than any rose. I planted
these roses when I left the Admiralty in 1910. Somebody
told the Naval Attache at Rome, not knowing that he
knew me, that I had taken to planting roses, and his re
mark was: "They'll d — d well have to grow!" He had
served many years with me.

CHAPTER XV
THE BALTIC PROJECT
Note. — This paper was submitted for my consideration by Sir
Julian Corbett, in the early autumn of 1914.
From the shape the war has now taken, it is to be
assumed that Germany is trusting for success to a repeti
tion of the methods of Frederick the Great in the Seven
Years' War. Not only are the conditions of the present
war closely analogous — ^the main difference being that
Great Britain and Austria have changed places — but dur
ing the last 15 years the German Great General Staff
have been producing an elaborate study of these cam
paigns. Broadly stated, Frederick's original plan in that war
was to meet the hostile coalition with a sudden offensive
against Saxony, precisely as the Germans began with
France. When that offensive failed, Frederick feU back
on a defensive plan under which he used his interior
position to deliver violent attacks beyond each of his fron
tiers successively. By this means he was able for seven
years to hold his own against odds practically identical
with those which now confront Germany; and in the end,
though he made none of the conquests he expected, he was
able to secure peace on the basis of the status quo ante
and materially to enhance his position in Europe.
In the present war, so far as it has gone, the same
methods promise the same result. Owing to her excellent
communications, Germany has been able to employ Fred-
208

THE BALTIC PROJECT 209
erick's methods with even greater success than he did;
and at present there seems no certain prospect of the
Alhes being able to overcome them soon enough to ensure
that exhaustion will not sap the vigour and cohesion of
the coahtion.
The only new condition in favour of the Allies is that
the Command of the Sea is now against Germany, and
it is possible that its mere passive pressure may avail to
bring her to a state of hopeless exhaustion from which
we were able to save Frederick in the earlier war. If it
is believed that this passive pressure can achieve the de
sired result within a reasonable time, then there is no rea
son for changing our present scheme of naval operations.
If, on the other hand, we have no sufficient promise of
our passive attitude effecting what is required to turn the
scale, then it may be well to consider the possibility of
bringing our Command of the Sea to bear more ac
tively. We have only to go back again to the Seven Years'
War to find a means of doing this, which, if feasible
under modern conditions, would promise success as surely
as it did in the eighteenth century.
Though Frederick's method succeeded, it was once
brought within an ace of failure. From the first he knew
that the weak point of his system was his northem
frontier. He knew that a blow in force from the Baltic could
at any time paralyse his power of striking right and left,
and it was in dread of this from Russia that he began by
pressing us so hard to provide him with a covering fleet in
that sea.
Owing to our world-wide preoccupations we were
never able to provide such a fleet, and the result was
that at the end of 1761 the Russians were able to seize

210 RECORDS
the port of Colberg, occupy the greater part of Pomer
ania, and winter there in preparation for the decisive
campaign in the following spring. Frederick's view of
his danger is typified in the story that he now took to
carrying a phial of poison in his pocket. Owing, how
ever, to the sudden death of the Czarina in the winter the
fatal campaign was never fought. Russia made peace
and Prussia was saved.
So critical an episode in the early history of Prussia
cannot be without an abiding influence in Berlin. In
deed, it is not too much to say that in a country where
military thought tends to dominate naval plans, the main
value of the German Fleet must be its ability to keep the
command of the Baltic so far in dispute that hostile invar
don across it is impossible.
If then it is considered necessary to adopt a more
drastic war plan than that we are now pursuing, amd to
seek to revive the fatal stroke of 1761, it is for considera
tion whether we are able to break demon the situation
•which the German fleet has set up. Are we, in short,
in a position to occupy the Baltic in such strength as to
enable an adequate Russian army to land in the spring
on the coast of Pomerania within striking distance of
Berlin or so as to threaten the German communications
eastward? The first and most obvious difficulty attending such
an operation is that it would require the whole of our
battle force, and we could not at the same time occupy
the North Sea effectively. We should, therefore, lie
open to the menace of a counterstroke which might at
any time force us to withdraw from the Baltic; and the
only means of preventing this — since the western exit
of the Kiel Canal cannot be blocked —
would be to sow the North Sea with mines on such a

THE BALTIC PROJECT 211
scale that naval operations in it would become impos
sible. The objections to such an expedient, both moral and
practical, are, of course, very great. The chief moral
objection is offence to neutrals. But it is to be observed
that they are already suffering severely from the open-
sea mining which the Germans inaugurated, and it is
possible that, could they be persuaded that carrying the
system of open-sea mining to its logical conclusion would
expedite the end of the present intolerable conditions,
they might be induced to adopt an attitude of acquies
cence. The actual attitude of the northem neutral
Powers looks at any rate as if they would be glad to
acquiesce in any measure which promised them freedom
from their increasing apprehension of Germany's inten
tions. Sweden, at any rate, who would, after Holland,
be the greatest sufferer, has recently been ominously re
minded of the days when Napoleon forced her into war
with us against her will.
In this connection it may also be observed that where
one belligerent departs from the rules of civilised war
fare, it is open to the other to take one of two courses.
He may secure a moral advantage by refusing to follow
a bad lead, or he may seek a physical advantage by forc
ing the enemy's crime to its utmost consequences. By
the half measures we have adopted hitherto in regard to
open-sea mines, we are enjoying neither the one advan
tage nor the other.
On the general idea of breaking up the German war
plan by operations in the Baltic, it may be recalled that
it is not new to us. It was attempted — ^but a little too
late — during Napoleon's Friedland-Eylau campaign. It
was again projected in 1854, when our operations in the
Great War after Trafalgar, and particularly in the

212 RECORDS
Peninsula, were still hving memories. In that year we
sent a Fleet into the Baltic with the idea of covering the
landing of a French force within striking distance of
Petrograd, which was to act in combination with the
Prussian army; but as Prussia held back, the idea was
never carried out. Still, the mere presence of our Fleet
— ^giving colour to the menace — did avail to keep a very
large proportion of the Russian strength away from the
Crimea, and so materially hastened the successful conclu
sion of the war.
On this analogy, it is for consideration whether, even
if the suggested operation is not feasible, a menace of
carrying it out — concerted with Russia — ^might not avaU
seriously to disturb German equilibrium and force her to
desperate expedients, even to hazarding a Fleet action
or to alienating entirely the Scandinavian Powers by
drastic measures of precaution.
The risks, of course, must be serious; but unless we
are fairly sure that the passive pressure of our Fleet is
really bringing Germany to a state of exhaustion, risks
must be taken to use our command of the Sea with
greater energy; or, so far as the actual situation prom
ises, we can expect no better issue for the present war
than that which the continental coahtion was forced to ac
cept in the Seven Years' War.
Lord Fisher to Mr. Lloyd George
36, Berkeley Squabjb,
LoNnoN, March 28th, 1917-
Dear Prime Minister,
I hardly liked to go further with my remarks this
morning, recognising how very valuable your time is, but
I would have liked to have added how appalling it is that
the Germans may now be about to deal a deadly blow to

THE BALTIC PROJECT 213
Russia by sending a large German Force by sea from Kiel
to take St. Petersburg (which, as the Russian Prime
Minister, Stolypin, told me, is the Key of Russia! All is
concentrated there!). And here we are with our Fleet
passive and unable to frustrate this German Sea attack
on Russia. All this due to the grievous faulty Naval
strategy of not adopting the Baltic Project put before
Mr. Asquith in association with the scheme for the Brit
ish Army advancing along the Belgian Coast, by which
we should have re-captured Antwerp, and there would
have been no German submarine menace such as now is.
An Armada of 612 vessels was constructed to carry out
this policy, thanks to your splendid approval of the cost
when you were Chancellor of the Exchequer.
I. Our Naval Strategy has been unimaginative.
II. Our shipbuilding Policy has been futile, inasmuch
as it has not coped with the German Submarine Menace.
III. Our Naval InteUigence of the enemy's doings is
good for nothing. For it is impossible to conceive there
would have been apathy at the Admiralty had it been
known how the Germans were building submarines in such
numbers — 3 a week. Sir John JeUicoe told us at the War
Cabinet. I say 5 a week. Yours, etc.,
(Signed) Fisher.
28/3/17.
I append a couple of extracts from Memoranda made
by me in 1902, when I was Commander-in-Chief of the
Mediterranean Fleet.
"Here we see 5,000 of these offensive floating mines
laid down off Port Arthur, covering a wider space than
the English Channel, and we, so far, have none, nor any
vessel yet fitted! What a scandal ! For a purpose unnec
essary to be detailed here, it is absolutely obligatory for
us to have these mines instantly for war against Germany.
They are an imperative strategic necessity, and must be
got at once."

214 RECORDS
Automatic Dropping Mines for Ocean Use
"The question of the use of these mines as an adjunct
to a Battle Fleet in a Fleet action has not been put for
ward so strongly as desirable as compared with their use
for preventing ingress or egress to a port. They can be
used with facility in the open sea in depths up to 150
fathoms. There is no question that they could be em
ployed with immense effect to protect the rear of a retreat
ing Fleet. This type of mine is quite different to the
blockade mine. They are offensive mines. Is it wise,
indeed is it prudent not to acquaint ourselves, by exhaus
tive trials, what the possibility of such a weapon may be,
and how it may be counteracted?"

CHAPTER XVI
the navy in the war
Scapa Flow
Ages before the War, but after I became First Sea
Lord on Trafalgar Day, 1904, I was sitting locked up in
a secluded room that I had mis-appropriated at the Ad
miralty, looking at a chart of the North Sea, and playing
with a pair of compasses, when these thoughts came into
my mind! "Those d — d Germans, if dear old Tirpitz is
only far-seeing enough, will multiply means of 'dishing'
a blockade by making the life of surface ships near the
coast line a burden to them by submarines and destroy
ers. (At this time the Germans had only one submarine,
and she a failure!) Also, as their radius of action grows
through the marvellous oil engine, and 'internal com
bustion' changes the face of sea war, we must have our
British Fleet so placed at such a distance from hostile
attack that our Force off the Enemy's Coast will cut off
his marauders at daylight in the morning on their ma
rauding return." I put that safe distance for the British
Fleet on my compasses and swept a circle, and behold it
came to a large inland land-locked sheet of water, but
there was no name to it on the chart and no soundings
in it put on the chart. I sent for the Hydrographer, and
pointing to the spot, I said: "Bring me the large scale
chart. What's its name?" He didn't know. He would
find out. 215

2i6 RECORDS
He was a d — d long time away, and I rang the bell
twice and sent him word each time that I was getting
angry! When he turned up, he said it hadn't been properly
surveyed, and he believed it was called Scapa Flow! So
up went a surveying ship about an hour afterwards, and
discovered, though the current raged through the Pent-
land Firth at sometimes 14 knots, yet inside this huge
secluded basin it was comparatively a stagnant pool!
Wasn't that another proof that we are the ten lost tribes
of Israel? And the Fleet went there forty -eight hours
before the War, and a German in the German Fleet
wrote to his father to say how it had been intended to
torpedo the British Fleet, but it had left unexpectedly
sooner for this Northern "Unknown!" Also, he said in
his letter that JeUicoe's appointment as Admirahssimo
was very painful to them as they knew of his extreme
skiU in the British Naval Manoeuvres of 1913. Also,
thirdly, he added to his Papa that it was a d — d nuis
ance we had bagged the two Turkish Dreadnoughts in
the Tyne the very day they were ready to start, as they
belonged to Germany!
The mention of Jellicoe reminds me of Yamamoto
saying to me that, just before their War with Russia, he
had superseded a splendid Admiral loved by his Fleet,
because Togo was "just a httle better!!!''
The superseded man was his own protSge, and Togo
wasn't. No wonder these Japanese fight!
Prince Fushishima, the Mikado's brother, told me of
4,000 of a special company of the bluest blood in Japan,
of whom all except four were killed in action or died of
wounds — only nine were invalided for sickness. How
ever, I remarked to him we were braver than those 4,000
Japanese, because their rehgion is they go to Heaven if

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 217
they die for their country, and we are not so sure! He
agreed with me, and gave me a lovely present.
A Pre-War Prophecy
On December the 3rd, 1908, when I was First Sea
Lord of the Admiralty, I hazarded a prophecy (but, of
course, I was only doing the obvious!) that should we
be led by our anti-Democratic tendencies in High
Places, and by Secret Treaties and by Compromising At
tendances of Great Mihtary Officers at the French
MancEuvres at Nancy, into a sort of tacit pledge to
France to land a British Army in France in a war against
Germany, then would come the biggest blow to England
she would ever have experienced — not a defeat, because
we never succumb — ^but a deadly blow to our economic
resources and by the relegation of the British Navy into
a "Subsidiary Service." I said in 1908 (and told King
Edward so) that the German Emperor would, in such a
case, order his generals "to fight neither with smaU nor
great," but only with the English and wipe them out! So
has it come to pass, as regards the Emperor giving these
orders and his having this desire!
The original Enghsh Expeditionary Force was but a
drop in the Ocean as compared with the German and
French miUions of soldiers, and the value, though not the
gallantry of its exploits, has been greatly over-rated. It
was a very long time indeed before the British Army
held any considerable portion of the fighting line in
France, and instead of being on the seashore, in touch
with the British Fleet and with easy access to England,
the British Expeditionary Force was, by French direc
tions and because of French susceptibilities, stationed far
away from the sea, and sandwiched between French

2x8 RECORDS
troops. We have always been giving in to the suscepti
bilities of others and having none of our own! The
whole war illustrates this statement. The Naval situation
in the Mediterranean perhaps exemplifies this more than
any other instance!
Had the French maintained the defensive in 1915, it
is unquestionable that it would have been the Germans
and not the French who would have suffered the bloody
losses in the regions of Artois and the Champagne.
We built up a great Army, but we wrecked our ship
building. We ought to have equipped Russia before we
equipped our own Armies, for, had we done so, the
Russians would never have sustained the appalling losses
they did in pitting pikes against rifles and machine-guns.
This was the real reason of the Russian Catastrophe —
the appaUing casualties and the inability of the old
regime to supply armaments on the modern scale. Had
another policy been pursued and the British Fleet, with
its enormous supremacy, cleared the Baltic of the Ger
man Navy and landed a Russian Army on the Pomera
nian Coast, then the War would have been won in 1915!
Also, as I pointed out in November, 1914, to Lord
Kitchener, we ought to have given Bulgaria all she asked
of us. When later we offered her these same terms she
refused us with derisive laughter!
There was no difficulty in all this, but we were pusil
lanimous and we procrastinated.
We did not equip Russia! WE DID NOT SOW
THE NORTH SEA WITH THOUSANDS UPON
THOUSANDS OF MINES, as I advocated in the
Autumn of 1914, and I bought eight of the fastest ships
in the world to lay them down! This sowing of the
North Sea with a multitude of mines would automatically
have established a Complete Blockade! Again, we did

THE NAVY IN THE V^AR 219
not foster Agriculture, and we almost ceased building
Merchant Ships, and robbed our building yards and ma
chine shops of the most skiUed artisans and mechanics
in the world to become "cannon fodder" ! But a wave of
unthinking Militarism swept over the country and sub
merged the Government, and we were in May, 1918,
hard put to it to bring the American Army across the
Atlantic as we were so short of shipping.
It needs not a Soldier to realise that had the British
Expeditionary Force of 160,000 men been landed at
Antwerp by the British Fleet in August, 1914 (instead
of its occupying a small sector in the midst of the French
Army in France), that the War would certainly have
ended in 1915. This, in conjunction with the seizure of
the Baltic by the British Fleet and the landing of a Rus
sian Army on the Pomeranian Coast would have smashed
the Germans. All this was foreshadowed in 1908, and
the German Emperor kindly gave me the credit as the
Instigator of the Idea so deadly to Germany.
The "Monstrous" Cruisers so Derided in
Parliament
Note. — ^When I came to the Admiralty as First Sea
Lord in October, 1914 — three months after the War had
begun — I obtained the very cordial concurrence and help
of Mr. Churchill and Mr. Lloyd George (Chancellor of
the Exchequer) in an unparalleled building programme
of 612 vessels of types necessary for a Big Offensive in
Northern Waters {the decisive theatre of the War).
Coal-burning Battleships then under construction were
re-designed to burn oil, with great increase of their effi
ciency and speed, and the last two of these eight Battle
ships were scrapped (the "Renown" and "Repulse") , and,
together with three new vessels — the "Courageous,"
"Glorious," and "Furious" — were arranged to have im-

220 RECORDS
mense speed, heavy guns and unprecedented light draught
of water, thus enabling them to fulfil the very work
described in this letter below of absolutely disposing of
hostile light cruisers and following them into shaUow
waters. They were also meant for service in the Baltic.
Ever since their production became known. Naval
critics in both Houses of Parliament (quite ignorant of
new Naval strategical and tactical requirements) have
consistently crabbed these new mighty Engines of War
as the emanations of a sick brain, "senile and autocratic.f"
Hence the value of the following letter from an eye
witness of high rank:

To Lord Fisher from a Naval Officer
December 12th, 1917.
Dear Lord Fisher,
In the late action in the Hehgoland Bight the only
heavy ships which could get up with the enemy were the
"Repulse," "Courageous" and "Glorious" (the "Renown"
and "Furious" were elsewhere).^ They very nearly
brought off an important "coup!" Without them our light
cruisers would not have had a "look in," or perhaps would
have been "done in!" When public speakers desired to
decry the work of the Board of which you were a Member
in 1914 and 1915, and particularly that part of the work
for which you were so personally responsible as this new
type of heavy ship, no condemnation was too heavy to
heap on your design!
It is a pleasure to me, therefore, to be able to let you
know that they have fuUy justified your anticipation of
their success.
I trust you are quite weU and will believe me,
Yours sincerely.

^ These are the five Battle Cruisers built on my return to the Ad
miralty in 1914-1915.

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 221
Lord Fisher to a Friend August 22nd, 1917.
My Beloved Friend,
I am scanning the dark horizon for some faint glimmer
of the end of the War. Not a sign of a glunmer ! So far
as the Germans are concerned, there is indisputable
authority for stating that Germany is equal to a seven
years' war! Are we? So far, alas! we have had no
Nelson, no Napoleon, no Pitt! The one only "substantial
victory" of ours in the War (and, as Nelson wished, it
was not a Victory — it was Annihilation!) was the de
struction of Admiral von Spec's Armada off the Falkland
Island. . . . And the above accomplished under the sole
direction of a Septuagenarian First Sea Lord, who, was
thought mad for denuding the Grand Fleet of our fastest
Battle Cruisers to send them 14,000 miles on a supposed
wild goose chase. . . . And how I was execrated for in-
renting the Battle Cruisers! "Monstrous Cruisers," they
caUed them! To this day such asses of this kidney calum
niate them, and their still more wonderful successors, the
"Repulse," "Renown," "Furious," "Glorious," and "Cour
ageous." How would they have saved England without
these Fast Battle Cruisers? . . . And yet, dear friend,
what comes to the Author of the Scene?
The words of Montaigne !
"Qui de nous n'a sa 'terre promise/
Son jour d'extase,
Et sa fin en exil?" Yours, etc., (Signed) Fisher.
Note. — Much talk of a recent mot at a gi-eat dinner-
table, where society's hatred of Lord Fisher was freely
canvassed, and his retirement (in May 1915) much ap
plauded. "I did not know," remarked a statesman, "that
Mr. Pitt ever put Lord Nelson on the retired list."

222 RECORDS
The Dreadnought Battle Cruiser
The following imaginary dialogue I composed in 1904
to Ulustrate the text that "Cruisers without high speed
and protection are absolutely useless": —
"The 'Venus,' an Armoured Cruiser, is approaching
her own Fleet at full speed!
"Admiral signals to 'Venus': 'What have you seen?'
" 'Venus' replies : 'Four funnels hull down.'
"Admiral: 'WeU, what was behind?"
"'Venus' replies: 'Cannot say; she must have four
knots more speed than I had, and would have caught me
in three hours, so I had to close you at full speed.'
"Admiral's logical reply: 'You had better pay your
ship off and tum over to something that is some good;
you are simply a device for wasting 400 men!' "
The deduction is :
ARMOUR IS VISION.
So we got out the "Dreadnought" Battle Cruiser on
that basis, and also to fulfil that great Nelsonic idea of
having a Squadron of very fast ships to bring on an
Action, or overtake and lame a retreating foe. And in
the great war this fast "Dreadnought" Battle Cruiser
carried off all the honours. She sank the "Bliicher" and
others, and also Admiral von Spec at the Falkland
Islands. But the sine qua non in these great Ships must ever be
that they carry the Biggest Possible Gun. It was for this
reason that the 18-inch gun was introduced in the
Autumn of 1914 ^ and put on board the new Battle
*Tliis 18-in. gun was ordered by me without any of the usual preliminary
trials or any reference to any Gunnery Experts whatever. The credit of its
great success is due to Major Hadcock, Head of the Elswick Ordnance Manu
facturing Department, who also designed the 30-in. gun for the fast Battle-

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 223
Cruiser "Furious"; and indeed aU was completely ar
ranged for 20-in. guns being placed in the succeeding
proposed Battle Cruisers of immense speed and very light
draft of water and possessing the special merit of exceed
ing rapid construction.
Alas! those in authority went back on it! It was
precisely the same argument that made these same retro
grade Lot's wives go back from oil to coal. Coal, they
said, was good enough and was so safe! Lot's wife
thought of her toasted muffins. Notice now especially
that if a man is five per cent, before his time he may pos
sibly be accounted a Genius! but if this same poor devil
goes ten per cent, better, then he's voted a Crank. Above
that percentage, he is stark staring Mad.
(N.B. — I have gone through all these percentages!)
The Way to Victory
Lord Fisher to the Prime Minister
House of Lords,
June 12th, 1917.
My Dear Prime Minister,
In November, 1914, Sir John French came specially
from France to attend the War Council to consider a
proposal put forward by the Admiralty that the British
Army should advance along the sea shore fianked by the
British Fleet. Had this proposal been given effect to,
the German Submarine Menace would have been deprived
of much of its strength, and many Enemy Air Raids on
our coast would have been far more difficult. The con
siderations which made me urge this proposal at that
time have continuously grown stronger, and to-day I feel
it my duty to press upon you the vital necessity of a
ship Type which was to have been built had I remained at the Admiralty in
May, 1915.
A model of this 90-lii. gun Battle Cruiser of SS knots speed was got out
before I left the Admiralty— three days more they would have started
building.

224 RECORDS
joint Naval and Military operation of this kind. I do
not feel justified in arguing the Military advantages which
are, however, so obvious as to be patent to the whole
world, nor the political advantage of getting in touch
with Holland along the Scheldt, but solely from a Naval
point of view the enterprise is one that ought to be
undertaken with all our powers without further delay.
The present occasion is peculiarly favourable, as we can
call upon the support of the whole American Fleet.
Yours truly, (Signed) Fisher.
36, Berkeley Square,
London,... July nth, 1917-
My Dear Prime Minister,
In putting before your urgent notice the following two
propositions, I have consulted no one, and seen no ex
perts. It is the emanation of my own brain.
Owing to two years of departmental apathy and incon
ceivable strategical as well as tactical blunders, we are
wrongly raided in the air, and being ruined under water.
I remember a very famous speech of yours where you
pointed out that we had been fourteen times "Too Late !"
This letter is to persuade you against two more "Too
lates": (1) The Air:
You want two ideas carried out :
(a) A multitude of bombing aircraft made like
Ford cars (so therefore very expeditiously
obtained thereby).
(&) The other type of aircraft constantly im
proving to get better fighting qualities.
The Air is going to win the War owing to the sad
and grievous other neglects.
(2) The Water:
Here we have a very simple proposition. Now
that America has joined us, we have a simply
overwhelming sea preponderance!
Are you not going to do anything with this?

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 225
Make the German Fleet fight, and you win the war!
How can you make the German Fleet fight? By
undertaking on a huge scale, with an immense Armada of
special rapidly-built craft, an operation that threatens
the German Fleet's existence 1
That operation, on the basis in my mind, is one abso
lutely sure of success, because the force employed is so
gigantic as to be negligible of fools.
If you sweep away the German Fleet, you sweep away
all else and end the War, as then you have the Baltic clear
and a straight run of some 90 miles only from the Pomer
anian Coast to Berlin, and it is the Russian Army we
want to enter Berlin, not the English or French.
Yours truly, (Signed) Fisher.

Lord Fisher to a Friend
February 28th, 1918.
My Dear Friend,
Quite recently we lost a golden opportunity of wreck
ing the residue of the German Fleet and wrecking the
Kiel Canal, when the main German Fleet went to Riga
with the German army embarked in a huge fleet of trans
ports and so requiring all the Destroyers and Submarines
of Germany to protect it.
Well, in reply to your question, this is what I would
do now: I would carry out the policy enunciated in the Print
on the Baltic Project which was submitted early in the
war^ and again reverted to in my letter to the Prime
Minister, dated June 2nd, 1916. Sow the North Sea with
mines as thick as the leaves in Vallombrosa! That blocks
effectually the Kiel Canal, if continued laying of these
mines is always perpetually going on with damnable per
tinacity! Then I guarantee to force a passage into the
Baltic in combination with a great Mihtary co-operation,
*See Chapter XV.

226 RECORDS
but that co-operation must not be the co-operation of the
Walcheren Expedition!
"Lord Chatham with his sword drawn
Was waiting for Sir Richard Strachan,
Sir Richard, longing to be at 'em!
Was waiting for the Earl of Chatham!"
It has got to be chiefly a Naval Job ! And the Army
will be landed by the Navy! The Navy will guarantee
landing the Army on the Coast of Pomerania and else
where. Three feints, any of which can be turned into a
Reality. Further in detail I won't go, but I can guarantee suc
cess. Have I ever failed yet? It's an egotistical question,
but I never have!
What a d — d fool I should be to brag now if I wasn't
certain! Yours, etc.
(Signed) Fisher.
P.S. — I have heard some Idiots say that the Baltic
Sea is now impregnable because of German mines in it.
No earthly System of mines can possibly avoid being
destroyed. We can get into the Baltic whenever we hke
to do so. I guarantee it.
"Sow THE North Sea with Mines"
{Written in November, 1914)
The German pohcy of laying mines has resulted in
denying our access to their harbours; has hampered our
Submarines in their attempts to penetrate into German
waters; and we have lost the latest type of "Dread
nought" ("Audacious") and many other war vessels and
over 70 merchant vessels of various sizes.
As we have only laid a patch of mines off Ostend
(whose position we have notified), the Germans have free

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 227
access to our coasts to lay fresh mines and to carry out
raids and bombardments.
We have had, to our own immense disadvantage in
holding up our coastwise traffic, to extinguish the naviga
tion lights on our East Coast, so as to impede German
ships laying mines. At times we have had completely to
stop our traffic on the East Coast because of German
mines ; and the risk is so great that freights in some cases
have advanced 75 per cent. — quite apart from shortness
of tonnage. The Germans have laid mines off the North of Ire
land, and may further hamper movements of shipping in
the Atlantic.
The German mine-laying pohcy has so hindered the
movements of the British Fleet, by necessitating wide
detours, that to deal with a raid such as the recent
Hartlepool affair involves enormous risks, while at the
same time the German Fleet can navigate to our coast
with the utmost speed and the utmost confidence. They
know that we have laid no mines, and the position, of
course, of their own mines is accurately charted by them —
indeed we know this as a fact. Our Fleet, on the con
trary, has to confine its movements to deep water, or
slowly to grope its way behind mine-sweeping vessels.
There is no option but to adopt an offensive mine-
laying policy.
It is unfortunate, however, that we have only 4,900
mines at present available. On February 1st (together
with 1,000 mmes from Russia) we shall have 9,110, and
on March 1st we shall have 11,100 mines. This number,
however, is quite inadequate, but every effort is being
made to get more. Also FAST Mine-Layers are being
procured, as the present ones are very slow and their coal
supply very smaU. So at present we can only go very

228 RECORDS
slow in mine-laying; but carefully selected positions can
be proceeded with.
We must certainly look forward to a big extension
of German mine-laying in the Bristol Channel and Eng
lish Channel and elsewhere, in view of Admiral Tirpitz' s
recent statements in regard to attacking our commerce.
Neutral vessels now pick up Pilots at the German
island of Sylt, and take goods unimpeded to Grcrman
ports — ostensibly carrying cotton, but more probably cop
per, etc., and thus circumventing our economic pressure.^
This would be at once stopped effectually by a mine-lay
ing policy.
Nor could any German vessels get out to sea at speed
as at present; they would have to go slow, preceded by
mine-sweeping vessels, and so would be exposed to attack
by our Submarines. A Birthday Letter
Lord Fisher to a Friend January 25th, 1918.
My Dear Friend,
A letter to-day on my birthday from an eminent Engi
neer, cheers me up by saying that never has France been
so vigorously governed as she is now by her present Prime
Minister, Clemenceau, and that he is my age, 77.
The Conduct of the War, both bj^ Sea and Land, has
been perilously effete and wanting in Imagination and
Audacity since May, 1915.
I know these words of mine give you the stomach-
'The Foreign OiEce would not permit an efficient blockade, and the out
rageous release of vessels carrying war-helping cargoes caused intense dis
satisfaction in the fleet. No vessels ever passed our chain of Cruisers without
detention and examination.

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 229
ache, but so did Jeremiah the Jews when he kept on
telling them in his chapter v., verse 31 :
"The prophets prophesy falsely.
And the priests [the unfit] bear rule by their
means.
And my people love to have it so.
And what will ye do in the end thereof?"
(Why! Send for Jephthah!)
"And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead" (who
came supplicating, asking him to come back as their cap
tain) "Did ye not hate me and expel me?
And why are ye come unto me now when ye are
in distress?"
And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah:
"We turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go
with us and fight!"
By Sea, when the German Fleet took the German
Army to Riga, we had a wonderful sure certainty of
destroying the German Fleet and the Kiel Canal, but
we let it slip because there were risks. (As if war could
be conducted without risks !) Considered Rashness in war
is Prudence, and Prudence in war is usually a synonym
for imbecility!
Observe the Mediterranean! The whole Sea Power
of France and Italy is collected in the Mediterranean to
fight the puny Austrian Fleet, but they haven't fought
it. Not only that, but hundreds of vessels of the English
Navy are perforce out in the Mediterranean to aid them ;
and yet the .German ships, "Goeben" and "Breslau,"
known to be fast, powerful and efficient, emerge from the
Dardanelles with impunity and massacre two of our
Monitors — ^never meant to be out there and totally un
fitted for such service — and two obsolete British Destroy
ers have to put up a fight! But God intervened and
sent the "Goeben" and "Breslau" on top of mines. It

230 RECORDS
was thus the act of God and not the act of our Sea Fools
that kept these two powerful German ships from going
to the coast of Syria, where they would have played HeU
with Allenby and our Palestine Army.
We have pandered to our Allies from the very begin
ning of the War, and yet practicaUy we find most of
the money and have found four milhon soldiers, and a
thousand millions sterling lent to Russia have been lent
in vain. You know as well as I do that our Expeditionary
Force should have been sent in August, 1914, to Antwerp
and not to France; we should then have held the Belgian
Coast and the Scheldt, but this was too tame — ^we were
all singing: "^albrook s'en va-t'en guerre!"
The Baltic Project was scoffed at, though it had the
impregnable sanction of Frederick the Great, and the
project was turned down in November, 1914; and now
the Germans, because of their possession of the Baltic as
a German lake, are going to annex aU the Islands they
want that command Russia and Sweden, and the Russian
Fleet, with its splendid "Dreadnoughts" and Destroyers
disappear and eight British Submarines have been sunk.
Ichabod! Yours truly, Fisher.
The German Submarine Menace
Lord Fisher to a Friend March 2nd, 1918.
My Dear "Mr. Faithful,"
You write anxious to have some connected statement
in regard to the whole history of the German Submarine
Menace. Now, the first observation thereon is the oft-repeated
indisputable statement that no private person whatever
can hope to fight successfully any Public Department.
So even if you had the most conclusive evidence of effete

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 231
apathy such as at first characterised the dealing with this
German Submarine Menace, yet you would to the World
at large be completely refuted by a rejoinder in Parlia
ment of departmental facts. Nevertheless here is a bit
of Naval History.
In December, 1915, the Prime Minister (Mr. As
quith) unexpectedly came up to me in the Lobby of the
House of Commons, and said he was anxious to consult
me about Naval affairs, and he would take an early oppor
tunity of seeing me! However, he must have been put
off this for I never saw him. A month afterwards I
pressed him in writing to see Sir John Jellicoe in regard
to the paucity both of suitable apparatus and of suitable
measures to cope with the German Submarine Menace;
after much opposition the Prime Minister* himself sent
for Sir John Jellicoe and he appealed before the War
Council. This is my Memorandum at that time, dated
February 7th, 1916: MEMORANDUM
"I have just heard that, notwithstanding the oppo
sition to it. Sir John Jellicoe will attend the War Council
at 11.30 a.m. next Friday. That he may have strength
and power to overcome all 'the wiles of the Devil' is my
fervent prayer.
"That there has been signal failure since May, 1915,
to continue the Great Push previous to that date of build
ing fast Destroyers, fast Submarines, Mine Sweepers and
small Craft generally is absolutely indisputable.
"Above all, it was criminal folly and inexcusable on
the part of the Admiralty to allow skilled workmen
(20,000 of them) to be taken away from shipyards.
Also it was inexcusable and weak to give up the Ad
miralty command of steel and other shipbuilding mate
rials. "Kitchener instantly cancelled the order to take men
from the shipyards when it was attempted by his subor
dinates while I was First Sea Lord. He saw the folly
of it!

232 RECORDS
"Again, deferring the shipbuilding that was in prog
ress was fatuous. I, saw myself two fast Monitors (each
of them a thousand tons advanced) from which all the
workmen had been called off. A few months afterwards
there was feverish and wasteful haste to complete them.
So was it with the five fast big Battle Cruisers of very
light draught of water. All similarly delayed.
"WeU! Jellicoe, a 'No Talker,' at the War Council
was opposed to a mass of 'All Talkers,' so he did not
make a good fight; but when he got back to the Grand
Fleet at Scapa Flow he remembered himself and wrote
a most excellent Memorandum, which put himself right.
"However, a wordy war is no use; nothing but a
cataclysm will stop our 'Facilis descensus Averni.' "
We must by some political miracle swaUow up Korah,
Dathan and Abiram and have a fresh lot. In Parliament
we have nothing but the suggestio falsi and the suppressio
veri! A little bit of truth skilfully disguised :
"A truth that's told with bad intent.
Beats any lie you can invent."
In reply to your question with reference to Mr.
Bonar Law's corrected statement in Hansard, the
Printer's date at the bottom of the Submarine Paper,^
sent to the Prime Minister and First Lord of the Ad
miralty is January, 1914, seven months before the War.
Yours always,
Fisher.
Lord Fisher to Sir Maurice Hankey, K.C.B., Secretary
to the War Cabinet 19, St. James's Square.
My Dear Hankey,
In reply to your inquiry, my five points of peace (as
regards Sea war only) are:
(1) The German High Sea Fleet to be delivered up
intact.
*See Chapter XI.

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 233
(2) Ditto, every German Submarine.
(8) Ditto, Heligoland.
(4) Ditto, the two flanking islands of Sylt and
Borkum.
(5) No spot of German Territory in the wide world
to be permitted ! It would infallibly be a Sub
marine Base. Yours, (Signed) Fisher,
October 21st, 1918.
(Trafalgar Day).
Why we were not as relentless in carrying out our
Peace requirements at Sea as on Land is positively in
comprehensible. The German Fleet was not turned over and was after
wards sunk at pleasure by the German crews. I don't
feel at all sure that every German submarine, complete
and incomplete, was handed over. Every oil engine ought
to have been cleared out of Germany. Through some
extraordinary chain of reasoning, absolutely incompre
hensible, the three Islands of Heligoland, Sylt and Bor
kum were not claimed and occupied. In view of the
prodigious development of Aircraft it was imperative that
these Islands should be in the possession of England.
All this to me is absolutely astounding. The British
Fleet won the War, and the British Fleet didn't get a
single thing it ought to have, excepting the everlasting
stigma amongst our Alhes, of being fools, in allowing the
German Fleet to be sunk under our noses, because we
mistook the Germans for gentlemen.
The Miracle of the Peace
{that took place at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the
11th Monthl) only equaUed by the Destruction of Sen-

234 RECORDS
nacherib's Army, on the night described in the 25th verse
of the 19th chapter of Second Book of Kings! The
heading of the chapter is "An Angel slayeth the Assyr

ians."

"That night the Angel of the Lord went forth . . .
in the morning behold they were aU dead corpses!"
A Cabinet Minister, in an article (after the Armis
tice) in a newspaper, stated that the Allies were at their
last gasp when the Armistice occurred as it did as a
Miracle ! for Marshal Foch had been foiled on the strate
gic flank by the inability of the American Army to ad
vance and the unavoidable consequences of want of expe
rience in a new Army {immense but inexperienced — they
were slaughtered in hecatombs and died like flies!) and
so the American advance on the Verdun flank was held
up, and Haig therefore had to batter away instead (and
weU he did it!). And though the British Army entered
Mons, yet the German Army was efficient, was undemor-
alised, and had immense lines of resistance in its rear be
fore reaching the Rhine! There was no Waterloo, no
Sedan, no Trafalgar (though there could have been one
on October 21st, 1918, for the German Naval Mutiny
was known! Sir E. Geddes said so in a Mansion House
Speech on November 9th, 1918). There was no Na
poleon — ^no Nelson! but "The Angel of the Lord went
forth. . . ." Lord Fisher to a Friend March 27th, 1918.
My Dear Blank,
It has been a most disastrous war for one simple
reason — that our Navy, with a sea supremacy quite un
exampled in the history of the world (we are five times
stronger than the enemy) has been relegated into being
a "Subsidiary Service!". . .

¦Made Viscounts.

THE NAVY IN THE WAR 235
What crashes we have had:
Tirpitz — Sunk.
Joffre — Stranded.
Kitchener — ^Drowned.
Lord French —
Lord Jelhcoe — ^
Lord Devonport —
Fisher — Marooned.
Sir W. Robertson— The "Eastern Command" in
Timbuctoo.
Bethmann-HoUweg — |
Asquith— |Torpedoed.
Heaven bless you ! I am here walking 10 miles a day !
and eating my heart out!
And a host of minor prophets promoted. (We don't
shoot now! we promote!) Yours, etc., (Signed) Fisher. 27/3/18.
To Lord Fisher from an Admirer 21st November, 1918.
Dear Lord Fisher,
We are just back after taking part in the most won
derful episode of the war, and my heart is very full, and
I feel that the extraordinary surrender of the Flower of
the German Fleet is so much due to your marvellous work
and insight^ — ^in giving England the Fleet she has — that I
must write you!
I suppose the world will never again see such a sight
— a hne of 14 heavy, modern, capital ships, with their
guns fore and aft in securing position, in perfect order
and keeping good station, quietly giving themselves up
without a blow or a murmur. Surely such a humiliating
and ignominious end could never have been even thought
of in all history past or present.
Had I been in a private ship I would have used every
endeavour to get you up to see the final fulfilment of your

236 RECORDS
hfe's work. As it is, I can't think it was very gracious
of the authorities not to have ensured your presence. But
history will give you your due.
Forgive this effusion, and please don't bother to an
swer it. But I realise that to-day's victory was yours,
and it is iniquitous that you were not here to see it.
Your affectionate and devoted admirer.

To Lord Fisher from Admiral Moresby
Fare HAM,
July 9th, 1918.
Dear old Friend,
Just a line. One of our "Article writing" Admirals
sent me one of them on the progress of the war! Your
name was not mentioned, nor your services aUuded to!
I returned it, saying it was the play without Hamlet.
You might be wrong, or despised, but you could not be
ignored. With our Navy revolutionised, Osborne created,
obsolete cruisers scrapped, naval base shifted from Port
land to Rosyth, Dreadnoughts and Battle Cruisers in
vented, Falkland Islands victory, and so on, he might as
weU talk of Rome without Cssar. He rephed and said
you were an Enigma, and that covered it all! There is
some truth in this, for such are all born leaders of men,
from our Master, the greatest Enigma of aU (who made
thee thyself, who gave thee power to do these things),
down to all who can see what is going on on the other side
of the hiU. . . . Yours ever,
(Signed) J. Moresby.

POSTSCRIPT
Last night, in finishing off the examination of several
boxes of old papers, I came across a forgotten letter writ
ten a fortnight after the Battle of Trafalgar from the
"Dreadnought" (which ship participated in the Battle).
On mentioning it I was told there was a "Dreadnought"
in the Navy at the time of Henry VIII. I think one of
the Docks at Portsmouth dates from that time, and the
"Dreadnought" may have been docked in it. I love the
delicious httle touch at the end of this letter where every
one seals their letters with black wax in memory of Nel
son, and the prayer and poetry are lovely. And where
his acquaintance in Colhngwood's Ship "had been short
ened by the Hand of Death," and
"Roll softly ye Waves,
Blow gently ye Winds
O'er the bosom of the deep where the bodies of the Heroes
rest, until the Great Day, when all that are in their grave
shall hear the Voice of the Son of God, when thou O Sea!
shall give up thy dead to Life Immortal, and thou O
Britain be grateful to thy defenders! that the Widows
and Orphans of thy deceased Warriors be precious in
thy sight — Soothe their sorrows, alleviate their distresses
and provide for their wants by anticipating their wishes."
(The Straits of Gibraltar the writer spells
"Streights.") He adds "Our splendid Success has been
dearly bought. Our gallant Chief is dead. In the arms of
Victory fell the greatest Hero that ever any age or Nation
ever produced." 237

APPENDIX I

APPENDIX I
LORD fisher's GREAT NAVAL REFORMS
By W. T. Stead
"He being dead yet speaketh." — Hebrews xi. 4.
[The following account of Lord Fisher's Naval Reforms is ex
tracted from The Review of Reviews for February, 1910.]
I BRIEFLY summarise Lord Fisher's four great re
forms :
1. The introduction of the nucleus crew system.
2. The redistribution of the fleets in accordance with
modern requirements.
3. The elimination of inefficient fighting vessels from
the Active List of the Navy.
4. The introduction of the all-big-gun type of battle
ship and battleship -cruiser.
To these four cardinal achievements must be added
the system of common entry and training for all execu
tive officers and the institution and development of the
Naval War CoUege and the Naval War Staff.
By the nucleus crew system all our available ships of
war are ready for instant mobilisation. From two-fifths
to three-fifths of their complement, including all the ex
pert and specialist ratings, are on board, so that they are
familiar with the ship and her armament. The rest of
the crew is held in constant readiness to come on board.
Fisher once aired, in after-dinner talk, the daring idea
241

242 RECORDS
that the time would come when the First Lord of the
Admiralty would be supreme over the War Office, and
would, as in the days of the Commonwealth, fill up
deficiencies in ships' crews by levies from the territorial
forces. Landsmen can serve guns as well as sailors.
The second great revolution was necessitated by the
alteration in the centre of international gravity occasioned
by the growth of the German Navy. Formerly the Medi
terranean Fleet ranked first in importance. Now the
Home Fleet concentrates in its four divisions all the
best fighting ships we possess. It is hardly too much to
say, as M. Hanotaux publicly declared, that Admiral
Fisher had, by concentration and redistribution, magni
fied our fighting naval strefigth by an amount unparal
leled in a hundred years. That the fighting efficiency of
the Fleet has been doubled under Fisher's regime is to
understate the facts. To say it has been trebled would
hardly be over the mark. And what is the most mar
vellous thing of all is that this enormous increase of ef
ficiency was achieved not only without anj'^ increase of the
estimates, but in spite of a reduction which amounted to
nearly five millions sterling — three and a half miUions
actual and one and a half miUions automatic increase
checked. This great economy was largely achieved by the scrap
ping of ships too weak to fight and too slow to run away.
One hundred and fifty obsolete and useless ships were
removed from the effective list; some were sold, others
were broken up, while a third class were kept in store
for contingencies. They were lame ducks, all useless in
war, costly in peace, consuming stores, wasting the time
of officers and men. The obsolete ships were replaced
on foreign stations by vessels which could either fight or
fly. . . .

APPENDIX I 243
Of the introduction of the "Dreadnought" and super-
"Dreadnoughts" I have already spoken.
Apart from the above matters of high policy, a num
ber of other reforms or advances have been made during
the past five years which are beyond all criticism. Opin
ions may differ as to the details of some of these services,
but there is no dispute as to their immense contribution to
the fighting efficiency of the Navy. Some of these may
be thus briefly enumerated:
1. Complete reorganisation of the dockyards. [6,000
redundant workmen discharged.]
2. Improved system of refits of ships, and limitation
of number of vessels absent at one time from any fleet
for repair.
3. Introduction of the Royal Fleet Reserve, com
posed only of ratings who have served for a period of
years in the active service.
4. Improvements of Royal Naval Reserve, by enforc
ing periodical training on board modern commissioned
ships in place of obsolete hulks or shore batteries.
5. Establishment and extension of Royal Naval Vol
unteer Reserve.
6. The estabhshment of a service of offensive mines
and mine-laying vessels.
7. The introduction of vessels for defensive mine-
sweeping in harbours and on the open sea.
8. A complete organisation of the service of auxihary
vessels for the fleets in war.
9. The development of submarines, and the equip
ment of submarine bases and aU the necessary auxUia-
ries. 10. The proper organisation of the Destroyer Flotil
las, with their essential auxiliaries.
11. The enormous development of wireless telegraphy

244 RECORDS
afloat, the equipment of powerful shore stations round
the coast and at the Admiralty, and the introduction of
a special corps of operators.
12. The experunental stage of aerial navigation en
tered upon.
13. The foundation of the Royal Naval War CoUege
and its development.
14. The establishment of Signal Schools at each port.
15. The estabhshment of a Navigation School.
16. Enormous advances in the Gunnery training and
efficiency of the Fleet.
17. Great improvements in torpedoes and in the tor
pedo training.
18. The introduction of a naval education and train
ing for Engine Room Artificers.
19. The introduction of the new rating of Mechani
cian for the Stoker Class for engine-driving duties.
20. Complete reorganisation of the arrangements for
mobUisation, whereby every officer and man is always
detailed by name for his ship on mobihsation, and the
mobilisation of the whole fleet can be effected in a few
hours. 21. The introduction of a complete system of intelh
gence of trade movements throughout the world.
22. The stores of the Fleet put on a modern basis both
in the storehouses ashore and those carried in the ships
themselves — recognising the far different conditions now
obtaining to those of sailing-ship days of long voyages,
necessitating larger supplies being carried, and modern
conditions of production and supply enabling stores on
distant stations and at home being rapidly replenished.
Some mUlions sterling were economised in this way with
increased efficiency, as the Fleet was supphed with up-

APPENDIX I 245
to-date articles; the only thing that gained by the age of
the old system was the rum.
23. The provision of repair ships, distilling plant, and
attendant auxiliaries to all fleets, and the preparation of
plans elaborated in a confidential handbook providing
for all the auxiliary vessels required in war.
In addition to aU the above reforms great improve
ments have been made in the conditions of service of
officers and men, all tending to increase contentment and
thereby advance efficiency. Some of these are as follows :
1. The introduction of two-year commissions, in place
of three years and often four [so that men were not so
long away from their homes and the crews of ships did
not get stale] .
2. Increases of pay to many grades of both officers
and men — as regards Commanders, the only increase since
the rank was introduced.
3. Ship's Bands provided by the Service, and a School
of Music established, and foreign musicians abolished.
4. The long-standing grievances of the men with re
gard to their victualling removed. Improvements in cook
ing. Bakeries fitted on board ships.
5. The Canteen system recognised and taken under
Admiralty control, and the old abuses abolished.
6. The clothing system reformed, and much expense
saved to the men.
7. Great improvements effected in the position of
Petty Officers.
8. An educational test instituted for advancement to
Petty Officer.
9. Increase of pension granted to Chief Petty Of
ficers. 10. Allotment stoppages abolished.

246 RECORDS
11. AUowances paid to men in heu of victuals when
on leave. 12. Promotions from the ranks to Commissioned Of
ficer introduced.
13. Warrant rank introduced for the telegraphist,
stoker, ship's steward, writer, ship's police, and ship's
cook classes.
I print the foregoing from a return drawn up by an
expert familiar with details of the Service. To the
general reader they will be chiefly interesting as suggest
ing the immense and multifarious labours of Admiral
Fisher. It is not surprising that he found it necessary to
start work every morning at four o'clock.

APPENDIX II

APPENDIX II
SYNOPSIS OF LORD FISHER'S CAREER
Born January 25, 1841, at Rambodde, Ceylon.
Son of Captain William Fisher, 78th Highlanders, A.D.C. to the
Governor of Ceylon, and Sophia, daughter of A. Lambe, of New Bond
Street, and granddaughter of Alderman Boydell. His godmother
was Lady Wilmot Horton, wife of the Governor of Ceylon; and his
godfather Sir Robert Arbuthnot, Commanding the Forces in Ceylon.
Entered the Royal Navy, June 18, 1854.
Received a nomination for the Navy from Admiral Sir William
Parker, the last of Nelson's Captains. Joined his first ship, the
"Victory," at Portsmouth, on July 12, 1854. The "Victory" was also
the last ship to fly his flag as an Admiral, October 20, 1904.
Served in Russian War, in Baltic (Medal) in "Calcutta" 84 guns.
Served in the China War, 1856-60, including the capture of Canton
and Peiho Forts. (China Medal, Canton and Taku Clasps.) Given
command of a small vessel by Admiral Sir James Hope, Commander-
in-Chief, the "Coromandel," of which he was acting Captain at the
age of 19-
Also served in "Highflyer," Captain Shadwell; "Chesapeake," Cap
tain Hilles; and "Furious," Captain Oliver Jones. Returned home
in 1861 from the China Station.
Lieutenant, November 4, I860.
In passing for Lieutenant, he won the Beaufort Testimonial; and
was advanced to Mate on January 25, I860, and confirmed m Lien-
tenant within eleven months. March 28, 1868.
Appointed to H.M.S. "Warrior," Captain the Hon. A. A. Cochrane,
the first seagoing ironclad, for gunnery duties. Served in her for
three and a half years. 249

250 RECORDS
November S, 1866.
Appointed to the Staff" of H.M.S. "Excellent," gunnery schoolship,
Portsmouth, Captain Arthur W. A. Hood.
August 2, 1869-
Promoted to Commander, and appointed to the China flagship.
September 19, 1872.
On returning from China in H.M.S. "Ocean," was appointed to
"Excellent" for Torpedo Service. Started the "Vernon" as a Tor^
pedo Schoolship. Visited Fiume to arrange for the purchase of the
Whitehead Torpedo. October 30, 1874.
Promoted to Captain, and re-appointed to "Excellent" for torpedo
service and instructional duties, remaining until 1876.
November 16, 1876.
Appointed for special service in "Hercules," flagship of Vice-Ad-
miral the Hon. Sir James Drummond, Commander-in-Chief, Mediter
ranean. March 15, 1877.
Appointed Flag-Captain to Admiral Sir A. Cooper-Key, Com
mander-in-Chief, North American Station, in the "Bellerophon."
June 7, 1878.
Appointed Flag-Captain to Admiral Sir A. Cooper-Key, Com
manding the Particular Service Squadron, in the "Hercules."
January 1, 1879-
Appointed in command of the "Pallas," corvette, on Mediterranean
Station, returning home in July. President of a Committee for the
revision of the "Gunnery Manual of the Fleet."
September 25, 1879-
Appointed Flag-Captain to Vice-Admiral Sir Leopold M'Clintock,
jCommander-in-Chief, North American Station, in the "Northampton."

APPENDIX II 251
January 18, 1881.
Appointed to command the "Inflexible," the largest ship in the
Navy. July 11, 1882.
Took part in the bombardment of Alexandria. Afterwards landed
with the Naval Brigade at Alexandria. Arranged for the first
"armoured train," and commanded it in various skirmishes with the
enemy. August 14, 1882.
Awarded the C.B. for service at Alexandria; also Egyptian Medal,
with Alexandria Clasp; Khedive's Bronze Star; Order of Osmanieh,
3rd Class; etc. November 9, 1882.
Invalided home through illness contracted on active service.
April 6, 1883.
Appointed in command of "Excellent," gunnery schoolship.
1884.
Collaborated with Mr. W. T. Stead in the production of "The Truth
About the Navy," resulting in increased Navy Estimates and the
opening of a new era in the provision of an adequate Fleet.
November 1, 1886."
Appointed Director of Naval Ordnance, occupying this post four
and a half years. Carried out the transfer of the control of naval
ordnance from the War Office to the Admiralty.
August 2, 1890.
Promoted to Rear-Admiral. May 21, 1891.
Appointed Admiral-Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard.
Expedited the completion of the "Royal Sovereign," first of a new
type of battleships. Acted as host when the French Squadron imder
Admiral Gervais visited the Dockyard, 1891.

252 RECORDS
February 1, 1892.
Appointed Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, and served
in the administrations of Lord George Hamilton, Earl Spencer, and
Mr. G. J. Goschen as First Lords; and Admirals Sir A. Hood, Sir
A. H. Hoskins and Sir F. W. Richards as First Sea Lords. During
this period the firm stand of the Admiralty Board brought about the
resignation of Mr. Gladstone, March 3, 1894.
May 26, 1894.
Appointed K.C.B. May 8, 1896.
Promoted to Vice-Admiral. August 24, 1897.
Hoisted his flag in H.M.S. "Renown" as Commander-in-Chief, North
American Station. 1899.
Attended the first Hague Peace Conference as Naval Delegate.
July 1, 1899.
Appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Station, with his
flag in the "Renown," remaining in this post until June 2nd, 1902.
Admiral Lord Beresford, Second-in-Command, says of this period in
his "Memoirs": "While Vice-Admiral Sir John Fisher was Com
mander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, he greatly improved its
fighting efficiency. As a result of his representations, the stocks of
coal at Malta and Gibraltar were increased, the torpedo flotillas were
strengthened, and the new breakwaters at Malta were begun. Some
of Sir John Fisher's reforms are confidential; but among his achieve
ments which became common knowledge, the following are notable:
From a 12-knot Fleet with breakdowns, he made a 15-knot Fleet
without breakdowns; introduced long range target practice, and in
stituted the Challenge Cup for heavy gun shooting; instituted various
war practices for officers and men; invited, with excellent results,
officers to formulate their opinions upon cruising and battle forma
tion; drew up complete instructions for torpedo flotillas; exercised
cruisers in towing destroyers and battleships in towing one another,
thereby proving the utility of the device for saving coal in an emer
gency; and generally carried into execution Fleet exercises based,
not on tradition, but on the probabilities of war."

APPENDIX II 253

1900.
Received from the Sultan of Turkey the 1st Class of the Order of
Osmanieh.

November 2, 1901.
Promoted to Admiral. June 5, 1902.
Returned to the Admiralty as Second Sea Lord, remaining until
August 31, 1903, with Lord Selborne, First Lord, and Admiral Lord
Walter Kerr, First Sea Lord. June 26, 1902.
Appointed G.C.B. in the Coronation Honours List.
December 25, 1902.
Launched new scheme of naval entry and education for officers,
with training colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth.
May 2, 1903.
Made his first public speech at the Royal Academy Banquet.
August 31, 1903.
Appointed Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, in order to super^
vise personally the inauguration of his new education scheme at
Osborne College. Also energetically promoted the formation and
development of the first British submarine flotiUa.
November 7, 1903.
Appointed member of Committee with Lord Esher and Colonel Sir
George Clarke (Lord Sydenham) to reorganise the War Office on the
lines of the Admiralty Board.

254 RECORDS

October 21, 1904.
Appointed First Sea Lord in Lord Selborne's administration, and
held this office for five years and piree months, the period of his great
est activity and his preparation for a war with Germany. Some of
the more notable of his many reforms are dealt with in his "Mem
ories." Also appointed, October 21, 1904, First and Principal Naval Aide-
de-Camp to King Edward VII.

December 6, 1904.
Admiralty Memorandum on the Distribution of the Fleet, intro
ducing nucleus crew system for ships in reserve, and withdrawing
obsolete craft from foreign stations.

January, 1905.
Committee appointed to inquire into the reorganisation of the dock
yards. March 6, 1905.
Appointment of Rear-Admiral Percy Scott to newly-created post
of Inspector of Target Practice. By this and other means, including
the service of Captain J. R. Jellicoe as Director of Naval Ord
nance, the marksmanship of the Navy was vastly improved.

December 4, 1905.
Awarded the Order of Merit, and promoted by Special Order in
Council to be an additional Admiral of the Fleet, thus giving him
five more years on the active list in order to carry out his policy.

February 10, 1906.
Launch of the "Dreadnought," the first all-big-gun and turbine-
driven battleship, as recommended by the Admiralty Committee on
Design presided over by the First Sea Lord (Sir John Fisher).

November, 1906.
Establishment of the Naval War College at Portsmouth.

APPENDIX II 255
January, 1907.
Institution of a service of Fleet Auxiliaries — ammunition and store
ships, distilling and hospital ships, fleet repair ships, fishing trawlers
as, mine sweepers, etc., etc., etc., etc.
March, 1907.
Creation of a new Home Fleet, with the "Dreadnought" as flagship
for service in the North Sea. August, 1907.
New scheme of advancement and pay of naval ranks and ratings
introduced. September, 1907.
Establishment of a wireless telegraphy branch, and installation
erected on the Admiralty building.
November 9, 1907.
Speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, assuring his countrymen that
they could sleep quietly in their beds, and not be disturbed by in
vasion bogeys. June, 19O8.
Visited Reval with King Edward and Queen Alexandra on their
visit to the Tsar of Russia. Awarded G.C.V.O. on the conclusion of
this cruise. June 17, 19O8.
Created honorary LL.D. of Cambridge University.
June, 1909.
Entertained delegates to Imperial Press Conference at a review of
the Fleet at Spithead, and a display of submarines, etc.
December 7, 1909.
Raised to the peerage as Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, in the County
of Norfolk, after the manor bequeathed to his only son by the late
Mr. Josiah Vavasseur, C.B.

256 RECORDS

''January 25, 1910.
Retired from office of First Sea Lord, and was succeeded by Ad
miral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson, but remained a member of the
Committee of Imperial Defence. Recording his retirement in the
First Lord's Memorandum, dated March 4, 1910, Mr. Reginald Mc-
Kenna said: "The measures which are associated with his name and
have been adopted by several successive Governments will prove of
far-reaching and lasting benefit to the Naval Service and the country."
March 10, 1910.
Took the oath and his seat in the House of Lords.
May 24, 1912.
Visited at Naples by Mr. Churchill (the new First Lord) and Mr.
Asquith (Prime Minister). July 30, 1912.
Appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission on Oil Fuel and Oil
Engines for the Navy. September 7, 1914.
Appointed Honorary Colonel of the First Naval Brigade, Royal
Naval Division. October 30, 1914.
Recalled to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord.

December 8, 1914.
Victory of Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee over Admiral Count von
Spec, due to the prompt dispatch from England of two battle-cruisers
immediately on receipt of the news of the Coronel disaster. This
was the most decisive battle of the war, the German force being
practically annihilated. January 24, 1915.
Action of Sir David Beatty ofi" the Dogger Bank, and sinking of
the "Bliicher" — another striking success of the battle-cruiser design.

APPENDIX II 257
May 15, 19I6.
Resignation as First Sea Lord over the Dardanelles question.
July 5, 1915.
Appointed Chairman of the Board of Invention and Research.
November 16, 1915.
First speech in House of Lords, in reference to Mr. Churchill's
speech on the previous day, following the latter's resignation from
Cabinet. March 21, 1917.
Second speech in House of Lords, declaring his refusal to discuss
Dardanelles report during the war.
Awarded the Grand Cordon, with Paulownia, of the Japanese Or
der of the Rising Sun. May 5, 1919.
Speech at the luncheon to Mr. Josephus Daniels, U.S. Naval Sec
retary. October 21 (Trafalgar Day), 1919.
Publication of "Memories."
December 8 (Falkland Islands Day), 1919.
Publication of "Records."

INDEX TO VOLUME TWO

Action, S6
Adams, John Couch, 35
Admiralty House, Portsmouth, King
Edward's visit to, 37
Admiralty policy: replies to criti
cisms, 103 et seq.
Alcester, Lord, 42
Alderson, General, 64
Alexandria, bombardment of, 72, 244
Allan, Sir William, 94
Allenby, Lord, 230
American advance on Verdim, 234
Animated biscuits, 24
Arabi Pasha, 42
Arbuthnot, Sir Robert, 249
Archbishop and the pack of cards,
the, 44
Armoured trains, institution of, 42
Ascension, the, 54
Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 73, 175,
189, 206, 213, 231, 235, 257
Aug6, M., 68
Automatic dropping mines for ocean
use, 214, 215
Aylesford, Lord, 19

B

Bacon, Admiral Sir Reginald, 129,
177; on the big gun, 197, 199
Baker, Mrs., Lord Fisher's cook, 38;
invited to Buckingham Palace by
King Edward, ibid.
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 66, 73, 103
BaUiol College, Oxford, 18
Baltic project, the, 208 et seq., 225,
230
Battle hymn of the American Repub
lic, the, 85, 86
Beatty, Earl, 257
Beaufort Testimonial, won by Lord
Fisher, 243
Beaumont, Admiral Sir Lewis, 42
Beilby, Sir George, 74
Benbow, Sir Henry, letter of, to Lord
Fisher, 168

Beresford, Admiral Lord Charles, ou
training of officers and men for the
Navy, 164, 167
Bethmann-Hollweg, Herr von, 235
Bible, the, and other reflections, 49
et seq.; Wyclif's translation, 54
Tyndale's, ibid.; Coverdale's, 55
Authorised, ibid.; Revised, ibid.
Cranmer's "Great Bible," ibid.
Big gun, the, 197 et seq.
Birthday Honours List a serial novel,
81
Black, Dr. Hugh, 49, 50, 85
Boar, Mr., 129
Board of Invention and Research, 188,
257
Bodmin, ancestral home of the Fish
ers, 19
Borden, Sir Robert, and hereditary
titles in Canada, 80
Borkum, 235
Bourke, Mr. Maurice, 101
Boydell, Alderman, 17, 249
Boys, training of, for the Navy, 163
Brampton, Lord, 39, 43, 45
Brest, blockade of, 22
Bright, John, 77, 78
British submarines before and during
the war, 181
Brodrick, Mr., 90
Browning, Sir Thomas, 195
Brutality in the Navy, former, 25
Buonaparte, Napoleon, Arclibishop
Whately, on, 105
Burnham, the first Lord, 43, 44, 45
"Buying up opportunities," 70 et seq.
Byron, Lord, 20

Cabman's retort to the Admiral, the,
62
Campbell-Bannerman, Rt. Hon. Sir
Henry, 43, 44, 61, 63
Canada and hereditary titles, Sir Rob
ert Borden on, 81
Cape Observatory, the, 126
Capri, 52

259

26o

RECORDS

Cawdor, Lord, 103
Cawdor memorandum, the. 111, 120
Childers, Rt. Hon. Hugh, 66, 139
China Seas, an Admiral's unique man
ner of surveying, 25
Chinese, the ingenious, 25
Christmas Day joys on a man-of-war,
36
Churchill, Rt. Hon. Winston, 92, 175,
183, 186, 187, 189, 220, 257
Clarke, Sir George, 254
Claverhouse, 85
Clemenceau, M., 229
Clive, Lord, 82
Coastguard, service, the, 107 et seq.
Cochrane, Captain the Hon. A. A.,
250
Collingwood, Admiral, 96, 98
Commerce, the submarine and, 179,
180
Common entry into the Navy, 154 et
seq.
Congreve, William, 98
Cooper-Key, Admiral Sir A., 250
Corbett, Sir Julian, 46
CornwaUis, Admiral, 22, 96
Coronel, 249
Coverdale, Miles, S3, 54, 55
Cowdray, Lord, 190
Cranmer's Bible, 54, 55
Cromwell, Thomas, 53, 54, 55
Currie, General, 82
Curzon, Earl, 188

D

Dalby, Prof., 188
Daniels, Mr. Josephus, 86; report on
oil-burning battleships, 196, 257
Davies, Mr., American dentist to the
Kaiser, 83
Dawson, Sir Trevor, 184
Defects and repairs, 115 et seq.
Democracy, 77 et seq.
Deterding, Mr., 194, 195
Devonport, Viscount, 235
Diesel, Dr., 191
Dilke, Sir C, 107
Disraeli, Mr., 34
Diving methods of the Chinese, 25
Dogger Bank, 257
"Dreadnought" and "Invincible," the,
113
Dreadnought battle cruiser, the, 222,
223
Drumclog, 85
Drummond, Admiral the Hon. Sir
James, 250

E

Eardley- Wilmot, Admiral Sir Sydney,
202
Edison, Mr., 35
Edmunds, Mr. Henry, 35, 36
Empress of Russia, Dowager, 42
"Equal opportunity for all," 79 et
seq.
Esher, Lord, 26, 63, IB9, 254
Essentials of sea fighting, the, 94 et
seq.

Falkland Islands, 74
Fisher Baronetcy, lapse of, 18
Fisher's career. Lord, synopsis of, 243
et seq.
Fisher, Sir Clement, 18, 19
Fisher, John, 18
Fisher, Rev. John, of Bodmin, 19;
four generations of, 20
Fisher, Mr. John Arbuthnot, 21
Fisher, Sir Robert, of Packington, 19
Fisher, Sir Robert, 20
Fisher, William, father of Lord
Fisher, 249
Fisher, Mary, wife of Lord Ayles
ford, 19
Fisher motto, the, 18
Fiume, 244
"Fleet Street" conspiracy, a, 106
Foch, Marshal, 234
Forgiveness, 59
"Free Tank Day," a, 36
Frederick the Great and the Seven
Years' War, 208, 209
Freedom of the seas nonsense, 83
French, Lord, 235
Friedland-Eylau campaign, 212
Friend, Lord Fisher's letter to a, 84
Fushishima, Prince, 217

Gallifet, General, 43
Gard, Mr., 129
Gardiner, Mr. A. G., 26
Gaunt, John of, 101
Geddes, Sir Eric, 75, 234
German Emperor, tiie, 217, 220
German submarine menace, the, 73,
231
Gervais, Admiral, 252
Ginsburg, Dr., letter from Lord
Fisher to, 52
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., final res
ignation of, 60 et seq., 252

INDEX

261

Goodenough, Commodore, 203
Gould, Sir F. C, 48
Goschen, Rt. Hon. G. J., 252
Gracie, Mr., 129
Grafton, Richard, printer of the 1539
Bible, 49
Grant, Sir Hope, 31
Graves, Admiral, 23
"Great Silent Navy," the, 101, 102
Greenwich Observatory, 126
Gunboat, the use of the, 119 et seq.
Gunning, Miss, wife of two dukes and
mother of four, 21, 22

H

Hadcock, Major A. G., 202, 233
Hamilton, Duke of, 21
Hamilton, Lady, 122
Hamilton, Lord George, 64, 252
Hankey, Sir Maurice P. A., 169; let
ter to Lord Fisher, 206, 207; letter
of Lord Fisher to, 233
Hanotaux, M., 237
Harcourt, Lord, 63
Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir William, 61,
62, 63
Hawke, Admiral, Capt. A. T. Mahan
on, 97
Hawkins, Sir Henry, see Brampton,
Lord
Hay, General, commandant of the
Hythe School of Musketry, 31, 32
Heligoland Bight, a Naval Officer, on
the battle of, 220, 234
Henderson, Wilfrid, 129
Hereditary titles out of date, 81 ; Can
ada and, ibid.
Hicks-Beach, Rt. Hon. Sir Michael,
61
Hilles, Captain, 249
Hole, Dean, 73
Hood, Captain Arthur W. A., 250
Hood, Sir H., 250, 252
Hope, Sir James, 29, 30, 249
Hopkins, Sir John, 167; letter of, to
Lord Fisher, ibid.
Horton, Lady Wilmot, 20, 249
Hoskins, Sir A. H., 252
Hostile submarines, 179
House of Lords, Lord Fisher's speech
in, November, 1915, 92; March 21,
1917, 93
How the Great War was carried on,
73 et seq.
Howe, Julia Ward, 85
Hunger and thirst the way to Heaven,
25RECORDS

Huxley, T. H., S3
Hythe School of Musketry, the, 31

Incarnation of Revolution, Lord
Fisher as the, 34
Inge, Dean, 41, 57, 58
Ireland under military law, 43

Jackson, Sir Henry, 129
Jellicoe, Viscount, 129, 206, 207, 214,
216, 231, 232, 235, 255
Joffre, General, 235
"Jolly and Hustle," 57 et seq.
Jonah's Gourd, 102 et seq.
Jones, Captain Oliver, 30, 31, 32, 249

K

Keble, John, 33
Kelvin, Lord, 35, 70, 71, 72
Kerr, Lord Walter, 253
Kiel Canal, 206, 225, 226, 229
King Edward, 20, 37; characteristic
thoughtfulness of, 38, 40; his friend
ship for Sir Henry Campbell-Ban
nerman, 44, 66, 69, 176, 217, 254,
256
King WilUam IV, 17
Kitchener, Lord, 64, 219, 232, 235
Knollys, Lord, 37
Knox, Sir Ralph, 65
Krupp, 190, 191, 193

Labouchere, Mr. Henry, 43, 44
Lambe, A., grandfather of Lord
Fisher, 249
Lambe, Soplua, mother of Lord
Fisher, 249
Lane, Jane, 18
Latimer, Bishop, 203
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 81
Law, Rt. Hon. Bonar, 233
League of Nations nonsense, 83
Lectures to officers of the Fleet, 95 $t
seq.
"Let 'em all come,'' 88
Ijethbridge, Captain, 26
Leverrier, Urbain, 35
Lloyd George, Rt. Hon. 85; letter
from Lord Fisher to, 213, 214, 220

262

RECORDS

Lloyd's, 127
Lochee, Lord, see Robertson, Mr. Ed
mund
"Loop Detection'' scheme, the, 75
Lord Mayor's Banquet 1907, the. Lord
Fisher's speech at, 90
Loreburn, Lord, 43
Lucy, Sir Henry, 48

M
M'Clintock, Admiral Sir Leopold, 251
McCrea, Admiral, 68
McKechnie, Sir James, 184
McKenna, Rt. Hon. Reginald, 256
McLaughlin, A. C, Professor of His
tory at Chicago, 77, 81, 82
Madden, Admiral, 129
Mahan, Capt. A. T., 96, 97; on Nel
son, 135
Marienbad, 42, 44, 46, 48
Marlborough, Duke of, 82
Masterton-Smith, Sir. J. E., 46
Memorandum on "Oil and its Fight
ing Attributes," 194
Men, training of, for the Navy, 163
Mercantile Marine, the, 127
Midleton, Lord, see Brodrick, Mr.
Midshipman and the Admiral, the,
Mr. A. G. Gardiner's story of, 26,
27
Midshipmen's food, 22
Midshipmen past and present, com
parison between, 23, 24
Miller, Captain, 26
MitcheU, Dr. Weir, 56
Mons, 234
"Monstrous" cruisers, the, 220, 222
Montecuccoli, Admiral Count, Aus
trian Minister of Marine, 176
Moresby, Admiral J., 236
Morley, Rt. Hon. John, on the Navy,
1893, 135
Morley, Lord, "Life of Gladstone,"
60
Motto, a Fisher, 18

N

Napoleon, 82, 130; Friedland-Eylau
campaign, 212, 221
Napoleon III, 114, 175
Nargen, Island of, 24
National Lifeboat Institution as sub
stitute for Coastguard, 125
Naval base reforms, 236 et seq.
Naval candidate's essay, a, 168, 169

Naval captain and cavalry colonel, 31
Naval education, 154 et seq.
Naval officer, a, on the battle of
HeUgoland Bi^ht, 220
Navigation, ignorance of, in the Navy,
33
Navy, common entry into, 154 et seq.
Navy in the war, the, 21S et seq.
Nelson, 17, 22, 33, 88, 90, 130, 221,
222; Capt. A. T. Mahan on, 135;
at Toulon, 136
Northbrook, Lord, 42
Nucleus crews, 146

Observatories, 126 et seq.
Obsolete vessels, purging the Navy
of, 139 et seq.
Officers, training of, for the Navy,
163; Lord Charles Beresford on,
164, 167
Oil and oil engines, 184 et seq.
Oil-burning battleships, Mr. Josephus
Daniels' report on, 196
Organisation for war, 134
Osborne system of Naval education,
23, ISS, 236
"Out of date" fighting ships, 131

Paganini, 161
Page-Roberts, Dr., Dean of Salisbury,
60
Pakenham, Admiral, 114, 201
Parker, Admiral Sir WilUam, last of
Nelson's captains, nominates Lord
Fisher for the Navy, 20, 249
Parkes, Mr. Oscar, 201
Parsons, Hon. Sir Charles, 74, 191
Peace, 82, 83
PechiU, Gulf of, 31
Penniless, friendless and forlorn.
Lord Fisher's entry into the Navy,
25
Plumer, General, 169
Pope, the, and Tyndale, 54, 55
Pre-war prophecy, a, 217
Public speedies, 86 et seq.
Purging the Navy of obsolete vessels,
139 et seq.

Q

Queen Alexandra, her kindly dispo
sition, 39, 41, 42, 256

INDEX

263

Queen EUzabeth, 135
Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, 46
Queen Victoria, 42, 65

R

Rambodde, Ceylon, Lord Fisher's
birthplace, 243
Redesdale, Lord, 38, 39
Redmond, John, 43
Redmond, William, 43
Redundant dockyard workmen, dis
charge of, 66, 67
Resenttinent, 56
Retrospect, a (July, 1906), 148 et seq.
Reval, 260
Rhodes, Cecil, 41
Richards, Sir Frederick, 60, 61; cab
man's retort to, 62, 2S2
Ridley, Bishop, 203
Riga, 225
Ripon, Lord, 63
Roberts, Lord, 48
Robertson, Mr. Edmund, 103, 106 n
Robertson, Rev. F. W., of Brighton,
56, 57, 59
Robertson, Sir W., 236
Rombulow-Pearse, Lieut., 157
Royal Academy Banquet, 1903, the.
Lord Fisher's speech at, 86
Royal Dutch-Shell Combination, the,
195
Royal Marines, Lord Charles Beres
ford on the, 165, 166
Rozhdestvensliy, Admiral, 200
Rumbold, Sir H. G. M. (Ambassa
dor at Vienna), 43, 45
Russell, Lord, 43, 44, 45
Russian catastrophe, the reason of
the, 218
Russian War, the, 1854, 21, 24

Saintly Naval captain, a, 27, 28, 29
Salisbury, Lord, 64, 66, 94
Salt-beef snuff-box, a, 25
Samuel, Sir Marcus, 188
Sankey, Mr., 85
Satanic captain, a, 30
Scapa Flow, 216, 216, 232
Schwab, Mr., 182
Schwarzhoff, General Gross von, 65
Science, contempt for, in the Navy,
33
Scott, Admiral Percy, 87, 88, 265
Sea of Japan, battle of, 114

Sea-gull, a delicacy, 31
Secrecy and secretiveness, 99 et seq,
Selborne, Lord, 106; letter of Sir
John Fisher to, 128, 253, ^54
Seven Years' War, the, 208, 209, 213
ShadweU, Captain, 27, 28, 29, 249
ShadweU, Sir Lancelot, last Vice-
Chancellor of England, 27
Shand, Lord, 43, 44
Shipbuilding and dockyard workers,
66 et seq.
Siegel, Admiral von, 65
"Sleep quiet in your beds," speech at
Lord Mayor's banquet, 1907, 92
Smith, Rt. Hon. W. H., 64
"SnaU and Tortoise Party," the, 204
Snuff-box of salt beef, 25
Some predictions, 203
"Sow the Nortli Sea with mines,*
Lord Fisher's advice in 1914, 226,
228
Spec, Admiral von, 74, 199, 222, 223,
257
Spencer, Earl, 60, 61, 62, 262
Spencer, Herbert, S3
Staal, M. de, 65
Standard Oil Trust, America, 195
State education in the Navy, 158,
160
Stead, Mr. W. T., 62, 63, 65; on Lord
Fisher's great naval reforms, S41
et seq.; 251
Stewart, Mr., "JoUy and Hustle," 70
Stolypin, M., 213
Sturdee, Admiral Sir Doveton, 257
Submarine boat, the, 89
Submarine and commerce, the, 179,
180
Submarines, et seq.
Submarines and oil fuel, 169, 177
Submarines, British, before and dur
ing the war, 181
Subsidiary services of war, 147 et seq.
Swan, Mr., inventor of the incandes
cent light, 35
Sydenham, Lord, see Clarke, Sir
George.
Sylt, 234

Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 56
Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, Sir Eustace,
201
Tepl, monks' colony at, 42
Thackeray, 86
"The World, the Flesh, and the
Devil," 45
Thomson, Sir J. J., O. M., 73

264

RECORDS

Thurlow, Major, !•
Thursfield, Mr. J. R., 158
Tirpitz, Admiral von, 215, 235
Titles, hereditary, and Canada, 81
Togo, Admiral, 114, 170, 200, 216, 217
Training of boys for the Navy, 163
Training of men for the Navy, 163;
Lord Charles Beresford on the, 164,
167
Training of officers for the Navy, 163,
164, 166
Tsar of Russia, 256
Tweedmouth, Lord, 103, 106 n
Twiss, General, 95
Two-Power standard, the, 28, 109
Tyndale, John, 53, 54, 55

U
Uruguay, 122
Use of the gunboat, the, 119 et seq.

W

War, organisation for, 134
War, subsidiary services of, 147 et
seq. ,
Warsaw, Napoleon at, 130
Watch, a historic, 19
Watson, Sir WiUiam, 85
Way to Victory, the. Lord Fisher's
letters to the Prime Minister, 224,
225
WeUington, Lord, 82
Wesley, John, 56
Whately, Archbishop, 104, 105
Whitchurch, Edward, printer of the
1539 Bible, 49
Whitehead torpedo, 173, 250
Wilson, Sir Arthur, 256
Wilson, President, 85
Winchester, Bishop of, 117
Wireless Telegraphy, 89
Wotton, Sir Henry, 46
WycUf, John, 63, 54

Vavasseur, Mr. Josiah, 256
Verdun, 21 ; American advance on, 234
"Victory," the. Lord Fisher's flrst and
la^ ship, 20, 21
ViUeneuve, Admiral, 95
Vladivostok, 114, 115

Yamamoto, Admiral, 216
Yates, Edmund, 43, 44
Youthful midshipmen, advantage of,
21, 23; arduous lives of, 22

3 9002

" 1

v^f ,

1..