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diff --git a/41677-0.txt b/41677-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5150975 --- /dev/null +++ b/41677-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10217 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41677 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 41677-h.htm or 41677-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41677/41677-h/41677-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41677/41677-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/britishnavybook00fiel + + + + + +THE BRITISH NAVY BOOK + + * * * * * + +_Uniform with this volume_ + +THE BRITISH ARMY BOOK + +BY PAUL DANBY AND LIEUT.-COL. CYRIL FIELD, R.M.L.I. + + + "It is full of great deeds sure to fire the + imagination of any boy."--_Times._ + + "Gives a better and more readable account of our army + than any book we can think of."--_Graphic._ + + "A most stirring, as well as informative + book."--_Scotsman._ + + + "A glorious story, told in fine racy + style."--_Sheffield Daily Telegraph._ + + + LONDON: BLACKIE & SON. LTD., 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C. + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: "BRITAIN'S SURE SHIELD"] + + +THE BRITISH NAVY BOOK + +by + +LIEUT.-COL. AND BREVET COL. CYRIL FIELD, R.M.L.I. + +With Full-page Illustrations in Colour and in +Black-and-White and Numerous Illustrations in the Text + + + + + + + +Blackie and Son Limited +London Glasgow and Bombay + + + + +Contents + + + CHAP. Page + PROLOGUE: THE COMMAND OF THE SEA (A.D. 1915) 9 + + I. A LESSON FROM CÆSAR 19 + + II. ANCIENT WAR-SHIPS 28 + + III. FIGHTING-SHIPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 38 + + IV. MARINERS OF OTHER DAYS 54 + + V. SOME MEDIÆVAL SEA-FIGHTS 60 + + VI. THE NAVY IN TUDOR TIMES 67 + + VII. FROM ELIZABETH TO VICTORIA 81 + + VIII. THE "TURKS" IN THE CHANNEL 99 + + IX. THE HONOUR OF THE FLAG 115 + + X. THE EVOLUTION OF NAVAL GUNNERY 125 + + XI. EVOLUTION OF THE IRONCLAD BATTLESHIP 146 + + XII. THE EVOLUTION OF THE SUBMARINE AND SUBMARINE MINE 167 + + XIII. NAVAL BRIGADES 187 + + XIV. WAR-SHIPS OF ALL SORTS 204 + + XV. THE MANNING OF A SHIP 223 + + XVI. BEGINNING OF THE WAR AFLOAT 242 + + XVII. OPERATIONS IN THE NORTH SEA AND CHANNEL 254 + + XVIII. IN THE OUTER SEAS 261 + + XIX. A REVERSE AND A VICTORY 272 + + XX. GERMAN RAIDS AND THEIR SIGNAL PUNISHMENT 285 + + XXI. THE ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE 292 + + CONCLUSION 307 + + + + +Illustrations + + + IN COLOUR + Page + + "BRITAIN'S SURE SHIELD" _Frontispiece_ + + UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH NAVY: Midshipman, Admiral, + Flag-Lieutenant, Secretary (Fleet Paymaster) 96 + + UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH NAVY: A.B. (Marching Order), + 1st Class Petty Officer, Stoker 188 + + UNIFORMS OF THE ROYAL MARINES: Gunner, R.M.A.; + Colour-Sergeant, R.M.L.I.; Major, R.M.A 236 + + + IN BLACK-AND-WHITE + + H.M.S. "DREADNOUGHT" FIRING A BROADSIDE OF 12-INCH GUNS 10 + + LEARNING TO FIGHT ZEPPELINS 16 + + A WAR-GALLEY IN THE DAYS OF KING ALFRED 36 + + THE "GREAT HARRY", THE FIRST BIG BATTLESHIP OF THE + BRITISH NAVY 70 + + A SEA-FIGHT IN TUDOR TIMES 78 + + DESTROYING A STRAGGLER FROM THE ARMADA 82 + + LORD HOWARD ATTACKING A SHIP OF THE SPANISH ARMADA 84 + + THE "ROYAL GEORGE" ENGAGING THE "SOLEIL ROYAL" IN + QUIBERON BAY, 1759 90 + + THE "VICTORY" IN GALA DRESS 92 + + "THE GLORIOUS 1ST OF JUNE", 1794 94 + + THE RELEASE OF CHRISTIAN PRISONERS AT ALGIERS 108 + + THE FIGHT BETWEEN A MERCHANTMAN AND A TURKISH PIRATE 112 + + TEACHING THE SPANIARD "THE HONOUR OF THE FLAG" 118 + + THE BATTLE OF THE NORE, JUNE, 1653, BETWEEN THE + ENGLISH AND DUTCH 122 + + THE "DULLE GRIETE" AT GHENT 130 + + THE MAIN GUN DECK ON H.M.S. "VICTORY" 140 + + NAVAL GUNNERY IN THE OLD DAYS 142 + + 13.5-INCH GUNS ON H.M.S. "CONQUEROR" 144 + + H.M.S. "WARRIOR", OUR FIRST SEA-GOING IRONCLAD BATTLESHIP 154 + + A MONSTER GUN WHICH IS NOW OBSOLETE 162 + + A FLEET OF SUBMARINES IN PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR 176 + + ENGLISH BLUEJACKETS AT THE DEFENCE OF ACRE 192 + + THE NAVAL BRIGADE IN THE BATTLE OF EL-TEB 200 + + OUR SEAMEN GUNNERS WITH A MAXIM 202 + + DECK OF A "DREADNOUGHT" CLEARED FOR ACTION 206 + + THE BRITISH SUBMARINE "E2" 216 + + THE 13.5-INCH GUN: SOME IDEA OF ITS LENGTH 238 + + 6-INCH GUN DRILL: THE BREECH OPEN 240 + + THE SINKING OF THE GERMAN CRUISER "MAINZ" 248 + + "MISSED!"; THE HELM THE BEST WEAPON AGAINST TORPEDOES 258 + + THE BRITISH AIR RAID ON CUXHAVEN: DRAWING BY JOHN DE + G. BRYAN 302 + + THE BRITISH AIR RAID ON CUXHAVEN: SEA-PLANE FLOWN BY + FLIGHT-COMMANDER R. ROSS 304 + + + + +Publishers' Note + + +Just as this book was about to go to press an Admiralty Order was issued +forbidding the publication of any text or illustrations likely to prove +of service to the enemy. Proofs of _The British Navy Book_ were +submitted to the Admiralty, with the result that the book has been +approved. Acting in accordance with instructions from the Lords +Commissioners, we have substituted other illustrations for those more +recent ships previously chosen to represent the Great War by sea. + + BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED. + + + + +THE BRITISH NAVY BOOK + + + + +PROLOGUE + +The Command of the Seas + +(A.D. 1915) + + "It may truly be said that the Command of the Sea is + an Abridgement or a Quintessence of an Universal + Monarchy." + + SIR FRANCIS BACON. + + +It is a grey morning out on the North Sea, with but little wind. There +is no swell, but considerable movement on the surface of the waters, +with here and there an occasional tossing of the white manes of the +sea-horses. Swimming majestically through the sea comes one of our +monster slate-grey battle-cruisers. She is "stripped to a gantline", and +in complete and instant readiness for action. The red cross of St. +George flutters bravely at her fore-topmast head, for she is the +flagship of the squadron of three or four towering grey ships that are +following in her wake. Aft flies the well-known White Ensign, the +"meteor flag of England" blazing in the corner. Far away on either bow, +but dimly discernible on the wide horizon, are the shadows of other +smaller ships, the light cruisers, which are moving ahead and on the +flanks of the squadron like cavalry covering the advance of an army. On +board is an almost Sabbath-day stillness, save for the wash of the sea, +the dull steady whirr of the giant turbines far down below the armour +deck, the periodical clang of the ship's bell, marking the flight of +time. Now and again comes a whiff of cooking from the galley. As the day +advances the light grows stronger; gleams of sunshine send the purple +shadows of masts and rigging dancing fitfully over the wide deck, which +is practically deserted. There is the marine sentry over the life-buoy +aft, look-outs aloft and at various corners of the superstructures, and +the figures of the officer of the watch, signalmen and others are seen +in movement up in the triangular platform dignified by the name of the +"fore-bridge". Who would imagine that there are seven or eight hundred +souls on board, seamen, marines, stokers, and many other ratings of +whose existence and duties the "man in the street" is profoundly +ignorant? + +[Illustration: _Photo. Cribb, Southsea_ + +H.M.S. _DREADNOUGHT_ FIRING A BROADSIDE OF 12-INCH GUNS] + +But look inside this massive gun-hood, from which protrude forty feet of +two sleek grey monster cannon, each of which is capable of hurling 850 +pounds of steel and high explosive a distance of a dozen miles. Grouped +round their guns in various attitudes are the bluejackets forming their +crews. They are tanned and weather-beaten fellows, but there is a +strained and tired look about their eyes. Here in the confined spaces of +their turret they have eaten, slept, and whiled away the watches as best +they might for many, many hours. They have not had the discomforts of +their khaki-clad brethren in their sodden trenches, nor listened to the +constant hiss of hostile bullets and the howl and crash of "Jack +Johnsons" at unexpected moments. But if they have been immune from these +constant and manifest dangers, they have had none of their excitements. +They have had the temptation to boredom, and the less exciting but +always present peril of the dastardly German system of mine-laying in +the open sea. Some are writing letters to chums, to sweethearts, and to +wives. Others are killing time with the light literature that has been +sent to the ship in bundles by the many friends of the fleet on +shore. In one corner is a midshipman writing up his "log", and beside +him sits the lieutenant in charge of the turret reading for the fourth +time a much-folded letter he has taken from an inner pocket. + +Look into the next turret and you will see a similar scene, the only +difference being that in this case the guns' crews and their officer are +marines, wearing red-striped trousers and "Brodrick" caps--the latter +not unlike those of the seamen, but with the corps badge in brass on a +semicircular scarlet patch in front, instead of a ribband with the +ship's name. In the casemates housing the smaller guns in the +superstructures and on the deck below are similar though smaller groups. +All are waiting--waiting. + +We wend our way below. The clerks and writers are working in their +offices, the cooks are busy at their galleys. Men must eat and accounts +must be kept though the ship should be blown out of existence in the +next ten minutes. We enter a narrow lift and are shot down to the lower +regions, where the sweating stokers handle rake and shovel, the +artificers and engine-room staff ply oil-can and spanner, and the +engineer officers study gauges and dials of all sorts and kinds. There +is more life down here than up above. Work is going on that needs +constant watching and attention. On our return journey to "the upper +air" we glance in at the wireless room. As we do so comes the loud +crackle of the electric spark. The operator is acknowledging a signal. A +message has come in from a scouting cruiser. "The enemy are out. Five +big cruisers, heading north-west." Another Scarborough Raid perhaps. + +The ship wakes up, she is alive. The engine-room gongs clang down in her +depths. A few signal flags flutter aloft. The admiral is signalling to +his squadron to alter course to head off the enemy, and to increase +speed by so many revolutions. The big ship gathers way. Her consorts +follow in the curve of her foaming wake, and with every big gun trained +forward the lithe grey leviathans tear over the watery plain in search +of their quarry. + +An hour passes. Nothing is seen but the scouting cruisers and a minute +speck in the remote spaces of the sky, which someone thinks is a +sea-plane, but which may well be a grey gull in the middle distance. +Presently, however, a growing darkness along the north-eastern horizon +becomes recognizable as smoke--the smoke of many furnaces. Against its +growing blackness one of our distant light cruisers shows for a moment +as a white ship. Black smoke is pouring from her funnels also, and +amidst it all is a sudden violet-white flash. + +After an age comes the dull "thud" of her cannon. Now she turns away to +port. There are more vivid flashes and the "thudding" of her guns grows +continuous. Soon answering flashes sparkle from amidst the smoke-pall on +the horizon, and first one then another nebulous outline of a warship +disintegrates itself. Flashes break from their sides also, and the noise +of the firing swells into a steady roll of sound rising and falling on +the wind. We again increase speed. Black smoke billows from our funnels, +the bow wave rises higher, and now and again a cloud of spray swishes +over our decks. Then "Cra--ash!" The fore-turret has spoken. The ship +trembles from stem to stern. We are striking in to the assistance of our +scouting cruiser. Through the glasses appears what looks like an iceberg +towering over the enemy's nearest cruiser. We've missed her. + +But the spotting officer is busy in the control-platform aloft, passing +down corrections for transmission to the various gun-stations, and when +a second explosion roars from the starboard turret, the enemy's cruiser, +after disappearing for some seconds in a black and inky cloud of smoke, +bursts into flames. Her consort and our scouting vessel draw farther and +farther away to the northward, fighting fiercely. We continue driving +through the tumbling waters, till, with a slight freshening of the wind, +the black smoke we are approaching thins off into nothingness, and we +see far down on the horizon four or five separate columns of smoke. With +a good glass we can distinguish masts and funnels as if lightly sketched +in pencil. They have sighted us at the same time, and seem to melt +together into one indistinct mass. They are altering course, turning +their backs to us and heading for the east. + +The engine-room gongs clang again, more revolutions are demanded and are +forthcoming, and our four big battle-cruisers rush in pursuit with +renewed energy. A distant humming sound increases quickly to a loud +hissing and roaring--a noise which may be compared to that of a monster +engine letting off steam--and an enormous projectile, passing well over +our heads, plunges into the sea on the starboard beam of our following +ship, the splash rising as high as the mastheads. Others follow fast. +The rearmost ship loses her mainmast, and now the enemy's gunners reduce +their elevation and slap their big shells into the sea just ahead of us. + +Our own guns are not idle. One after another gives tongue with a volume +of noise and a concussion that no words can describe. The pen is +powerless to bring before the imagination such a cataclysm of sound. On +a sudden, amidst the crashing of the guns and the continuous dull +booming of the enemy's in the distance, there is a different and a +rending explosion somewhere forward. We have at last been hit. Down on +the forecastle all is smoke, blackness, torn iron plates and girders. +From the midst of the chaos comes the shriek of a man calling on his +Maker, and piteous groanings. Soon the dull red of fire blushes through +the smoke, and a rush of bluejackets and marines with fire-hoses +spouting white streams of water engages this dread enemy and succeeds in +subduing it. + +Stretcher-men appear on the scene and remove the wounded, but there is +more than one serge-clad figure that lies heedless of fire or water, +friend or foe. These are they who have fought their last fight and have +laid down their lives and all that they had for their country. + +Inside the turrets the aspect of affairs is very different from what we +saw a short time ago. The gun-layers are standing at their sights, the +guns' crews are working levers to and fro, the big breech-blocks are +swinging on one side, the huge pointed projectiles rising on their +hydraulic hoists till they come in line with the bore of the gun. +Another lever is pulled, and the rammer-head, hitherto somewhat in the +background of the turret, advances towards the gun, impelled by what +looks not unlike a monster bicycle chain crawling up from below, and +stiffening itself as it advances along a horizontal trough of steel. The +rammer-head meets the base of the big shell and drives it resistlessly +and with no apparent effort into the gun. It retires; the charges of +explosive, divided into sections and carried in cylinders which come in +turn in line with the breech, are then one after the other pushed into +place by the indefatigable rammer-head, the breech-block is swung to, +turned and locked, and the gun is ready to fire again. + + * * * * * + +We are now in full view of the enemy's squadron, which consists of five +large armoured cruisers. Two of these are in a bad way. One on our +starboard bow has lost two out of her three funnels as well as a mast. +She is barely moving through the water, and has a strong list to port, +which is so pronounced as to prevent her elevating her guns, whose +projectiles all strike the water short of us, though we are at +comparatively close range. Only two or three of her larger pieces are +able to fire at all, and these but at intervals. Her foremost turret is +nothing but a chaos of broken metal from the midst of which a pair of +mutilated cannon point forlornly skyward. + +The midships turret nearest to us is in hardly better case. Her +superstructures look like the ruins of a town after an earthquake, and +several large holes gape in her sides. A dense black smoke sweeps +upwards from the midst of the wreckage. About half a mile ahead of her a +consort is also stationary and on fire, the flames driving away in +sheets to leeward. The ship that followed us as second in the line is +very badly damaged also, and is just discernible on the horizon astern +under a pall of smoke. These casualties leave us evenly matched--three +to three--with plenty of fight left in us, but with the volume and +efficiency of our fire considerably reduced. Our own funnels are still +standing, but riddled like collanders, the fore-bridge has been swept +away, and with it our dear old skipper; but his place has been ably +filled by the commander, who is fighting the ship from the +conning-tower, which still stands. Both squadrons--the German in line +ahead, ours in bow and quarter line--are heading due east, but, just as +we are abreast the badly damaged cruiser to which I have referred, the +enemy begins edging away to the north-east. We fail to see the +significance of this manoeuvre at first, and the admiral, who, though +rather badly hurt by the fall of the fore-bridge, is still in the +conning-tower with the commander, may have visions of "crossing their T" +astern, when there is a sudden shout from aloft. A man is leaning over +and gesticulating wildly from the control-platform and pointing towards +our starboard bow. There, not far from the burning enemy ship, the glass +shows three pairs of what look like black cricket-stumps. Simultaneously +there is a gleam in the sea alongside, like the white of a shark's belly +when he turns to seize his prey. The deadly torpedo had missed us by a +couple of feet. + +We instantly turn sharply to port, signalling our consorts to do the +same, and all head northwards at our best speed. This brings the enemy's +line, which had been turning more and more to port, on a parallel +course, and all three ships at once concentrate on us--the nearest ship. +We get a worse hammering in the five minutes that follow than we have +sustained during the action. The after turret is jammed, one of the +guns in the starboard turret loses its muzzle, and fire breaks out in +two places amidships, and can only be got under with the most strenuous +efforts and great loss of life. + +[Illustration: LEARNING TO FIGHT ZEPPELINS + +Gunnery practice on a British war-ship against an aerial target. It is a +difficult matter to get "war conditions", as the ordinary target, such +as a towed kite, is easier to hit than an aeroplane.] + +Things are looking ugly. The submarines still follow astern, but are not +near enough to risk a shot. We cannot steam any faster, and we are +baulking the fire of our friends. We slow down, risking the submarines, +to allow our consorts to get ahead of us and enable us to meet the three +enemy ships on equal terms. There are many anxious looks astern while +this manoeuvre is in execution. The periscopes of our submarine foes are +still discernible, but beyond them is a fast-growing smoke-cloud from +which presently emerge the lithe black hulls of our "X" destroyer +flotilla. Apparently the submarines do not observe their approach; their +periscopes are steadily fixed on our ship, reckoning every yard they +gain on us. But the destroyers see _them_, and presently we see also a +warning signal from the enemy flagship. But it is too late. Before the +_Unterseeische Böte_ can dive out of harm's way three or four destroyers +sweep over them and ram them at the speed of an express train. Slowing +down, they circle right and left and open fire. What at we cannot see. +Presently up pops a grey lump some way astern. The light guns on the +superstructure give tongue so quickly that one has hardly time to +recognize it as the conning-tower of a submarine before it is literally +blown to pieces. + +For the first time during the fight a cheer rings out fore and aft. +Almost at once the little guns begin banging away again. This time their +long muzzles are nosing about in the air. What are they firing at? +"There they are!" cries someone, pointing to the south-east, where two +big amorphous monsters have appeared high up in the clouds. Zeppelins, +right enough; and the bang, bang, bang of the lighter artillery rises in +crescendo from every ship and destroyer till the air echoes like +Vulcan's forge. Up come the pair of enormous sausages at a high rate of +speed, and as they pass over our destroyer flotilla they begin +dropping their bombs. Dull concussions thud apparently on the ship's +bottom; fountains of white water spout all round the small craft. + +But none are hit. The leading "gas-bag" is heading straight for us. She +has probably spotted our damaged condition, and reckons us an easy prey. +But our gunners are getting closer to her every shot, and presently she +turns slowly to starboard, dropping a futile bomb as she goes. She now +presents a fine broadside target as big as a Dreadnought, another shot +gets home somewhere, and she makes off in the direction she came with +her nose down, tail in air, and a pronounced list to port. Her consort +turns too, and scuttles off at top speed. She hopes to "live to fight +another day" over some peaceful English village where there are no +nasty, disagreeable quick-firing guns, shrapnel-shell, and other unkind +greetings from those she would destroy. + + * * * * * + +The day is drawing to a close. We are heading homewards in tow of a +consort. Low down under the tawny sunset that dim purple line is the +coast of "Old England"--the motherland we are engaged in defending from +the assault of the most unscrupulous enemy she has ever encountered. The +wind has fallen, the waves are hardly more than ripples, and evening is +closing down with a soothing hush over land and sea. We have cleared up +after the smashing and racket of the battle as far as possible, but we +can hardly crawl along, and are bound to go into dockyard hands for some +weeks at any rate. + +"Are we downhearted?" "No!" For we have given much better than the best +efforts of the Huns could give. Two of their ships are at the bottom, +with most of their crews; though, thanks to the exertions and humanity +of our gallant seamen, a considerable number of them have been saved +from a watery grave. To this bag may be added three if not four +submarines and a badly damaged Zeppelin, so we are not ill-satisfied +with the day's work. We have just passed several "tall ships" on their +way out to relieve us on patrol, and as we begin to get under the land +there is a whirring up aloft in the gathering dusk, and a dozen +sea-planes, like a flight of wild-ducks, come swooping seaward and make +towards the Channel. + +Where are they off to? Are they patrolling, or are they bent on a raid +on the enemy's magazines, hangars, and gun positions? We do not know, +but our ignorance does not worry us. We know the kind of man that is +flying down there towards the southern horizon, and are quite satisfied +that he will "make a good job" of whatever he has in hand. Just as the +sun dips, out comes a destroyer from the shadow of the land to pilot us +through the mine-field, and so we are brought "into the harbour where we +would be". We have plenty of hard work before us--some of it very sad +work. There are our poor wounded shipmates down below in the sick-bay +who have to be taken ashore to hospital, and there are the last honours +to be paid to those other gallant comrades and shipmates who have +"fought the good fight" and are now making their last voyage _en route_ +for that promised land where "there shall be no more sea". + +And now let us consider how this guardian fleet and the men who man it +came into being. In the following pages my object will be not so much to +describe well-known sea-fights as to give a series of pictures of the +sailor and of the navy at different stages of "our island story". + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A Lesson from Cæsar + + "Storm and sea were Britain's bulwarks, + Long ere Britons won their name; + Mightier far than pikes and halberds + Wind and wave upheld her fame; + Storm and sea are Britain's brothers, + Keep, with her, their sleepless guard; + Britain's sons, before all others, + Share with them their watch and ward. + + _Chorus_-- + + "'Forward! On!' the sea-king's war-word + Ages back--to do or die.[1] + 'Ne'er a track but points us forward!'[2] + Ages on--our lines reply." + E. H. H. In _Officers' Training Corps and Naval + Cadets' Magazine_, March, 1913. + + +WHENEVER we want to find out anything about the early history of Great +Britain, we have, almost invariably, to turn to the writings of our old +friend Julius Cæsar. In attempting to trace the beginnings of the Royal +Navy, that magnificent organization "whereon", point out the _Articles +of War_, "under the good Providence of God, the Wealth, Safety, and +Strength of the Kingdom chiefly depend", we have to conform to the same +rule, and consult this authority. From Cæsar's _De Bello Gallico_ we +learn that in his time the Ancient Britons made use of boats with a +wooden frame, supporting wicker-work instead of planking, and rendered +watertight by a covering of skins--just such boats, in fact, though +probably larger--as, under the name of "coracles", are used to this day +on the Wye and some other rivers and estuaries. + +The portability and rapid construction of these boats commended them to +Cæsar's military eye, and later on, in one of his Continental wars, he +ordered his soldiers to make some light boats in imitation of those he +had seen in Britain, in order to carry his army across a river. But, +though Cæsar especially mentions these vessels, he does not say that the +British of his day had no other or larger vessels. Though they made use +of hides and wicker, they must have known something of wooden vessels. +There is no doubt that they or their ancestors had large "dug-outs", +hollowed from huge trunks of trees in the same way as Robinson Crusoe +constructed his famous boat. We know this because many of these have +been discovered buried in the mud of our rivers. One of them, found in +the bed of the Rother in 1822, was 60 feet in length and 5 feet wide. +Others have been found in Lincolnshire, Scotland, and Sussex, though +none of them was nearly as long as the Rother boat. We must remember, +too, that the Phoenicians had traded to Cornwall for tin, probably for +centuries, and the Britons must have been familiar with their +comparatively advanced types of shipbuilding. + +But many writers on naval matters are of the opinion that our British +ancestors, whose coracles are described by Cæsar, had, even at that +time, really stout and formidable ships. The reason is this. The Veneti, +a race who inhabited western Brittany, and the country at the mouth of +the Loire, were a kindred race, and when attacked by Cæsar received +assistance from Britain. Now the strength of the Veneti seems to have +been in their ships, which gave the Roman galleys considerable trouble, +and it seems more than likely that the British assistance they received +came in the form of a squadron of similar vessels. + +According to Cæsar, the ships of the Veneti "were built and fitted out +in this manner: their bottoms were somewhat flatter than ours, the +better to adapt them to the shallows, and to sustain without danger the +ebbing of the tide. Their prows were very high and erect, as likewise +their sterns, to bear the hugeness of the waves and the violence of the +tempests. The hull of the vessel was entirely of oak, to withstand the +shocks and assaults of that stormy ocean. The benches of the rowers were +made of strong beams about a foot wide, and were fastened with iron +bolts an inch in thickness. Instead of cables they used chains of iron, +and for their sails, utilized skins and a sort of thin, pliable leather, +either because they had no canvas and did not know how to make sailcloth +or, more probably, because they thought that canvas sails were not so +suitable to stand the violence of the tempests, the fury and rage of the +winds, and to propel ships of such bulk and burden". It is evident that +these ships were for that period quite up to date. They were strongly +built and iron-bolted, and had already discarded hempen cables for iron +ones. + +Above all, they were specially constructed to battle with the heavy +weather of the Bay of Biscay and the North Sea, and to take refuge from +its fury in the rivers and creeks of the western coasts of Europe. The +Roman galleys, relying principally on their oars, and therefore +comparatively long and light, were not so seaworthy in Northern waters, +and the same difference, in construction, between the ships of the +Mediterranean and those of the Northern nations may be traced right down +to comparatively modern ages. One gets very bad weather in the +Mediterranean at times, notwithstanding its traditional blue skies and +sapphire seas, but the big Atlantic rollers are absent. + +These ships of the Veneti proved a tough morsel for our old school +acquaintance, but his generalship was equal to the task of overcoming +them in the end. As he says, "in agility and a ready command of oars, we +had the advantage", for the Veneti trusted entirely to their sails. +But, against that, the beaks of the Roman galleys could make no +impression on the stout timber of the enemy's ships, they were at a +special disadvantage in bad weather, and the bulwarks of the Venetan +ships towered so high above their heads, even when they erected their +fighting-towers, that the Roman soldiers could not hurl their darts on +board them, while the Venetan enemy showered their missiles down upon +their heads. For the same reason they found it almost impossible to +grapple with and make fast to the big ships, and so carry them by +boarding. However, "there are more ways than one of killing a cat", and +so the Venetans found to their cost. For the Romans, fastening sharp +hooks or sickles to the end of long poles, pulled alongside, hooked them +over the halyards of their yards and sails, and, rowing away for all +they were worth, contrived to cut them through, when down came the +yards, and the Venetan vessels became unmanageable. To make matters +worse, when a flat calm fell they could not get away to their +hiding-places on the coast, and the Romans obtained a complete +victory--probably by boarding and fighting at close quarters, when their +armour and discipline would tell heavily in their favour. It is +interesting to note, by the way, that, according to Vegetius, a +fifteenth-century writer on naval and military matters, they painted +their scouting-vessels blue, masts, sails, and all, and dressed their +crews in the same colour. He adds that Pompey, after defeating Cæsar, +called himself "The Son of Neptune", and "affected to wear the _blue_ or +_marine_ colour". As for the Veneti, we may, perhaps, regard them as the +original "Bluejackets", Veneti being the plural of the Latin _venetus_, +"bluish", "sea-coloured". + +[Illustration: Ancient Roman Tile found at Dover + +The letters stamped into this tile, and others like it found elsewhere, +are considered to stand for "Classiarii Britannici", i.e. "British +troops trained for sea-warfare".] + +We have now to pass over a gap of several hundred years, during which +time there is little or no information available about the ships +belonging to these islands, the greater part of which, as a matter of +fact, had become a province of the Roman Empire. There seems to have +been a "Classis Britannici", or British squadron, but this was entirely +a Roman organization, and had as much to do with the north of France--or +Gaul--as Britain. The remains of an old ship--just the keel and lower +ribs--which were not long ago unearthed on the right bank of the Thames, +just below Westminster Bridge, are considered likely to have belonged to +a galley of this squadron, and we know that there was a legion of what +we may term British Marines, who formed the fighting portion of the +fleet. Tiles have been found at Dover and other known stations of the +Romano-British Fleet which bear the following inscription: "C.L., B.R.", +which the experts in such matters interpret as standing for "Classiarii +Britannici"--that is to say, "British troops trained for sea-warfare". +We are also told by Vegetius, the old writer I have already quoted, that +the badge of these troops was a "circle", which, by the way, is a +somewhat curious coincidence, since that of the Marines of our own day +is a globe. These were the men who defended the shores of our island +against the growing numbers of pirates from northern Europe, for the +rowers of the Roman galleys were merely the machinery of propulsion, and +were probably much less considered than the steam-engines of a modern +battleship. These troops also manned part of the wall built from the +North Sea to the Solway in the vain attempt to keep out the Picts and +Scots, for traces of them are to be found at Bowness at its western +end. The North Sea pirates, then generally referred to as Saxons, became +such a menace that the East Coast received the name of "The Saxon +Shore", and a "count" or high official was specially appointed to take +charge of its defence. + +[Illustration: Shield carried by the Soldiers of the "Legio Classis +Britannici" + +(_From a coloured drawing in the Bodleian Library_) + +The centre of the shield is quartered red and white: the rim is white, +and the remainder green.] + +In A.D. 410 the Romans, attacked by the northern nations in their own +country, finally abandoned Britain. The British, who had been +practically a subject race for nearly 400 years, could make no head +against the fierce Picts and Scots, who at once took advantage of the +withdrawal of the Roman garrison and swarmed into the North of England. +In desperation, the British king, Vortigern, offered to buy the +assistance of two Jutish or Saxon pirates--Hengist and Horsa--who were +doing a little raiding on their own account on the southern coast. They +drove off the northern invaders, in accordance with the bargain that was +struck, but, returning home for more of their Danish and Saxon +fellow-countrymen, came back and gradually got the country into their +own hands. According to another theory, many colonies of Saxons had been +established on the East Coast during the time of the Romans, and it was +the special business of the "Count of the Saxon Shore" to rule over +them. However this may have been, England became a Saxon country, the +remnant of the Britons being driven into Wales and Cornwall. + +Now the Scandinavian peoples were at this time the finest sailors in the +world. The Jutes and Angles from Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein belonged +to this race, the whole of which became known as "vikings"--that is to +say, "the sons of the creeks", from the Scandinavian word _vik_, a bay, +creek, or fiord. But though there must have been a strong Viking element +among the Saxon conquerors of England--so much so that it became known +as Angle-land, or England, from the Angles--yet the Saxons or English do +not seem to have taken so enthusiastically to the sea as the Norwegians +and Danes, and, except when special efforts to create fighting fleets +were made by King Alfred and Edmund Ironside, were never able to prevent +the incursions of their Danish and Norse kinsmen, who, in process of +time, firmly established themselves in the country. After the Danes came +the Norman Conquest, and during all this period there was little, if +any, change in the types of the ships in which the northern nations +fared the seas. + +What were these vessels like? As it happens, we really know more about +them than we do of any between their time and the days of Henry VIII. +For not only have we very definite details of them and their "gear" in +the long "sagas" or historical and traditional poems which have come +down to us, sculptured pictures of them in stone, engravings on rocks +and upon arms and ornaments, but more than one of the actual Viking +vessels have been dug out of the big burial-mounds where they had been +hidden for centuries. For the Viking chieftain loved his ship: he +lavished ornament and decoration upon it, and regarded it almost as a +living thing. When, therefore, the time came for him to take the long +last voyage, from which no man ever returns, it was quite natural that +he should have wished to make it in the cherished "Dragon Ship" or "Long +Serpent", which had so often borne him over the waves on his way to +those hand-to-hand combats and harryings and plunderings in which his +soul delighted. Sometimes a funeral pyre was erected on the ship +herself, and with his favourite sword by his side, his shield and his +helmet, the dead chieftain set out on his final voyage, his sons and +followers watching the well-known long-ship sailing into the west till +she, her sails, and her dead captain disappeared in clouds of fire and +smoke under the sunset. Or, again, a dying sea-king would elect to be +buried in his favourite ship in some spot overlooking the glassy fiord +whence he had so often set out on his piratical exploits. The ship was +run up on shore over the rollers which all Viking vessels carried to +facilitate beaching, the body was laid amidships with his most treasured +earthly possessions, a penthouse of timber was built over him, his +favourite horses were killed and placed round the hull of the vessel, +and the whole was buried in the depths of a huge mound, which was +erected over it. + +[Illustration: Noah's Ark, according to a MS. of A.D. 1000 + +Observe the fullness and apparent capacity of the hull of the +dragon-ship on which the Ark proper is erected, and compare it with that +of the Nydam ship on the opposite page.] + +The most famous "finds" of this kind were at Gokstadt, in south Norway, +in 1881, and at Nydam, in Schleswig, in 1863. In the latter case the +ship does not seem to have been used as a sarcophagus, but with another, +which had almost entirely rotted away, was found in a bog. Possibly if +the huge oval mound now utilized as a cemetery at Inverness, and known +as "Tom-na-hurich" ("The Hill of the Fairies"), were tunnelled into, +another Viking ship might be brought to light. In the case of the Nydam +ship, Roman coins found on board fix her date as being somewhere about +A.D. 250. Both from these ships and fragments of others that have been +found in various places it is abundantly evident that their builders +were as skilled shipwrights as ever existed. Space does not allow us to +go into details of their construction, but we may say at once that their +finish was perfect, and that their lines were not only beautiful but +wonderfully well adapted for contending with the stormy waters of the +northern seas. Neither of them appears to have belonged to the largest +type of Viking ships, which may be roughly divided into "Dragon Ships" +or "Drakkars", "Eseneccas" or "Long Serpents", and "Skutas" or small +swift scouting-vessels. It seems just possible, by the way, that our +modern slang expression "skoot"--"get away quickly", "clear out"--may be +derived from this word. We must try in the next chapter to understand +what these Viking ships were like. + +[Illustration: Broadside View of the Nydam Ship now in the Kiel Museum. +Observe the horn-like rowlocks and the steer-board] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] + "If we go backward we die: if we go forward we die: + Better go forward and die."--Viking war-call. + +[2] "Nulla vestigia retrorsum."--Motto of 5th Dragoon Guards. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Ancient War-ships + + "Piracy was the exercise, the trade, the glory, and + the virtue of the Scandinavian youth. Impatient of a + bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the + banquet, grasped their arms, sounded their horn, + ascended their ships, and explored every coast that + promised either spoil or settlement." GIBBON. + + "Outlaw and free thief, + My kinsfolk have left me, + And no kinsfolk need I + Till kinsfolk shall need me. + My sword is my father, + My shield is my mother, + My ship is my sister, + My horse is my brother." + CHARLES KINGSLEY. + + +IF we take the dimensions of the actual Viking boats that have been +unearthed, as I have related in the last chapter, we shall have an +excellent foundation upon which to form an idea of the bigger and more +important ones. Now the Gokstadt boat is nearly 80 feet long and 16 feet +6 inches wide at her greatest beam, and carried mast and sail. The Nydam +ship is 75 feet in length, with a beam of 10 feet 6 inches, and had no +mast. Both are very flat amidships, and have very fine or sharp ends, +but it is evident that in proportion to her length the Gokstadt boat had +a much greater beam. + +[Illustration: A Viking Double-prowed "Long Serpent" or "Dragon-ship" + +Observe the well-supported outer stem, the Dragon Head, the embroidered +sail decorated with a variation of the "Swastika" design, which was much +used by the Vikings on arms and ornaments; the vane at the masthead, the +"shield-row" protecting the rowers, and the steersman guiding the ship +by means of her "steer-board".] + +That was because she was a sailing-ship and the Nydam vessel was not. +The latter may fairly be assumed to have been a "Skuta", and the +Gokstadt ship a rather small "Serpent". Now in all the "sagas" that have +come down to us the different war-ships which occupy so prominent a +place in them are distinguished as to size by the number of oars they +pulled. From the Nydam ship, which had fourteen oars a-side, we are +thus able to judge the dimensions of famous Viking war-ships like the +"Long Serpent" of King Olaf and others, if we allow for the slightly +wider space between the rowers' benches necessitated by the greater +length of the oars in the larger vessels. Of course, the whole length of +the ship was not occupied by the benches. In the Nydam ship, for +instance, they took up 46 feet of her length; the remaining 15 feet at +each end were required for fighting- and steering-platforms, stowage of +stores, &c. In this way it has been calculated that the "Long +Serpent"--you must remember that this was a _special_ "Long Serpent", +and probably bigger than the usual run of the war-vessels so-called--was +180 feet long, while the still bigger ship belonging to our King Canute +works out at no less than 300 feet in length. The beam or width it has +not been found possible to estimate exactly, but my own opinion is that +the lines, or contour, of these very much bigger ships were much deeper +and fuller than in the smaller types. + +There is an old manuscript in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, dating +from about A.D. 1000, in which appear three pictures of Noah's Ark (see +p. 26). The house part of the design is frankly impossible--it would +capsize the ship--but the hull in each case--the boat part--is not at +all unlike the well-known Bayeux-tapestry ships, but of a better and +more seaworthy shape, though in some of them the big dragon figure-head +is unduly exaggerated. The space between the benches was called a +"room", and the port and starboard portions of this were known as +"half-rooms". The crew were all told off to these half-rooms as their +stations, except those quartered forward and aft. Thus the "Long +Serpent" had eight men to each "half-room", and from this item of +information it has been estimated that she carried a crew of something +between six and seven hundred men. Goodness knows how many King Canute's +big "Dreadnought" carried. + +Some of these Viking ships were very smartly decorated. Armorial +bearings had not then been invented, but their sails were worked with +the most beautiful emblematic and intricate embroidery, and were not +infrequently made of velvet, though generally of a coarse woollen +material called "vadmal." Some of the most elaborate ones were actually +lined with fur. Not only the ships themselves, but also their sails, +like the swords of their warriors, were given poetical sounding names: +"The Cloth of the Wind", "The Beard of the Yard", and "The Tapestry of +the Mast-head", are some of them. Along their gunwales, above the oars, +which worked through holes in the ship's side, ran the "shield-row", +composed of circular wooden shields or targets, with big shining bosses +of brass or other metal in the middle. Each shield overlapped the next +till it touched its boss, and so gave a double protection to the rowers. +This was a very ancient custom, as shields were carried in this way by +Phoenician ships as far back as 450 B.C. As a general rule, the +Norsemen's shields were black and yellow, the Danes' red, and the +Saxons' white with red or blue edges. + +[Illustration: A "Dragon" Figure-head + +There was a law that ships must not approach the land with their +figure-heads in position with "gaping heads and yawning snouts."] + +It is rather curious that, with the exception of black, these colours +are conspicuous in the flags of the corresponding nations of to-day. But +the King of Norway presented our King Athelstan, in 931, with a ship +fitted with a complete row of _golden_ shields. + +A whole chapter might be written about the figure-heads of the Viking +ships, for they were much more than mere ornaments. They each had some +special signification, and were certainly connected with a most +extraordinary superstition which prevailed among the Scandinavian +peoples. It is best explained by an example from the saga of which one +Egil was the hero. Pursued by a king answering to the suggestive name of +Blood-axe, he escaped from Norway and took ship to Iceland. Before he +set sail over the North Sea he determined to take it out of his enemy, +Blood-axe, by a species of what we may call "wireless" witchcraft. +Landing on an islet, he erected what was known as a "Nithstang", a +"contraption" considered very pleasing to the Norse gods. The idea +probably had something in common with the "lifting up" of the brazen +serpent in the _Book of Numbers_. His installation was a very simple +one: a hazel pole with a horse's head stuck on the top. He stuck it up +in a crevice of the rocks, saying that he did so "as a curse" on +Blood-axe and his Queen. Then he turned it round so as to point to the +mainland, and announced that he also "fired off" his curse at the +"Guardian Spirits" of the country, who were to get no rest till they had +hustled King Blood-axe out of it. Finally he inscribed his curse in +Runic characters on the pole, and continued his voyage to Iceland as +pleased with himself as a German hero who had dropped a floating mine in +the track of passenger vessels. + +[Illustration: A Dragon-head and a Representation of a "Nithstang". From +a Saxon MS.] + +Now it appears that these same guardian spirits were extremely +susceptible to this sort of "wireless", not only in Norway, but +everywhere. And it also seems that--how or in what way I am unable to +explain--the figure-heads of the Viking ships had much the same +properties as the "Nithstangs". So it was that in Iceland, at any rate, +there was a law that ships must remove their figure-heads before +approaching the land, "and not approach it with gaping heads and +yawning snouts", lest they might scare the guardian spirits of the +land.[3] Having carried out this regulation, it was customary for the +seamen to hoist a polished shield to the masthead and so flash the +signal that the guardian spirits need not now be alarmed. That some +connection existed between these "heads" and the "Nithstang" is further +shown by a drawing in an old manuscript of that period, which depicts a +human head set on a pole, which is fastened to a dragon figure-head. And +again, in a wall-painting in the church of Tegelsmora in Upland, in +which the famous King Olaf is seen waging a desperate battle with our +old nursery friends the "Trolls", the bowsprit of his ship is adorned +with the skull of an ox. + +But we must leave the ships and come to their crews. To begin with, they +were all "soldiers and sailors too"! They were equally at home on the +battle-field ashore and in handling their cherished "long-ships" afloat. +The Scandinavians believed that the soul of a warrior killed in battle +went at once to Valhalla, which represented their idea of heaven. + +There they confidently expected that the brave fighter would spend a +happy eternity of fighting and feasting. It is said that their remote +forefathers had brought this weird form of belief from the depths of +Central Asia--but that must be a very old story. But fighting was the +breath of their life. They revelled in it, though they did not despise +the plunder which was generally the reward of victory. Many of these +fierce warriors were subject to and even cultivated a species of +madness, almost amounting to demoniacal possession, which induced them +to tear off their clothes and hurl themselves almost naked into the +fray, feeling endued with the strength of seven men. + +These "Berserkers", as they were called from this custom, were doubtless +most dangerous opponents in their "Berserk" fury. Nowadays it is +generally accepted that the braver the man the more modest he is about +his deeds of valour; the boaster is considered likely to be but a broken +reed in the day of battle. But it was quite otherwise with the Viking +warriors. They gloried in boasting aloud of their prowess, of the deeds +they had done, and of those that they were ready to perform. + +The tactics of the Vikings, if they failed to ram their opponents, was +to lash the bows of as many friendly and hostile vessels together as +possible, so as to form a floating battle-field. The fighting-platforms +were not, apparently, raised above the bows, as later on in mediæval +times. They were somewhere about the level of the gunwale, and when +several ships were lashed together, all these platforms provided a +battle-ground upon which the Berserker and his emulators could indulge +in the furious hand-to-hand combats which were their delight. If they +could do this they were probably more than pleased that they had failed +to ram their enemy. I doubt if every ship was built with a ram, but, on +the other hand, it is certain that some ships were specially built for +use as rams, and even strengthened by iron plating. So that we see that +the armour-clad is no new invention. + +[Illustration: "Showing his Teeth" + +Figure of a Berserker from a set of ancient chessmen found in the island +of Lewis. The Berserkers always bit their "shield-rims" on going into +battle.] + +In the larger "long-ships" a fighting-gangway ran along behind the +shield-row, connecting the fore and after platforms. Beneath the latter, +which was somewhat elevated so that the steersman could look ahead, was +the sleeping-place for the commander of the ship. Other sleeping +accommodation was provided under the foremost platform, while, if at +anchor, those of the crew who were not on watch slept under awnings or +tents, set up on framework which could be erected for the purpose in the +centre of the vessel. The men slept in leather bags, which were equally +useful either ashore or afloat. In short, these ancient war-vessels were +so well and scientifically built, so well arranged and equipped, and so +well manned that we cease to wonder at the long voyages they were able +to perform by taking advantage of the summer months. + +[Illustration: A WAR-GALLEY IN THE DAYS OF KING ALFRED + +The Dragon or other figure-head has been unshipped, possibly because the +galley is going into port.] + +There is not the slightest doubt that the Vikings discovered the +continent of America long before Columbus did. They went by way of +Iceland, and so were able to touch land more than once on their journey, +but they got there all the same. They established a colony in Greenland +about A.D. 985. From there they made several expeditions to the +southward, and discovered a densely wooded country which is supposed to +have been some portion of Nova Scotia. The climate of Greenland must +have been very different from what it is at present, for the Viking +colony lasted for 400 years, till, in the fifteenth century, an enormous +mass of ice was swept down by the Arctic current, piled itself up along +the coast, and entirely cut off the settlement--which at that time +consisted of thirty villages with their churches and monasteries--from +the rest of the world, so that before long every trace of it +disappeared. + +It seems possible that some of you may say: "This is all very +interesting, but I thought we were going to read about the British Navy, +and it seems to me that the Saxons and their ships represented the +British navy of those days". That is a fair argument, but for my part I +do _not_ think that we can accept the Saxon Navy as the ancestor of the +British Navy of to-day. + +The Saxons were no seamen, and apparently but poor soldiers. When King +Alfred built a navy of ships, which are stated to have been superior in +every way to those of the Frisians, Scandinavians, and Danes, and by +means of which he succeeded in securing more than one victory, he could +not provide them with seamen. The Saxons were no good, and he had to +hire Frisian pirates to man them. The Saxons fought well at Hastings, +but, though there was a strong infusion of the Danish element by this +time, they lost the battle through lack of discipline and military +experience. It is difficult, therefore, to recognize in these Saxons the +progenitors of men like Lieutenant Holbrook, who navigated his submarine +through and under rows and rows of deadly mines, knowing that the least +touch would bring annihilation, or of Private Pym of the Berkshires, +who, _alone_ and "on his own", rushed into a house held by a detachment +of German soldiers and succeeded in killing the whole of them but three, +who "made their escape". + +No. For the ancestors of the British seamen and sailors of Elizabethan +and modern times I think we should rather look to the Danes, who, it +must be remembered, between 870 and the Norman Conquest, were not only +continually invading England, but established themselves in a great part +of it, especially in the east and north, and to those of the Conqueror's +followers who traced their descent directly from the Northmen or +Vikings. It is their spirit which has brought us victory both by land +and by sea, but more especially by sea, and not the spirit of Alfred's +Saxon subjects, who had to pay others to fight for them. Again, take +such pre-eminent commanders as Drake and Nelson. Is not the former name +one which takes us directly back to the "Draakers", the "Dragon-ships" +of the Vikings, and has not Nelson a distinctly Danish sound about it? + +The ships of King Alfred "were full-nigh twice as long as the others; +some had sixty oars, and some had more; they were both swifter and +steadier, and also higher, than the others. They were shapen neither +like the Frisian nor the Danish; but so it seemed to him that they would +be most efficient." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] I am indebted to the Rev. S. Baring-Gould for the following very +interesting note, which indicates that there was some affinity between +the ancient Grecian and the Viking ideas with regard to figure-heads: +"The Greeks never allowed an image of an entering ship to arrive +un-removed, and then it was conveyed to the shore to salute the Goddess +of the port. The altar 'to the Unknown God' St. Paul saw _was actually +to any unknown Deity of an approaching vessel_." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Fighting-ships of the Middle Ages + + "With grisly sound off go the great guns + And heartily they crash in all at once, + And from the top down come the great stones; + In goes the grapnel so full of crooks, + Among the ropes run the shearing hooks; + And with the pole-axe presses one the other; + Behind the mast begins one to take cover + And out again, and overboard he driveth + His foe, whose side his spear-head riveth. + He rends the sail with hooks just like a scythe; + He brings the cup, and bids his mate be blithe; + He showers hard peas to make the hatches slippery. + With pots full of lime they rush together; + And thus the live-long day in fight they spend." + Description of a mediæval sea fight, _Legend of Good Women_ + (modernized), fifteenth century. + + +WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, like Cortez, the discoverer of Mexico at a later +date, dispelled any thoughts of retreat that might have been lurking in +the minds of his followers by destroying the ships which had brought +them over. He had come to stay. Now the Normans, though of the same +blood as the seafaring Vikings, who had sailed and fought their +Dragon-ships to the very ends of the known earth, had been so long +settled in France that they had adopted not only the French language, +but French ideas, which were not, generally speaking, of a nautical +nature. + +Among these was the system of feudalism and knight-service. The very +word for knight--_chevalier_ in French--signified a horseman; and the +Norman and other feudal knights of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, +and fourteenth centuries looked at war and politics from the point of +view of a cavalier armed cap-à-pie seated in his war-saddle. As for +ships and sailors, they were merely unpleasant means to necessary +ends.[4] But if one wanted to go to fight and plunder and raid across +Channel he had to submit himself and his followers to the cramped +accommodation of a vessel of some kind, and to the care of the rough +shipmaster and his crew--low but necessary persons, in the eyes of the +mediæval knight, just as were the experienced "tarpawlins" in the +estimate of the scented "gentleman-captains" in the days of the +Restoration. So it came about that for some centuries England had no +Royal Navy. + +The king and his principal nobles had at times a few galleys or +sailing-vessels of their own--almost, if not entirely, their personal +property--and these they made use of for purposes of transportation or +fighting when required; but during this period the maritime defence of +the realm was carried out--on the whole inefficiently--on the hire +system. The money for this purpose was forthcoming, since William +revived a tax for defence purposes, called the "Heregeld", which had +been not long before abolished by Edward the Confessor, on the pretext +that by it "the people were manifoldly distressed". Had he not listened +to the "little navyites" of his day, perhaps the Norman Invasion would +not have succeeded. In addition to this, William placed the five +principal ports commanding the narrowest part of the Channel on a +special footing, under which, in return for certain privileges, they +were to supply him or his successors with a fleet of fifty-two ships in +cases of emergency. They could only be retained for fifteen days, +however. These ports--Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich--were +then, and for ever afterwards known as the "Cinque Ports", though Dover +is the only one which can still be regarded as a port at all. Rye, +Winchelsea, and Pevensey also became "Cinque Ports" later on. + +William's idea with regard to the Cinque Ports was probably not so much +the general defence of the kingdom as the defence of his communications +with Normandy. With their assistance he could be sure of always being +able to move troops either way across Channel as his exigencies +required. Thus, when in 1083 William, who was then in Normandy, heard +rumours of the intention of the Kings of Denmark and Norway and the +Count of Flanders to invade England with a great fleet, he hurried +over-Channel with so great an army that "men wondered how this land +could feed all that force". Without the assistance of the Cinque Ports +he might have had some difficulty in doing this. + +Although we really know a great deal about the ships of the Saxon and +Danish periods of our history, we know comparatively little about those +which were built between the Conquest and the accession of Henry VII. +For, while we have had specimens of the actual Viking ships to work +upon, we have for this long period, of over 400 years, little +information beyond that afforded by the seals of maritime towns, the +ships depicted by monkish chroniclers and romancists in their +illuminated manuscripts, and in a few cases old stained-glass windows +and decorative carvings. + +Now, to begin with, it is obvious that in each of these cases the artist +was cramped for space. He had to decide between the calls of accuracy +and of decorative effect, and almost invariably he gave way to the +latter. + +In seals, especially, he was tempted to make the curves of the ship's +hull run parallel to the circumference of the seal. In that which +belonged to the master of the _Sainte Catherine de Cayeux_, which fought +at Sluys in 1340, the exterior curve of the hull of the ship represented +upon it is really concentric with the seal itself. In almost every other +case--up to the fifteenth century at any rate--the hulls of the ships +shown on seals of this description approximate to this shape, and, +generally speaking, are of crescent form, with fighting-stages or +"castles" at the bow and stern. There are a few exceptions, which are +more likely to be correct, as their designers evidently made up their +minds not to be led away from the truth. + +In the rather fascinating pictures that appear in mediæval manuscripts, +too, the monkish artists had to work in a small space, in which they +wanted to put a great deal of ornamental and other detail. They probably +knew little or nothing about nautical affairs into the bargain. In the +result their ships present the same crescent-shaped hulls as those in +the seals of the period, and give the impression of being very small +affairs indeed, thanks to the large-sized nobles and men-at-arms with +which they are densely packed. + +[Illustration: Seal of Demizel, master of the barque _Sainte Catherine +de Cayeux_, 1340 + +(From _Histoire de la Marine Française_, by kind permission of the +author, Monsieur C. de la Ronière.) + +An example of the impossible ship. Note how the engraver has made the +keel exactly parallel to the circumference of the seal. It makes a +handsome and effective seal, but can hardly be accepted as a picture of +a ship of 1340.] + +The reason of this quaint method of representing ships and their crews +or passengers is not far to seek. Who has not seen a child's first +attempts to draw the human face in profile? He outlines the forehead, +the nose, and chin, and puts in the back of the head easily and to his +own satisfaction. Then he pauses and deliberates. The eyes are what he +is puzzling over. He knows that, though everybody has one nose, one +forehead, and one chin, he has _two_ eyes. What about them? He may think +that one eye looks most suitable, but still he doesn't like to leave the +other one out. So, as often as not, he puts in a couple, one about the +right place and the other somewhere towards the back of the head. + +[Illustration: Wreck of the White Ship, 1120 + +Another example of the impossible-ship picture. There were said to be +300 souls on board! Observe the rudder, which proves the date of the +original drawing to be much later than 1120--probably 100 or 150 years.] + +The tonsured artist argued very much on the same lines. If he painted a +ship it was not a picture of a special ship. What he wanted to portray +was the saint or hero of his manuscript--very often Alexander the +Great--on a voyage or crossing a river. If he drew him on the same scale +as his vessel he would be a mere dot or blob of paint. He wanted to show +his face, his armour, robes, crown, halo, or what-not. So, though he +could not help knowing that it was inaccurate, he drew him--and, +generally speaking, his companions--on a scale about 500 per cent larger +than that of the ship in which he was depicted as performing a most +cramped and uncomfortable voyage. + +We must not therefore accept these brilliantly coloured works of art as +corroborative of the accuracy of the figures of ships appearing on the +seals of Dover, Yarmouth, Poole, and other English and foreign ports, +and in the fifteenth century of various noblemen who held the +appointment of Admiral of England or France. But there are, +nevertheless, a great many useful details to be learned from these +sources of information. From seals we can trace the gradual evolution of +the poop and forecastle from the early platforms or fighting-stages, the +supersession of the steering-oar or "steer-board" by the rudder, the +beginning of cabins, the progress of fighting-tops and action aloft. We +see, too, the mode of wearing banners, streamers, and flags, and gain +some idea of the gradual growth of sail-power, which culminated, we may +say, in the sailing battleship of Trafalgar days. + +If we consider the question of mediæval shipbuilding as a whole, we +shall find it difficult to believe that the scientific methods of +construction which distinguished the Viking ships, and the improvements +on them which were made by Alfred the Great, had all been forgotten and +thrown on one side, and that these fine specimens of the shipbuilder's +art had been replaced by anything like the ridiculous little "cocked +hats" that are supposed to represent the shipping of the British and +other Northern nations between 1066 and 1450. + +The sea-going ships of these peoples, intended especially for sailing, +would naturally be considerably shorter and broader in the beam than the +Viking class of ship, which relied principally on oars for propulsion, +and was rather too long and narrow to sail well under ordinary +conditions of weather. Moreover, though they carried a single sail, they +were not intended to contend with heavy winter weather. + +We have a description of the _Mont-Joie_, in which Louis IX of France +sailed on his last crusade. She was built at Genoa, which then and for +long after shared with Venice the distinction of being the birthplace of +the largest and finest ships in the world. She is worth describing, for +she was one of the precursors of the big Spanish and Genoese carracks +that our fleets encountered off the coasts of France and Flanders from +time to time during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and which +stimulated us to buy or build big ships of our own. + +The _Mont-Joie_ was 80 feet long on the keel, but over all, measuring +from the extremity of the forecastle to the highest point of the stern, +she had a length of 120 feet. She is said to have been 26 feet deep +amidships. Twelve feet above the keel was a deck running from right +forward to right aft. Below this was the hold, where lay the ballast, +and in which were stowed water, provisions, and various war materials. +Six feet above the lower deck was another similar deck, which we may +call the upper deck, while above this again a gallery or gangway, six or +seven feet wide, ran along each side of the ship, between the fore and +after castles. The ship's side rose 3-1/2 feet above these fore and aft +bridges and was pierced with loopholes for archery. In action the +bulwarks would be heightened and further protected by shields or +_pavises_.[5] Below the upper deck, aft, was situated the "paradis" +(chambre de parade), or state cabin, which in this case was, of course, +occupied by St. Louis himself. + +There was other accommodation provided forward for the rest of the +_Mont-Joie's_ passengers, with the exception of the Queen, who occupied +another "paradis" on the upper deck, immediately over the King's. These +cabins were lighted by ports or scuttles cut in the sides of the ship. +Forward there was further shelter provided under the forecastle, and +both it and the after part of the ship were surmounted by a +_bellatorium_, or fighting-platform, with bulwarks 4 feet in height. The +ship was equipped with two tall masts raking forward and carrying large +lateen sails. At the summit of each was a _gabie_ or fighting-top. +Altogether it will be seen at once that here was a real sea-going ship, +very different from the open boats, manned by giants, of the seals and +manuscripts illustrations. + +It is not always easy to convey the impression of size by mere figures, +but if we bear in mind that the famous old _Victory_, now lying in +Portsmouth Harbour, and which many of us have seen at least once, is +only about twice the length of those thirteenth-century ships, we shall +be able to form some idea of their not unimportant dimensions. + +Many of the mediæval ships were most gorgeously painted and decorated. +When the French king Charles VI fitted out a great naval armament at +Sluys, in 1386, for the invasion of England--which did not come off, by +the way--Froissart tells us that "gold and silver were no more spared +than though it had rained out of the clouds or been scooped out of the +sea". One young noble covered his mast with gold-leaf. "They made +banners, pennons, and standards of silk, so goodly that it was marvel to +behold them; also they painted the masts of their ships from the one end +to the other, glittering with gold and devices and arms: and specially +it was shewed me", says old Froissart, "that the Lord Guy de la +Tremouille garnished his ship richly; the paintings that were made cost +more than ten thousand francs. Whatsoever any lord could devise for +their pleasure was made on the ships: and the poor people of the realm +paid for all; for the taxes were so great, to furnish this voyage, that +they which were most rich sorrowed for it, and the poor fled for it." + +Our own Henry V had rather "loud" tastes in his ship decoration. In the +year 1400 he had a ship painted red, decorated with collars and garters +of gold surrounding fleur-de-lis and leopards, as well as gilded leashes +looped round white greyhounds with golden collars. All these were +selections from the royal badges. Her mast was red also. The _Good Pace +of the Tower_[6] was red too, but her upper works and stern were of a +different colour, and she carried a gilded eagle with a crown in its +mouth on her bowsprit. + +The _Trinity of the Tower_ was another red ship, elaborately adorned +with coats of arms, while the _Nicholas of the Tower_ was black, +"powdered" with "Prince of Wales's Feathers", with quills and scrolls in +gold. The King's own particular ship, the "cog" _John_, carried the +royal crest, "the Lion standing on the Crown", at her masthead, besides +other decorations. The Genoese in 1242 painted their war-ships white, +spotted all over with red crosses, so Henry perhaps only followed the +fashion after all; but, generally speaking, red was the favourite +colour, though black at times ran it pretty close in favour as +groundwork for various patterns of ornamentation. + +But the continually growing decoration in the way of flags, standards, +pennons, and streamers must by no means be overlooked. They were, +perhaps, the most striking characteristic of the mediæval war-ship. + +The standard or pennon of the owner or commander of the ship--and it +must be remembered that he was in those days not a seaman, but always a +soldier--was planted at the foremost corner of the poop or after-castle, +on the starboard side. A ship called after a saint would have, in +addition, the banner of that saint, and in the case of the Cinque Ports +we may be sure that their arms, "three lions with half a galley in place +of tail and hind legs", were displayed on some portion of the vessel. In +royal ships there were other banners with the various royal badges, and +there were hosts of streamers, pendants, and guidons as well. When fully +"dressed", with all her flags flying, the mediæval war-ship must have +made a brave display. Galleys, in addition, had a small staff with a +pendant attached to the loom of every oar on such occasions. + +[Illustration: Fifteenth-century Ship + +(_From a painting by Carpaccio_) + +Observe the capacious hull, the heavy mast, the way the sail is made +fast in the middle as well as by the sheets at the corners, the crane +for hoisting missiles to the top, and the darts ranged round it; also +the way the main-yard is spliced in the middle.] + +Nor must we overlook the ornamental nature of the sails in the times of +which we are writing. It was no uncommon thing for the whole of the big +square mainsail of a "cog" to be decorated with the arms of her owner. +This is clearly shown in the well-known manuscript _Life of the Earl of +Warwick_, by John Rous. Generally sails, often themselves of the +richest colouring and material, were adorned with badges or devices, but +sometimes merely with stripes of different colours. Colour ran riot in +the war-vessels of our mediæval ancestors--how different from the sombre +grey war-paint of our modern Leviathans! + +[Illustration: Ship of the latter half of the Fifteenth Century (_From +an illuminated MS. of 1480_) + +Note the diminutive figure-head, the two shields amidships--probably +placed there for decorative purposes, as the ship appears to be +"dressed" with many pennons and streamers. The smallness of the tops is +unusual, also the square port-hole and the double-gabled cabin.] + +The end of the fifteenth century saw the development of the carrack into +the caravel, such a ship as the _Sancta Maria_, in which Columbus sailed +to the West Indies in 1492. As her original plans were found in the +dockyard at Cadiz, and a replica of the famous original was built from +them by Spanish workmen in the arsenal of Carracas in 1892 for the +Chicago Exhibition, which took place in the following year, we know +exactly what she was like. She was just over 60 feet long on her keel, +and had a length over all of 93 feet, with a beam of nearly 6 feet. She +had a displacement of 233 tons when fully laden and equipped. She had +three masts, but only the mainmast had a top-sail. The mizzen carried a +lateen sail. She was considerably smaller than many ships of her day, +but in general appearance and rig she approximated to the smaller ships +of the Elizabethan epoch, and she and her class may well be considered +as forming a connecting-link between the old single-masted "round ships" +and the square-rigged, many-gunned line-of-battleship, which from the +time of Henry VIII to Queen Victoria formed the mainstay of our battle +fleets. There were, of course, many developments and improvements during +this long period, but the type persisted throughout, just as did that of +the modified Viking ship in mediæval ages. + +So much for the ships of the Middle Ages. But before we go on to take +stock of their crews it will be as well to attempt some description of +the way they were fought. Nowadays the ship armed with the heaviest and +longest-ranged guns--if her gunners know their work--seems to be able to +"knock out" a slightly less powerfully gunned opponent before she can +get in any effective reply. The present war has given us many +illustrations of this fact. The _Scharnhorst_--a crack gunnery +ship--with her heavier broadside, was able to sink the _Good Hope_ with +little or no damage to herself, and in her turn she was simply +demolished by the heavy guns of the _Inflexible_ and the _Invincible_ +off the Falkland Islands. + +But in the Middle Ages there was nothing like this. All decisive +fighting was practically hand to hand and man to man, except for the use +of the ram by galleys and the exchange of arrows and stones at +comparatively close quarters. But victory was only achieved, as a +general rule, when the enemy's ship was boarded and her crew defeated +in a bloody tussle, at the end of which no one but the victors remained +alive, unless, perhaps, some knight or noble who was worth preserving +for the value of his ransom. The military portion of the crew, the +archers, men-at-arms, and their knightly leaders, carried the usual arms +of their day. The seamen, who were in the minority, probably used +knives, short swords, and spears, and made themselves very useful in +hurling big stones, heavy javelins called "viretons", unslaked lime, and +other disagreeable missiles from the "top-castles" at the head of the +mast or masts. + +We have already mentioned the fore and after fighting-stages, or, as +they later on became, poops and forecastles, that were erected when a +ship was going on the war-path. We may note, in passing, that in the +earlier part of the period we are dealing with, these were so often and +so generally required that "castle-building" afloat became a recognized +trade, until, in the process of evolution, poops and forecastles became +integral parts of the ship. + +We may add that, in addition to the fore and after fighting-platforms, +special fighting-towers were not infrequently erected, certainly in the +Mediterranean, and we may therefore assume that they were not altogether +unknown in Northern waters. These towers were generally built up round +the mast, and provided with loopholes and battlements, and sometimes +protected by iron plates or raw hides. + +One account of mediæval war-galleys states that in some cases "a castle +was erected of the width of the ship and some twenty feet in length; its +platform being elevated sufficiently to allow of free passage under it +and over the benches". King John introduced the famous Genoese +cross-bowmen--who so signally failed to distinguish themselves at +Crécy--into his navy. The reason most probably was that a cross-bow +could be fired through a loophole by a man crouching under cover of the +bulwarks or shield-row, whereas a long-bow could not be used in this +way. Nevertheless the cross-bow did not succeed in ousting the long-bow +in the British Navy, since, in 1456, in the course of a public +disputation between the heralds of England and France as to the claim of +the former country to the domination of the sea, the French herald +claimed for his countrymen that they were more formidable afloat because +they used the cross-bow. "Our arbalistiers", he asserted, "fire under +cover or from the shelter of the fore and after castles; through little +loopholes they strike their opponents without danger of being wounded +themselves. Your English archers, on the other hand, cannot let fly +their arrows except above-board and standing clear of cover; fear and +the motion of the ship is likely to distract their aim." But there does +not seem to have been much "fear" among the English archers, and as +those that were in the habit of serving afloat doubtless had their +"sea-legs", it must have taken a good deal to disconcert their aim, +world-renowned for its deadliness. + +Still, as we shall see in a later chapter, the cross-bow was a most +formidable weapon afloat, and the French herald's argument was a sound +one. In the place of artillery the ships of the earlier Middle Ages were +provided with mangonels, trebuchets, espringalds and other mechanical +instruments for hurling heavy projectiles, which, according to some +authorities, were made or imported as the result of the experiences of +Richard I and his crusading companions in the Mediterranean. Personally, +I should say that they had been known long before that time. A +contemporary chronicle of the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885-7 +mentions that, to cover the Danish stormers, "thousands of leaden balls, +scattered like a thick hail in the air, fall upon the city, and powerful +_catapults_ thunder upon the forts which defend the bridge". The +knowledge of the heavy war-machines of the Ancients had never died out. +The catapult was the old Roman onager, and consisted of a long arm or +beam, of which one end was thrust through the middle of a +tightly-twisted bundle of hair-ropes, fibres, or sinews stretched across +a solid frame. At the other end was either a sling or a spoon-shaped +receptacle for the projectile. This end was drawn back by means of +levers and winches against the twist of the bundle of sinews and held by +a catch. On the catch being released, by pulling on a lanyard attached +to a trigger, the long end of the beam was forced violently forward till +it struck against a strongly-supported transverse baulk of timber +arranged for the purpose. When this occurred the huge stone or other +projectile flew on through the air and struck its target with tremendous +force. + +The trebuchet and the mangonel were very like the Roman ballista, and +acted much in the same way as the catapult, except that the motive force +was the fall of a heavy counterweight instead of tension. The springald, +or espringald, was a large-sized steel cross-bow, mounted on a pivot, +hurling heavy iron darts, with great force, which had considerable +penetration. In the battle of Zierksee (1304) one of these heavy +"garots", as they were called, struck the _Orgueileuse_ of Bruges with +such violence that it not only pierced the bulwarks of the forecastle, +but took off the arm of one of the trumpeters who were sounding their +silver trumpets, transfixed another, and finally embedded itself in the +after castle. + +One of the most formidable missiles hurled by the mangonels and such +machines was the famous Greek fire, knowledge of which had been brought +to Europe from the Crusades. Sometimes it was projected through +"siphons" or tubes, of which no exact knowledge has come down to us. But +it seems to have ignited the moment it came in contact with the air, and +was spouted forth with the violence of water from a fire-hose. It +destroyed everything that came in its way, and was inextinguishable by +water. It could only be smothered by plenty of earth or sand, a material +not generally available at sea. The mangonels threw it in barrels. + +"This was the fashion of the Greek Fire," says De Joinville, the +historian of Louis IX's first Crusade. "It came on as broad in front as +a vinegar cask, and the tail of fire that trailed behind it was as big +as a great spear; and it made such a noise as it came, that it sounded +like the thunder of Heaven. It looked like a dragon in the air. Such a +bright light did it cast, that one could see all over the camp as though +it was day, by reason of the great mass of fire and the brilliance of +the light that it shed. Thrice that night they hurled the Greek Fire at +us, and four times shot it from the tourniquet[7] cross-bow. Every time +that our holy King (St. Louis) heard that they were throwing Greek Fire +at us, he draped his sheet round him, and stretched out his hands to our +Lord, and said, weeping: 'Oh! fair Lord God, protect my people!'" Such +was the terror inspired by this fearful mixture, whose chief ingredient +is supposed to have been naphtha. It does not, however, appear to have +been used to any considerable extent in Western Europe. + +In the latter half of the period we are dealing with, cannon--big, +little, and middle-sized--quite superseded the mangonel and other +mechanical projectile-throwers. Few large guns were carried, and those +mostly fixed rigidly on timber beds and fired over the ship's +side--hence the term "gunwale", which we still use in boats, a "wale" +meaning a band of timber. Small breech-loading guns were mounted in +considerable numbers in the fore and after castles, some of these, +generally known as "murderers", being mounted inboard in such a way as +to fire at close quarters on any boarding-parties of the enemy who might +succeed in gaining possession of the waist of the ship. Others were +mounted aloft in the tops, just as they were in our own days until the +tops were required for fire-control platforms. But I propose to give the +quaint ancestors of our modern monster cannon and rapid-fire guns a +chapter to themselves later on. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] "No doubt the noblemen of France prefer land to sea warfare, so hard +and so little in accord with nobility ", stated a French Herald in 1456. + +[5] Pavises, plural of Pavois. The "Pavois", or "Pavise" as it was +generally termed in English, was a big round-topped shield like a +tombstone. It was set up with a prop on shore or fastened to a ship's +bulwarks, either on going into action or as a decoration. This is why to +this day a French man-of-war when "dressed" with all her colours at a +review, for instance, is said to be "_en grand pavois_". + +[6] "Of the Tower": this signifies that she was a royal ship, like +"H.M.S." of to-day. + +[7] A strong bow that needed a tourniquet or winch to draw it back. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Mariners of Other Days + + "A shipman was ther ... + All in a gown of faulding[8] to the knee, + A dagger hanging by a lace had he + About his neck under his arm adown; + The hot summer had made his hue all brown: + And certainly he was a good fellow; + Full many a draught of wine had he drawn + From Bordeaux-ward, while that the chapmen[9] sleep; + Of nice conscience took he no keep. + If that he fought and had the higher hand, + By water he sent them home to every land.[10] + + . . . . . . . . . . + + He knew well all the havens as they were + From Gothland to the Cape of Finisterre, + And every creek in Bretagne and in Spain: + His barge ycleped[11] was the _Magdelaine_." + CHAUCER, _Canterbury Tales_. + + +WE have yet to give some descriptions of one or two actual battles, but +I think we will commence by trying to picture the seamen themselves. + +What were these old "matlows"[12] like, and how were they raised? The +second question is easily answered. As Lord Haldane has stated, +compulsory service was never foreign to the English laws and +constitution. But we may observe that it has never been carried out in +the fair and impartial manner which is now universal on the Continent of +Europe, where "duke's son, cook's son", and everybody else has to serve +his country alike. No; ours has always been a kind of bullying system or +want of system. + +In the old days of the Cinque Ports, if more ships were required than +they had to provide, their ships were just sent out to "commandeer" any +suitable craft they could lay hands on. So with men. Certain places and +counties had to provide a regulated quota of soldiers or sailors, or +both. If they were voluntarily forthcoming, well and good; if not, the +magistrates, the port-reeves, or bayliffs had authority to take as many +as they required to make up the number by force, and made no bones about +doing so. So while Jones got off free, Brown and Robinson were pressed. +But it was all a matter of luck--at any rate ostensibly. That was the +hardship of it, not only then, but in the later "press-gang days". + +But, once caught, the mediæval seaman had little to complain of in the +way of pay. That, no doubt, made up for a good deal of severe +discomfort. A mariner or seaman in 1277 got 3_d._ a day--a penny more +than an ordinary soldier[13]--and in 1370 it was raised to 4_d._ Now, if +we bear in mind that it has been estimated that money at that time was +worth something like fourteen times what it is to-day, we must admit +that the seaman did not do so badly. The master of the ship at this time +was called the "rector", and received 6_d._ a day, while his second in +command got the same amount. There were no admirals then, but the senior +sea officer of the fleet was termed "captain" and paid 12_d._ per diem. +The knight who was in actual military command of a warship would draw +2_s._ a day if he was paid the same rate afloat as ashore. + +Whether there was a regular scale of provisioning before John Redynge +was appointed "Clerk of the Spicery" in 1496, to look after the +victualling of both army and navy, I am unable to say, but it appears +that the usual "sea-stock" laid in for a voyage in mediæval times +consisted of bacon, salt meat, "Poor John" or salted herrings, flour, +eggs, and poultry. + +We have little information as to the personality, manners, and customs +of the seamen of mediæval ages. In the earlier period they were pretty +certainly more of the long-shore or fisherman class than deep-sea +sailors. When not engaged in legitimate trading or warfare they +generally took a hand at rank piracy. There was a saying about them that +the British sailors were "good seamen, but better pirates"! Even the +Cinque Ports, which provided the nearest approach to a national navy, +achieved a most scandalous notoriety in this respect. But at the same +time there is no doubt that the Normans, Basques, Flemings, French, and +other seafarers were just as bad, though perhaps not quite so expert. It +was the fashion afloat in those days. + +We may gather some small idea of what seamen and sea-going were like in +the Middle Ages from the pen of one Brother Felix Fabri, a Dominican of +Ulm, who went from Venice to Jerusalem somewhere about 1480. Space +forbids as long an extract as could be wished, for his experiences are +both interesting and amusing. The seamen with whom he came in contact +were not Englishmen, but "sea ways" are generally much the same all over +the world. He and his fellow pilgrims chose their berths before +starting, and had their names chalked over them. He gives many warnings, +which those of us who have been to sea can well appreciate. To the +would-be traveller he says: "Let him not sit on any ropes, lest the wind +change of a sudden and he be thrown overboard". And "Let him beware of +getting in the way of the crew, for however noble he may be, nay, were +he a bishop, they will push against him and trample on him". "He should +also be cautious where he sits down, lest he stick to his seat, for +every place is covered with pitch, which becomes soft in the heat of the +sun". Inadvertently to "steal the commander's paint" is a mishap which +may easily overtake the unwary on board His Majesty's ships in these +latter days. + +The chronicler explains that the captain's authority is absolute; though +ignorant of navigation, he commands what course the ship will take. He +has under him a master-at-arms, a "caliph" or "ship's husband", and a +"cometa" or "mate", who sets the crew in motion--like the commander +in a modern man-of-war. "The mate's subordinates", says Brother Felix, +"fear him as they would fear the devil." The crew--bar the wretched +slaves who worked the oars, and of whose tortures "he shuddered to +think"--consisted of "compani", nine in number, who were employed on all +dangerous work aloft, and others termed "mariners", who, according to +him, "sing while work is being carried on to those who do it". This +sounds like a "soft job", but the "mariners" probably may be classed +with the so-called "idlers" in our war-ships, who are anything but idle. +There was a "scribe", with the duties of the purser on a mail steamer of +our day, who "arranges disputes about berths, makes men pay their +passage-money, and has many duties. He is, as a rule, hated by all +alike." We must not omit mention of the pilot, or navigating officer, +with whom were associated "certain cunning men, astrologers and +soothsayers, who watch the signs of the stars and the sky". They have a +chart, "an ell long and an ell broad, whereon the whole sea is drawn +with thousands of lines". One of them was always on duty, watching the +compass and chanting "a kind of sweet song, which shows that all is +going well, and in the same tone he chants to him that holdeth the +tiller of the rudder, to which quarter it ought to be moved". + +The mention of "astrologers and soothsayers" reminds us that sailors +have always had the reputation of being exceptionally superstitious. I +doubt if this is still true--at any rate as regards the Royal Navy. Take +the proverbial bad luck of sailing on a Friday. My own sea experience, +which goes back for a good many years, is that Friday was a very +favourite day for going to sea. We often left harbour on Fridays. I +think it was because on Saturday we got a good clear day for cleaning up +the ship, then came Sunday--a quiet day--so that everything and +everybody was nicely settled down by Monday morning, and we could start +fair on the weekly routine. + +But from what we know of life in the Middle Ages it would have been +indeed strange if seamen had _not_ been superstitious. The wonders and +dangers of the deep were very real and close in those days of cogs and +galleys--veritably mere specks on the ocean. It is to be feared that +seamen of later ages had not the same dread of going to sea in debt as +De Joinville the Crusader,[14] or the expression "to pay with the +fore-topsail" would never have arisen. Like Chaucer's seaman, some of +them "of nice conscience took ... no keep", and were very glad to escape +their creditors by hoisting sail and putting to sea. + +"Sailors have ever been superstitious," says a French writer on the +Middle Ages;[15] "their credulous brains are the parents of all the +fantastic beings and animals that they persuade themselves that they +have seen in their wanderings, and with which they have peopled the +mysterious depths of the ocean. The syrens of antiquity, the monsters of +Scylla and Charybdis, have been far surpassed by modern legendary +creations, such as the 'Kraken', a gigantic mass of pulp which attacked +and dragged down the largest ships; the 'Bishop Fish', which, mitre on +head, blessed and then devoured shipwrecked mariners; the 'Black Hand', +which, even in the days of Columbus, was despicted as marking the +entrance to the 'Sunless Ocean'; and the numerous troops of hideous +demons, one of whom, in the sight of the whole French Fleet of +Crusaders, on their way to attack the Island of Mitylene, in the reign +of Louis XII, clutched and swallowed up a profligate sailor who had +'blasphemed and defied the Holy Virgin'." + +Strange to say, the St. Elmo's light, or "corposant", was regarded as a +heaven-sent vision prognosticating favour and protection. Knowing +nothing of electricity, and being unaware that the gradual collection of +the electric fluid into the weird luminous balls of light which, during +thunderstorms, sometimes collect at mast-head or yard-arm, is supposed +to render the ship less likely to be struck by lightning, one cannot +help thinking it remarkable that this phenomenon, which certainly has +quite a supernatural appearance, did not inspire more terror than +confidence in the seamen of the Middle Ages. I remember two "corposants" +appearing at the fore-top-mast head and at the yard-arm on board the old +_Nelson_ in a storm of thunder and wind, off the Australian coast. They +remained--occasionally shifting their position a little--for some +considerable time. + +It was doubtless something of this kind which William, Earl of +Salisbury, saw one night, in a hard gale of wind, on his way back from +the Holy Land in 1222. The storm was so fierce that he gave up hope of +life, and threw his money and richest apparel overboard. Suddenly, when +the tempest was at its height, all hands saw "a mighty taper of wax +burning brightly at the prow". They also thought they saw the figure of +a celestial being standing beside it, screening it from the wind. The +ship's company were at once reassured of ultimate safety, but the Earl +was the most confident of all, because he felt certain that he was being +repaid for his piety at the time of his initiation into the honour of +knighthood, on which occasion he had brought a taper to the altar, and +arranged for it to be lighted every day in honour of the Holy Virgin. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] A coarse woollen stuff. + +[9] Innkeepers. + +[10] Threw the enemy's survivors overboard and drowned them. + +[11] Called. + +[12] At one time the "British Blue" was rather fond of calling himself a +"matlow" or "matlo", though it is said the custom is falling into +disuse. It has been stated that it dates from the old comradeship of +French and English in the Crimean War. The French word _matelot_, by the +way, is derived from _matelas_, a mattress. Before hammocks, two men +used a mattress in turn, one being always on watch. + +[13] I say "ordinary" advisedly, as an archer got 3_d._ a day in 1346 +and probably earlier. + +[14] "Hereby would I shew you how foolhardy is he who adventures himself +in such peril, if he be in debt to any man, or is in deadly sin; for one +goes to sleep at night never knowing whether one will awake at the +bottom of the sea." + +[15] Paul Lacroix. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Some Mediæval Sea-fights + + "The King's own galley, he called it _Trenchthemer_ + That was first on way, and came the ship full near. + . . . . . . . . . . . + The ship cast hooks out, the galley to them to draw; + The King stood full stoutly, and many of them slew; + Wild-fire they cast, the King to confound; + . . . . . . . . . . . + The King abased him not but stalwartly fought. + . . . . . . . . . . . + The ship that was so great, it foundered in the flood; + They counted fifteen hundred Saracens that drownèd were, + Forty and six were selected, and were all that were saved there. + The sum could no man tell of gold that was therein + And other riches to sell, but all they might not win. + . . . . . . . . . . . + It sank soon in the sea, half might they not get. + Richard bade, 'Haul up your sails, may God us lead, + Our men at Acre lie, of help they have great need.'" + PETER OF LANGTOFT (modernized), thirteenth-century poem. + + +ONE of the most interesting episodes of mediæval war afloat was the +sinking of the great Turkish _Dromon_, off Beyrout, by King Richard I. +After having effected the junction of his fleets off Messina, he had +gone on to Cyprus, where fighting, and other matters with which we need +not concern ourselves, had delayed him for some time. At length he and +his "busses"[16] and galleys set out for Acre. The following day--6th +June, 1191--the British fleet made the Syrian coast, near the Castle of +Margat, and continued their way, pretty close under the land, for the +town of Acre. About noon the day following, when near Beyrout, it was +reported to the King, who led the fleet in his galley _Trench-the-Mer_, +that an enormous ship was in sight. None of the English had ever seen +such a leviathan. "A marvellous ship," says an old chronicler, "a ship +than which, except Noah's ship, none greater was ever read of--the Queen +of Ships!" It was a fine and beautiful summer morning, with but little +wind. The strange ship showed no distinguishing colours, and was putting +on as much sail as she possibly could; but she made little, if any, way +at all: + + "The weather was full soft, the wind held them still, + The sail was high aloft, they had no wind at will", + +to quote an ancient poem dealing with the fight that ensued. The big +ship was of great bulk, painted green on one side and yellow on the +other, probably to render her inconspicuous against either a sandy or a +green background, or at sea, when her green side was towards the enemy. +But in spite of this curious colouring she is said to have presented a +very beautiful appearance, and her decoration was considered "very +elegant". + +The vessel is stated to have carried 1500 men--an enormous +complement--which included 7 Emirs and 80 chosen Turks, for the defence +of Acre. She was equipped with bows, arrows, and other weapons, many +jars filled with the dreaded Greek fire, and "200 most deadly serpents +prepared for the destruction of Christians". Most historians consider +that these "serpents" were some kind of firework used as a missile, +since "serpentine" was an early name for one of the smallest-sized +cannon. Personally, I do not see why we should not accept the word +"serpents" in its everyday meaning. The adjective "deadly" is +suggestive, and in one old account it is particularly stated that "the +200 serpents were _drowned_". There have been instances of hives of bees +being hurled as missiles from war-engines, so why not baskets of deadly +snakes? But it is more probable that these serpents--since none of them +were expended in the battle that took place--were intended to have been +introduced into the camps of the Crusaders after being landed at Acre. + +As soon as the big _Dromon_--as she is generally called by old +writers--was sighted, Richard dispatched Peter de Barris in his galley +to find out who she was. The word _Dromon_, by the way, was used at that +time to denote any exceptionally large ship; just as we use +"Dreadnought" in a similar way. But the actual and original meaning of +the word was not a big, but a fast, ship. The word is connected with +speed and racing, and is of Greek origin. We use it in its proper sense +now in hippodrome, velodrome, aerodrome, &c. + +As De Barris pulled alongside the _Dromon_, she showed the French king's +colours on a lance, and, on being hailed, stated that she was taking +French Crusaders to Acre. Further interrogated, another story was tried. +She was a Genoese, bound for Tyre. All this was suspicious enough, but +in the meantime one of the men in the King's ship announced that he +recognized her--he had seen her once at Beyrout--and was brought before +Richard. "I will give my head to be cut off, or myself to be hanged," +asserted this mariner, "if I do not prove that this is a Saracen ship. +Let a galley be sent after them, and give them no salutation; their +intention and trustworthiness will then be discovered." Richard adopted +the suggestion. Another galley shot out from the fleet and surged up +alongside the towering _Dromon_. There was no mistake this time. Down +came whistling flights of arrows, while pots of Greek fire crashed into +flame as they struck the galley. Off dashed Richard in the +_Trench-the-Mer_ to the rescue. "Follow me, and take them," he cried to +the other galleys, "for if they escape, ye lose my love for ever; and if +ye capture them all their goods shall be yours!" The Turk could not get +away, she was practically becalmed, and the oar-propelled galleys of the +Crusaders closed around her. + +But the assailants were in the same predicament as were the Romans when +they attacked the lofty ships of the Veneti. The sides of the _Dromon_ +towered far over their heads, and do what they would they could not get +on board her. The Turks had thrown a grapnel and made fast to the King's +galley at the very beginning of the fight. Greek fire and missiles of +all kinds rained upon the heads of the English, fully exposed on the +decks and benches of their low galleys. The apparent hopelessness of +their situation began to affect the efforts of the Crusaders. Richard +saw that "something must be done", and he rose to the occasion. + +"Will ye now suffer that ship to get off untouched and uninjured?" he +shouted. "Oh, shame! after so many triumphs do ye now give way to sloth +and fear? Know that if this ship escape, every one of you shall be hung +on the cross or put to extreme torture!" + +That was _his_ way of bestowing the cross--a wooden one, not an "iron" +one! But it had its effect. The galley-men dived overboard, and, +fastening ropes to the enemy's rudder, "steered her as they pleased". It +is rather difficult to understand the precise advantage gained by his +manoeuvre, unless the wind had sprung up and the big Turkish vessel was +gathering a good deal of way and dragging the whole press of galleys +along with her, and that many were in danger of being swamped. However, +after this they were able to climb up her sides by means of ropes, and a +desperate hand-to-hand conflict took place on her decks. Here the +martial prowess of the Crusaders had full play. Wielding their heavy +trenchant swords, they drove the Saracens right forward into the bows of +the ship; but just when they thought victory was in their grasp, up came +a torrent of fresh assailants from below, and in such overwhelming +numbers that the boarders were hurled back into their galleys. + +Things were now very black indeed, but Richard once more showed his +generalship. He ordered the whole of his galleys to cut loose from their +elephantine enemy, to draw off and form line abreast with their bows +towards the foe. Then, at his signal, down went the long oars with a +great splash into the water, and, every rower putting his full strength +into his stroke, the galleys roared through the sea at the big yellow +and green _Dromon_. There was a series of rending crashes as the iron +beaks of the galleys struck her sides, like sword-fish attacking a +whale. The Crusaders backed their oars for all they knew, to get clear, +and, staggering and rolling to her doom, the huge Saracen gradually +foundered as the water poured in cataracts through the gaping holes in +her sides. Only fifty-five of her crew were saved, being men whom the +Crusaders considered would be useful to help them to make the military +engines, for which, it would seem, the Saracens were renowned. The +remainder who had escaped the swords of the English were "sent home by +water", according to the custom of Chaucer's "schipman" at a later date. +This cruel habit would seem to have died hard, for we find one of the +English captains in the Armada fight regretting that they had not "made +water-spaniels" of the crew of a captured Spaniard who were reported to +be short of provisions. + + * * * * * + +We will now forge right ahead through a couple of hundred years, and +take a glimpse at a sea-fight in the days of Richard II. The merchants +of Flanders, La Rochelle, and some other places had agreed to sail +together in considerable force for mutual protection to La Rochelle, in +order to buy wine and other merchandise. The English had wind of this +expedition and had every intention of catching them _en route_. But the +Flemings contrived to elude them and get safely to their destination. +There was nothing for it but to make another attempt, and cut them off +on their return journey. + +"The English navy", says Sir John Froissart, "lay at anchor before +Margate at the Thames mouth, toward Sandwich, abiding their adventure, +and specially abiding for the ships that were gone to La Rochelle; for +they thought they would shortly return. And so they did...." + +When he saw he would have to fight, Sir John de Bucq, the commander of +the Flemings, made ready his 700 cross-bowmen and his guns. + +"The English ships approached," continues Froissart, "and they had +certain galleys furnished with archers, and these came foremost rowing +with oars, and gave the first assault. The archers shot fiercely, and +lost much of their shot; for the Flemings covered them under the decks +and would not appear, but drave ever forward with the wind: and when +they were out of the English archer's shot, then they did let fly their +bolts from the cross-bows, wherewith they hurted many. + +"Then approached the great ships of England, the Earl of Arundel with +his company, and the Bishop of Norwich with his; and so the other lords. +They rushed in among the Flemings' ships, and them of La Rochelle: yet +the Flemings and cross-bows defended themselves right valiantly, for +their patron, Sir John de Bucq, did ever support them: he was in a great +strong ship, where he had three guns shooting so great stones, that +wheresoever they lighted they did great damage. And even as they fought +they drew little and little towards Flanders; and some little ships, +with their merchants, took the coasts of Flanders, and the low water, +and thereby saved them, for the great ships could not follow them. + +"Thus on the sea they had a hard battle, and ships broken and sunken on +both sides; for out of the tops they cast down great bars of iron, +sharpened so that they went through to the bottom. This was a hard +battle and well fought, for it endured three whole tides; and when the +day failed they withdrew from each other, and cast anchor, and there +rested all night, and there dressed their hurt men: and when the flood +came, they disanchored and drew up sails and returned again to battle. + +"With the Englishmen was Peter du Bois of Ghent, with certain archers +and mariners; he gave the Flemings much ado, for he had been a mariner, +therefore he knew the art of the sea, and he was sore displeased that +the Flemings and merchants endured so long. But always the Englishmen +won advantage of the Flemings, and so came between Blankenburgh and +Sluys, against Cadsand; there was the discomfiture, for the Flemings +were not succoured by any creature; and also at that time there were no +ships at Sluys, nor men of war.... By this discomfiture of Sir John de +Bucq, as he came from La Rochelle, the Englishmen had great profit, +specially of wine, for they had a nine thousand tuns of wine; whereby +wine was the dearer all the year after in Flanders, Holland, and +Brabant, and the better cheap in England, as it was reason. Such are the +chances of this world; if one hath damage another hath profit." + +There are one or two very interesting points in this account. One, of +course, is the fact that there were three guns mounted on John de Bucq's +ship, which evidently was exceptional at the time, or attention would +not have been so particularly drawn to them. Moreover, they were not +little guns, like those which were mounted in such numbers a few years +later, but of some size, since they fired "_great_ stones". But the most +noteworthy point that emerges from the story of the fight is that not +only were the cross-bowmen able to fire from under cover on the English +without exposing themselves, but their bows had actually outranged the +long-bows. Now we know that a long-bow in expert hands would kill at 400 +yards, so that the effective range of the cross-bow must have been +considerable. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] "_Bus_", "ships of the largest size, with triple sails". + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The Navy in Tudor Times + + "The various ships that were built of yore, + And above them all, and strangest of all + Towered the _Great Harry_, crank and tall, + Whose picture was hanging on the wall, + With bows and stern raised high in air, + And balconies hanging here and there, + And signal lanterns and flags afloat, + And eight round towers, like those that frown + From some old castle, looking down + Upon the drawbridge and the moat." + "The Building of the Ship." LONGFELLOW. + + +THE Tudor period, to which this chapter is devoted, is noteworthy as +witnessing the birth of the Royal Navy as a permanent national +institution. Though we have accounts--probably to a great extent +mythical--of the 3600 "very stout" ships of the Saxon King Edgar (A.D. +975), which are said to have been divided into three squadrons, cruising +on the north, east, and west coasts of Great Britain; though Edward III, +after the victory over the French at Sluys, was dubbed "King of the +Sea"; and though Henry V got together the most formidable navy of his +time, yet at none of these periods was there what we may term a navy of +the realm. Indeed, for the two years, August, 1447, to August, 1449, +there may be said to have been no navy at all, since during the whole of +this time only £8, 9_s._ 7_d._ was expended upon what we now regard as +our first line of defence. + +At the death of Henry V, in 1422, the "Little Navy" disease broke out +again, and nearly the whole of his fine fleet was sold. Things went from +bad to worse, till the disgust and uneasiness of the nation found +expression in a little work entitled _The Libel of English Policie_. The +author, who is supposed to have been Bishop Adam de Molyns, exhorted the +nation to "Keepe the Sea and namely the Narrow Sea", and also to secure +both Dover and Calais. "Where bene our shippes", says he, "where bene +our swerdes become?" He went on to point out how much our naval force +had deteriorated since the time when Edward III had caused the famous +Golden Noble to be struck, in which he is represented standing in a +ship, sword in hand and shield on arm, and thus referred to the +signification of the device: + + "Four things our Noble sheweth unto me: + King, Ship and Sword and Power of the Sea". + +That this appeal had some kind of effect is shown by the fact that in +1442 an order was issued "for to have upon the See continuelly, for the +sesons of the yere fro Candlimes to Martymesse, viii Shippes with +forstages; ye wiche Shippes, as it is thought, most have on with an +other eche of hem cl men. Item, every grete Shippe most have attendyng +opon hym a Barge and a Balynger." "Hym" strikes one, by the way, as a +curious way to refer to a ship. These vessels with "iiii Spynes", which +seem to have been what we might call dispatch vessels, were stationed, +one at Bristol, two at Dartmouth, two in the Thames, one at Hull, and +one at "the Newe Castell". The whole fleet combined was manned by 2160 +men. It was a poor affair, but still it was better than nothing. + +Then came the Wars of the Roses, which, naturally, diverted men's +thoughts from the navy. That Edward IV, when he had established himself +on the throne, had some idea of emulating the naval deeds of the third +Edward may be suspected from his having issued a gold noble, which was +evidently closely copied from the one we have already referred to. But +nothing much was done either by him or by his successor, Richard +Crookback, and it was left to Henry VII to reap the honour of being, to +some extent, the founder of the Royal Navy of which we are all so proud. +Though by some his son, "Bluff King Hal", may be regarded in this light, +on account of the very formidable fleet which he raised and organized +and the improvements which he is said to have made in its ships, yet I +think we must admit that Henry VII laid the foundation-stone upon which +his successor built. + +He depended greatly on hired merchantmen--we do not despise this method +of augmenting our navy even at the present day--but he resurrected the +Royal Fleet. Though it was but a very small one, of only about a dozen +ships, yet two of them, at any rate, were finer ships than any the +British Navy had before possessed. These were the _Regent_ and the +_Sovereign_. While we had neglected our shipbuilding, to carry on war +between ourselves, it had progressed abroad, especially in France, and +there is little doubt that the _Regent_, built on the River Rother, was +inspired by the French ship _Columbe_, which, perhaps, was the ship +which had brought Henry to England. The _Regent_ had four masts, the +_Sovereign_ three, and each of them was much more like some of the ships +we are familiar with in pictures of the Spanish Armada fight than the +old cogs of a few years previously, even in their most improved forms. +The armament of the _Regent_ consisted, it is said, of 225 +"serpentines". The number is formidable, but not the weapons themselves. +They were merely what might be called breech-loading wall-pieces, +corresponding to Chinese "jingalls", and firing balls weighing from 4 to +6 ounces. + +In a contemporary picture of the destruction of this ship in her action +with the _Marie la Cordelière_ in 1512, when both ships caught fire and +blew up, the _Regent_ is shown with very heavy guns firing through +port-holes. Port-holes, by the way, are said to have been invented by +Desharges, a Brest shipbuilder, in 1500. I am inclined to think that +they were known at an earlier date--possibly Desharges invented +port-_lids_. It is, of course, possible that these were cut in the +_Regent_ some time after her original construction, and heavier guns +mounted in place of some of her serpentines. According to some writers +this ship was originally christened the _Great Harry_, while the +_Sovereign_ was built out of the remains of an older ship called the +_Grace Dieu_. As a very large and renowned _Henri Grace à Dieu_ was +launched in 1514, there has been a considerable amount of confusion +between one ship and the other. But if the _Regent_ was called the +_Great Harry_, she had nothing whatever to do with the _Henri_, which is +also sometimes referred to as the _Harry Grace à Dieu_.[17] As a matter +of fact, the latter was built to replace the former, the loss of which +was considered a national disaster, and so much so that an attempt was +made to keep her fate a secret. "At the reverens of God", wrote Cardinal +Wolsey, "kepe these tydyngs to yourselfe." There was probably another +reason for the construction of an exceptionally fine ship, and that was +the desire that the English should not be eclipsed by the Scots in this +respect. + +[Illustration: THE _GREAT HARRY_, THE FIRST BIG BATTLESHIP OF THE +BRITISH NAVY] + +For, the year before the _Regent_ was blown up, the King of Scotland, +who was hand in glove with the French, had put afloat what a +contemporary chronicler terms "ane verrie monstrous great schip". This +was the famous _Great Michael_. Her constructor was Jaques Tarret, a +Frenchman, and it has been written that "she was of so great stature and +took so much timber, that except Falkland, she wasted all the woods of +Fife, which were oak wood, with all the timber that was gotten out of +Norway". She took "a year and a day to build", and we are given her +dimensions, which compare favourably in point of size with many much +later line-of-battle ships. "She was 12 score feet in length and 36 feet +within the sides; she was 10 feet thick in the wall, and boarded on +every side so slack and so thick that no cannon could go through +her." It is rather difficult to understand what "slack" means in this +context. + +"This great ship", goes on the account, "cumbered Scotland to get her to +sea." By the time she was afloat and fully equipped she was reckoned to +have cost the King from thirty to forty thousand pounds. She carried a +heavy battery, and if her cannon were as formidable as their names, they +must have been most effective in action. "She bore many cannons, six on +every side, with three great Bassils, two behind in her dock, and one +before, with three hundred shot of small Artillerie, that is to say, +Myand and Battered Falcon and Quarter Falcon, Slings, pestilent +Serpentines and Double Dogs, with Hagtar and Culvering, Cross-bows and +Hand-bows. She had three hundred mariners to sail her: she had six score +of gunners to use her artillery, and had a thousand men of war by her, +Captains, Skippers, and Quartermasters." A "basil" or "basilisk", it may +be explained, was a gun throwing a ball of 200 pounds weight, a much +heavier projectile than any used at Trafalgar. + +Space forbids further details as to the "menagerie" of other pieces that +armed the decks of the _Great Michael_, but you will find more about +these and other old-fashioned cannon in another chapter. As soon as she +was afloat the King had her fired at to test the resistance of her +tremendously thick sides, but, says our old writer, "the cannon deired +hir not"; that is to say, could not penetrate her. This is the oldest +experiment of the kind of which we have any record. But the most +remarkable thing about the _Great Michael_--at least to my mind--is her +size. According to the old account from which I have quoted, which, by +the way, was written by one Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, she must have +had almost the exact dimensions of the _Duke of Wellington_, one of the +last and finest of our steam three-deckers. Now I have a perfect idea of +_her_ size, because I had the honour of serving on board her for a +couple of years. She was in the "sere and yellow leaf" then, her masts +had gone, her engines had disappeared, and she had a roof which made her +look much more like Noah's Ark than a battleship, but I can remember her +in all her glory when she carried the flag of the commander-in-chief at +Portsmouth. I was only a boy then, but I recollect that her appearance +was fine in the extreme. In reckoning the beam of the _Great Michael_ we +must remember to add 20 feet for the thickness of her sides, since +Pitscottie only gives us her internal width. Having done this, I will +put down the dimensions of the two ships for comparison-- + + _Great Michael_, length, 240 feet; beam, 56 feet. + _Duke of Wellington_, length, 240 feet, 7 inches; beam, 60 feet, 1 inch. + +Now if Pitscottie's figures are correct, either the _Michael_ must have +been almost incredibly bigger than any ship of her day, or, as I have +before suggested, the old war-ships of that and earlier centuries were +in reality a good deal larger than contemporary representations and +records of "tunnage" would lead us to expect. + +The old Scots writer, however, offers to prove his figures; for he says: +"If any man believe that this ship was not as we have shewn, let him +pass to the place of Tullibardine, where he will find the length and +breadth of her set with hawthorne: as for my author he was Captain +Andrew Wood, principal Captain of hir, and Robert Bartone, who was made +her Skipper". + +[Illustration: Rough Diagram, showing Comparative Sizes of Famous Ships +at Different Periods + +The sizes of these ships can only be shown approximately, as in some +cases only the length of the keel is known; in others a mean has to be +taken between length of keel and length over-all; while in others the +authority does not say where the length was measured. H.M.S. _Queen +Elizabeth_--650 feet long, with a beam of 94 feet--is bigger than all +the rest put together.] + +With regard to the plan of the vessel in hawthorns, I am indebted to +Lady Strathallan for the following interesting items: Tullibardine +Castle has quite disappeared. What little was left of it was used in the +construction of farm buildings from 1830-40. The spot where the +hawthorns were planted to show the dimensions of the _Great Michael_ is +still known, but there is nothing to mark it. When the great ship was +built, the carpenter or "wright" of the castle went down to superintend +the shipwrights. When he got home, as the people at the castle were +very anxious to form some idea of the size of this "Dreadnought" of that +period, he was given orders to have an excavation made of the exact size +of the ship. The hawthorns were, it would appear, planted round the +excavation, which was tilled with water and aquatic plants, and remained +as an ornamental pond till about the time of the battle of Waterloo. In +1837 the shape of the vessel was distinctly perceptible, but three only +remained of the hawthorn-trees that formerly surrounded it. Some time +ago Lady Strathallan, anxious that this curious monument of antiquity +should not disappear altogether, directed the forester to renew the +hawthorn outline of the _Great Michael_. The trees were procured for the +purpose, but the tenant of the farm on which it was situated objected +that it would take up too much room in his field, so that the project +was abandoned. It seems a thousand pities that something cannot, even +now, be done to perpetuate this relic of the famous Scots man-of-war, +which, year by year, is being rendered more and more indistinguishable +by the plough. The field in which traces of the hollow may be looked for +is situated 400 yards from the old parish chapel, which was restored a +good many years ago and used as a burial vault. + +The _Great Michael_ did not long remain a Scots ship. The fleet of +Scotland went to France in 1513, and in the following year she was +bought by Louis XII for 40,000 francs, to replace the _Cordelière_, +which, as you will remember, was blown up with the _Regent_. This brings +us back to the _Henri Grace à Dieu_, which was built to replace the +latter ship. But before we turn our attention to her we cannot but note +the difference between the alleged cost of the _Great Michael_ and that +for which she was sold. The bargain does not seem worthy of the Scots +reputation for "canniness". But we must bear in mind that a "pound +Scots" was not at all the same thing as an English pound at that date. +Ever since 1355 its value had been falling, till by 1603 it was only +worth twenty pence instead of twenty shillings. It was, in fact, at the +time of the sale, the kind of "silver pound" that the "chieftain to the +Highlands bound" paid or promised the boatman if he would row Lord +Ullin's daughter and himself "o'er the ferry". But even if we put it at +about a tenth of a pound sterling in 1513, the bargain seems a poor one. +Probably it was more of a political deal than anything else, comparable +to the German sale of the _Goeben_ to Turkey. + +The _Henri Grace à Dieu_--I think we may as well call her the _Henri_ +for short, and save time and paper--is a ship about which we have the +most extended information in some respects--those dealing with her +decoration and equipment, for instance; but we are left entirely in the +dark as to her size and measurements. The only dimensions I have been +able to find are those indicated on a plan which, on very insufficient +grounds, is claimed to be a copy of the official one on which she was +built, and which is stated to be--or at any rate to have been within the +last century--at Plymouth dockyard. So far this original has not been +traced, and I may remark that anyone who knows anything about the Navy +would not dream of referring to the dockyard in the western port except +as "Devonport Dockyard". However, I give the dimensions for what they +may be worth--not much, I think: + + Length, 145 feet; beam, 35 feet 9 inches; tonnage, + 839. + +Now if this, by any chance, is anything like correct she must have been +a very much smaller ship than the _Great Michael_, which is not very +likely, since Henry VIII would naturally have wanted "to go one better". +Moreover, she is generally credited as having been of at least a +thousand tons displacement, and carried a battery little, if any, +inferior in weight and numbers to that of the _Michael_. + +She was heavily equipped with ordnance, very little of which is apparent +in her pictures. According to her inventories she carried something like +185 guns of all sorts and sizes, but many of these must have been kept +on shore as reserve stores. She is generally credited with carrying 14 +heavy guns on the lower and 12 on the main deck, and 46 light cannon on +her upper works. Some of the large and all the smaller ones were +breech-loaders, and as most were provided with at least two "chambers" +or breech-pieces, which contained the powder-charge and could be quickly +substituted one for the other, we may almost call them "quick-firers". +She was gorgeously decorated in the first place, and poop, waist, +forecastle, and tops were hung with shields showing alternately the St. +George's Cross, the Golden Fleur-de-Lis on a blue ground, and the Tudor +Rose on a green and white ground. Her sails were woven with a decorative +design in gold damask, and she carried a lion figure-head, but the lion +was badly executed and a very tame one. Like all Tudor ships she flew a +profusion of flags, standards, and immense streamers bearing the St. +George's Cross, the fly or long-pointed end being half green and half +white. These were the Tudor livery colours. The plain red-cross flag or +"Jack" was well in evidence and generally carried on the fore masthead +as well as among the smaller flags placed on poles at equal distances +along the bulwarks. The royal standard was also carried, but not in +every ship, and sometimes it appears "impaled" with the national +red-cross flag--that is to say, the two were placed side by side on the +same flag. + +The national status of the Royal Navy was becoming recognized. Before +this time, though the English "Jack" generally found a place somewhere +on board an English ship, the banners and pennons of the nobles and +knights on board were most in evidence. Now we see nothing but royal and +national emblems. In the war with France in 1455 the ships of the +squadron forming the "van" or leading portion of the fleet carried the +St. George's Cross at the fore, those of the centre at the main, and the +rear squadron at the mizzen. + +In describing the _Henri_ we have practically described all the "great +shippes" of her class, of which there were a considerable number, though +none were quite so large, or probably quite so elaborately decorated. Of +course she was what we may call "a show ship", like the _Royal James_ +and _Sovereign of the Seas_ of a later date. + +But by 1546, if we may accept Anthony Anthony's _Roll_ as correct, +"timber colour" with scarlet masts and spars was uniform for all classes +of ships. + +But it is time we turned our attention to the men who manned them. The +changes in this respect were quite as important as those we have noted +in the ships themselves. To begin with, the nobles and gentry of the +kingdom were beginning to wake up to the fact that war afloat offered +them at least equal opportunities of distinction to those they had +hitherto looked for in land warfare. Besides, they had now little or no +chance of that at home, and there was no longer any land frontier over +in France across which they could ride and raid and harry and fight as +their fathers and grandfathers had so often done. Naval strategy was +still confined to cross raiding, but ships were now better +fighting-machines and were not merely used as platforms for hand-to-hand +fighting and as transports; so that men of the class which had hitherto +looked down on ships and sailors began to turn their eyes towards the +sea. + +[Illustration: Ships of the Time of Henry VIII + +(_From a Drawing of 1545_) + +Looking at the lofty hulls, the immense mainsails, and the nearness of +the ports to the water-line, we can easily understand how a want of care +wrecked the _Mary Rose_. The ship in the background on the right is +apparently trying to reduce sail, and has had to lower her main-yard. +Her mainsail is almost in the water, to the apparent danger of the +ship.] + +This does not mean that they became seamen. No, they still remained and +considered themselves soldiers, and did not trouble to learn any +seamanship. That was still the special job of the master or skipper. But +they recognized that the command of a fighting-ship was worth having. I +may instance the Carew family.[18] At least three of them were serving +in command of ships in the battle at Spithead in 1545. Sir George Carew +lost his life when his ship, the _Mary Rose_, went down; his brother, +Peter Carew, who had been a year or two before in command of a company +of infantry in the English army in France, commanded a Venetian +ship--probably hired--the _Francisco Bardado_; while their uncle, Sir +Gawen Carew, commanded a third. As for the men, the seamen, thanks to +more seaworthy vessels, had probably improved in their seamanship, while +the navy was formed into a regularly-organized force consisting of +"mariners, soldiers"--or, as we should call them now, marines--"and +gunners". Every ship had her proper complement of each. Thus the _Henri +Grace à Dieu_ carried 260 seamen, 400 soldiers, and 40 gunners; the +_Mary Rose_ 180 seamen, 200 soldiers, and 20 gunners; the _Peter +Pomgranate_ 130 seamen, 150 soldiers, and 20 gunners; and so forth, +according to size. + +[Illustration: A SEA FIGHT IN TUDOR TIMES + +_Facsimile woodcut from "Holinshed's Chronicles"_ + +Which particular battle this picture is supposed to represent cannot be +stated, since old Holinshed uses it over and over again for almost every +naval engagement to which he makes reference right back as far as the +Conquest. That cannon were not then in existence does not appear to +trouble him at all. But we may take it as fairly representative of an +action at sea in the times in which the historian lived and wrote.] + +Though there are indications of a somewhat similar arrangement in +earlier times, it would appear that the seamen were either paid by the +king or hired with their ship, while the soldiers were paid by some +noble or even bishop who had supplied them as a feudal obligation. + +The pay does not seem to have been quite so liberal as in former times, +but it was not bad if we allow for the difference in its value compared +with that of to-day. In the _Gabriel Royal_, for instance, Sir William +Trevellian, the captain--a soldier--got 1_s._ 6_d._ a day. The master +and the rest of her company, officers, seamen, and soldiers, got 5_s._ a +month (of twenty-eight days), but the master and other officers got in +addition what were called "dead shares", in number from six to +one-half. This means that the master got six men's pay besides his +own--altogether 35_s._--a month, and so on in proportion. The gunners +got extra pay, called "rewards"--we might call it "efficiency +pay"--varying from 5_s._ a month for the master gunner to 1_s._ 8_d._ +for the private gunners. + +The provision allowance was respectable--England was renowned for good +feeding at this period. Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each man had +1/2 pound of beef and 1/4 pound of bacon for his dinner, and the same +for supper. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays they had to be content +with two herrings and 1/8 pound of cheese for each of these meals, while +on Fridays or "ffishe days beynge ffastinge dayes" they had to go +without supper, but for dinner had either half a cod or half a stock +fish and a pound of butter between four men, or, if they preferred it, +could divide ten herrings and a pound of cheese between them. As for +bread, every man got either a pound of bread or biscuit daily, while +instead of the "grog" or "optional cocoa" of to-day, he got a liberal +allowance either of beer or "beverage" made of two parts water to one of +"sack". + +As for the clothing of the Royal Navy, we have very little information +so far as the Tudor period is concerned. That there was some attempt at +uniformity may be gathered from the constant references to the provision +of coats or jackets of green and white cloth. Some were satin or damask +of the same colouring, presumably for officers. But what these garments +were like we do not know. In Anthony Anthony's drawing of the _Galley +Subtle_ the master of the ship appears in the old "jack" with the red +cross, while the rowers are apparently clad in pink. This may be +intended to represent their bare flesh, for they might be stripped to +the waist for rowing, but it is more probable that it was originally red +and that the colour has faded. It is said that the rowers of Henry +VIII's royal barge wore this colour, and it seems quite possible that +the _Galley Subtle_, the only one of her class and a profusely-decorated +vessel, _was_ regarded as the royal barge. + +We know, too, from the costume of the Yeomen of the Guard, or +"Beefeaters", that red was making its appearance as a military colour, +for their uniform is that of Henry VIII's body-guard. The standard under +which Henry VII secured the crown at the battle of Bosworth Field was a +red dragon on a white and green field, and was supposed to represent +that of Cadwallader, the last of the British kings, from whom the victor +claimed descent. The descent, I dare say, was genuine enough, but +Cadwallader must have died before the invention of heraldry. But Wales +has always been associated with a dragon of this kind, which has from +time immemorial been a world-wide emblem of sovereignty. Henry seems to +have adopted the colour of the dragon as the royal livery colour--as it +remains to-day--but at the same time retained the white and green for +the navy. Much in the same way "blue" is accepted as a royal colour, and +as such is worn as the facings of royal regiments and as the uniform of +the Royal Navy and Royal Artillery. + +But it seems probable that blue--very possibly from dye of that colour +being easily procurable; the Ancient Britons, we may remember, decorated +themselves with blue woad--had been for centuries a very usual colour +for seamen to wear; and when, in 1553, Sir Hugh Willoughby's North Sea +expedition was fitted out all his crews were provided with "parade +suits" of "Wachett or Skie-coloured cloth". Watchett was a place in +Somersetshire where this special material was made. But these, perhaps, +were not men actually belonging to the Royal Navy. As for the soldiers +or marines, we may suppose that they wore the white "jack" with the red +cross, which was so universal at this time that "whitecoat" was used for +"soldier" just as "redcoat" was at a later date. The "gunners" wore the +white and green and may have been regarded as "seamen gunners". + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] She was first called the _Gret Carrick_, then _Imperyall Carrick_, +next _Henry Imperiall_. The name _Henri Grace à Dieu_ was written with +all kinds of variations; sometimes she was merely called the _Harry_, +and finally, after King Harry's death, the _Edward_. + +[18] Each of the Carews adopted the badge of a ship's "fighting-top", +which still appears as the crest of the family. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +From Elizabeth to Victoria + + "Hearts of oak are our ships, + Gallant tars are our men, + We always are ready, + Steady, boys, steady! + We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again." + GARRICK. + + +WE have now followed the story of our navy, its ships, and its men up to +the time when the three-masted, many-gunned man-of-war with two or three +decks, and relying entirely on sail-power for propulsion, made its +appearance. This class of vessel, with, of course, gradual improvements, +remained the principal fighting-unit, not only in our own, but in all +other navies right up to the time of the introduction of steam power, +and indeed we may almost say later; as, though provided with engines of +no very great horse power, the sails, rigging, and hulls of our +line-of-battle ships at the time of the introduction of the ironclad +were practically the same as those of the ships which fought at +Trafalgar. We are, in fact, entering on the period beginning with the +time-- + + "When that great fleet Invincible, against us bore in vain + The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain", + +and ending with the imposing but indecisive operations of the combined +British and French fleets in the Crimean War. + +Now this portion of our naval history is as near as possible all plain +sailing, and its course as well known as that from the Mersey Bar to +Sandy Hook to transatlantic travellers. I do not therefore propose to +conduct my readers through the glorious, though, if I may be allowed to +say it, somewhat hackneyed stories of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, +Drake's exploits on the Spanish Main, and the series of wars with the +Dutch, in which we met the toughest opponents we have ever fought with +for the supremacy of the seas. Neither do I intend recounting for the +hundredth time the magnificent record of the Royal Navy in its almost +continuous campaign against those of the French kings, the French +Republic, and the Emperor Napoleon, which, beginning early in the +eighteenth century, was only finally terminated by the downfall of the +great Corsican general at Waterloo. As far as all these are concerned I +have only to say: "Now the rest of the acts of the Royal Navy, and all +that it did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of James +the Naval Historian", and of many other historians for that matter, +good, bad, and indifferent. No, so far I have endeavoured to keep a +little off the beaten track of naval history as generally presented in +books of this class, and until we arrive at our navy of to-day I propose +to keep this principle in view; and it is in accordance with this that, +before finally quitting the Tudor period, I propose to make a brief +reference to our experiences with the Hanseatic League. + +[Illustration: DESTROYING A STRAGGLER FROM THE ARMADA + +_From the painting by C. M. Padday_ + +The first Spanish ships to meet their fate were the stragglers from the +main body of the Armada. Above is shown one such vessel being engaged by +an English captain. The great Spanish galleon is quite at the mercy of +the smaller but handier vessel, which has got the wind of her enemy, and +is pouring a destructive fire into her prow.] + +The adverse influence of this great confederation of German cities upon +our country for two or three centuries has never been sufficiently +emphasized in our histories. Possibly the earlier historians who were +contemporary with the Hanseatics were "got at" by their representatives, +who swarmed in this country and had an organized system of bribery, with +a regulated scale of bribes for all sorts of people, from the Lord Mayor +of London downwards. They seem to have been about the only people in the +later Middle Ages with ready cash in the north of Europe, and they were +glad to lend the Kings of England money to carry on their interminable +wars with France in return for various concessions, which generally +hit British trade pretty hard. They knew how to get good security for +their loans, and in Edward III's time they actually had the British +crown in pawn at Cologne! One proof of their tremendous financial +influence in this country remains to this day in the word "sterling". We +still say "one pound sterling", "sterling gold", &c. Now "sterling" is +nothing but a corrupted form of "easterling"--a man from the eastward, +as these Hanse traders used to be called--when they were not referred to +as "Prussians". + +At the Conquest, and for long afterwards, we were a nation of +agriculturists, soldiers, fishermen, and sailors. Our only regular trade +was in wool, therefore known as the "staple" industry--generally "the +staple" for short. It was the desire to get their greedy fingers into +this our only "pie" that first brought the Hanse traders into this +country in force some time in the thirteenth century, though we had not +been free from them since the days of Ethelred. They were allowed to +make their head-quarters in the Steelyard in London (where Cannon Street +Station now stands), to import merchandise on paying a nominal duty of 1 +per cent, to be licensed victuallers, keeping inns, hotels, and wine +shops, to have special courts of jurisdiction of their own, which put +them above English law, and actually to hold one of the gates of the +city. Have we not seen this financial, business, trading, and +inn-keeping undermining of British interests in our own day by the +modern easterlings? + +Later historians preferred rather to dilate on our victories than to +refer to our encounters at sea with the Hanseatics, in which we did not +always show to advantage. For these traders, like their modern +representatives, were good pirates on occasion, had a considerable +number of fighting-ships at their command, and, according to some +authorities, had complete control of the northern seas. Nor was there +any reciprocity about their trading arrangements. They made a rule that +only their own ships were to carry the goods they dealt in, and sank +any English ship that attempted to break it. At the same time they would +not allow our ships into the Baltic to interfere with their trade with +Russia and Scandinavia, and now and again in return for some real or +pretended grievance attacked our seaboard and hung the crews of our +coasters to their own masts. All the time they were endeavouring to +strangle our trade from their London head-quarters. Like an American +"Trust", they were generally able to ruin individuals or smaller +companies which endeavoured to compete with them. + +[Illustration: LORD HOWARD ATTACKING A SHIP OF THE SPANISH ARMADA + +In this fruitless attempt to invade our shores ten thousand Spaniards +gave up their lives. England lost but one ship and about a hundred men.] + +Naturally the "Prussians" were not loved in this country, and it is said +that Wat Tyler's insurrection was to a great extent directed against +these interlopers, the insurgents killing as many of them as they could +get hold of. But their influence with the Government always saved them +till the days of the Tudors, when, in spite of all obstacles, our +merchants began to make headway. Edward VI imposed heavy duties and +restrictions on them, and established an alliance and a trading +connection with Russia by sending a mission to Moscow by way of +Archangel. The marriage of Queen Mary with Philip of Spain gave the +Hanse merchants their chance, since the Prince Consort's father--Charles +V--was Emperor of Germany. The privileges which had been taken away from +the "Prussians" by her brother were restored; but they were not to hold +them long. Queen Elizabeth had an eye to business; she saw how the +Germans were hampering the development of our trade, and reimposed +Edward VI's duty of 20 per cent on the Hanse merchants of the Steelyard. +But she found that she still had to buy gunpowder and other munitions of +war from them, because she could not get them elsewhere, and she did not +like them the better for that. Neither did they like the reimposed +duties, and they were only too glad to assist the Spanish Armada by +sending a fleet laden with provisions and munitions to the Tagus. Drake +and the navy countered by seizing the whole of these ships. + +The Hanseatics, who had already before this laboured "to render the +English merchants obnoxious to the other trading nations by various +calumnies", retaliated by turning every Englishman out of Germany. This +did not affect us very much, as, though there were a comparatively small +number of the "merchants of the staple" and the "merchant adventurers" +settled in that country, their trade and interests were not comparable +with that of the merchants of the Steelyard in England. But the +Hanseatics got a "knock out" blow in return from "good Queen Bess", who +turned the whole collection of German merchants out of England, "lock, +stock, and barrel", and so freed the country of a menace which, while +not so obvious, was probably more insidiously dangerous than the Spanish +Armada. Then followed the break-up of Germany in the Thirty Years' War, +and British trade came by its own. It does seem a pity that "once bit" +we were not "twice shy". Our historians are considerably to blame; but, +in any case, we ought not to have so entirely forgotten what a menace +German trade and German immigration might be to this country. + +"What has all this to do with the navy?" may perhaps be asked. Possibly +not much at first sight, but in reality a great deal. If, during the +centuries the Hanse merchants were throttling our trade, we had +maintained a formidable and national navy instead of pursuing a +hand-to-mouth policy and utilizing our ships principally as ferry-boats +to take our armies over to France, we might have been in a better +position to deal with the Hanse League. We could have prevented +interference with our ships, forced our way into the Baltic, and +extended our trade. On the other hand, the navy was not a national navy, +but, generally speaking, a personal appanage of the reigning monarch, +who as often as not was very heavily in debt to the "Prussians". Gold is +a very powerful factor, even in naval warfare, if judiciously applied, +and not misapplied, as when some of our feebler Saxon kings bought off +the viking invaders with "Danegelt". + +I am tempted, before leaving the Hansa, to relate a story of one of +their smaller naval operations, which, I must premise, is taken from a +German source, so you can believe as much or as little of it as you +please. But it is not a bad story in its way. Our King Edward IV had +fallen out with the King of Denmark, who, in retaliation for a real or +alleged piratical attack made by the traders of Lynn upon his dominions +in Iceland, set to work to capture our merchantmen, using apparently the +ships of his allies, the Hanse League, for the purpose. King Edward, in +his turn, at once closed the Steelyard, and, according to this account, +strangled many of its merchants, and demanded £20,000 compensation for +his captured ships. At this time there were a couple of rather big Hanse +ships lying in a Dutch harbour, the _Mariendrache_ and the _Anholt_. +Hearing of the English preparations for war, Paul Beneke, who was in +command, stood over to Deal under French colours to intercept the Lord +Mayor of London, who was expected to land there on his way back from +Paris in _La Cygne_ of Dieppe. How he discovered this we are not told. + +By the use of French colours Paul Beneke succeeded in kidnapping the +Mayor of Deal and various other notabilities, who thought they were +going on board _La Cygne_ to welcome the Lord Mayor. The two Hanseatic +ships then put to sea, intercepted the real French ship and her consort +_La Madeline of Cannes_, took out their distinguished passenger and +whatever goods they had on board, and made for the Dutch harbour they +had started from. The omniscient Beneke knew that it was being blockaded +by thirteen small English ships and one much more powerful than either +of his, the _St. John_, possibly the _John Evangelist of Dartmouth_. +However, thanks to a fog, he got through the blockade undiscovered. Late +at night he, with one other companion, pulled out to sea in a +fishing-boat, and, under the pretence of being Dutch fishermen, went +alongside the big _St. John_ and asked leave to make fast astern while +they boiled their "beer soup" for supper. Permission was granted, and, +as the "beer soup" in question was in reality molten lead, they had not +much difficulty, under cover of the lofty and overhanging stern, in +pouring it into the iron joints of the rudder, so that it became +immovable. Then, "after supper", having thanked the obliging officer of +the watch, Beneke and his confederate made their way back to their own +ship. The following morning the two Germans stood out of harbour and +attacked the English fleet, and, as none of its ships were big enough to +put up any fight against them, with the exception of the _St. John_, and +she was not under control, thanks to Beneke's strategem, they are said +to have won a "glorious victory". Veracious or not, this tale has one +realistic touch about it in the evident desire to win by underhand means +rather than by fair fighting. But we seem to have been blown a bit out +of our course, and must get back to our point of departure. + +Although Henry VIII is inseparably connected with the _Henri Grace à +Dieu_, this famous ship was by no means the only improved type of +fighting-ship which dates from his reign. There were, besides the great +ships, such as the _Henri_, the _Jesus of Lubeck_,[19] and others, a +class known as galleasses, without a raised poop and forecastle, with a +single tier of heavy guns, and a protruding spur or "beak" forward. They +had fully-rigged main- and foremasts, a mizen and a bonaventure +mizen--these last two masts very small and carrying a single lateen sail +apiece--and a long bowsprit. There is little doubt that these were an +adaptation of the Mediterranean galleys modified to suit Northern seas. +Ships were longer-lived in those days than at present, and though many +of those in Elizabeth's navy had originally belonged to that of her +father, in the newer vessels their constructors endeavoured to combine +the best qualities of both the great ships and the galleasses. The ships +of this improved type were known as "galleons", a word that is +generally, but erroneously, taken to refer only to Spanish ships. The +battleships of both nations were galleons at this period, but they +differed considerably in their general lines and in their armament. + +Generally speaking, the Spanish ships were higher out of the water and +carried lighter cannon than our own. An Elizabethan battleship, then, +was rather longer than earlier great ships, and, though she still had a +comparatively high stern, it was not to be compared in this respect with +that of the _Henri_. The "fore castle" had come down to a very low +affair, the bows finishing with a "beak-head" adopted from the +galleasse, but with the spur at its extremity replaced by a +figurehead--generally a lion, dragon, or unicorn. The general uniformity +in colouring which marked the earlier Tudor men-of-war had been replaced +by a "go as you please" system, under which one ship had her upper works +painted red, another white and green, a third black and white, while a +fourth might retain the old regulation timber colour. Considerable sums +were expended in carving, gilding, and decoration in colour, not only at +the bow and stern, but along the exterior of the bulwarks. As regards +the armament carried afloat, at this and later times, particulars will +be given in a future chapter. + +An old writer of the period takes satisfaction in pointing out the +superiority of the English over foreign ships. "As for those of the +Portuguese," he says, "they are the veriest drones on the sea, the +rather because their seeling[20] was dammed up with a certain kind of +mortar to dead the shot." "The French," he goes on to say, "however +dextrous in land battles, are left-handed in sea-fights, whose best +ships are of Dutch building. The Dutch build their ships so floaty and +buoyant, they have little hold in the water in comparison to ours, which +keep the better wind and so out-sail them. The Spanish pride hath +infected their ships with loftiness, which makes them but the fairer +marks to our shot. Besides the wind hath so much power of them in bad +weather, that it drives them two leagues for one of ours to +leeward--which is very dangerous upon a lee-shore." He states further +that the "Turkish frigots", especially those built at Algiers, are much +the best foreign ships; being "built much nearer the English mode", and +they "may hereafter prove mischievous to us, if not seasonably +prevented". The writer was perfectly correct in his last remark, as will +be seen in the next chapter. + +Here are a few extracts from Sir Walter Raleigh's directions for +"clearing for action". The captain is to appoint "sufficient company to +assist the gunners", by which it would appear that the number of guns +carried had increased faster than the complement of "gonnars" allotted +to a man-of-war. If necessary, "the cabins between the decks shall be +taken down, all beds and sacks employed for bulwarks". The +"musketiers"[21] were to be distributed between the "fore-castell", the +"mast", and the "poope". The gunners were ordered not to fire except at +point-blank range, that is to say, until pretty close alongside the +enemy. An officer was to be specially detailed to see that there was no +loose powder carried between decks nor near any lighted gun-matches. +About the decks were to be distributed "divers hogsheads" sawn in half +and filled with water. No one was to board the enemy's ship without +orders; special men were told off to each sail; while the carpenter and +his crew were to attend with plugs and sheets of lead, some in the hold, +others on the lower deck, in readiness to plug up shot holes between +wind and water. + +In the early Stuart period there were no very great changes in the +construction and appearance of our men-of-war, but they gradually--if we +may judge from their pictures--seem to have acquired a more +"ship-shape" look, and give one the idea of greater roominess. The +bonaventure mizen-mast disappears, so that there are only three masts +instead of four, and the mizen is provided with a topsail in addition to +its lateen. At the end of the bowsprit, too, appears a little top and +top-mast, while a square sail is spread on a yard slung below it. This +sail has a large round hole in each lower corner, to let the water run +out when it is plunged under water as the ship pitches. The _Prince +Royal_ was the show ship of those days, and no less than £441 was spent +on her carved decorations, and £868 on gilding them. She was our first +three-decker, if we include the upper deck, and had a displacement of +1200 tons. + +[Illustration: THE _ROYAL GEORGE_ ENGAGING THE _SOLEIL ROYAL_ IN +QUIBERON BAY, 1759 + +Admiral Hawke in this engagement gained a decisive victory. The _Royal +George_ was the first of an improved type of ship. Her end was a tragic +one, for she capsized and sank at Spithead, taking 900 people with her.] + +In 1637 was launched the much more famous _Sovereign of the Seas_. She +was a very handsome vessel, longer and lower in the water than the +_Prince Royal_, and 483 tons bigger. In the _Travels of Cosmo III_, Duke +of Tuscany, through England, about thirty years after she was launched, +the following account is given of her: "This monstrous vessel was built +in the year 1637 by King Charles I at incredible expense; for, besides +the vast size of the ship, which is an hundred and twenty paces in +length, it has cabins roofed with carved work, richly ornamented with +gold, and the outside of the stern is decorated in a similar manner. The +height of the stern is quite extraordinary, and it is hung with seven +magnificent lanthorns, the principal one, which is more elevated than +the rest, being capable of containing six people. The ship carries 106 +pieces of brass cannon, and requires a thousand men for its equipment. +His Highness went to the highest part of the stern, and having walked +over the whole length from stern to prow as well above as below, stepped +into the handsomest cabin in the stern, where there were still evident +marks of the sides having been repaired from the effect of cannon-balls, +which sufficiently indicated that it had been more than once in action." +The _Sovereign_ was coloured outside black and gold, and had an +elaborate figure-head representing King Edgar on horseback trampling +on seven kings. During the Commonwealth and Restoration there were +continuous improvements in ship design, due, no doubt, in some measure, +to the constant fighting with the Dutch. Our naval constructors +naturally wanted to build better ships; they had the Dutch prizes to +study, and our sea officers saw a good deal of the French men-of-war, +which during the latter part of the war assisted them against the Dutch. +The _Royal Charles_ of 1673 may be taken as the link between the +_Sovereign_ and the eighteenth-century ships of our navy. She was a +handsome ship, rather smaller than the _Sovereign_, with a rounded stern +at the water-line, instead of its being put in flat like that of an +ordinary boat. This not only made ships built in this way, as they +always were after this time, stronger, but gave them more graceful +lines, as well as better ones for sailing. + +The French about this time began to turn out ships on much better lines +than our own, and throughout the eighteenth century and part of the +nineteenth our French prizes were our best-looking and best-sailing +ships. However, a writer at the very end of the seventeenth century +makes the following comparison between the fighting capacity of the +French and British ships of the period: "Our guns, being for the most +part shorter," he says, "are made to carry more shot than a French gun +of like weight, therefore the French guns reach further, and ours make a +bigger hole. By this the French has the advantage to fight at a +distance, and we yard-arm to yard-arm. The like advantage have we over +them in shipping; although they are broader and carry a better sail, our +sides are thicker and better able to receive their shot; by this they +are more subject to be sunk by our gun-shot than we." At the beginning +of the eighteenth century the exterior of the bulwarks of the upper +deck, poop, and forecastle was generally painted blue, though +occasionally red. On this broad band, carved devices, generally +representing trophies of colours, arms, and guns, were placed between +the ports, which on the upper deck were round. Outboard a carved wreath +encircled them, which, with the numerous other ornamental carvings at +bow and stern, was profusely gilded. Below this broad blue band the +sides of the ship were of a yellow tinge, and were finished off, just +above the water-line, with a single or double black wale. + +[Illustration: _Photo. Symonds & Co._ + +THE _VICTORY_ IN GALA DRESS + +Nelson's famous flagship, dressed with flags in honour of the visit of +the French President to Portsmouth.] + +The hull below this was painted white. The ship's sides inboard were +usually coloured red, in order, the story goes, that the crew should not +be affected by the sight of blood splashes in action. The gun-carriages +were often the same colour. The beak-head had disappeared, and the stem +curved up at a somewhat abrupt angle, finishing off with a big +figure-head, as often as not a lion. As the century went on it was found +that not only were the French building better ships than our own, but +the Spaniards also. Our ships might possibly have had thicker sides, as +claimed by the old writer already quoted, but towards the middle of the +century there were great complaints of their structural weakness, and in +1746 the first of an improved and stronger type was taken in hand. This +was the _Royal George_, memorable especially from her tragic end at +Spithead, where she capsized and went down, taking 900 men, women, and +children with her. In 1765 Nelson's _Victory_--perhaps the most famous +ship in history--was built. Thenceforward our battleships were +classified by the number of guns they carried. Thus the _Victory_ and +sister ships carried 100 guns. Then came 90-gun ships, 80-gun ships, +"74's", "64's", and 50-gun ships. + +As time went on there was naturally a slight increase in size in the +newer ships, but they were not altered in type. Thus the _Hibernia_ of +1795 was of 2508 tons displacement, as against the 1921 tons of the +_Victory_, and mounted ten more guns. Perhaps the finest sailing +three-decker ever built was the _Queen_, begun in 1833 and launched in +1839. This ship had a displacement of 4476 tons, yet a picture of her +would almost pass muster for the _Victory_. The _Duke of Wellington_ was +built as a sailing-ship, but fitted with engines before her launch in +1852, and was very much the same to look at, except that her stern was +more rounded and had two or three projecting balconies or "stern-walks". +The _Duke_ brings us to the end of the epoch of wooden line-of-battle +ships. Iron ships protected with armour took their place, but these will +be dealt with in another chapter. + +The external colouring of our men-of-war remained much the same up to +the battle of Trafalgar, though the carving and gilding grew gradually +less. At the Nile in 1797 there were ships of all sorts of colouring. +Thus the _Audacious_ had plain yellow sides, the _Zealous_ red sides +with yellow stripes. Most, however, were yellow, with different numbers +of narrow black stripes. This yellow and black developed into what was +known as "Nelson Mode"--yellow bands on the lines of the gun-ports, with +black bands between. It is this style with which we are most familiar, +on account of the many paintings and engravings of men-of-war in action +at that and more recent periods; for, except that later on the yellow +was changed to white, the fashion lasted till the advent of the +ironclads. + +Having glanced in this cursory manner at the ships which flew the +"meteor flag" between the times of our two greatest queens, Elizabeth +and Victoria, it will be well to give some account, however brief, of +the costume of the men who manned them. + +We have little or no personal information about the seamen of the +Elizabethan navy, but we know from their doughty deeds that they were +good men and true, and we also know that they, like their predecessors, +were pretty well paid and provisioned. Uniform clothing they probably +had not,[22] but in the reign of James I there is a description of a +masque in which appeared men dressed as "skippers", in red caps, short +cassocks, wide canvas breeches striped with red, and red stockings. The +six "principal masters of the navy" were provided annually with coats of +red cloth, "guarded", or faced, with velvet of the same colour, and +"embroidered with ships, roses, crowns, and other devices". But, though +this fine apparel was provided for the favoured few, the seamen began at +this time to be neglected, poorly paid, badly fed, and ill-treated--thanks +probably to having such greedy officials and incapable officers as the +Duke of Buckingham and other courtiers at the head of the navy. The +Venetian ambassador to James I reports the great falling off of the +British navy as compared to that of Henry VII and VIII. + +[Illustration: "THE GLORIOUS 1ST OF JUNE", 1794 + +On this date Lord Howe achieved a victory over the French which was +considered so important that on the return of the fleet to Spithead the +King presented Howe with a gold chain and a sword valued at 3000 +guineas.] + +"Now", he writes, "it only numbers thirty-seven ships, many of them old +and rotten and barely fit for service." Never was it in a worse state, +and good men were naturally harder and harder to get. Charles I was +anxious to restore the navy to its former glory and efficiency, but his +persistency in demanding "ship-money" from his subjects led eventually +to the Civil War, which resulted in his downfall. The Commonwealth, +however, did what he had been ambitious of doing himself: it spent large +sums on the navy, and ships and men were once more in good case. With +the Restoration set in rottenness and corruption. Even Charles II, +though he was too careless or too incapable to remedy matters, +recognized the state of affairs. "If ever", said he, at a meeting of the +Council, "you intend to man the fleet without being cheated by the +captains and pursers, you may go to bed and resolve never to have it +manned." His brother James was more keenly interested in the navy, in +which he had himself served against the Dutch, and no doubt improved +matters in various respects, but the lot of a seaman was still a hard +one. It may have been at his suggestion, when Duke of York, that the +maritime regiment, of which he was the first commander, was raised, +possibly with some idea of its being the nucleus of a permanent +establishment. + +[Illustration: A Matchlock and a Firelock, or Fusil (17th Century) + +The constantly smouldering match of the former rendered it a very +dangerous weapon in the neighbourhood of cannon; the "snaphaunce", or +"fusil", was fitted with a "fire-lock", in which a spark was struck from +a flint.] + +These early marines, who were not infrequently referred to as +"mariners", wore coats of the duke's favourite yellow with red breeches +and stockings, and carried the flag of St. George, with the addition of +the golden rays of the sun issuing from each corner of the +cross--possibly "the glorious sun of York", as Shakespeare has it. It is +interesting to note that they were the first fusiliers, though not in +name. For probably to prevent danger from lighted matches on board a +ship in action, they were armed with "snaphaunce muskets" or +fusils--that is to say, flintlocks instead of the matchlocks usually +carried by the infantry of the period. The 7th Fusiliers, who were +raised as an artillery escort a few years later, were armed in the same +way for a similar reason; and it is curious that, though never called +fusiliers, the marines have almost always followed fusilier customs, as +to uniform, in never having any officers of the rank of ensign, and in +their officers carrying fusils at the time when other infantry officers +carried half-pikes. We begin to find references to the familiar navy +blue about this period as being worn by seamen. In a quaint old work +published in 1682[23] the devil is referred to as having appeared to +someone in Newcastle "in seaman's clothing with a blew cape". And again, +in the description of the supporters of the coat-of-arms granted to the +Earl of Torrington, who died 1689, we read that they are "Two sailors +proper, habited with jackets and caps on their heads _azure_, with white +trowsers striped _gules_," i.e. red. The following is a list of seamen's +clothing or "slops" and prices, as authorized by James, Duke of York, +when Lord High Admiral in 1663:-- + + _s._ _d._ + Monmouth caps, each 2 6 + Red caps 1 1 + Yarn stockings, per pair 3 0 + Irish stockings 1 2 + Blue shirts, each 3 6 + White shirts 5 0 + Cotton waistcoats 3 0 + Cotton drawers, per pair 3 0 + Neat's leather shoes 3 6 + Blue neckcloths, each 0 5 + Canvas suits 5 0 + Rugs of one breadth 4 0 + Blue suits 5 0 + +[Illustration: UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH NAVY + +Midshipman. Admiral. Flag-Lieutenant. Secretary (Fleet Paymaster).] + +A "Monmouth cap" is said to have been worn by both seamen and soldiers, +and to have resembled a "tam-o'-shanter", but there appears to be some +doubt about it. It seems possible that it may equally well have been +what we now call a "fisherman's cap", or a cap like that worn by the +bands of the Household Cavalry, but with the peak turned perpendicularly +upwards. We sometimes see pictures of boats' crews in such caps at about +this period. + +In 1706 blue seems to have been superseded by grey, seamen being +directed to wear "grey jackets and red trousers, brass and tin buttons, +blue and white check shirts and drawers, grey woollen stockings, +gloves(!), leather caps faced with red cotton;" also "striped ticken +waistcoats and breeches". Naval officers apparently wore what they +pleased, though there are indications that red was the favourite colour +right up to 1748, when a blue uniform with white facings and gold lace +was ordered by the King. But it is said that naval officers did not take +kindly to it at first, and in some ships tried to evade the order by +having but one or two uniform coats on board, which were only worn by +officers when sent away on duty where questions might be asked. + +Red was now the recognized military colour, and, as mentioned +elsewhere,[24] naval officers took a long time to forget the old +military status of the commanders of the royal ships. Blue with white +linings or facings is said to have been the uniform of two regiments of +marines--who were "to be all fuzileers without pikes"--raised in 1690; +but this had no connection with King George's selection, which is stated +to have been due to his having seen the Duchess of Bedford, wife of the +First Lord of the Admiralty, riding in the park in a habit of blue faced +with white, which prodigiously took His Majesty's fancy. The seamen seem +to have worn grey and red up to about this time, when green and blue +baize frocks and trousers were provided for them. The sailor of this +period is described as wearing "a little low cocked hat, a pea-jacket (a +sort of cumbrous Dutch-cut coat), a pair of petticoat trousers, not +unlike a Scotch kilt, tight stockings, with pinchbeck buckles on his +shoes". The "little cocked hat" is elsewhere described as having its +flaps tacked close down to the crown, which made it look like "a +triangular apple pasty". This hat was gradually replaced by a tarpaulin +or straw hat, not a bit like that worn at the present day, but more +nearly resembling a low inverted flowerpot with a narrow curly brim. +Short, open, blue jackets began to be worn--"round jackets" they were +called--showing the check shirt or a red or buff waistcoat. The +trousers were longer than previously, and round the hat was often worn a +bright blue ribband bearing the ship's name. Black, or occasionally +coloured, bandana handkerchiefs were loosely knotted round the neck. In +Nelson's days it was a favourite practice of the seamen to sew strips of +white canvas over the seams of their jackets by way of ornamentation, +and to adorn them with as many buttons as possible. Pigtails were in +full fashion and of a portentous length and stiffness, leading to the +adoption of the square "sailor collar" to protect the cloth jackets from +grease. But though a regulation uniform had been prescribed for officers +there was no strict regulation as to the seaman's dress before 1857, an +exact reversal of the previous state of things. + +In the early part of the nineteenth century captains very often dressed +their crews in "fancy rigs", but the short jacket, trousers taut on the +hips and long and loose in the legs, with a straw or tarpaulin hat--now +with a flat brim and lower crown--remained the general costume of the +British sailor until, after the introduction of continuous service, a +regulation uniform was laid down, as mentioned above. The marines, who +had originally been under the War Office, and had worn different facings +in their different regiments, were, in 1755, formed into the present +corps under the Admiralty and dressed in red with white facings, which +were changed to blue in 1802 on the occasion of the distinction "Royal" +being granted them, on the representations of Lord St. Vincent, as a +recognition of their services both in action and in the suppression of +various disorders in the fleet. One more change was made in the uniform +of naval officers, by William IV, who instituted red facings. It was a +temporary one only, for in about ten years the navy was glad to be +allowed to resume the time-honoured blue and white. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] Purchased about 1544, probably from the Hansa. + +[20] Seeling means literally to "roll from side to side", but it is +evidently here used for the sides themselves. + +[21] As guns of these days were called after animals and birds, the +"musket" received its name from "mosquito". + +[22] The Elizabethan seamen, and indeed their successors, must have +inherited somewhat of the old Viking Berserkers' dislike of defensive +armour, or any equipment limiting bodily activity. Sir Richard Hawkins +complained in 1593 that though he had with him in his expedition to the +South Seas "great preparation of armour, as well of proofe as of light +corsletts, yet not a man would use them ". + +[23] Law's _Memorialls_. + +[24] Chapter VI. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The "Turks" in the Channel + + "All, all asleep within each roof, along the rocky street, + And these must be the lovers' friends, with gently sliding feet-- + A stifled gasp! a dreary noise! 'The roof is in a flame!' + From out their beds, and to their doors, rush maid, and sire, and dame-- + And meet, upon the threshold stone, the gleaming sabre's fall, + And o'er each black and bearded face the white or crimson shawl-- + The yell of 'Allah!' breaks above the prayer and shriek and roar-- + Oh, blessed God! The Algerine is lord of Baltimore!" + _The Sack of Baltimore_, by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS. + + +YOU may read dozens of English histories, and even histories of the +British Navy, and find little or no mention of the subject of this +chapter. And yet during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and part of the +eighteenth centuries the Algerine pirates, or "Turks" as they were +generally called, were a real menace to our trade, our fishermen, and +even to the dwellers on our coasts. The story is not at all a creditable +one to us as a nation, nor did the Navy itself gain any particular +distinction in fighting with these pests; but this was not so much the +fault of our sea-commanders and their men as of the Government, which +rarely gave them any real opportunity of exterminating the Turkish +pirates that infested even our home waters. + +The most discreditable part of all was that played by the British +renegades, who were, more than anyone else, responsible for the Turkish +efficiency at sea. Left to themselves, the corsairs from Algiers, Tunis, +and Salee would never have become formidable. In mediæval times, as has +already been noted, the English had the reputation of being "good +seamen, but better pirates", and piracy (including English piracy), +though scotched, was not killed till some time after the days of "Good +Queen Bess". Why, in the youth of Edward VI, when the country was ruled +by the Regent Somerset, the Regent's own brother--Sir Thomas Seymour, +the Lord High Admiral of England--did not disdain to "do a bit in that +line" himself! + +The story is this. He had been married to the Queen Dowager. When she +died, he found himself rather "hard up". From his position he knew all +about the Channel pirates; he had dealt with lots of them, and "executed +justice" on them for their misdeeds. Now, however, he entered into a +surreptitious partnership with them, "winked the other eye" at +complaints, and pocketed half-profits. He did so well that he tried to +start a special mint of his own at Bristol. He still pretended to the +Regent and the Council to be very poor, and eventually succeeded in +getting an addition of 1500 ducats a year to his salary. He was allowed, +moreover, to draw this in a lump sum in advance. But it was not very +long before the Council began to "smell a rat". The pirates naturally +got bolder and bolder, knowing that they could work with impunity, and +Sir Thomas Seymour was asked "why he did not look after these matters?" +"Oh," said he, "I am just sending three ships after these fellows! I'll +soon make things all right." His ships sailed, but only to become the +worst and most successful freebooters in British waters. Their +depredations and his great wealth, which, it seems, he spent openly and +extravagantly, could not long remain a secret, and he was again summoned +before the Council. He still asserted that he was poverty-stricken, but +he could no longer get anyone to believe him, and a piratical captain +who was captured about this time admitted, under examination, that the +admiral had "gone halves" with him. "Brother or no brother, he must be +executed for this," said the Protector Somerset--and he was. + +When a man in Sir Thomas Seymour's exalted position could behave in +this manner, one can hardly be surprised that lesser "gentlemen" were +not ashamed to follow in his footsteps--even some years later. + +The first appearance of Mohammedan pirates in Northern waters was at a +time very remote from that of which I am now writing, but I think it is +of sufficient interest to deserve a passing reference. It was in the +year 1048--just eighteen years before the Conquest--that news came to +William of Normandy that a band of Moorish or Saracen pirates had +established themselves in a castle which they had built on an eminence +right in the middle of the Island of Guernsey, from which they harassed +and terrorized the inhabitants. A knight, Samson d'Anville, was sent to +destroy "Le Château du Grand Sarrasin", as it was called, and he +apparently succeeded in rooting out the wasps' nest; and when in 1203 a +church was built on the site, the salvation of the islanders was +commemorated by its consecration as "Notre Dame de la Deliverance du +Castel". Catel Church still stands on this historic spot. We hear no +more of Saracen pirates in Northern seas till the sixteenth century, +unless the mysterious ships which were driven ashore near Berwick in +1254 were in any way connected with them. Certainly the ships of any +Northern nation would have been recognizable on our north-east coast. +The ships in question "were large handsome vessels, but unlike anything +ever before seen in this country: well provided with naval stores and +provisions, and laden with coats of mail, shields and weapons of all +kinds, sufficient for an army".[25] Their crews were arrested "as +barbarians, or spies, or even enemies", but as no one understood their +language, nothing whatever could be made of them, and so they were +eventually allowed to depart in peace. Who they were, whence they came, +and whither they went has never been discovered. The incident remains +one of the most impenetrable of the many mysteries of the sea. + +The foundation of the piratical States on the north coast of Africa, +which were to be the source of untold misery to European nations, may be +traced to the final expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1509. Pursued +by the Spaniards to Algiers--or Argier, as it was then usually +called--the Moors called in the assistance of Arouji Barbarossa, a noted +Mediterranean corsair. He succeeded in beating off the invaders and +established himself as first Dey. Tunis, Sallee, and other rover +communities soon sprang up along the African coast, and, beginning by +retaliating on the Spaniards, the "Turks" gradually extended their +sphere of operations till they became a terror to Christendom. + +Christendom had itself to blame in a very great measure, since the +Christian nations could never agree long enough between themselves to +stamp out effectively these nests of pirates. Ceasing to be content with +the spoils and slaves they could capture in the Mediterranean, they set +themselves to-- + + "Keeping in awe the Bay of Portingale + And all the ocean by the British Shore".[26] + +The churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Helen's, Abingdon, bear +curious witness to the pitch at which Turkish piracy had arrived by the +year 1565. An entry in this year runs as follows: "Payde for two bokes +of Common Prayer agaynst invading of the Turke 0_s._ 6_d._" The special +prayer was probably the one that ran thus: + + "O Almighty and Everlasting God, our Heavenly Father, + we Thy disobedient and rebellious children, now by Thy + just judgement sore afflicted, and in great danger to + be oppressed, by Thine and our sworn and most deadly + enemies, the Turks, &c." + +The danger was evidently felt to be imminent. By 1576 the "Turks" of +Argier had no less than 25,000 Christian captives in their cruel +clutches. Most, certainly, came from the southern European countries, +but our turn was to come, and half a dozen years later the miscreants +were boasting as much to their English captives. We still had our own as +well as Flemish, Irish, and French piratical gentlemen in the Channel at +this time, for in 1580 the Council called the attention of the Cinque +Ports to the fact that such robbers were "daily received and harboured +by the inhabitants of the said places, making open sale of their spoils +without interruption". + +[Illustration: A Turkish Pirate Ship of 1579 (_From a print of Algiers +of that year_) + +Observe the sharp ram, the tower-like forecastle, and the curiously +perched cabin aft. Also the tail-like ornaments at the stern, possibly +reminiscent of the sterns of the old "Dragon-ships" and "Long Serpents". +The big and somewhat triangular openings are probably gun-ports, but no +guns are visible.] + +It is probable that the attempts at the suppression of our own +sea-robbers drove some of them into the ranks of the Barbary corsairs. +And among them, it is shameful to relate, were not a few men of good +family. Captain John Smith, who wrote about 1630, explains that at the +accession of James I the "Gentlemen Adventurers" and other seaman who +had long carried on a sort of licensed piracy against the Spanish +possessions and ships on the Spanish Main, found themselves, like +Othello, with their "occupation gone". James wanted to live at peace +with everybody. As an epigram of the time put it: + + "When Elizabeth was England's King, + That dreadful name thro' Spain did ring; + How altered is the case ad sa'me, + These juggling days of good Queen Jamie". + +So that, to quote John Smith on the Gentlemen Adventurers, "those that +were rich, rested with what they had; those that were poor, and had +nothing but from hand to mouth, turned pirates; some because they were +slighted of those for whom they had got much wealth; some for that they +could not get their due; some that had lived bravely would not abase +themselves to poverty.... Now because they grew hateful to all Christian +Princes, they retired to Barbary, where altho' there be not many good +harbours, but Tunis, Algier, Sally, Marmora and Tituane, there are many +convenient roads.... Ward, a poor English sailor, and Dansker, a +Dutchman made first here their marts when the Moors scarce knew how to +sail a ship. Bishop was ancient and did little hurt; but Easton got so +much as made himself a Marquess in Savoy, and Ward lived like a Bashaw +in Barbary; those were the first taught the Moors to be men of war." He +gives the names of several other noted English pirates of the time: some +were hung, others were "mercifully pardoned" by King James. Other +villains acted as agents and contrived to give the "Turks" wind of the +sailing of any punitive expedition. + +"For there being several Englishmen," writes Sir William Monson, the +celebrated Admiral, "who have been too long in trading with pirates, and +furnishing them with powder and other necessaries, it is to be feared +those same Englishmen will endeavour to give the pirates intelligence, +lest their being taken, their wicked practices should be discovered." +Thanks to such scoundrels as these the "Turks" were able to attack us +in our own waters. By 1616 they had no less than thirty ships north of +the Mediterranean, and in that year a Salee rover was actually captured +in the River Thames. By the year following so many British ships had +been taken by the "Turks" that the merchants of London established a +fund of £40,000--the Trinity House contributing £1068--"for the +merchants and ships of the Port of London as a fund against the Turks". +Four hundred and sixty British ships had already fallen into their +hands. + +When in 1619 Sir John Killigrew asked permission to erect a lighthouse +on the Lizard the Trinity House refused, on the ground "that it is not +necessary or convenient to erect a lighthouse there, but _per contra_, +inconvenient, having regard to _pirates_ and enemies whom it would +conduct to a safe place of landing". In 1620 James I was at last +persuaded to send an expedition against "Argier". The £40,000 collected +in London, and other sums subscribed, went towards its equipment. It +consisted of six men-of-war and twelve hired merchantmen under Sir +Robert Mansell; but as during the previous sixteen years of the King's +reign, "never a nail had been knocked into any of the Royal ships", and +as their captains "were of little repute", the whole affair turned out +such a dismal failure that the Algerines were encouraged to attack us +with greater determination than ever. + +"But too true it is," wrote Monson, "that since that time our poor +English, and especially the people of the West country, who trade that +way daily, fall into the hands of those pirates. It is too lamentable to +hear their complaints, and too intolerable to suffer the misery that has +befallen them."[27] + +By 1625 the Turkish pirate ship was "a common object of the seashore" in +the West. There were at least a score of them in the Channel. They +captured the Island of Lundy, and, "Hun-like", threatened to burn +Ilfracombe unless a large sum was paid as indemnity. They landed in +Cornwall one Sunday, surrounded a church while divine service was +proceeding, and carried off sixty men from the congregation into +slavery. Some months earlier it had been officially reported that there +were nearly 1400 Englishmen captive in Salee alone, "all, or greatest +part, taken within 20 or 30 miles of Dartmouth, Plymouth, or Falmouth. +When the winter takes, then the Sally men-of-war go to Flushing and +Holland, where, having supplied all wants, and the winter past, they go +to sea again. If they want men in the places with the Dutch, they are +furnished." + +Perhaps the most celebrated coastal raid was that made by Murad Reis +upon the village of Baltimore, on the Munster coast, on 31st June, 1631. +Piloted by a traitor from Dungarvon--one Flachet by name, who, it is +consoling to learn, expiated his crime on the scaffold--the "Turks" +sailed into the little harbour in the dead of night and descended on the +sleeping village like a "bolt from the blue". Completely surprised, the +Irishmen could oppose no resistance to the dark-skinned demons and their +blacker-hearted renegade comrades. Those who were not fortunate enough +to be slain on their own doorsteps were herded on board the corsairs +with all the weeping women and children of the village, even babies in +arms, and carried off into a captivity worse than death itself. The +total "bag" amounted to 237 men, women, and children. Baltimore was then +a thriving fishing centre, but it has never recovered from this raid. +The south coast of Ireland and the Bristol Channel seem to have been a +favourite hunting-ground at this period. Murad had already been harrying +the English coast before he carried out his coup at Baltimore. The year +before the "Turks" had taken six ships _near Bristol_, and had +something like forty ships operating in English waters. But the +Government of King Charles was so feeble and so incompetent that even +the Sack of Baltimore failed to rouse it to the necessary action. + +The navy was willing enough to deal with the pirates, but it was in a +very poor way itself, its men robbed, starved, and stinted, its ships +and many of their commanders anything but efficient. It is even stated +that two of the King's ships lying at Kinsale had word of Murad Reis's +attack, but did not attempt to intercept it. Apparently all that was +done was to set up additional alarm-beacons on the coast. Captain +Richard Plumleigh wrote from Waterford in October of the year following, +reporting an engagement he had had with "the arch-pirate Nutt", and +adds, "Nutt has 2 Turks with him and his consort.... I never saw people +in whom one disaster had settled so deep an impression as the Turks' +last descent hath done in these Irish: every small fleet they see on the +coast puts them into arms, or at least to their heels." + +There would appear to have been something like a permanent, though +inefficient, watch in St. George's Channel about this time, for in 1634 +Sir John Plumleigh, another naval officer, writes from the Isle of Man, +after "scouring" those waters, "Of the Turks as yet we hear nothing, +though the general bruit runs that they intend hither this year, as some +prisoners from Algiers have written over to their friends". So +enterprising had the pirates become that not long before this it was +represented very strongly to the Mayor of Barnstaple that "unless +vigorous steps are taken for the suppression of these marauders" there +was great danger that "they will fall upon our fishing shippes both at +Newfoundland and Virginea, for they desire both our shippes and men". + +The "Turks" were, in fact, insatiable. At this time it was reported that +they had 25,000 Christian slaves in Algiers alone, besides 8000 +renegades, among whom were over 1000 women. The petitions to the +Government from coastal towns, from merchants, from the friends and +relations of the unhappy captives, were legion--but nothing practical +was done. The celebrated Robert Boyle writes of his passage from Youghal +to Bristol in 1635, that he accomplished it safely, "though the Irish +coasts were infested with Turkish galleys". + +[Illustration: THE RELEASE OF CHRISTIAN PRISONERS AT ALGIERS + +The bold and aggressive Turkish pirates were for long the terror of +merchantmen. So successful were they in their raids that at one time +they were reported to have 25,000 Christian slaves in Algiers alone.] + +Two years later a squadron under Captain William Rainsborow was actually +dispatched against Salee. This port was blockaded by four ships, which +were reinforced by four more, and after destroying every Turkish ship +which attempted to break the blockade, the squadron closed in to the +city, and so battered its fortifications that the pirates were glad to +make terms by giving up 400 English slaves. The success of Captain +Rainsborow shows what might have been done had the same process been +applied to other pirate cities on the African coast, but, strange to +say, our forefathers were content merely to "scotch the snake", without +making an end of it once and for all. + +By 1640 the Turks were as bold and aggressive as ever. Three Turkish +men-of-war attacked the _Elizabeth_ off the Lizard and burned her, and +shortly afterwards landed at Penzance and carried off sixty men, women, +and children. The Deputy-Lieutenant of Cornwall reported that there were +about sixty Turkish pirates off the coast at this time. In 1645 it is +stated that they landed again at Fowey, and made slaves of 240 persons, +including some ladies. + +Occasionally some of our merchant-ships were able to put up a successful +defence against the "Turks". + +There were several instances of this in the Mediterranean, and here is a +shipmaster's report of how he did the like in the Channel in 1638: "W. +Nurry, of this town and county of Poole, Mariner and Master under God of +the good ship called the _Concord_ of Poole, burthen, 80 tons, with 6 +guns, 12 men, and 2 boys, being about 6 or 7 leagues off Ushant, coming +from Rochelle laden with salt, was set upon by a man-of-war of Algiers +having 15 pieces of ordnance and full of men with the colour of +Holland displayed ... and then put out her Turkey colours and bade him +'amain'[28] for the King of Algiers, whereupon this examinant refusing +to strike their sails at his command, the Turk boarded his ship in his +quarter with great store of men, whereby they continued to fight board +by board together by the space of 3 hours, and the Turk being weary of +the battery took occasion to cut away this examinant's sprit-sail-yard +to clear himself away, and then stood to the northward ... that he +killed a great many of the Turks and beat them out of his top into the +sea with his muskets, and then surprised and brought into this harbour +of Poole, one Turk and three Christians, viz.: a Dutchman, a Frenchman +and a Biscayner." These three men made statements to the effect that the +Turkish ship was of 240 tons displacement, carried 15 guns and 124 men, +of whom 19 were Christians, 6 of them English, and 3 of them renegades, +and that thirty men-of-war from Algiers were "on the war-path" against +Spain, France, and England. The "Dutchman" was one Oliver Megy of +Lübeck, who admitted that he had been acting as pilot. Dutchman was +apparently then used indiscriminately for Dutch or German, as I believe +is still to a great extent the case at sea. + +Then Sir John Pennington, in his _Journal_ on board H.M.S. _Vauntguard_, +in 1633, reports falling in with a "fly-boat", which informed him that +he had been "clapt aboard" by two Turks, one of eleven, the other of +seven guns, "betwixt the Gulfe and the Land's End, and hurt 9 or 10 of +his men very dangerously, but at last--God bee praysed--they got from +them and slew 4 of the Turkes--that entered them--outright and drove the +rest overboard". Again, when anchored in the _Swiftsure_, in Stokes Bay, +Pennington notes on 24th September, 1635: "There came in a freebooter, +and in his company a barke of Dartmouth laden with Poore John (dried +fish) which he tooke in the Channel from a Turks man-of-warr". In 1652, +just after the Republican form of government had been established in +England, the _Speaker_ frigate was dispatched to "Argier in Turkey" with +£30,000 to ransom English captives from slavery. But when the strong +hand of the Protector Cromwell had seized the helm of state there was no +more question of ransoms or presents to the barbarians of Algiers. He +dispatched the celebrated Admiral Blake with a dozen men-of-war to deal +with the Turks in the only effective way. Blake stood into the harbour +of Tunis, burned all the shipping there, and knocked their +fortifications to pieces, with the loss of only twenty-five killed and +forty wounded. He then appeared before Algiers, whither the story of his +victory at Tunis had preceded him, and had no difficulty in arranging +for the release of the whole of the British captives. More than this, +the "Turks" gave British waters a wide berth, and there were no more +complaints of their performances in the Narrow Seas during the +Protectorate. + +But with the re-appearance of the Stuart kings at the Restoration the +old story of outrage and piracy began all over again. The Turks led off +with the sensational capture of Lord Inchiquin, the British Ambassador +to Portugal, who with his whole suite was captured off the Tagus and +publicly sold by auction in the market-place of Algiers. They would +never have dared to act in this manner in the days of Cromwell and +Blake; but they knew well enough that there was mighty little patriotism +about the "Merry Monarch" and his Court and Government. But even Charles +could not stomach the degrading arrangement which was made by the Earl +of Winchelsea, the British Ambassador to Turkey, who had been ordered to +call at Algiers on his way out to negotiate a new treaty with the Dey. +This nobleman actually granted the pirates liberty to search British +vessels and remove all foreigners and their goods. The Earl of Sandwich +and Sir John Lawson were sent with a fleet to Algiers to enforce the +removal of the obnoxious clause from the treaty. They bombarded the +town, but apparently not very effectively. The point was conceded by the +Dey, but as the Algerines, like the modern Huns, regarded all treaties +as "scraps of paper", to be torn up when opportunity offered, the +expedition was practically fruitless. + +The Earl of Inchiquin and his son were eventually ransomed for £1500, +and Charles showed his weakness by indulging in the unfortunately +widespread habit of trying to conciliate the "Turks" by presents of arms +and ammunition, which everyone knew would be used against our own ships +and men. + +From about this time forward the Turkish pirates seem to have generally +kept farther out in the Atlantic. They were especially on the look-out +for our Newfoundland ships. In 1677 six corsairs destroyed seventeen of +these, but one of the Turks was terribly mauled by a small English +frigate, and only escaped by the aid of a dark and stormy night. Our +watch-dogs were settling down to their work at last. The _Concord_ +merchantman bound for America had a stiff fight with a Turkish squadron +in 1678, 120 leagues from the Land's End. One night they fell in with +"The Admiral of Algiers, a new Frigate of 48 guns, called the _Rose_, +and commanded by Canary, a Spanish renegade; the other two Virginiamen, +the one of Plymouth, the one of Dartmouth", evidently captured ships. +There was also a "barque of Ireland". "The Algerian hailed us in +English," says Thomas Grantham, master of the _Concord_, "'From whence?' +We answered, 'From London.' He told us he was the _Rupert_, frigate, and +commanded our boat on board, which our Captain refused, knowing it could +not be the _Rupert_. The Turk kept company with us all night, which gave +us some time to fit our ship, and get our boats out: when it was light +he put abroad his bloody flag[29] at main-topmast head, fires a gun, +and commands us to strike to the King of Algiers and to Admiral Canary. + +[Illustration: THE FIGHT BETWEEN A MERCHANTMAN AND A TURKISH PIRATE + +_Drawn by C. M. Padday_ + +"His sails, masts, and shrouds were all in a blaze. Then we cut loose, +and his mast went by the board."] + +"We gave him a 'What cheer ho', he comes up with us and passes his +broadside upon us, having 13 guns of a side of his lower tier; we +returned him as good a salute as we could; he steered from us, falls +astern, loaded his guns with double head and round partridge,[30] and +then came up again with us, claps us on board, grapples with us on the +quarter, and made fast his spritsail topmast to our main-bowline, our +main-topsail being furled. After 2 or 3 hours dispute, finding he could +not master us, he cut away our boats, and fires us on the quarter, and +our mizzen-yard being shot down, fired our sail which burnt very +vehemently, and immediately set all the after-part of our ship on fire. +Our captain kept the round-house and cuddy, till the fire forced him to +retreat, all that were with him being killed or wounded and being got +down into the great cabin steerage, he sallied out with those that were +there with a resolution rather to be burnt than taken. + +"In the interim, the Turk's foresail hanging in the brails over our poop +took fire; then he would fain have got clear of us, but we endeavoured +to keep him fast, and as many as run up to cut him clear, we fetched +down with our small shot, until his sails, masts, shrouds, and yards, +were all in a blaze; then we cut loose, and immediately his mast to the +deck went by the board, with many men in his top and his bloody flag; +several of the men betook themselves to their boats, but at last they +overcame the fire, as, thanks be to God, we did likewise on board our +ship, having our mizzen-mast burnt by the board and all the after-part +of our ship burnt; there was little or no wind. The Turk got his oars, +and rowed till he was out of fear of us.... We had killed or wounded on +board of us in the action with Canary 21 men, but of Turks, according to +the account from aboard them, at least 70 or 80 are killed." If every +merchantman had put up as good a fight as Captain Thomas Grantham, the +Turks would soon have had to retire from their piratical business. As it +was, they were able to continue their depredations for some years +longer, but not in quite the same wholesale way. The British Navy became +more and more active, and in 1681-2 made prizes of a number of Turkish +vessels, among them the _Admiral of Sally_, the _Two Lyons and Crown of +Argiers_, the _Three Half Moons_, the _Golden Lyon_, and--what a name +for a man-of-war!--the _Flowerpott_. These captures had an immediate +effect. The Algerines became "very inclinable to peace" and offered to +release many English captives "gratis". Their last notable exploit in +British waters was the attempt to capture a transport in which the Royal +Irish Regiment was sailing from Ostend to Cork in 1695. + +The "Turk" in this case was a Salee rover, like the one that attacked +Robinson Crusoe's ship. She gave chase to the transport and overhauled +her, but when she got near enough to see her decks crowded with redcoats +she considered discretion to be the better part of valour and hauled +off. It is probable that occasional forays were made on our shipping by +such marauders in the early part of the eighteenth century, and we have +a very detailed account of the wreck of the _White Horse_, an Algerine +frigate, near Penzance, in September, 1740. The return of the greater +part of her survivors to Algiers on board the _Blonde_ frigate is an +early instance of our national weakness for too tenderly dealing with +alien enemies. Slavery had not been abolished; we could easily and +legitimately have sold them for slaves to the West Indian planters or to +the Knights of Malta, or exchanged them for some of the hundreds of our +fellow-countrymen the pirate cities of North Africa still held in +bondage. But no, we preferred to set them free and to put them in a +position to murder, rob, and enslave yet more Englishmen. + +The very last appearance of the Turkish pirate in our waters I have been +able to find is of so recent a date as 18th May, 1817, when a couple of +Moorish vessels captured a ship coming from Oldenburgh, off the Galloper +Shoal, which is not far from the Goodwin Sands. This must have been a +very exceptional case, though up to the time Lord Exmouth subjected +Algiers to a severe bombardment the "Turks" were still a danger to +merchantmen in southern waters. The pest was not stamped out until the +capture of the famous pirate city by the French in 1830. So confident +and so truculent were the Deys of Algiers as late as the early part of +the nineteenth century that, in 1804, even Nelson, in command of a +powerful fleet, was unable to make the Dey give an interview to Captain +Keats of the _Superb_, whom he had sent as bearer of a letter setting +forth certain British claims. Incredible to relate, no further steps +were taken, and the fleet put to sea and resumed the blockade of Toulon. +We can hardly, therefore, be surprised to read that in the same year the +"Turks" should have had the hardihood to attack the United States +frigate _Philadelphia_, which took the ground off Tripoli when in +pursuit of a pirate. The Americans fought for four hours, but, the ship +being by that time almost on her beam ends, had eventually to strike +their colours, and both officers and men were carried ashore into +slavery. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25] Nicholas. _History British Navy._ + +[26] Massinger. + +[27] From the Parish Books of Portishead, Somerset: Acct. of +Disbursements:-- + + "1722.--Gave 5 sailors taken by Pierates 10_d._ + 1723.--Gave 1 man that had been in turkey 1_d._ + 1726.--Gave 6 poor men tacking by the pirits 6_d._ + 1726.--Gave 7 poor sailors burnt 1_s._" + +Mr. Henry Caer of Portishead, who has been good enough to send me these +extracts, thinks that "burnt" in the last entry means that their ship +had been burnt. + +[28] i.e. "yield". + +[29] This, the old Grecian signal to engage, in 1292 "signified certain +death and mortal strife to all sailors everywhere". In the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries it was constantly used as an emblem of "Defiance" +and "No Quarter". The mutineers at the Nore hoisted it in 1797, as did +the Paris Communists in 1871. + +[30] A species of grape-shot. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Honour of the Flag + + "Ye mariners of England! + That guard our native seas; + Whose flag has braved, a thousand years, + The battle and the breeze! + Your glorious standard launch again + To match another foe. + . . . . . . . + The meteor flag of England + Shall yet terrific burn + Till danger's troubled night depart, + And the star of peace return." + "Ye Mariners of England." THOMAS CAMPBELL. + + +MOST people, as they listen to the inspiring strains of "Rule, +Britannia! Britannia rule the waves", feel a wholesome consciousness of +pride and satisfaction in having the privilege of belonging to a nation +whose sons have almost always been pre-eminent on the ocean; but few +stop to consider what is implied by the expression "rule the waves". + +We are not in any doubt at the present moment of at least one meaning of +the words. Had not our fleet instantly asserted its supremacy at the +very outbreak of the great war with Germany we should have found it very +difficult to get along at all, either with the war or with "business as +usual". Does everybody realize, even now, that the war forced us to try +to do two stupendous things at once--to carry on the biggest struggle in +our history and to keep going the biggest trade and commerce in the +world? It is quite certain that if we had not been able to maintain our +"ruling of the waves", we should soon have been in a state of commercial +collapse. + +But in the old days our claim to the empire of the sea was based on +other considerations, and though nothing more important was at stake +than what may be termed a question of precedence, our naval commanders, +even in those periods when our navy was by no means at its best or +strongest, were always prepared to enforce their claims by instant +resort to arms. Strange to say, it is only since our great victory off +Cape Trafalgar that we have abrogated a claim to an extensive watery +kingdom, extending from Cape Van Staten in Norway to Finisterre in +Spain, which for many hundred years we had fought for, generally +maintained, and asserted in the most imperious manner. According to old +writers on the subject, even the Saxon kings had claimed the kingship of +the "Narrow Seas", which then probably meant what is now the English +Channel. This, in the time of our Norman kings, was actually a channel +through their dominions, and when, by his marriage to the daughter of +the Duke of Aquitaine, Henry II eventually succeeded to that duchy, and +extended his dominions to the south-east corner of the Bay of Biscay, he +naturally felt he had a claim to rule the seas still farther to the +south. + +"The striking of the sail" (that is, lowering it) "is one of the +ancientest prerogatives of the Crown of England," says an old writer, +"and in the second year of King John, it was declared at Hastings by +that Monarch, for a law and custom of the sea, that if a Lieutenant on +any voyage, being ordained by the King, encounter upon the sea any ship +or vessel, laden or unladen, that will not strike or vail their +bonnets[31] at the commandment of the Lieutenant of the King, or of the +Admiral of the King, or his Lieutenant, but will fight against them of +the fleet, that if they can be taken they shall be reputed as enemies; +their ships, vessels, and goods taken and forfeited as the goods of +enemies; and that the common people being in the same, be chastised by +imprisonment of their bodies." The same writer states that this claim +was formally recognized and accepted in the twenty-sixth year of the +reign of Edward I (1297) "by the Agents and Ambassadors of Genoa, +Catalonia, Spain, Almaigne, Zealand, Holland, Friesland, Denmark, +Norway, and divers other places in the Empire, and by all the States and +Princes of Europe". + +There do not seem to have been any definite limitations to our watery +kingdom laid down: it is sometimes convenient not to be too precise. But +the earliest claim was _usque ad finem terrae_, which might mean to the +"Land's End", to "Finisterre" in Brittany, to "Finisterre" in Spain, or +"to the ends of the earth"--all very different things. Certainly the +Spanish Finisterre was regarded as the southern boundary in the +seventeenth century, for in the Rev. H. Teonge's _Diary_, when chaplain +in the _Royal Oak_, we find the following entry written after leaving +Gibraltar for England: "13 May, 1679--An indifferent good gale, and +fayre weather, and at twelve wee are in the King of England's dominions +(_Deo gratia_), that is wee are past Cape Finister and entering on the +Bay of Biscay". + +Monarch after monarch asserted his right to be saluted by foreigners +"taking in their flag and striking their topsail" when within "His +Majesty's Seas", and the Protector Cromwell made the same claim on +behalf of the nation. Our men-of-war had also to be saluted in the same +way by our merchant-ships. Any neglect used to be summarily punished. +Captain Pennington of H.M.S. _Vauntguard_ notes in his _Journal_ that on +6th September, 1633, he had "in the Bilbowes" (that is, fastened by the +legs to an iron bar running along the deck) "Richard Eastwood, Master of +a Sandwich hoye, for not striking his topsayle"! He does not say how +long he kept him there, or whether he handed him over to the civil power +to be prosecuted by the Admiralty. + +Not only the sea but "all that therein is" was considered the property +of the English monarchs. Foreigners were not allowed to fish without +permission, for which they generally had to pay. This was relaxed under +Henry VI, but reasserted later, and the enforcement of payment from +Dutch fishermen for fishing in the North Sea was one of the prime causes +of the wars between Holland and England in the time of the Commonwealth +and of Charles II. For the Dutch thought they were strong enough to +wrest the trident of Neptune from our grasp. They nearly succeeded, but +not quite, and we find William III asserting our claim to sovereignty +afloat just as particularly and definitely as any of his predecessors. + +[Illustration: TEACHING THE SPANIARD "THE HONOUR OF THE FLAG" + +Philip of Spain, arriving in the Straits of Dover on his journey to +England to espouse Mary, flaunts the flag of Spain without paying the +customary salute. Lord Howard of Effingham, the English admiral, soon +brings him to his senses by firing a round shot across his bows.] + +The officers in command of royal ships or fleets were not expected to +refer the matter to higher authority, but were to take action at once, +and made no bones about doing so. Innumerable instances may be +quoted--the only difficulty is to pick out the most interesting cases. +Nor were they respectors of persons. When the gloomy and saturnine +Philip of Spain arrived in British waters, on his way to espouse our +Queen Mary, he came with great pomp and circumstance with a fleet of 100 +sail, flaunting the gaudy flag of Spain even in the Straits of Dover. +Lord Howard of Effingham, sent with a guard of honour of 28 men-of-war +to meet the Prince Consort elect, had no idea of allowing that even in +this very special case, and, seeing no disposition on the part of the +Spanish fleet to pay the customary salute, lost no time in sending over +a gentle reminder in the shape of a round shot. + +The hint was taken, and not till then did Howard go on board to pay his +respects to King Philip. Not many years later a Spanish fleet which was +on its way to Flanders, to bring Anne of Austria back to Spain, tried it +on again on entering Plymouth. Here they found Admiral Hawkins flying +his flag on board the _Jesus of Lubeck_--a ship, by the way, that had +taken part in the Armada fight. Hawkins was not slow in sending the +usual reminder humming through the Spanish admiral's rigging, and, as he +still hesitated to "take in his flag", a second messenger came crashing +into his ship's side. Still trying to avoid paying the usual +compliment, he went personally on board the _Jesus_ to argue the point. +He might have spared his pains. All the satisfaction he got was a +peremptory order to clear out of our seas within twelve hours as a +penalty for his rudeness to the Queen. + +Again, off Calais, the French ambassador was made to render the proper +salute to our admiral of the Narrow Seas, who gave orders to Sir Jerome +Turner, his second in command, to "shoot and strike him", should he +refuse to do so. In 1605 Sir William Monson had a slight difficulty with +a Dutch admiral at the same place. The Dutchmen dipped his flag three +times, but Monson insisted that he should pay the ordained salute and +take it in altogether, or fight the matter out on the spot. The salute +was paid. + +Even in the days of James I, when our fleet was in somewhat a poor way, +its captains insisted as firmly as ever on the customary honour being +paid to our flag. Captain Best of the _Guardland_ sends in a report +about two Dutch men-of-war off Aberdeen, and says: "The Admiral of the +Holland men-of-war hath his flag in her main-top, but giveth it out that +he will not take it in for all the Commanders of His Majesty's ships. +Forty years is within the compass of my knowledge, and I never knew but +that all nations forbear to spread their flags in the presence of the +King's ships. That custom shall not be lost by me. When I come into the +road and anchor by him, if the Admiral will not take in his flag when I +shall require it, I will shoot it down, though it grow into a quarrel." +The last expression is delightful. There certainly would have been the +makings of a "quarrel". This was in 1623. + +Captain Richard Plumleigh took an even wider view of the obligations of +foreigners to pay honour to the English flag. His idea was that they had +to do so even in foreign harbours. He writes to the Admiralty on 23rd +September, 1631: "It was my fortune to speak with one of these two +merchants from whom the French demanded their flag". That is to say +that the French had what he regarded as the impertinence to expect that +they should have "struck" their topsails to them. He goes on: "They shot +at the English some dozen shots and received from the English the like +entertainment, with the loss of one man, by which they sat down and gave +over their pretences.... It hath always been my principal aim to +preserve His Majesty's Naval honnour both in his own seas and abroad, +and for my part I think that it were better that both I and the ship +under my charge were at the bottom of the sea, than that I should live +to see a Frenchman or any other nation wear a flag aloft in His +Majesty's seas and suffer them to pass unfought withal.... I dare engage +my head that with five of H.M. ships I will always clear the way to all +French flagmasters, yea, and make them strike to him upon those which +they call their own seas.... This summer I was at the Texel in Holland, +where come in divers French, and though the Hollanders bade me domineer +at home in England, yet I forebore not to fetch down their flag with my +ordnance." Evidently the gallant captain had strong views on the +subject, and did not hide them under a bushel. But he was not alone in +his determination to uphold the "honnour of the flag" at all costs. + +Pennington, a notable naval officer of that period, has several +incidents of a similar kind to relate in his _Journals_ on board H.M.S. +_Convertive_,[32] _Vauntguard_, and _Swiftsure_, between 1631 and 1636. +He tells us that sailing in the first-mentioned ship, together with the +_Assurance_ and a couple of small vessels known as "whelps"--in search +of "Rovers and Pyrates"--he met a fleet of eleven Dutch men-of-war in +Dover Roads, "whereof two were soe stoute that they would not so much as +settle their topp-sayles untill wee made a shott at each of them, +soe--they doinge their dutyes--wee stood on our course". A few days +later "There came up 4 Dunkerke men-of-warr unto us, who in all +submissive wise, with their topp-sayles and top-gallant sayles lowrd +upon the capp, saluted us accordinge to the custome of the sea"! + +All this seems summary and drastic enough for anybody, so that it is +curious to find the celebrated Sir Walter Raleigh not long before +lamenting British decadence in this respect. "But there's no state grown +in haste but that of the United Provinces, and especially in their sea +forces.... For I myself may remember when one ship of Her Majesty's +would have made forty Hollanders strike sail and come to an anchor. They +did not then dispute _De Mare Libero_, but readily acknowledged the +English to be _Domini Maris Britannici_. That we are less powerful than +we were I do hardly believe it; for, although we have not at this time +135 ships belonging to the subject of 500 tons each ship, as it is said +we had in the twenty-fourth year of Queen Elizabeth; at which time also, +upon a general view and muster, there were found in England of able men +fit to bear arms, 1,172,000, yet are our merchant ships now far more +warlike and better appointed than they were, and the Royal Navy double +as strong as it then was." + +Possibly Raleigh's words had borne fruit in increased vigilance on the +part of the captains of English men-of-war. But the Hollanders were +determined to put the matter to the test. Possibly they thought that as +there was no King of England after the martyrdom of Charles I there +could be no king of the English seas. They began by forbidding their +captains to pay the usual salute under pain of death. It was not long +before Van Tromp sailed defiantly through Dover Straits with all his +flags aloft. He got what he was asking for, a volley of round shot from +Robert Blake, who was on the look-out for him, and at once both fleets +went for each other "tooth and nail". The Dutch were beaten, but in a +second encounter--for by now English and Dutch were openly at war--Blake +got the worst of it, and was driven into the Thames to refit. "Tromp +meanwhile sailed up and down the Channel as a conqueror, with a broom at +his mast-head, thus braving the English navy in those very seas in +which she claimed unrivalled sovereignty".[33] + +[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF THE NORE, JUNE 1653, BETWEEN THE ENGLISH +AND DUTCH] + +But his triumph was short-lived. The British eventually got the upper +hand, and their claims to the sovereignty of their seas were formally +admitted by the Dutch in 1654. Once again the question was fought out in +the days of Charles II, and once again the Dutch were compelled to agree +to strike their sails to even a single ship flying the King's flag. This +was in 1674. Not long before the first Dutch War the Swedes also wished +to question British rights. In 1647 Captain Owen of the _Henrietta +Maria_, having with him only the _Roebuck_, a small craft, with a crew +of forty-five men all told, was refused the salute by a fleet of three +Swedish men-of-war and nine or ten merchant-vessels off the Isle of +Wight. The usual "weighty arguments" were ignored, and the Swedes got +away and anchored in Boulogne Roads. Captain Owen was unable to keep in +touch with them, as they had shot away his tiller, but he got into +Portsmouth and reported the matter, and the Parliament at once ordered +the _St. Andrew_, _Guardland_, _Convertine_, and _Mary Rose_, which were +lying in the Downs, to attend to the matter. Captain Batten, of the +first-named ship, who was in command, at once put to sea, and found the +Swedes still at anchor off Boulogne, but flying no colours at all. +Batten sent for the Swedish commanders to come on board--and they came, +but declared that if their flags _had_ been up they would not have taken +them in, as they had been expressly ordered not to do so. It was rather +a difficult situation. Captain Batten, however, dealt with it by +ordering the Swedish vice-admiral to "come with him", and took him back +to the Downs. He told the remainder to "run away home". However, they +followed the English and their prisoners to the Downs, as their +commanders said that they dare not go home without the vice-admiral. The +affair was then considered by "the Committee of Lords and Commons for +the Admiralty and Cinque Ports", who eventually gave an order for the +release of the culprit. + +Other nations from time to time attempted to exact salutes from foreign +ships in certain places, but apparently without much success. Thus the +Spanish demanded that a French fleet under the Duke of Guise when +passing Gibraltar in 1622 should strike their flags. The Duke refused, +though he said that they had told him that British ships were in the +habit of doing so, and he asked Sir E. Herbert to write and ask the Duke +of Buckingham whether this was true or not. But Herbert smelt a rat; and +though he complied with Guise's request, he wrote: "Be well advised what +answer you return, for I believe that he intends that the French king +should exact the same acknowledgements on the coasts of this country, +which you will never permit, as to the prejudice of the sovereignty that +the Kings of England have always kept in the narrow seas." As regards +the Mediterranean, it was laid down by James II, to prevent disputes +with "the most Christian King",[34] "That whensoever His Majesty's ships +of war shall meet any French men-of-war in the Mediterranean, there +shall no salutes at all pass on either side". William III's orders +were--after the usual directions to make foreigners pay the customary +salute in the English seas--"And you are further to take notice, that in +Their Majesties' Seas, Their Majesties' Ships are in no wise to strike +to any; and that in other parts, no ship of Their Majesties' is to +strike her flag or top-sail to any foreigner unless such foreigner shall +have first struck." + +A final incident must bring this chapter to a close. It indicates a +slightly farther step towards the evacuation of the original position +which we had taken up. This was in the year 1730. Lieutenant Thomas +Smith, R.N., happened to be in temporary command of H.M.S. _Gosport_, +which was lying in Plymouth Sound. In came a French frigate, which, +either on account of ignorance or of design, omitted to strike her +top-sails. Smith, having so many precedents to guide him, though +possibly not very recent ones, sent the usual intimation by hulling her +with a cannon-ball. It was at a time of profound peace, and on the +demand of the French ambassador he was tried and dismissed the Service. +Plumleigh and Pennington must have turned in their graves! But he was +re-appointed to the Navy on the very next day, with the rank of captain, +and for the rest of his life was known as "Tom of Ten Thousand". + +The old regulations remained in force up to the end of the eighteenth +century, but were omitted from those that were published about the +Trafalgar period. The orders given by William III for guidance of +officers when _outside_ English seas were made universal, so that for +some unknown reason we finally abandoned our claims at the very time we +were in a better position to enforce them than we had ever been before. +The old system rather partook of the way the proverbial Irishman in +search of "divarsion" asks "if any gintleman will be good enough to +thread on the tail of his coat", but it had its advantages. Had it been +now in force it is practically certain that some German commander would +have challenged it long before the German fleet had reached its present +proportions, after which there would have been no German fleet. Again, +there could have been no difficulties with neutral nations about +contraband or conditional contraband. As the whole sea from Norway to +Finisterre would have been recognized as British, no one could have +disputed our right to close it to anybody or anything that suited our +book. When it comes to fighting, other nations do not thank us for +having played "Uriah Heep" beforehand. It has possibly induced them to +fight instead of settling the dispute in some other way. + +"Striking the sail" is now a thing of the past, but it is customary for +merchant-vessels to "dip" their flags to kings' ships. As for +men-of-war, they no longer exchange salutes of this kind when they meet +at sea. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] "Bonnet", an extra piece of canvas laced to a sail to enlarge it. +"Vail", to lower. + +[32] Or _Convertine_, originally the _Destiny_. + +[33] Guizot, _Cromwell, and the English Commonwealth_. + +[34] Louis XIV of France. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +The Evolution of Naval Gunnery + + "It was great pity, so it was, + That villanous salt-petre should be digg'd + Out of the bowels of the harmless earth, + Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd + So cowardly; and, but for those vile guns, + He would himself have been a soldier." + Hotspur describing his meeting with a "popinjay" after a battle. + SHAKESPEARE. _King Henry IV._ Act I, Scene iii. + + "Earth and air were badly shaken + By thy humane discovery, Friar Bacon." + BYRON. _Don Juan._ VIII, 33. + + "The hand-spikes, sponges, rammers, crows, + Were well arranged about; + And to annoy Old England's foes, + The Great Guns were run out." + --_Old Verses._ + + +"WHO invented gunpowder?" There is only one definite and reliable answer +to this question, and that is that nobody knows. It has been stated, but +I think that it may be dismissed as a "galley yarn", that the first +mention of artillery is to be found in an account of a naval engagement +between the Phoenicians and Iberians in the year 1100 B.C.--just +eighty-seven years after the siege of Troy. + +The Phoenician war-vessels, it is said, came out of Cadiz--or Gades, as +it was then called--with what their opponents took to be brazen lions at +their bows. These turned out to be some kind of machine from which +enormous flames of fire were projected by explosives, to consume and +destroy the ships of the Iberians. But the most generally accepted +theory now is that gunpowder was invented in China some centuries +before the Christian era and gradually found its way to Europe by way of +India, Arabia, and Africa. As for the stories that it was invented +either by Roger Bacon (1214-92) or by the German monk, Barthold +Schwartz, in 1320, they must be certainly rejected, since there is +evidence that cannon of some kind were in use long previous to Roger +Bacon's birth. Doubtless he wrote something about the composition of +gunpowder, but so might anyone to-day. That would not make him its +inventor. + +Much less, then, can this invention be attributed to the German monk. It +is probably correct that, in pounding certain ingredients in a mortar, +he nearly blew himself "into the middle of next week"--as very many +would-be chemical investigators have done at a much more recent +date--and it may be that the sight of his pestle flying through the +ceiling suggested to him that a mortar might be made of military +use.[35] He may possibly, on this account, be credited with the +invention of the muzzle-loading cannon, for it seems probable that the +guns in use previous to 1320 were merely _cannae_, or tubes open at each +end. The famous battery of three guns, which is said by some historians +to have been used by the English at Crécy, was probably of this kind. +Whether the guns were used there or not, it would not have been the +first time such weapons made their appearance in European warfare, as +seems to be assumed by some writers. + +More than 100 years previously cannon were employed by the Moors at the +siege of Saragossa, in 1118. The Spaniards were not slow to adopt the +invention, and in 1132 they built what is stated to have been a +"culverin" throwing a 4-pound shot. "Culverin", which is a term, +belonging to Tudor times, for a special type of gun, is evidently used +as a general term for "cannon". Like the "Joe Chamberlain" and "Bloody +Mary",[36] manned by the Naval Brigade in the Boer War, and other +prominent specimens of the gun-maker's art, this first European cannon +received a special name. It was christened "Salamonica". I have said +that the Spaniards "built" this weapon. I wrote this advisedly, for all +the earlier cannon were "built up" of staves of iron, or even wood, +strongly hooped together with wrought-iron rings. + +It was a long time before cannon were "founded" or "cast", and now, +strange to say, we have gone back to the original method of manufacture, +which, thanks to modern science and workmanship, has absolutely ousted +what was at its inception considered a wonderful advance in the art of +cannon-making. The early guns, open at both ends, were probably loaded +at the breech, which was then closed by a block of stone or big stake +driven into the ground, close to which the gun itself was fixed in some +kind of a framework. Such guns are to be seen in a picture in +Froissart's _Chronicles_ representing the siege of Tunis by the +Crusaders in 1390, and it is from this that the often-reproduced drawing +of the guns said to have been used at Crécy in 1346 would appear to have +been taken. + +What is said to be the earliest representation of a cannon in England is +to be found in a manuscript of 1326 in the Christ Church Library at +Oxford. It is of quite a different appearance from those just described. +It is in the shape of a fat vase or bottle, and could not well have been +a breech-loader. It is loaded with a big "garot" or dart fitted with a +wooden haft which seems to fit tightly into the neck of the weird +"cannon", which lies on a very rickety looking table. The gunner, clad +in what looks like a suit of Crusader's chain-mail, is an unwary person +who is holding a lighted match to the touch-hole while standing directly +behind the gun. As there is not the slightest indication of anything +whatever to stop the recoil, it seems about three to one that the +discharge would be more disastrous to him than to the enemy. It is +noteworthy that "metal cannons" and "iron balls" were ordered to be +made in this same year at Florence, and in 1331 _vase_ appears to have +been the usual term for the cannon made in Italy, while in France they +were termed _pots de fer_. + +[Illustration: A "Vase" or "Pot-de-fer" + +The "garot", or heavy dart, to be fired from this early gun was provided +with a wooden plug made to fit the bore. The type of "garot" shown on +the right was intended to be fired from a large cross-bow on a stand.] + +This brings us to the earliest indication that I can find of the use of +guns afloat. It is a document dated 1338, in which Guillaume du Moulin, +of Boulogne, acknowledges to have received from Thomas Fouques, the +custodian of the enclosure for the King's galleys at Rouen, a +_pot-de-fer_ to throw "fire garots", together with forty-eight garots in +two cases, 1 pound of saltpetre, and 1/2 pound of sulphur "to make +powder to fire the said garots". Now it seems more than probable that +this _pot-de-fer_ or _vase_ was very similar to that in the Oxford +manuscript and that it was intended for use afloat, or it would not have +been among the stores belonging to the galleys. The recipient being at +Boulogne, we may fairly assume that it was required by him for use on +shipboard. "Garots", we know, were very commonly used in naval actions +at this date, either thrown by hand from the tops or propelled from +espringalds. Moreover, it is evident that the gun open at both ends +would be a great source of danger on board ship. The system of +breech-closing on shore was singularly rough and ineffective; there must +have been nearly as much "back-fire" at the breech as flames from the +muzzle. This would be a constant danger afloat, and, unless a few +_vases_ like those described were sometimes used, it is probable that +cannon were not adopted for sea service until some more regular and +effective breech-closing apparatus had been evolved. But for this seamen +had not very long to wait. + +The progress of gun-making was now proceeding apace, especially in +Germany and Flanders. At first, and for some time, there do not seem to +have been any what we may call "moderate-sized" cannon, or, at any rate, +they are not so much in evidence as the very large ones and the very +small ones. The latter were not bigger than very heavy muskets, and it +was with weapons of this kind that the many-gunned ships of the late +fifteenth and early sixteenth century were principally equipped, though, +as time went on, heavier pieces were added. To show how very small these +little cannon were, it is only necessary to quote from Monstrelet's +_Chronicles_, in which he tells us that, in 1418: "The Lord of Cornwall +... crossed the Seine ... having with him in a _skiff_ a _horse loaded +with small cannons_". When one reads of the extraordinary numbers of +guns which are said to have been used in some mediæval battles and +sieges, one should always bear this passage in mind. + +[Illustration: _Photo by the Author_ + +THE _DULLE GRIETE_ AT GHENT + +This gun dates from 1384, and is very similar to the "marvellous great +bombard" mentioned by Froissart as employed by the men of Ghent to +attack Oudenarde.] + +As for the big guns, they were giants when compared with their smaller +brothers. Old Froissart, whom I have already quoted more than once, +tells of a very notable specimen employed by the "men of Ghent" to +attack Oudenarde: "A marvellous great bombarde, which was fifty feet +long, and threw great heavy stones of a wonderful bigness; when this +bombarde was discharged, it might be heard five leagues by day, and ten +at night, making so great a noise in going off, that it seemed as if all +the devils in hell were abroad". All traces of this monster have +disappeared, but an 18-feet gun of probably an exactly similar type is +still to be seen at Ghent--unless the Germans have stolen it. This gun +dates from about 1384, and has a bore something like 25 inches in +diameter. As perhaps none of us are likely to be in Ghent for some time, +we can see a rather smaller but almost duplicate weapon in +Edinburgh--the celebrated "Mons Meg". Though she is supposed to have +been built 100 years later, it is quite possible that both were turned +out at the same manufactory. The Scots gun evidently came from Mons in +Flanders, and the Flemish gun is also called "Meg", i.e. the _Dulle +Griete_ or "Mad Margery" or "Meg". Another bigger and more handsomely +finished gun of the same type, dating from 1464, is to be seen at the +Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich. This is a Turkish piece, and is said +to have been "cast", while "Mons Meg" and her sisters are all built-up +guns, as can be at once seen on inspection by the most amateur eyes. +There are several others on the Continent, notably the two "Michelets" +which were left at Mont St. Michael when the siege of that place was +abandoned by the English in 1427. The siege began in 1423, so they may +date from a good many years earlier. As the English batteries were +erected on the Isle of Tombelaine, which is 3000 yards distant from the +mount, some idea may be obtained of the distance to which these early +cannon could hurl their granite projectiles. + +[Illustration: The Gun with which we won the Great War with France + +Observe the heavy breeching-rope attaching the gun to the ship's side; +the tackle and block for running in and out; the wooden wheels, and the +"quoins" or wedges for elevating the gun.] + +Such cannon were all built up of long rectangular bars of iron upon +which heavy rings of the same material were shrunk, the whole weapon, on +completion, forming a heavy and extremely tough cylinder of wrought +iron. The chambers, or breech-pieces, for the reception of the +powder-charge, were built separately, with much thicker sides and +smaller bores than the rest of the gun, into which they were screwed. +The guns must not, I think, be therefore considered breech-loaders; for +though it may be possible that they were screwed in and out at each +discharge, I think it more probable that, as they were such heavy masses +of metal, the breech-pieces were left screwed up and the charges +inserted at the muzzle. But when cannon came to be made of more moderate +dimensions--big enough to be effective against walls and the sides of +ships, and small enough to be transported with reasonable facility--some +system of breech-loading was almost universal. I say "almost", because +guns began to be cast in brass in Germany at a comparatively early date, +and such guns were probably often muzzle-loaders, since cast brass would +not have been strong enough for the breech-closing methods in vogue. +These were comparatively simple. The breech of the gun, which was built +up much in the same way as Mons Meg and others of the same kidney, +terminated in a species of trough. Into this trough fitted an iron +cylinder which contained the charge of powder and was called a +"chamber". The muzzle of the chamber was bevelled off or turned down so +as to fit into the breech end of the bore of the gun itself, and was +held in position by iron wedges, generally at the rear end, but +sometimes across the top. In some of the larger types the trough was +made in the huge block of tough oak to which the gun was fastened. In +the Tower of London you can see a gun of this kind that was fished up +from the wreck of the _Mary Rose_. As most guns were provided with at +least two "chambers", one would imagine that a fairly rapid fire could +have been kept up, at any rate with the smaller guns. This, however, +would not seem to have been the case, for the French account of the +battle off St. Helens (when the _Mary Rose_ capsized), which lasted for +two hours, and in which a considerable number of ships were engaged, +mentions that 300 rounds were fired as a fact indicating the uncommon +fierceness of the fighting. And yet the _Henri Grace à Dieu_ alone +carried over 100 guns of various sizes! + +But at first, even at a time when artillery of one kind or another was +in common use on land, very few guns were carried afloat. Very likely +the reason was that few were suitable; they were either too big, too +small, or, as before suggested, could not be safely closed at the +breech. Thus in the reign of Henry IV, 1399-1413, the _Christopher_, a +rather important man-of-war, only carried "three iron guns with five +chambers, one hand-gun, and one small barrel of powder". The barge +_Mary_ (_Marie de la Tour_) carried one iron gun with two chambers and +one brass gun with one chamber. Another _Mary_ (of Weymouth) had also +one brass and one iron gun, the _Bernard_ had two iron guns, and a ship +referred to as the _Carrake_ one. The _Christopher's_ guns are said to +have been "stoked". This may possibly mean fitted with "stocks" or oaken +beds, like those previously referred to, in which case her guns were +probably larger and heavier than those in the other ships. The invention +of port-holes was probably coincident with the adoption of really heavy +artillery afloat. Before then it would not have been safe to have +carried such heavy weights on the upper decks of the kind of ship then +existing. The _Great Michael_ may possibly be taken as an exception, for +she could hardly have had port-holes cut in her 10-foot thick sides. At +the same time, since her heavy guns were probably breech-loaders, they +may have been practically built into her sides, since at that time there +was no such thing as training a heavy gun right or left on board ship. + +With the numerous batteries of small guns also carried on board ships of +this period, it was quite a different matter. They were mounted on +swivels on the gunwale, or in openings or ports in the fore- and +after-castles as well as in the tops. Others, and among them certain +wide-mouthed pieces known as "murderers", were distributed in what were +known as the "cubbridge heads", or those sides of the fore- and +after-castles which faced inboard and commanded the waist of the ship. +Here it was to be expected an enemy's boarders would make their assault, +and here--the crew having retired fore and aft--they would be mowed down +by charges of all sorts of iron fragments from the "murderers". The same +system of dealing with boarders lasted some time after the disappearance +of the lofty "castles" at bow and stern; strong athwart-ships bulkheads +being provided at bow and stern both on the upper and main decks. + +It was in Henry VIII's time that the manufacture of cast-iron guns, for +which England soon became famous, began in this country. One Ralph +Hogge,[37] at Buxted, in Sussex, cast the first iron cannon. This is +said to have been in 1543, and it is stated that the house in which this +was done is still standing near the church of that village, and that it +has the figure of a hog with the date 1581 carved over the door. There +is another story to the effect that this early gunfounder's name was +John Howe, and that there is the following distich, cut in stone, still +extant in Buxted:-- + + "I, John Howe, and my man John, + We two cast the first cannon". + +This invention may be said to have sealed the fate of the heavy +breech-loading gun for some centuries, though the system remained in +vogue for small pieces for another 200 years. A cast-iron or brass +muzzle-loading gun could be made so much more easily, rapidly, and +cheaply than a built-up wrought-iron breech-loader of the same calibre +that with the growing demand for guns afloat there is little wonder that +the former drove the more expensive weapon clean out of the field. It +must be remembered, too, that the casting of bronze guns had already +reached great perfection on the Continent. What is known as "Queen +Elizabeth's pocket pistol" at Dover is a standing witness to this. It is +supposed to have been cast at Utrecht, and to have been presented to +Henry VIII by the Emperor Charles V in 1544. It is 24 feet long, and is +a very fine piece of workmanship. Its bore is 58 calibres long--that is +to say, it is fifty-eight times as long as its diameter, a proportion +not very unlike that upon which some of our most modern weapons are +designed. + +[Illustration: Early Breech-loading Cannon + +The first was an Armada weapon. This type of gun remained in use afloat +well into the eighteenth century] + +But to return to our early naval cannon. As I have already pointed out, +the casting of bronze guns in Germany and Flanders had reached a great +pitch of perfection long before anything of the sort was made in +England. Germany, in fact, may be said to have led in gunnery for a +considerable period. The master gunners in most armies seem to have +been Germans, and at the accession of Queen Elizabeth we were buying our +powder from the German Hansa Company established in the Steel Yard in +London, instead of making sufficient for ourselves. There were many +brass guns afloat in Henry VIII's navy besides the wrought-iron +breech-loaders. Some of fine workmanship were found in the wreck of the +_Mary Rose_, as well as those of the latter class which have been +already mentioned. As an indication of the cost and labour expended on +such weapons, it may be instanced that a bronze gun cast in Germany in +1406 took from Whitsuntide to Michaelmas to finish, and required 52-1/2 +hundredweight of copper and 3-1/2 hundredweight of tin. The metal cost +422 florins, while the master gun-founder received 86 florins for his +pains. + +The heaviest weapon afloat in Tudor times was the curtall or curtow, +generally of brass, and firing a 60-pound shot. The culverin was rather +lighter and longer. There were a whole host of fancy names--and +doubtless fancy types--for ordnance at this time, several of which have +already been referred to as forming the armament of the _Great Michael_. +Space forbids further enumeration or description, which, in any case, +would be impossible on account of the very different guns which are +called indiscriminately by the same name. But by the Armada days the +following were the principal guns used afloat:-- + + Name. Bore. Weight of Shot. + Double cannon 8-1/2 inches 66 pounds + Whole cannon 8 " 60 " + Demi-cannon 6-1/2 " 32 " + Whole culverin 5-1/2 " 17 " + Demi-culverin 4-1/2 " 9 " + Saker 3-1/2 " 51 " + Minion 3 " 4 " + Falcon 2-1/2 " 2 " + Falconet 2 " 1-1/2 " + Robinet 1 " 1 "[38] + +The "double cannon" is sometimes called a "cannon royal" or a +"carthoun". The "saker" is often spelt "sacre". The "culverin"--a name +that occurs rather more frequently than any other at this time--was so +called from the lugs or handles for hoisting it in and out of its +carriage, which were made in the form of an ornamental serpent.[39] + +Although the English cast-iron cannon almost at once achieved such a +reputation that they sold in Amsterdam for £40 a ton, for £60 in France, +and for no less than £80 in Spain, though costing only £12 a ton in this +country; and though they were bought so freely at these high prices by +foreigners that in 1574 their export was totally forbidden, yet it would +appear that the Royal Navy was then using nothing but brass guns, except +perhaps in the case of the smaller pieces. But the merchantmen used iron +guns. Thus when James I sent an expedition of six men-of-war and a dozen +armed merchant-ships against the Algerines in 1620, all the former +carried brass and all the latter iron guns. The men-of-war were heavily +gunned, so much so, indeed, that it was not unusual for their captains +to dismount a few of their heaviest pieces and stow them as ballast for +the safety of the ship. The _Prince Royal_, for instance, carried a +battery of two "cannon perriers" (i.e. throwing stone shot), six +demi-cannon, twelve culverins, thirteen sakers, and four light pieces. +The famous _Sovereign of the Seas_ in the next reign mounted twenty +cannon, eight demi-cannon, thirty-two culverins, and forty-two +demi-culverins--all brass guns--and probably some small iron falconets +as well. On each gun was engraved the rose and crown, the sceptre and +trident, anchor and cable. The engraving cost £3 per gun, but we must +remember that the _Sovereign_ was a "show ship". + +According to an artilleryman who wrote in the first half of the +seventeenth century, three shots an hour was about as much as an +ordinary gun would stand, "always provided that after 40 shots you +refresh and cool the piece[40] and let her rest an houre, for fear lest +80 shots should break the piece". But I think we may credit our seamen +with being able to fire their guns a bit faster than that. Constant +running out of powder seems to have been the great trouble in the +English fleet engaged in the discomfiture of the "Invincible" Armada. +And not only did the English ships carry heavier ordnance and fire +heavier broadsides than the Spaniards, so that the British cannon +"lacked them through and through", but our gunners are said to have +fired their pieces three times to the Spaniards' one. This is a Spanish +estimate, and it is abundantly evident that our gunnery proved at least +as superior as it did over that of the Germans in Sir David Beatty's +victory off the Friesland coast in January, 1915. Later on, at the +battle of La Hogue (1692) the British ships were able to fire three +broadsides to every two of the French. + +[Illustration: Early Attempts at Maxim Guns + +In all probability each barrel of the first gun had to be loaded +separately and fired by hand, one after another. In the second case, the +eight little cannon are apparently secured to a kind of turntable, to be +revolved by hand.] + +Coming to the navy of the Commonwealth, we find the same curiously named +guns in use. Here is the battery of the _Naseby_: Nineteen cannon, nine +demi-cannon, twenty-eight culverins, thirty demi-culverins, and five +sakers. The same classification lasted till the time of George I, when +it became the custom to designate guns by the weights of their +projectiles. Thenceforward we find ship-armaments reckoned in +42-pounders, 32-pounders, 24-pounders, 12-pounders, and 6-pounders. The +old 60-pounder had disappeared, and before long the 42-pounder followed +it into temporary oblivion, so that at Trafalgar our heaviest gun was a +32-pounder.[41] It was not until nearly 1840 that it reappeared, and was +followed by a 68-pounder. + +During the period between Elizabeth and Trafalgar there were innumerable +attempts to invent and introduce improved forms of ordnance, including +shell-guns and machine-guns. The idea of the latter was extremely +ancient. There are several manuscript illuminations and old wood-cuts +of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries showing attempts at a "Maxim" +gun. The "orgue", consisting of a large number of very small guns or +musket-barrels fixed in rows, or revolving rings, or bundles, was a +common weapon in those centuries--at least on shore. Then there was +something of the kind for which William Drummond was given a patent in +1625, and which he termed a "thunder carriage". Again, there was one +Puckle, who in 1781 invented a regular revolving gun mounted on a +tripod. It was made in two patterns--one to fire ordinary round bullets, +the other to fire square ones--against the "unspeakable Turk". Puckle +thought these infidels ought to get as nasty a wound as possible. With +his specification he issued a doggerel which ran as follows:-- + + +A DEFENCE! + + "Defending King George, your country and Lawes + Is defending yourselves and Protestant Cause". + +The invention did not "catch on", and under a picture of the weapon +which appeared on the eight of spades in a pack of cards of the period +was another attempt at poetry: + + "A rare Invention to destroy the Crowd + Of Fools at Home, instead of Foes Abroad. + Fear not, my Friends, this terrible Machine; + They're only wounded that have Shares therein". + +Neither machine-guns nor shell-guns were to appear before the Victorian +Era, the reason probably being that there was no machinery capable of +turning them and their component parts out in payable quantities. As for +shell-guns, mortars were found to answer very well; no navy wanted to +introduce a form of warfare that would be absolutely destructive of +wooden shipping, and so we find that they did not long precede the +appearance of the modern ironclad. But towards the end of the eighteenth +century a new and practical weapon was invented by General Melville with +the idea of producing a gun which should fire a comparatively large +projectile for its weight. To effect this, something, of course, had to +be sacrificed, and this was length, both of the gun itself and of its +range and also penetration. But, as naval actions then took place at +close quarters, this did not count for much, and what was lost in +penetration was more than made up for by the smashing effect of the +heavy shot. In fact, the gun itself was at first termed a "smasher", +but, from the fact that most of them were cast at the famous Carron +foundry in Scotland, they soon became universally known as "carronades". + +In the days of wooden ships the "carronade" became a most useful weapon. +The smaller kind were light, took up little space, and were just the +things for merchant-men and small craft; while the bigger +class--generally 68-pounders--were valuable auxiliaries to the batteries +of our line-of-battle ships. The carronade was essentially a British +gun, and its efficiency was never more conspicuous than in the fight +between H.M.S. _Glatton_, a converted East Indiaman, and a French +squadron of four frigates and two corvettes, which took place off the +coast of Flanders on 15th July, 1796. + +[Illustration: _Photo. Symonds & Co._ + +THE MAIN GUN DECK ON H.M.S. _VICTORY_ + +Typical of a ship's battery in the palmiest days of our Wooden Walls. +The thick rope "breechings", the blocks and tackles for running the guns +in or out, and securing them for sea, are clearly shown. So also are the +"trucks" or wheels, and the "quoins" or wedges for elevating or +depressing the guns. Overhead are suspended the Sponge, Rammer, and +Worm, for each gun. The latter is the implement with a double corkscrew +for withdrawing a cartridge.] + +The British ship, whose armament consisted of a main battery of +68-pounder carronades, with 32-pounders on her upper deck--fifty guns in +all--completely defeated and drove off her six assailants, who retreated +to Flushing with their decks ripped up, besides other terrible damages, +one of them being so badly mauled that she sank on arrival in port. Had +not the _Glatton_ been a very slow sailer she could have destroyed the +lot. As it was, she effected her victory with only two casualties--Captain +Strangeways of the Marines mortally, and a private marine slightly +wounded. + +It may be interesting to note the armament carried by Nelson's _Victory_ +at the Battle of Trafalgar, in order that it may be compared with that +of some earlier ships of which particulars have been given and with +those of our modern battleships, which will be found in a later chapter. + +On that memorable day the famous old three-decker which still swings at +her buoy in Portsmouth harbour mounted-- + + On her lower deck, thirty 32-pounders; + On her middle deck, thirty 24-pounders; + On her main deck, thirty-two 12-pounders; + On her upper deck, eight 12-pounders, and four 32-pounder carronades. + +The upper-deck 12-pounders were 2 feet shorter than those on the main +deck, and only weighed 21 cwt., as against their 34, but the 32-pounder +carronades only weighed 17 cwt. This will give an idea of the +comparative lightness of these weapons. The guns at this period, and +indeed since Elizabethan times, were mounted on carriages formed of two +wooden sides or cheeks strongly connected together by timber +cross-pieces or "transoms", and placed on four solid wooden wheels or +"trucks". They were secured to the ship's side by thick ropes or +"breechings" passing round the breech of the gun, and long enough to +allow of a certain recoil on being fired. The gun was run out again +by blocks and tackles, which could also be used to haul it inboard +without its being fired, in order to secure it for sea and close the +port. It was trained from side to side by means of hand-spikes or levers +placed under the rear of the carriage, and elevated in a similar manner, +the hand-spikes being used to raise or lower the breech of the gun, +while the "quoin", or wedge, supporting it was being adjusted. Similar +carriages remained in use in our navy far into the 'eighties of last +century, being used for the "converted 64-pounder", which was the old +smooth-bore 68-pounder lined with a rifled steel tube. I have drilled at +such guns myself. It was fine exercise, and it was necessary to be +pretty smart and have all one's wits about one to get outside the +breeching, if a loading number, before the gun was run out. The +13·5-inch gun of to-day is, thanks to hydraulics, manipulated with a +tithe of the exertion required to serve a truck gun. Here are the orders +for "Exercise at the Great Guns" which obtained in 1781, and are +considerably simpler than those previously in vogue: + + 1. "Silence." + 2. "Cast loose your guns." + 3. "Level your guns." + 4. "Take out your tompions." + 5. "Run out your guns." + 6. "Prime." + 7. "Point your guns." + 8. "Fire." + 9. "Sponge your guns." + 10. "Load with cartridge." + 11. "Shot your guns." + 12. "Put in your tompions." + 13. "House your guns." + 14. "Secure your guns." + +"Tompions" are a species of plug used to close the muzzle of a gun when +not in action. In the "days of wood and hemp" they were usually painted +red, but in modern guns they are generally faced with gun-metal, +decorated in some cases with the badge of the ship. "Prime" means to +place loose powder in the pan after having pierced the cartridge with a +"priming wire" thrust through the touch-hole or vent. To "house" was to +haul the gun inboard ready for securing. + +The smooth-bore gun remained the naval weapon right up to the Crimean +War, though explosive shells gradually began to be used as well as the +old solid round shot. The rifling of muskets and cannon had often been +suggested by inventors as far back as Tudor times, and occasionally a +few experimental rifled muskets were made. But in the war with Russia, +in which most of the combatants were armed with muzzle-loading rifles, +rifled cannon began to make their appearance. The Lancaster gun, with a +twisted oval bore, was the first rifled naval gun, and was thought a +great deal of in its day. Then came the breech-loading Armstrong guns. +These were very finely turned out weapons with poly-groove rifling, and +closed at the breech by a species of block which lifted in and out and +had somewhat the appearance of a carriage clock. It was held in position +by a hollow screw through which the charge and projectile were loaded +into the gun, and which was screwed up tight against the breech-block +before firing. This was not a very satisfactory system, since, if not +properly screwed taut, the block had a habit of blowing out, sometimes +with unfortunate results. It was probably for this reason that none of +these guns was made bigger than a 100-pounder. The projectiles for the +Armstrong gun were covered with leaden jackets in order to take the +rifling. This jacket every now and again flew off, which rendered these +guns very unsafe to use over the heads of our own troops. + +[Illustration: NAVAL GUNNERY IN THE OLD DAYS + +An 18-ton gun in action at the bombardment of Alexandria. The gun has +just recoiled after firing. No. 1 is "serving the vent". The sponge end +is being passed to be thrust out of the small scuttle in the middle of +the port (which is closed as soon as the gun is fired), so that the big +wet end can be placed in the gun.] + +The consequence was that while the Germans went in for the Krupp +breech-loading system, in which the breech is closed by a sliding block +across it, and the French for the interrupted-screw breech-closing plug, +the prototype of our present system, we gave up breech-loaders and went +in for built-up, muzzle-loading guns. Their advocates claimed for them +simplicity, comparative cheapness, and other virtues, but, as a matter +of fact, we were entirely on "the wrong tack" and were gradually being +left behind in gun-construction by other nations. These big +muzzle-loaders were formed by shrinking successive jackets over a +steel tube which formed the bore. They were rifled with a few wide, +shallow grooves, their projectiles being fitted with gun-metal studs +intended to travel along the rifling and so give them the spinning +movement requisite for accuracy. The biggest guns of this class +constructed in this country were the 80-ton guns carried by the +_Inflexible_ at the bombardment of Alexandria, though the Italians, who +followed us in sticking to muzzle-loaders for a time, had guns of 100 +tons. Of course the biggest guns had special hydraulic mountings, but +the broadside guns of 7-, 8-, 9-, or 10-inch bore were mounted on +carriages invented by a Captain Scott. These consisted of a pair of iron +brackets, or sides, supporting the gun, which ran in and out on slides +made of iron girders that could be trained to the right or left by means +of tackles, or in most cases by cog wheels working on curved and cogged +racers. The carriage on which the gun was mounted had rollers beneath it +with eccentric axles, so that, unless these were raised by levers +supplied for the purpose, the carriage itself rested on the slide. This +helped to check the recoil, further restrained by a system of +interlocking plates on the carriage and slide which could be compressed +together by a hand-wheel and screw. + +After the gun had recoiled inboard and had been reloaded, the +compressors were slackened and the gun-carriage put on its rollers, so +that it ran down the slightly-sloping slide to its firing-position. But +for all its simplicity there were very many disadvantages attendant on +the muzzle-loader. One very important one was the impossibility of +preventing the gases caused by the explosion of the powder from escaping +past the projectile, so that part of the force of the explosion was +wasted. In breech-loading guns the projectile fits the rifling +closely--it could not be forced through the gun by the rammer from the +rear--being provided with a copper driving-band of slightly bigger +circumference than the bore. When the gun is fired, this is driven into +the grooves of the rifling, rotates the shot, and at the same time stops +any escape of gas and consequently of energy. Thus, size for size, a +breech-loading gun must have greater range and penetration than a +muzzle-loader. A breech-loader can be made much longer than a +muzzle-loader into the bargain, as it is not necessary to get to the +muzzle to load it. This also makes for accuracy and penetration. + +[Illustration: _Photo. Cribb, Southsea_ + +13.5-INCH GUNS ON H.M.S. _CONQUEROR_ + +The muzzles of the monster cannon are closed by plugs or "tompions" with +handsome designs in burnished gun-metal. Above the higher turret is seen +a "Barr & Stroud" range-finder in a canvas case.] + +It was a considerable time before those in this country who had stuck to +the muzzle-loading system through thick and thin could be brought to see +the error of their ways, but after 1880 breech-loaders much of the +French type were introduced into the navy, till we reached the monster +110-ton guns carried in the _Benbow_, _Sanspareil_, and the ill-fated +_Victoria_. As I have already mentioned, the French guns were closed at +the breech by an "interrupted screw". What this is may be shortly +explained. Imagine a screw plug about one and a half times as long as +its diameter, with a close thread to it. Now, to screw this in and out +of the breech of the gun would be a matter taking an appreciable time. +Suppose, now, that we take this screw plug and divide the outside of +it--the screw part--perpendicularly into six equal parts. Then, if we +cut away the thread of the screw on every other sixth, we shall have +three-sixths smooth and the other three-sixths with the screw-thread +still standing out upon them. If now we treat the corresponding +screw-thread in the breech of the gun itself in a similar manner, and +then insert the plug with the three threaded portions in line with the +three smooth portions cut in the gun, we can push it directly in to its +full length, after which a sixth of a turn will lock the threaded parts +together and securely close the breech. This has proved amply strong +enough to resist the immense strain imposed by the explosion of the +charge; but while the principle has been retained in all our +cannon--except the small 3- and 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns, which have a +sliding block--it has been so improved that the locking of the breech +is still stronger, and in all but our very big guns it can be opened and +closed with just about as much ease as a cupboard door. Of course, in +monsters like the 12-, 13·5-, and 15-inch guns, hydraulic machinery is +brought into play, by means of which their immense breech-blocks are +manipulated with the greatest ease by the movement of various levers. + +Machine-guns at one period were introduced into the naval service for +the special purpose of defence against torpedo-boats, but smaller +rifle-calibre weapons were also supplied for use in the tops, boats, and +in landing operations. The first-mentioned were "Nordenfeldt" guns, +firing steel projectiles of 1 inch diameter in volleys of two or five. +These proved too small to deal with the torpedo-boat, which grew bigger +and bigger and was superseded by the destroyer; and were replaced +successively by 3-, 6-, and 12-pounder rapid-fire guns. But at the +present time a 4- or 6-inch shell is required to be really effective +against the big destroyers which are now in commission. The +rifle-calibre guns were at first Gatlings with revolving barrels, then +Gardner and Nordenfeldt volley-firing guns, and lastly the well-known +Maxim. Some of these are still carried on board ship but are not now of +use in a naval action, though they are most valuable when bluejackets +and marines are landed for shore service, and, upon occasion, in the +boats. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[35] In the Civil War, according to Warburton's _Memoirs of Prince +Rupert_, apothecaries' mortars were sometimes used in emergencies. + +[36] In Henry V's expedition to Harfleur he took with him, among others, +two big guns known as the "London" and "the King's Daughter". + +[37] Sometimes called Hugget. + +[38] Compiled from five authorities, who differ slightly. + +[39] Lat., _coluber_, a serpent. + +[40] In 1586 "gunners were provided with milk and vinegar to cool their +pieces". + +[41] There may have been some 68-pounder _carronades_ in action. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Evolution of the Ironclad Battleship + + "Our ironclads and torpedo-boats + Have never met the foe, + But times of peace don't alter us, + Our hearts are right, you know; + As right and tight as in the days + When glorious fights were won, + And if duty call, we'll on them fall + With torpedo, ram, and gun, my boys, + With torpedo, ram, and gun. + They may blow us up, + They may blow us down, + They may blow us every way; + But we'll sink or win, + And ne'er give in, + Though they blow us right away, my boys, + Though they blow us right away!" + "Sink or Win" (Joe the Marine). From "Per Mare", + Jane's _Naval Annual_, 1895. + + +WE are accustomed to think of the armour-clad war-ship as entirely a +thing of to-day, or at any rate of the last fifty or sixty years. This +is, however, not altogether correct. Armour is not necessarily steel or +iron--witness the derivation of "cuirass" from the French _cuir_, i.e. +"leather". A French battleship is called _cuirassé_. + +Protective devices of various kinds and materials have been used for +hundreds, nay thousands, of years for the defence of ships specially +designed for fighting purposes, though never, it must be admitted, so +generally and extensively as at the present day. Raw hides were +constantly used in ancient and mediæval times to protect ships and the +wooden towers used in sieges on shore. Thick felt was also utilized for +this purpose. The Normans hung their galleys with this material in a +battle with the Saracens off Palermo in 1071, and it played not only a +defensive but a decorative part in the equipment of the big "dromons" of +the Saracens and Byzantines, which were covered with thick woollen cloth +soaked in vinegar to render it fire-proof, and hung with mantlets of red +and yellow felt--a rather gaudier war-jacket than the slate-grey of our +"Dreadnoughts". + +Whatever the advantages of felt, there were naval constructors who stood +fast by the old "adage", "There's nothing like leather". Thus, at the +siege of Tyre in 1171 and the forcing of the entrance of the Nile in +1218, an extensive use was made of a species of small craft known as +"barbots" or "duck-backs", whose crews were protected by a strong domed +deck or roof covered with leather. Again, in 1276, Pedro III of Aragon +_cuirassed_ two of his biggest ships with leather--probably raw +hides--before sending them to engage the fleet of Charles of Anjou. Lead +was also used for ship armour in mediæval times. It is said that the +great dromon captured by Richard I off Beyrout had some kind of leaden +plating. Later on, this heavy metal preceded copper as a sheathing for +the under-water portions of ships: the _Grande Françoise_, launched in +1527, was lead-sheathed from her keel to the first wale above her +water-line. Three years later than this date a regular "lead-clad" was +launched at Nice, where she had been built to the order of the Knights +of Malta, who had not very long before been driven out of Rhodes by the +Turks. + +This big vessel, the _Santa Anna_, was a regular "Dreadnought" in her +day. While as fast as other unprotected vessels of her time, she was +heavily plated with lead, fastened to her sides with brazen bolts, from +her upper deck down to her keel; and this armour was so strengthened by +the thick backing of her timbers that, "having been many times engaged, +and received much cannonading, she was never pierced below the +bulwarks". She carried fifty heavy guns, besides numerous smaller +pieces, of which not a few were carried aloft in her many fighting-tops. + +It is interesting to note that she had a large armoury, a chapel, +forges, a bakery, and a band. "She had various lodges and galleries +round the poop, and chests and boxes full of earth, wherein were planted +cypresses and divers other trees and flowering shrubs, after the fashion +of a garden, small but beautiful." This is about the only garden I have +ever heard of afloat, except the mythical "garden in the main-top", +where are said to be grown any vegetables, "tin-bag" or other, which +arouse the inquisitiveness of ship-visitors. But the main-top has now +gone, and I suppose the "garden" with it. + +It has been stated, but without any authority being quoted for the +statement, that "chain-netting of iron was suspended to the sides of +men-of-war, which were also strengthened by plates in the time of Henry +VIII and Elizabeth". I should say this is very doubtful, since Sir +William Monson, in his _Naval Tracts_, published at that period, does +not mention this practice, although he refers to a number of other +protective devices. But, as we have already seen, iron was used as a +protection--probably against ramming--by the Viking ships of many +centuries before this time. + +The first regular ironclad ship armed with cannon appears to be that +quaint craft christened the _Finis Belli_, which was constructed by the +burghers of Antwerp what time they were closely besieged by the +redoubtable Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, in the year 1585. With +this floating battery, for it was little else, the besieged hoped to be +able to break the Spanish blockade. There are various accounts of her. +One states that she was protected by iron plates, another that her sides +were from 5 to 10 feet thick, "filled with rotten nets, well rammed in, +which made them firm and almost impenetrable". Probably the hull proper, +which was very low in the water, was protected in this way, and the +built-up battery or casemate, which she had amidships, was covered more +or less with iron. She mounted twenty heavy guns, besides lighter +pieces, and carried a large number of musketeers, some in her +fighting-tops, some behind a loopholed bulwark over her battery, and +others, "which could not be hurt, being lodged lower than the cannon +could batter". + +[Illustration: The _Finis Belli_, the first regular Ironclad Ship armed +with Cannon + +The funnel on the poop is presumably the galley funnel, though placed in +an unusual position.] + +Unfortunately for _les braves Belges_ the _Finis Belli_ was a total +failure. In spite of her three rudders she was "very troublesome to +govern", and eventually ran aground and had to be abandoned. The Spanish +besiegers laughed prodigiously at this effort, and nicknamed the +abandoned ironclad the _Caramanjula_ or "Bogey-bogey". As for her +designers, they re-named her _Perditæ Expensæ_, or "Money thrown away". + +[Illustration: Japanese Ironclad of about 1600 A.D. + +(_From a drawing by a Japanese Naval Officer_) + +With hull covered with plates of copper and iron, two rudders, one at +the bow and one at the stern; and a paddle-wheel as her propelling +machinery, fitted inside.] + +The Dutch patriots struggling for freedom from Spanish tyranny had +tried their hands at a somewhat similar contrivance about ten years +earlier, which was known as _The Ark of Delft_. This seems to have been +a double-hulled arrangement, with three hand-turned paddle-wheels placed +between the two hulls. The _Ark_ only rose 5 feet above the water-line, +was 110 feet long and 46 feet broad. She mounted twenty guns, and "a +large gallery was suspended from her three military masts"--whatever +that may mean. It is a curious but generally accepted fact that a great +many more or less modern "inventions" have been forestalled in the Far +East. Gunpowder was first made in China; water-tight compartments were +commonly used in the ships of that country hundreds of years before they +found a place in our men-of-war. It is not altogether strange, +therefore, that the Japanese should have been in possession of what may +well have been a pretty formidable armour-clad so far back as the year +1600--a remarkable-looking craft, more like a big turtle than anything +else. She was cased with hexagonal plates of iron and copper, fitted +closely together. She had a rudder at both bow and stern, and was +propelled by a paddle-wheel amidships, something like the _Ark of +Delft_. A Captain Saris, who made a voyage to Japan in 1613, mentions +that he there saw a junk of from 800 to 1000 tons, sheathed all over +with iron. This was probably the one just described, which, by the way, +is stated to have carried a battery of cannon. + +It is hardly necessary to point out that impenetrability does not +necessarily imply armoured protection. An earthen rampart may well be +impenetrable, as may a thick-sided wooden ship, as was the _Great +Michael_ to the artillery of her day; yet, while affording protection to +those behind it, neither the one nor the other is armoured. Between 1600 +and 1800 there were many attempts at special forms of protection, from +the floating batteries employed by the English in the mismanaged +expedition to La Rochelle to the famous Spanish floating batteries +destroyed at the Siege of Gibraltar in 1781; but iron ship-armour does +not appear again till the year of Trafalgar. + +In the _Naval Chronicle_ for that year we have an account of a vessel +designed by a son of the General Congreve who is famous as being the +inventor of the "Congreve rocket", once a somewhat highly esteemed +missile. The ship--it does not appear whether it was actually built or +not--was intended for the attack of the French invasion flotillas which +were blockaded inside their ports by our fleets. It was to have sloping +sides covered with iron plates and bars, proof against any gun of the +period, and was to be armed with four big mortars and the same number of +42-pound carronades. Her rudder, anchors, and cables were to be entirely +under water, and so not exposed to hostile artillery, while she was to +be rigged in such a way that masts, yards, and sails could be lowered or +erected in a quarter of an hour. When these were "struck" and housed +under the armour she could be moved--probably at a very slow pace--by +oars pulled by forty men, worked entirely under cover. + +Fulton, the famous American inventor, who built a submarine boat, and +invented mines and torpedoes and other weapons of war, turned his +attention to the protection of war-vessels. He was probably responsible +for a little paddle-wheel-propelled vessel for towing torpedoes, which +is described as being covered with 1/2-inch iron plates, "not to be +injured by shot". Later on he built a steam frigate, which he called the +_Demologos_, or "Voice of the People". This relied on 13-feet-thick +sides to protect her crew, but was not armour-plated. She was blown up +by accident in 1829, and replaced by the _Fulton the Second_, which +seems to have been to some extent protected by iron armour. + +But it was not till towards the end of the Crimean War that real +steam-propelled armour-clad ships appeared, in the shape of a series of +slow and unwieldy floating batteries, specially designed for the attack +of the massive Russian fortifications. If anyone would like to see what +these were like--that is, as regards their hulls, for the masts have +long since disappeared--he has only to travel as far as Chatham Dockyard +and ask the policeman on duty at the main gate to direct him to the +_Thunderbolt_ pier. + +The _Thunderbolt_ is one of these old ironclads which has come down to +the useful but inglorious duty of acting as a landing-stage in the River +Medway. Neither she nor any of her English sisters was ever in action; +they were too late in the field--or rather the water. But several of the +French floating batteries, almost precisely similar vessels, took a +prominent part in the bombardment of the Russian fortress of Kinburn, +where their fire proved most effective. As for the shot and shell from +the Russian forts, they rebounded from their sloping iron sides like so +many tennis-balls. These armoured batteries were, however, slow, clumsy, +flat-bottomed affairs, with no speed under steam or sail and but +moderately seaworthy. It remained for the French--whose models in the +"days of wood and hemp" were generally better than our own--to go +another step forward and produce a regular sea-going ironclad. + +This was the famous _La Gloire_. She was no beauty. She had an extremely +ugly bow and was very short in proportion to her beam. She was not a new +ship, but the old two-decker _Napoleon_ cut down, lengthened, and +covered along her whole side with iron plating 5 inches in thickness. +She took two years to finish, and was not ready till the end of 1859. +She naturally created a good deal of excitement, and it was at once seen +that we must follow suit. + +But our naval men did not see why they need be content with so unsightly +a war-ship. They had been much impressed, a year or two before, by the +_Niagara_, a fine United States frigate which had visited the Thames, +and which had what was then regarded as the immense length of 337 feet. +Our constructors, therefore, were rather inclined to follow her lines +than those of _La Gloire_, and turned out the _Warrior_, a +magnificent-looking vessel, not improvised out of an old wooden ship, +but entirely built of iron. Her armour-plating, however, did not extend +from bow to stern, but only covered her battery amidships, which +occupied somewhere about two-thirds of her total length. The _Warrior_ +was 382 feet long, and fitted with a not very obtrusive ram. As a matter +of fact, it was not perceptible at all, since the stem was finished off +with a very graceful swan bow adorned with one of the finest +figure-heads ever executed. She was fully rigged, did 14-1/2 knots under +steam at her trials, and carried an armament of thirty-eight +68-pounders, then the heaviest guns afloat. In short, the _Warrior_ was +a triumph of British shipbuilding, and a worthy ancestor of the +magnificent armour-clad fleet which has played such an important part in +the history of the nation. She had one sister, the _Black Prince_, after +which a few smaller ironclads were built, the _Defence_, _Resistance_, +_Hector_, and _Valiant_. Next came four bigger ships, the _Achilles_, +_Minotaur_, _Northumberland_, and _Agincourt_. These were all improved +_Warriors_, armoured along their whole length, with ram bows, a heavier +armament, and no less than five masts. They were imposing-looking ships, +though, of course, to-day about as obsolete as the _Henri Grace à Dieu_. + +[Illustration: H.M.S. _WARRIOR_, OUR FIRST SEA-GOING IRONCLAD BATTLESHIP + +She was a very efficient reply to the French _La Gloire_, which was a +wooden ship converted into an ironclad. Observe the Red-and-blue Ensign. +The White Ensign with St. George's Cross did not become universal in the +Royal Navy till 1864.] + +I have a vivid recollection of a visit to the _Minotaur_ when a boy. +Possibly a few extracts from notes made at the time may be of interest. +"She has five masts and is a tremendous length. Her upper deck is +furnished with a good many small guns for repelling boat attacks. Round +the masts are placed some of the shot and shell for the large guns +below, painted white, and the knobs (i.e. studs to fit the rifling) and +points gilded. Were here shown a Gatling gun for service on shore or for +clearing the decks of boarders, &c. On going below we saw a couple of +rocket-tubes burnished like a looking-glass.... In the steerage we saw a +7- or 9-pounder boat gun polished beautifully (as was all the metalwork +in the ship) which had an arrangement for reducing the recoil by a +cylinder full of oil. The main-deck battery consisted of 12-ton guns, +lacquered to look like jet." The carriages, I remember, were painted +white and the slides under them scarlet, which, with their burnished +gun-metal machinery, gave them a most brilliant appearance, very +different from the slate-coloured monsters of to-day. These guns were +some which had replaced her original armament of more numerous but +lighter cannon, and in consequence every other port in the battery was +vacant. But the long line of guns presented a most imposing appearance. +"Between the guns were field-guns, boat-guns, &c. Round the hatchways +were ranged shot, shell, and canister, which also appeared in every +available corner." + +Among other notes, too long to be transcribed, I find that the Whitehead +torpedoes in the _Minotaur_ were made of copper, a material which has +long since been superseded by steel, and that I was shown "the Rumpf +coil for generating the electric light which can be shown in three +places". Compare this very modest installation with the numbers of +powerful search-lights which a battleship carries to-day, to say nothing +of the thousands of incandescent lamps which light her interior. The +"cylinder full of oil" for checking the recoil of a small boat-gun, +which is referred to above, is noteworthy as the prototype of the almost +universal system now in use both ashore and afloat, though in the +_Minotaur_ none of the big guns were fitted with this very effective +apparatus. + +As guns grew more powerful, and, in consequence, armour increased in +thickness and weight, the amount of side protection had perforce to be +reduced, so that as time went on the battleship's cuirass was cut down +to a comparatively narrow water-line belt, with a "box-battery" +containing her heavy guns amidships. In later types the foremost and +aftermost guns in these batteries were placed at an angle and the port +"recessed" in the ship's side, so that these guns could fire on the +broadside and nearly ahead as well. In some ships, such as the _Sultan_, +_Alexandra_--which, by the way, was long flagship of the Mediterranean +fleet and a notable ship in her day--_Triumph_, and _Iron Duke_, the +box-battery was arranged in two tiers, one above the other. All these +were broadside ships and fully rigged. If they could not get along very +fast under sail alone, the sails, under some circumstances, were useful +in "easing the engines" and getting a little more speed out of the ship. + +But in any case naval officers had not then brought themselves to accept +the idea of relying on their engines alone; they liked to have a second +string to their bow. Besides, the work and evolutions aloft were +undeniably a splendid thing for the seamen; it rendered them quick, +smart, and self-reliant, and kept them in excellent physical training. + +The reverse side of the picture was the weight of yards, rigging, and +sails, the resistance they offered to the wind when the ship was +steaming against it, the danger in action to those quartered on the +upper deck from the fall of yards, blocks, and spars from aloft, and +the time taken in preparing them for action. The top-gallant masts were +sent down on deck as well as the upper yards, the top-masts were +generally lowered till they only showed a few feet above the heads of +the lower masts, extra slings had to be put in place to secure the lower +yards, the shrouds supporting the masts on either side had to be "snaked +down", by coiling wire hawsers in a species of zigzag from top to +bottom, so that if one or more shrouds were cut the whole would hang +together, and many other precautions taken which occupied valuable time +and were, perhaps, after all of a merely negative nature--that is to +say, the rigging was more of a danger in action than a useful asset. The +tops were the only part of it that were of use. As in ancient days they +afforded stations for archers and stone-throwers, and later on for +musketry, swivel-guns, and grenade-throwers, so they were at this time +utilized for mounting machine-guns to fire down upon an enemy's decks. + +For at that period "close action" was always expected. Boarders were +told off when the ship "went to quarters for action", and boarding-pikes +and cutlasses were provided for their use, while the small upper-deck +guns--usually breech-loading Armstrongs--were mounted on carriages which +enabled them to be fired downward to repel a boat attack or the rush of +a steamboat with a spar torpedo. The ideas of an action at sea were +practically the same as those which obtained in the days of Nelson. +"Masts and yards" were the source of yet another danger. The "smartness" +of a ship was still generally gauged by her "smartness" aloft. All +evolutions in the Navy are done "against time", and for a ship to get +her "royal yards across" some seconds before any other ship in the +squadron was a notable feat of which every soul on board was proud to a +degree. These ideas were those of the old sailing navy, and in spite of +the advent of steam, ironclads, rifled guns, and torpedoes, the +conservatism of our great sea service rendered them still paramount, so +that even gunnery took a second place. There were regulation quantities +of ammunition to be fired--"expended" was the usual term--at regulated +periods, there were orders that torpedoes were to be run at stated +intervals, that bluejackets and marines should be landed for drill +ashore every week when in harbour. But in most ships these things were +regarded as secondary and annoying performances, to be got over and done +with as soon as possible, if they could not be avoided altogether, so +that all hands might be set to their "games with sticks and string", as, +in course of time, irreverent observers began to call the cherished +evolutions with mast and yards, and the important business of cleaning +paintwork, burnishing "brightwork", and generally making the ship as +spick and span as possible. + +"Spit and polish" were the idols worshipped in those days by captains +and more especially commanders, for it was almost universally recognized +that their promotion depended more on the brilliant appearance of their +ships at an inspection than on any other earthly matter. But for all +that the days of "sticks and string" were numbered, as were those of +broadside ironclads and box batteries. + +The prime cause of the approaching change was the appearance of a +queer-looking little craft in the Civil War in America between 1861 and +1864. The United States Government had a fine fleet of wooden steamships +at the outbreak of hostilities, but the naval authorities of the +seceding Southern States, having raised the _Merrimac_, a 40-gun frigate +which had been sunk at the Norfolk navy yard, cut her down, built a +battery amidships armoured with two or three thicknesses of railway +iron, and attacked the Federal fleet. The _Merrimac_ had it all her own +way, rammed and sank the frigate _Cumberland_, set the bigger _Congress_ +on fire and compelled her to surrender, and withdrew with all the +honours of war. But she was yet to meet her match. John Ericsson, a +Swedish engineer, was commissioned by the United States Government to +construct a small ironclad of his own designing. While the _Merrimac_ +was engaged in defeating the wooden ships of the Federals in Hampton +Roads, the _Monitor_, as the new vessel was called, was on her way south +from New York. She joined the Federal fleet the very night before the +_Merrimac_ made a second sortie. On this occasion, as she came out into +the Roads and opened up the fleet she intended to attack, the _Merrimac_ +spotted what someone described as looking "like a cheese-box on a raft". +It was an excellent description of the little _Monitor_, which was built +with a very low freeboard and had nothing on her deck but a cylindrical +revolving turret containing a couple of guns, no masts, and but the +merest apology for a funnel. Yet she proved one too many for the +_Merrimac_ with her more numerous battery of guns. She was unable +actually to pierce her sides, as her commander had received the most +peremptory orders not to use more than 15 pounds of powder to load his +guns, but the _Merrimac_ got so "rattled" that she had to sheer off. + +[Illustration: The _Monitor_, the famous little ship that revolutionized +warship design + +The upper figure is a broadside view, the lower one a transverse section +amidships. The upper portion of the hull was very like a raft, and was +heavily armoured all over, as was the turret and the little pilot-box +forward.] + +This first duel between ironclad vessels attracted an enormous amount +of attention, as is only to be supposed. The net result in this country +was that Captain Cowper Coles, R.N., was allowed to have a cupola- or +turret-ship built which he had designed some years before. The _Royal +Sovereign_, a wooden three-decker, was cut down to within a few feet of +the water-line, plated with 5-1/2-inch iron, and fitted with four +turrets. The foremost one carried two guns, the remainder one apiece. +She had very light pole masts and light, hinged iron bulwarks, which +gave her 3-1/3 feet more freeboard at sea but had to be lowered before +she could fight her guns. Captain Coles, however, had the usual +hankering after "masts and yards", and, the _Royal Sovereign_ having +proved moderately successful, induced the Admiralty to build a fully +rigged turret-ship. This was the unfortunate _Captain_, whose low +freeboard, heavy turrets, superstructures, and fully-rigged tripod masts +caused her to turn turtle in a squall off Cape Finisterre on the night +of 6th September, 1870. Her inventor went down in her. Her gunner and +seventeen men were the sole survivors. One other full-rigged turret-ship +was built--the _Monarch_. As she had a very considerable freeboard she +proved a seaworthy ship, but she was the last of her kind.[42] + +In the meantime several small coast-defence turret-vessels had been +built, such as the _Scorpion_ and _Wyvern_ in 1865, the _Abyssinia_, +_Magdala_, and _Cerberus_ in 1870, and the _Glatton_, _Gorgon_, +_Cyclops_, and others a year or so later. They had one or two masts, but +were not rigged ships. These little turret-ships developed into the +battleships _Devastation_, _Dreadnought_, and _Thunderer_, launched +between 1873 and 1877. Each had two turrets containing a couple of heavy +guns apiece. Their hulls were heavily armoured, and they had but one +mast fitted with a military top for machine-guns. It is from this branch +of our earlier armour-clad construction that our modern "Dreadnoughts" +derive their descent rather than from the broadside type. + +To explain further developments it must be noted that while in this +country the success of the _Monitor_ induced us to experiment with +placing guns in revolving armoured turrets, in France the tendency was +to build a fixed armoured tower in the ship, and place the guns inside +on a turntable _en barbette_--that is to say, so mounted that they could +fire over the top of the armour in any direction. We tried to go one +better in the _Temeraire_ (1877). She was a broadside ship, with a +"box-battery" amidships, but forward and aft two pear-shaped armoured +barbettes were built into her, the tops of which rose about 1 foot or 18 +inches above her upper deck. In each of these was placed a 25-ton +gun--we classified guns by weight in those days, and not by inches of +calibre as we do now--on a mounting, which enabled it to sink down on +being fired, and to be raised up again into its firing-position when +loaded. The _Temeraire_, it may be said, was an experimental ship in +many ways. Though heavily rigged, she had only two masts, so was like an +enormous brig. I believe I am right in saying that her mainyard was the +longest and heaviest in the Service. At one time, too, she was painted +grey, instead of the black which was then universal, except when ships +were in hot climates, when it was generally changed to white. Yellow +funnels were regulation, as was "mast-colour"--a sort of deep-yellow +ochre with a reddish tinge--for all masts and spars. Ships were, and had +been for very many years, painted white withinboard instead of the old +eighteenth-century red. Outboard the black sides were finished off +generally with a white water-line, and a broad white band along the +upper part of the bulwarks, known as a "boot-top". Sometimes another +white line was painted on the black side a few inches below it. + +There was a good deal of controversy about this time as to the relative +merits of "broadside" fire and "end-on" fire. Space forbids us from +entering further into this question, but, generally speaking, if a +British ship carried four guns heavier than the rest, they were so +arranged that two could be fired ahead or astern, and all four on either +broadside. But in a French ship the four corresponding guns would be +each mounted singly in barbettes arranged diamond-fashion, so that three +could be fired either ahead, astern, or on either broadside. A couple of +armoured cruisers, the _Imperieuse_ and _Warspite_, were built, probably +as an experiment, on these lines, on the latter of which I had the +honour of serving for something like twelve months. They were originally +brig-rigged, like the _Temeraire_, but this was done away with later and +replaced by a single military mast. Personally I do not think they were +a success. The _Warspite_, at any rate, was a very wet ship. When +steaming against quite a moderate sea the water ran all over her, into +the barbettes and down below, and she was much cramped in many ways by +the arrangement of her guns. The _Devastation_ and her sisters proved +very formidable and successful ships, but with the idea of getting a +heavier fire ahead or astern a new departure was made in the +_Inflexible_--the biggest ironclad we had yet constructed--by placing +her turrets, not one forward and the other aft on the centre line of the +ship, but _en echelon_--that is to say, diagonally amidships. +Theoretically this arrangement, which had been copied from the big +Italian ships _Duilio_ and _Dandolo_, had a good deal to recommend it, +but practically there is more to be said against it than for it. +Nevertheless, four other smaller ships were built on these lines, the +_Ajax_ and _Agamemnon_--which gained notoriety as being almost +impossible to steer--and the _Edinburgh_ and _Colossus_. The last two +were armed with breech-loading guns, which were now superseding the old +muzzle-loaders to which the ordnance authorities had clung with such +obstinacy long after every other nation had consigned them to the scrap +heap. + +Meanwhile a smaller single-turret ship, the _Conqueror_, had been +built, an unwieldy-looking craft which went by the name of the +"half-boot" from the resemblance her general outline had to that useful +article of military equipment. But she seems to have met with the +approval of the Admiralty, since an improved sister-ship, the _Hero_, +was launched about five years later. These ships probably suggested the +very much larger ones, _Victoria_ and _Sans Pareil_, each of which, on a +displacement of 10,470 tons only, carried a couple of 111-ton guns of +16·25-inch bore in a single turret--that is to say, as their main +armament. They had also a 10-inch gun aft, and a dozen 6-inch +breech-loading guns. These formed what is called her "secondary +battery". The provision of such batteries marks a step in the evolution +of war-ship construction which is very noteworthy. The bigger and bigger +guns carried by battleships necessitated stronger and stronger armour. +In spite of improvements in quality and manufacture the weight of armour +tended constantly to increase. The area covered had therefore to be more +and more restricted. To carry all this weight of guns and armour +comparatively large ships were necessary, and a great part of their +sides had to go without any protection at all. Their flotation might be +preserved--against attack by gun-fire--by the combination of armoured +belt and sloping armoured decks which had by now become almost +universal. But it was obvious that the unarmoured portions of the ship +above water could be torn to pieces by the fire of comparatively light +weapons. This led to the installation of "secondary batteries" of 4-, +5-, and 6-inch guns, for the purpose of attacking an enemy's ship in +this way and of neutralizing his attack by keeping down the fire of +_his_ secondary batteries. + +[Illustration: _Photo. West & Son, Southsea_ + +A MONSTER GUN WHICH IS NOW OBSOLETE + +The 111-ton gun on the old _Benbow_, which was very slow of fire and +whose life was estimated at little more than 70 rounds.] + +The development of torpedo-attack brought about the Whitehead automobile +torpedo, and the improvements in the speed and construction of +destroyers and torpedo-boats caused also the introduction of "auxiliary +batteries" of rapid-firing 3- and 6-pounder-shell guns. The machine-guns +firing rifle bullets, and, later on, small steel shot, were found to +have no "stopping-power" against torpedo-craft, and more powerful +weapons became imperative. + +The tragic end of the _Victoria_, which cost the nation, not only a fine +ship, but the lives of the greater portion of her crew, and that very +talented naval commander, Sir George Tryon, is a well-known tragedy of +the sea, and there is little doubt that the enormous weight forward of +her huge turret and guns, with nothing aft to counterbalance it, was one +of the causes contributing to the completeness of the catastrophe. + +No more ships were built on such lines, but about this period an +important innovation was made by the introduction of a class of ships in +which the four heavy guns were carried in a couple of high barbettes +with sloping sides, instead of in turrets. The whole gun was exposed, +but not its mountings or crew, since the top of the barbette was closed +in by a flat shield which revolved with the guns. These were the +_Collingwood_, _Camperdown_, _Howe_, _Rodney_, _Anson_, and _Benbow_. +The last-named had one 111-ton gun in each barbette, instead of a pair +of rather smaller cannon. Amidships, between the barbettes, were +secondary batteries of half a dozen 6-inch guns (the _Benbow_ had ten). +These were entirely unprotected except from fire coming from ahead or +astern, from which they were covered by armoured bulkheads reaching +across the ship immediately behind each barbette. + +I well recollect my first sight of these ships, which had all been +completed during four years I had been away on a distant station, +though, as a matter of fact, I had seen the _Rodney_ launched before I +left England. I was on board H.M.S. _Aurora_, a new cruiser which had +been specially commissioned for the naval manoeuvres. We left Plymouth +and proceeded to Spithead, where a large fleet had been assembled to do +honour to the Kaiser--with whom we were then on rather more friendly +terms than latterly, and who came over at the head of a squadron of his +war-ships. He was much more anxious to exhibit German war-ships to the +British fleet than his naval commanders seem to have been during the +Great War. We got into Spithead about six on a morning when there was a +thick drizzle almost amounting to a fog, and as one after another of +these monsters--as we thought them then--loomed up out of the mist and +vanished astern, they presented a most impressive picture of strength +and solidity. They really did look in the dim light like "castles +afloat"! + +But they were not by any means among our most successful efforts. No one +liked the unprotected secondary batteries, and thought of the +well-armoured _Devastation_ and her sisters. _They_ had no secondary +batteries--but they were so well armoured that these were not necessary, +except for purposes of offence. This consideration doubtless led to the +building of the _Nile_ and _Trafalgar_, in which the four big guns were +carried in turrets and the secondary armament in an armoured battery +amidships. They were extremely well-protected ships and would have given +a very good account of any ship of their day. But the tendency was ever +for bigger ships, which allowed, generally speaking, for greater speed, +greater radius of action, greater seaworthiness, and afforded a steadier +gun platform. + +This produced the "Royal Sovereign" class, of over 14,000 tons +displacement, a great advance in size on any ships which had preceded +them. They created a considerable sensation at the time of their +appearance, especially the _Royal Sovereign_ herself, the first of them. +My own first sight of her was somewhere in the Irish Sea, not far from +the Isle of Man. I was serving on board H.M.S. _Triumph_ in the naval +manoeuvres of 1892. The _Royal Sovereign_ passed us just at the time tea +was going on in the wardroom, which would be between half-past three and +four, and I remember how everybody rushed up on deck to get a look at +the new marvel in shipbuilding. + +The _Royal Sovereign_ became practically the regulation type of +battleship until the advent of the "Dreadnoughts", though of course each +successive batch was an improvement on the preceding one in speed, +protection, and gun-power. All had four heavy guns in low barbettes, +covered with armoured hoods which revolved with the guns--so they may be +said to have been a combination of turret and barbette. The single +exception was the _Hood_ in the "Royal Sovereign" batch, which carried +her four heavy guns in two regular turrets. All had secondary batteries, +whose guns were distributed in armoured casemates at considerable +intervals from each other, and all had a couple of military masts, with +one or two fighting-tops on each, armed with light rapid-fire guns. This +fine series of battleships amounted to forty in all, and formed a +homogeneous and magnificent fleet, the like of which the world had never +seen. Nearly all had a displacement of from 14,000 to 15,000 tons, and a +speed of from 17 to 18 knots. Most are still in service, and though they +have been put rather in the background by our "Dreadnoughts" and +"Super-Dreadnoughts", we may still be very proud of them. + +There were two intermediate steps between them and the epoch-making +_Dreadnought_. The first was the creation of the "King Edward" class of +five ships, dating from 1902-3. These were very similar to their +predecessors, but had over 1000 tons more displacement, were more +thoroughly armoured, and, in addition to the four 12-inch and ten or a +dozen 6-inch guns which formed their armament, were provided with four +guns of 9·2 inches calibre, each placed singly in a turret at the +corners of the superstructure. The final type before the _Dreadnought_ +made her sensational appearance was the "Lord Nelson" class, which, +however, only comprised two ships--the _Lord Nelson_ herself and the +_Agamemnon_.[43] They were very little bigger than the "King Edwards", +but in their case the 6-inch guns were replaced by ten guns of 9·2-inch +calibre, a most formidable secondary battery, capable of penetrating a +considerable thickness of armour. The Battle of Tsushima, between the +Japanese and Russians, led to the temporary abandonment of the secondary +battery. It was considered that battles would in future be fought at +such immense ranges that a decision, one way or another, would be +reached before the smaller guns could be brought within effective range +of the enemy, and the events of the European War go to confirm this +theory. So it was that we once more arrived at the "all-big-gun ship", +and in the _Dreadnought_, launched in 1906, went back to the principle +followed in the armament of her namesake of 1875, and confined her +armament--except for a few small anti-torpedo-boat guns--to cannon of +the largest size. A comparison of the two _Dreadnoughts_ will form an +appropriate termination to this chapter, which has already occupied more +pages than I intended. + + 1875--H.M.S. _Dreadnought_. Displacement, 10,820 tons; + speed, 14 knots; guns, four muzzle-loaders; armour, + 10, 11, 13, and 14 inches; weight of projectiles, 809 + pounds; penetration of wrought iron at 1000 yards, + 17-1/2 inches. + + 1906--H.M.S. _Dreadnought_. Displacement, 17,900 tons; + speed, 21 knots; guns, ten breech-loaders; armour, 6, + 7, 9, and 12 inches; weight of projectiles, 850 + pounds; penetration of wrought iron at 1000 yards, 36 + inches. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42] If we except the _Neptune_, which was built by a foreign Government +and eventually acquired by the Royal Navy. + +[43] It would perhaps be more correct to call the _Lord Nelson_ and +_Agamemnon_ contemporaries of the _Dreadnought_. They were practically +experimental ships offering an alternative type. The cost of thirty of +these ships would have been the same as that of twenty-nine +_Dreadnoughts_. The annual upkeep of twenty-nine _Dreadnoughts_ would be +less by £15,000 than that of thirty _Lord Nelsons_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The Evolution of the Submarine and Submarine Mine + + _Thomas._ They write here one Corneilius'[44] son + Hath made the Hollanders an invisible eel + To swim the Haven at Dunkirk and sink all + The shipping there. + + _Pennyboy._ But how is't done? + + _Cymbal._ I'll show you, Sir. + It's an automa, runs under water + With a snug nose, and has a nimble tail + Made like an auger, with which tail she wriggles + Betwixt the costs[45] of a ship and sinks it straight. + + _Pennyboy._ A most brave device + To murder their flat bottoms! + _The Staple of News._ BEN JONSON. + + +"PITT", said the famous Admiral Lord St. Vincent, in the course of an +interview with the American inventor Fulton, "is the greatest fool that +ever existed, to encourage a mode of war which they who commanded the +seas did not want, and which, if successful, would deprive them of it." +Truer words were never spoken. Fulton had invented floating mines or +torpedoes--"infernals" as they were then called--and even an ingenious +form of submarine boat. The French, to whom he first offered them, to +their honour be it spoken, would have nothing to do with them even +though hard put to it to hold their own against the British fleet. +Admiral Decrès reported that Fulton's inventions were "fit only for +Algerines and pirates". The Maritime Prefect at Brest refused to allow +him to attack an English frigate off the coast with his submarine, +"because this type of warfare carries with it the objection that those +who undertake it and those against whom it is made will all be lost. +This cannot be called a gallant death", he said. Finally, Admiral +Pléville le Pelly, the Minister of War, stated that it appeared to him +to be "impossible to serve a Commission for Belligerency to men who +employ such a method of destroying the fleet of an enemy". + +It is a sad reflection that after a century of much-boasted "advance in +civilization", we none of us appear to have any chivalric scruples of +this kind. But, in spite of our tremendous ascendancy at sea, +Pitt--being a politician and not a naval officer--was, as St. Vincent +said, "fool" enough to listen to Fulton when, repulsed from France, he +took the name of Francis and brought his schemes over to this country. +Experiments were made in the Downs, and Lieutenant Robinson of the Royal +Marines carried out a demonstration before Pitt with some of Fulton's +torpedoes, or "carcasses" as they were called, by blowing up a brig +anchored off Walmer Castle. + +The famous Sir Sydney Smith was an aider and abettor of Fulton, though a +naval officer, but his attitude may have been due to a desire to stand +well with Mr. Pitt rather than to a conviction that the adoption of his +proposed methods of warfare would be of real service to the navy. What +doubtless attracted both men was the hope of destroying the French +invasion flotillas at Boulogne and in the Basque Roads, which our fleet +could not get at. Attempts were made, but ended in dismal failures. The +public generally was dead against the employment of what were regarded +as dastardly and underhand apparatus, and so were most naval officers. +An officer, in a diary made at the time, describes[46] "six copper +submarine carcasses, some to hold 540 pounds of powder and others 405 +pounds" that were sent on board his ship for the purpose of being +employed against the enemy's vessels. He says further that "Johnstone +the smuggler laid one down near the gates of the new harbour before +Flushing surrendered, but we never heard of any damage being done by it. +As for our part we never tried them--indeed, _our Admiral said it was +not a fair proceeding_." + +The idea of attacking an enemy under water was, however, by no means a +novel one. Attempts in this direction have been made almost from time +immemorial. Swimming under water and diving seem to have been often +resorted to in order to cut ships' cables, and even for the purpose of +boring holes in their bottoms; but the latter would appear to be rather +an impossible performance.[47] The Romans are said to have had a corps +or society of divers known as _Urinatores_. Then there are legends of +diving-apparatus employed by Alexander the Great, who himself is +frequently depicted in mediæval manuscripts being lowered to the bottom +of the sea in a glass barrel. + +In manuscripts and woodcuts of the Middle Ages there are to be found +several pictures representing men in a species of diver's costume, +supposed to have been made of leather, with air-tubes leading to the +surface of the water, where they are buoyed by bladders. Some, instead +of tubes, are provided with flasks of air. Personally I should doubt +whether such dresses ever had any actual existence. I fancy they are +originally derived from a species of swimming-jacket or life-belt which +is depicted in a fourteenth-century manuscript in the Imperial +Historical Museum at Vienna.[48] + +[Illustration: Diver Salving a Gun + +(_From a print of 1613_)] + +A comparison between the two sketches over page will, I think, go far to +prove me right, since the so-called "Diver's Helmet" is taken from +Vegetius' _De Re Militari_, not published before 1511. The earliest +picture of a diving-helmet of this kind I have been able to find is in a +German work published in 1500: both are therefore of a later date than +the "Swimming Jacket". This "jacket" was intended to be worn as follows: +The lower rectangular part was to be placed at the back, the oval +portion to the front of the body. When the swimmer wished to remain at +the surface he inflated his jacket by means of the tube; when he +required to dive out of sight he would let the air out. Look at the +position of the buckles and straps in the two drawings and you will see +that there is a strong presumption that the later artist deliberately +made the alteration in order to support his bogus picture of a +diving-_helmet_. + +[Illustration: Swimming Jacket + +(from a fourteenth-century MS.) + +Diver's Helmet from Vegetius + +(sixteenth century) + +Observe the close similarity between these two nominally very different +articles. The shape of the earlier drawing has suggested a helmet to the +illustrator of _De Re Militari_ by Vegetius, and he has therefore done +away with two straps and buckles and altered the positions of the other +two. It is not clear how they are to be fastened together; but the use +of the straps and buckles on the jacket is apparent.] + +The earliest mention of a submarine boat occurs in "Salman[49] and +Morolf", a German poem of 1190. This was, of course, an imaginary one, +like the famous _Nautilus_ in Jules Verne's _20,000 Leagues under the +Sea_; but in the days of "good Queen Bess" one William Bourne, a naval +gunner, published a detailed description of how to make "a shippe or +boate that may goe under the water unto the bottome, and so to come up +againe at your pleasure". The "device", as he calls it, had some quite +practical points.[50] + +In the following reign a Dutchman, Corneilius Van Drebbel by name, seems +actually to have built a submarine vessel, which is stated to have gone +under water from Westminster to Greenwich, and with which James I was so +pleased that he not only had a duplicate one built, sending it as a +present to the Tsar of Russia, but so far overcame his constitutional +timidity as to adventure his precious and royal person in a submarine +trip in the Dutchman's invention. Then followed many suggestions for +submarines, but between Van Drebbel's boat in 1620 and Fulton's in 1800 +probably not more than half a dozen were actually constructed. + +Van Drebbel was probably responsible for the "water mines, water +petards, forged cases to be shot with fireworks, and _boates to goe +under water_" which Buckingham took with his fleet on the ill-managed +and inglorious expedition to La Rochelle in 1626. The water-petards or +floating mines were of a very feeble description. The following is a +French contemporary account of what they were like. + +"The composition of these petards was of Lattin (i.e. Brass) filled with +powder, laid upon certain pieces of timber, crosse which there was a +spring, which touching any vessel would flie off and give fire to the +petards, but only one took effect, which did no great hurt, only cast +water into the ship, and that was all, the rest being taken by the +King's boats." + +About 1771 David Bushnell, a native of Maine, built a curious little +submarine not unlike a walnut in shape, if you imagine a walnut floating +with the point downwards. It was propelled by a hand-turned screw and +carried a case of powder provided with a clockwork apparatus for +exploding it at the required moment. There was an ingenious arrangement +for screwing this mine to the bottom of a ship, and by its means the +navigator of Bushnell's submarine very nearly succeeded in blowing up +H.M.S. _Eagle_ when lying in the Hudson River in charge of a convoy of +transports bringing troops for the campaign against the revolted +American colonists. Other attempts were made by the Americans to blow up +our men-of-war in the course of the war, but without success. In the war +with the United States (1812-14) the Americans again attacked our ships +in a similar manner. The _Ramillies_ in particular seems to have been +singled out for these attempts. She was attacked both by a submarine +boat and by various explosive contrivances. The British retaliated by +embarking in her 100 American prisoners and notifying their presence on +board to the United States Government. They also bombarded the town of +Stonington for being "conspicuous in preparing and harbouring +torpedoes". + +Between this time and the latter portion of the century innumerable +submarine boats were designed and a considerable number of experimental +ones actually built. A few of them promised very well, though most were +failures, the principal reason of their non-success being the want of a +suitable means of propulsion. Every conceivable method was attempted, +but it was not till the advent of the internal-combustion engine that +the submarine became a really practical proposition. Space forbids +mention of even a tithe of these inventions, but among the most notable +was that invented by the German Bauer, between 1850 and 1860, when he +made a futile attempt to blow up a Danish man-of-war. Then there were +the _Davids_, used by the Confederates in the Civil War in America. +Most of these drowned their crews. One, however, succeeded in torpedoing +the Federal sloop _Housatonic_, but accompanied her to "Davy Jones's +locker". A Swede, Mr. Nordenfeldt, built about half a dozen submarines +between 1880 and 1890, one for this country, one--his first experimental +one--which was eventually purchased by Greece, two for the Turkish +Government, and, lastly, two or three for the German Admiralty. All of +these may be regarded as experimental craft, but they are noteworthy as +being the first submarines to be equipped with Whitehead torpedoes, and +certainly marked a step forward in the science of underwater navigation. + +The French navy was the first to tackle the problem of submarine +navigation with any real enthusiasm. French inventors had been +responsible for a very large proportion of the designs for submarines, +which had continually increased in numbers as the nineteenth century +progressed. After extensive experiments with the _Gymnote_ (launched +1888), _Gustave Zèdé_ (1893), and _Morse_ (1899), France set about the +construction of a regular submarine flotilla of considerable size, +launching nearly thirty boats between 1900 and 1903. Other Powers, +except perhaps Russia, held back from the new departure, and it is not +impossible that it would have been politic for the British Government to +have maintained that attitude, in accordance with the views of Lord St. +Vincent, and to have announced that it would refuse to recognize the +crews of submarines as legitimate belligerents. To have done this would +not have been to enunciate any new theory, for from time immemorial this +was the attitude adopted by all navies towards the crews of fire-ships, +and that it was later on accepted to apply to those who made use of +torpedoes and floating mines is evident by the following quotation from +the naval officer's diary which has already been referred to. + +He states that on the occasion of the attack on the French ships in the +Basque Roads by Lord Cochrane, when _explosion-ships_ as well as +fire-ships were used, volunteers were called for to take them in, and +"no one was compelled to go, as the enemy by the laws of war can put +anyone to death who is taken belonging to a fire-ship". Had we refrained +from following the example of the French most probably the Germans would +have done so also, first because the French submarines sustained many +accidents and did not appear very likely, to experts such as the German +naval officers, to become a very valuable arm; and, secondly, because in +naval matters they have always tried to follow our lead. But the +newspaper "experts" and other laymen in this country to whom the idea of +submarine navigation was most captivating as something mysterious, new, +and strange, with great potentialities, not only for warfare but for +"copy", clamoured in the Press for submarines. The Admiralty eventually +ordered four "Holland" boats for "experimental purposes". + +John P. Holland was an American inventor, and his first boat, built in +1875, "was a tiny affair with just enough room in her for one man to sit +down amidships and work the pedals that turned the propeller. It was +only 16 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 20 inches wide, and it is probably +the smallest submarine ever constructed. The 'crew' had to wear a +diving-dress, and drew air from reservoirs at either end of the vessel. +Five little torpedoes were carried, which could be put out through the +dome and fired from a distance by electricity."[51] Between this time +and 1902 Holland was responsible for six more submarines and the design +for another which was never built. The earlier ones were small, but the +last two or three of considerable size. + +The _Holland VIII_ deserves some description, as she may be regarded as +the prototype of the British earlier submarine vessels from which nearly +all of our larger and later types have been evolved. "She was a +porpoise-like vessel 65 feet long, nearly 11 feet in diameter, and of 75 +tons displacement. Her single propeller was driven by a gas-engine when +at the surface and by an electric motor when below, both being placed on +the same shaft and connected or disconnected as required. She carried a +torpedo-tube, a tube for throwing aerial torpedoes, and a submarine gun, +the latter being placed aft and inclined upwards, as was the aerial +torpedo-tube forward".[52] This vessel, after very considerable +alterations had been made in her, was re-named the _Holland IX_ and +purchased for the United States navy. + +[Illustration: A FLEET OF SUBMARINES IN PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR + +Observe the _Victory_ in the background. If Nelson were standing on the +poop with his glass, what would he think and say of these "microbes of +the sea"?] + +The First Lord of the Admiralty, in reply to a question asked in the +House of Parliament in 1900, had replied "that the Admiralty had _not_ +designed a submarine boat, and did not propose to design one, because +such a boat would be the weapon of an inferior power". Whether he was +right or wrong, the statement was a straightforward and an +understandable one. Possibly it struck the First Lord as being too +straightforward for a politician, so he at once began to "hedge", and +qualified what he had said by adding: "But if it could be produced as a +working article, the Power which possessed such an article would no +longer be an inferior but a superior Power". It is hard to reconcile the +two statements; for if a submarine was an unworkable proposition it +would be no good to any Power, strong or weak. + +However, a couple of years later, as I have already mentioned, the +Admiralty determined to acquire a few submarine boats, nominally with +the view of finding out how their use by an enemy could be rendered +abortive. First one and then four other practically similar ones, to be +built on Holland's designs, were ordered from Vickers of +Barrow-in-Furness. Their displacement--submerged--was 120 tons. It must +be remembered that a submarine's surface displacement is always less +than when she has filled her tanks to sink her deeper in the water. They +were 63 feet 4 inches long and 11 feet 9 inches wide at their greatest +beam; steamed from 8 to 10 knots above and 5 to 7 knots below water, +carried a crew of seven men, and had a single torpedo-tube. Many +experiments were carried out with these little vessels, the net result +being that series after series of larger and larger submarines were +constructed, each batch an improvement on the preceding one. Thus we +had, after the first five "Hollands", the A, B, C, D, and E classes, and +are now turning out the "F" class. The description of our latest +submarines must be postponed till the chapter dealing with the +fighting-ships of to-day; but it may be noted that up to 1914 all had +been improved "Hollands". That is to say, that while some other naval +powers, notably Germany, were building their submarines more and more on +the lines of surface vessels with flat tops or decks, we remained +faithful to the "porpoise" or "fat cigar" type, only modifying them by +increasing their size and length, and by adding to the length of the +narrow superstructure, which formed a deck and eventually a cut-water +for use at the surface, but which was independent of the actual +watertight hull or body of the vessel, since the water was allowed free +access below the platform. + + * * * * * + +It is time now to give some description of the evolution of that +terrible instrument of destruction, the Submarine Mine, under which head +may be included both those that are placed below water and those that +float or drift at the surface. The utilization of explosives for the +attack of shipping has been attempted by belligerents for centuries, but +I am not aware that they have ever been employed against peaceful +traders and fishermen before the Great War. The Germans may attempt to +excuse themselves by alleging that some merchantmen carry guns for +defence; but that has been the universal practice for centuries, and no +merchantmen were more heavily armed than the old trading-ships of the +Hansa League. Such ships were entirely different from the privateers, +provided with Letters of Marque which entitled them to attack and +capture enemy vessels if they could. On principles of self-defence, +merchantmen were always entitled to beat off an attack if they could, +and such action exposed other merchantmen to no reprisals. It is only of +late years, when civilization was supposed to be so far advanced as to +render the sinking of merchantmen "on their lawful occasions" an +impossibility, that they ceased to carry guns. + +Probably the first inventor of a floating mine--in the shape of an +explosion-ship, as distinguished from a fire-ship--was an Italian +engineer, who in contemporary accounts is variously referred to as +"Gianibelli", "Gedevilo", "Genebelli", "Gienily", "Jenabel", and +"Innibel", who, by means of a couple of small vessels filled with +powder, which was built over with tons of bricks, gravestones, +millstones, and "everything heavy, hooked, and sharp which 'this wicked +witty man thought most damageable'", blew to absolute "smithereens" the +great bridge which the Duke of Parma had built across the Scheldt in +order to complete the blockade of Antwerp in 1585. It is rather +interesting to note in passing that Gianibelli seems to have spent some +time in this country. He had a good deal to do with the building of +Tilbury Fort, and brought forward extended proposals for the reopening +of Rye Harbour, which had become silted up. This he does not seem to +have effected satisfactorily, and payment of £821, 9_s._, which he +demanded of the Mayor and jurats of that famous town, was refused. He +may have had something to do with the preparation of the fire-ships sent +against the Spanish Armada in Calais Roads. At any rate the Spaniards on +board thought so, for they, considering them "to be of those kind of +dreadful Powder-Ships, which that famous Enginier Frederick Innibel had +devised not long before in the River of Skeld", cried "the Fire +Antwerp", cut their cables, and put to sea in the confusion that proved +their ruin. + +We have already mentioned the attempts made by the British at La +Rochelle with floating mines and devices of that kind, and, coming to +the time of William III, we find "Honest Benbow" employing an +explosion-ship, evidently modelled on those of Gianibelli, against the +town of St. Malo. It did a lot of damage and unroofed a great number of +houses, but effected nothing of any military value. One Meesters, a +Dutchman, was the leading spirit in this kind of warfare. Whether he was +any connection of Van Drebbel and Dr. Kuffler I cannot say, but he +induced the Government to use his explosion-ships, or "machines" as they +were termed, probably with the view of emulating these two nautical Guy +Fawkeses who had succeeded in getting good incomes and considerable sums +of money out of the British Government for their ideas and inventions, +although, as far as can be ascertained, none of them had proved of the +slightest value or efficiency. Explosion-ships or machines became for a +time recognized units in the British navy, and were employed against +Dunkirk, Dieppe, and various French ports without much effect. "At the +former, the machine-ships, as they are called, did nothing but blow up +themselves, and the credit of their inventor, as some say; but he being +come hither, complains he was not seconded with ships as he ought to +have been."[53] Very possibly he was not, for this class of warfare did +not meet with much appreciation in the Royal Navy. On the other hand, +the naval commanders complained that Mr. Meesters "had not his +machine-ships in readiness when they had a fair opportunity of wind and +weather to attack the forts at Dunkirk, and that he had trifled all the +time and put the Government to great expense only to enrich himself, +when the whole matter was impracticable". It is not surprising, +therefore, that we hear no more of explosion-ships for a very long +time.[54] The attempts made against the British ships by the Americans, +and those we ourselves carried out with indifferent success against the +French Invasion flotillas, have been already referred to. Though this +form of attack was not again employed by the navy for many years, the +following description in Müller's _Elements of the Science of War_ +(1811) shows that something like a floating mine was used in armies for +the destruction of bridges. It consisted of a chest fitted with a rudder +and filled with powder, and fired by means of two gun-locks, which were +set in action by a stick protruding from the water and attached to their +triggers. + +[Illustration: Submarine Mine laid by the Russians in the Crimean War + +Made of staves about 3 in. thick, and containing an inner case filled +with flue gunpowder.] + +In 1844 some attention was attracted to an alleged invention of a +Captain Warner for blowing up ships. The _John of Gaunt_, a +sailing-ship, was taken in tow by a steamer and blown up off Brighton in +the presence of an immense crowd of spectators; but as the inventor +wanted the Admiralty to pay him £400,000 for it before he showed them +what it was like, his secret naturally remained a secret. It would seem +to have been merely a mine floating just beneath the surface of the +water, with some arrangement to explode it on contact. The Crimean War +gave us some little experience of underwater mines, for several were +employed by the Russians in the Baltic and the Black Sea. They were +feeble affairs, and did no damage worth mentioning. One was fished up +and exploded on board one of our ships, but no one was seriously hurt. +Some were made of copper, others of wood fastened together like the +staves of a barrel. But the rumour of these mines, which were stated to +contain 700 pounds of powder and to explode either on contact or by what +was then called a "galvanic current"--that is to say, electricity--caused +the allied French and British fleets in the Baltic to exercise great +care in their movements. As at the present day, a system of trawling for +them was instituted, and no less than fifty were picked up off Cronstadt +in ten days. + +[Illustration: Russian Mine laid in the Baltic in the Crimean War + +A B, Close-fitting copper cases containing powder. C, Leather tube +containing electric wire. D, Mooring weight. E, Small white wooden ball +showing position of mine. F, Openings to load mine. G, Iron framework +supporting mine. K, Iron ring-part of frame. L, Mooring rope.] + +"The angling for this dangerous kind of prey was thus managed: two boats +took between them a long rope, which was sunk by heavy weights to a +depth of ten or twelve feet, and held suspended at that depth by empty +casks as floats; the boats then separated as far as the rope would +allow, and rowed onwards at right angles to the length of the rope; it +was a species of trawl fishing in which the agitation of the floats +showed that a prey had been caught, which prey was then hauled up +carefully."[55] Mines were also fished up off Kertch and other Black Sea +ports, showing that the Russians had gone in extensively for submarine +defence, and only failed in causing us serious loss on account of the +primitive character of the mines and the precautions which we took +against them. On our part we had some idea of using a so-called +submarine invented by Mr. Scott Russell, a noted engineer; but it seems +to have been merely an elongated diving-bell which could not carry out a +satisfactory trial. Two attempts were made by Boatswain John Shepherd, +R.N., to blow up Russian ships in the harbour of Sebastopol, but +apparently without success. He went in alone in a punt, taking with him +some kind of an explosive apparatus, and for his "bold and gallantly +executed" exploits he received the Victoria Cross. + +[Illustration: A, Wires to catch side of ship. B, Lead weight. C, Jars +of Gunpowder. D, Case with side broken away to show jars. E, Raft.] + +[Illustration: A, Can buoy containing powder. B, Box containing lighted +match and punk below. C, Lid or slide between match and punk. D, String +for pulling out slide, to allow match to ignite punk. + +VARIOUS CHINESE FLOATING MINES USED AGAINST H.M.S. _ENCOUNTER_] + +At the end of the 'fifties we were engaged in war with China for a +considerable period, and the wily Celestials tried all sorts of dodges +to blow up our ships by means of floating mines, or "infernal machines" +as they were still called. They were ingenious apparatus, some of them. +The following extracts from a letter written by an officer on board the +_Encounter_, off Canton, give a good idea of the means employed. Three +attempts were made to blow her up. + +[Illustration: Chinese Floating Mine + +One of two, tied together, with which an attempt was made to blow up +H.M.S. _Encounter_.] + +"The first was a sampan", he writes, "towed by a canoe on 24th December, +1856, and captured close under the bow by our second gig rowing guard. +The fuse was lighted in the bamboo tubes at the side. The second attempt +was on the morning of 5th January, 1857, about 2.30. Two rafts, moored +together, with about 20 fathom of line buoyed up, with hooks to catch +cables or anything else, and, on the wires touching the ship's side, to +break by the little lead weight the lighted fuse on the top of the +bamboo, which communicated with the powder. These were lighted and all +ready, but fortunately observed by our guard-boat and towed clear of +ship. Being only a raft it was just awash, and in each caisson at least +17 cwt. of gunpowder in open tubs and jars. The raft itself was made of +6-inch plank well bound together, and caulked. The third attempt was on +the morning of the 7th January, 1857, at 4.30. A pair of vessels in the +shape of a can-buoy with a flag on the top, about 8 inches long; the +fuse, with a tin box containing punk[56] over the fuse, then a cover +with lighted match on top; this had a string to it, which, when pulled, +drew out the centre partition and communicated the fire to the punk, to +allow the fellows who swam off with them towards the ship to make their +escape; but they got frightened at some stir with the boats, and by +accident one went off with a fearful explosion on the starboard bow, +about 60 yards, and the other, being deserted, floated down on our +booms. One of the men was caught and brought on board here, and had his +brains blown out at the port gangway. The buoy-shaped vessel was capable +of holding about 10 cwt. of gunpowder." The _Encounter_ was afterwards +attacked by two floating mines coupled together by a length of rope, +each containing half a ton of powder. They were towed by a Chinaman in a +small boat, who was shot by the look-outs and the mines destroyed. The +_Niger_, however, had a small junk exploded alongside her which had, on +the top of the powder in her hold, a cargo of the most evil-smelling +filth that could be found even in a Chinese city. No damage was done to +her hull, but she was absolutely smothered with this poisonous muck, +and for years afterwards the crew of the _Niger_ was subject to the +annoyance of being reminded of this malodorous incident, for whenever a +man belonging to another ship met a _Niger_, he made a point of holding +his nose! + +[Illustration: Barrel Torpedo used at Charleston, made of an ordinary +barrel with ends of solid wood; fired by electricity] + +[Illustration: Confederate Torpedo for Rivers + +A, Outer shell. B, Air chamber to keep end up. C, Gunpowder. D, Pistol +with trigger connected with rod. E, Rod with prongs to catch vessel +coming up stream. F, Iron bands with rings. G, Weights anchoring +torpedo. + +SUBMARINE MINES USED IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR] + +It remained for the mechanical ingenuity of the Americans to establish +the submarine mine as a recognized naval weapon. In the long war between +North and South a considerable use was made of improvised submarine +mines, principally by the Southerners in trying to prevent the ships of +the big Federal Fleet from penetrating their estuaries and harbours. +Space forbids description in detail of these contrivances, but the +sketches on p. 185 will enable you to form some idea of their +construction. The results obtained induced the British Admiralty to +carry out a series of experiments in 1865. The old _Terpsichore_ was +blown up by a "torpedo-shell" charged with 75 pounds of powder, and very +much higher powered mines were tried in various ways. Other European +nations could not afford to overlook this form of warfare, and it was +largely owing to the use of defensive submarine mines that the Germans +kept the powerful French fleet from attacking their coast in the war of +1870. Ten years later mines and their appliances were part of the +equipment of most large war-vessels, which carried two kinds, one +holding 250, the other 500 pounds of gun-cotton. They were perfectly +safe to handle, although fully charged, since the gun-cotton was kept +wet and could only be exploded by inserting a small canister of dry +gun-cotton as a primer. They were intended to be used for countermining +and blowing up an enemy's mine defences, or for defending the ship at +anchor. For harbour defence at home and in our overseas dominions a +special branch of the Royal Engineers was formed, known as the Submarine +Miners, who had charge of everything connected with this part of our +national defences; but with the advent of the submarine this duty was +assumed by the Royal Navy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] i.e. Corneilius Van Drebbel. + +[45] Sides. + +[46] _A Mariner of England, 1780-1817._ Colonel Spencer Childers. + +[47] The Chinese considered this a practical form of warfare even in +comparatively recent times. In _The Voyage of H.M.S. Nemesis_ (1841) an +account is given of the preparations made against the British fleet. At +Canton it was stated that "several hundred divers were said to be in +training who were to go down and bore holes in our ships at night; or +even, as the Chinese privately reported, to carry down with them some +combustible material which would burn under water and destroy our +vessels". + +[48] There is, however, in this MS. a picture of what is probably +intended for a diver wearing a metal helmet without a tube. + +[49] i.e. King Solomon. + +[50] Included in the ships' companies of the Middle Ages were "seamen +who knew how to swim for a long time under water". These divers "pierced +the ships (of the enemy) in many places so that the water could enter". +In an old work on naval architecture, published in 1629, it is stated in +reference to the Turkish pirates of Barbary that "The Corsairs, indeed, +are very wily in attack and defence, acquainted with many kinds of +projectiles, even _Submarine Torpedoes_, which a diver will attach to an +enemy's keel". + +[51] See _The Story of the Submarine_, by Colonel C. Field, R.M.L.I. + +[52] _See The Story of the Submarine_, by Colonel C. Field, R.M.L.I. + +[53] Letter from Mr. Ellis to Lord Lexington, 9th August, 1695. + +[54] In the Civil War in America the _Louisiana_ was filled with 430,000 +pounds of powder, and exploded against Fort Fisher on Christmas Eve, +1864, with little or no effect. This is the last recorded case of an +explosion-ship, unless we reckon the four fireships in the form of rafts +that in April, 1915, were sent by the Germans against a fort at Osowiec. +Some never arrived; the others were blown up by the guns of the fort. + +[55] _War with Russia_, by H. Tyrell. + +[56] i.e. tinder. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Naval Brigades + + "The sailor who ploughs on the watery main, + To war and to danger and shipwreck a brother, + And the soldier who firmly stands out the campaign, + Do they fight for two men who make war on each other? + Oh no, 'tis well known, + The same loyal throne + Fires their bosoms with ardour and noble endeavour; + And that each with his lass, + As he drinks a full glass, + Toasts the Army and Navy of Britain for ever." + _Chorus_--"And that each, &c." + + +WHAT is a "Naval Brigade"? "Brigade" is a military term, and in our +service an infantry brigade now consists of four battalions, with their +head-quarters staff. Not long ago two battalions constituted a brigade. +So that we see a brigade is the combination of a small number of +complete units. In like manner a naval brigade is either, in the case of +a single ship, a landing-force composed of her bluejackets and marines +brigaded together, or, in the case of a fleet or squadron, of its +various ships' companies. In a fleet of any size the naval brigade +available for landing--if there was no chance of an attack by sea--might +amount to two or three battalions formed out of seamen and stokers, and +one of marines. It has frequently fallen to the lot of naval brigades to +carry on a small campaign "on their own", but very often a naval brigade +has been attached to an army on active service. A big book might be +written on the services of British naval brigades, so that we cannot +hope to do more than glance at a very few instances of their work in +"soldiering on shore". + +"Naval Brigade", by the way, is not a very ancient term, though in the +sixteenth, seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries we often find +references to the employment of a "regiment" or "battalion" of seamen. +This may possibly be because, although embarked as part complement of +our men-of-war, the marines, who were in those times organized in +regiments and not in one large corps, did not actually belong to the +Admiralty, but to the War Office. They were landed together, if +possible, in their own regiments, and became for the time being a part +of the army, to which, in addition, a battalion of seamen--which, it is +rather confusing to find, is sometimes referred to as a "marine +regiment"--might often be attached. But seamen and marines were not in +those times generally brigaded together, as they so frequently have been +in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. + +[Illustration: UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH NAVY + +A. B. (Marching Order). 1st Class Petty Officer. Stoker.] + +Though for many a long day the sailor proper "had no use for +soldiering", which he contemned as an inferior profession to his own, he +was always a pretty useful man with the heavy gun. Naturally, if a man +can make decent shooting with a weapon tossing about on an unstable +platform, he finds it comparatively easy to hit his target on terra +firma. One of the earliest references to the employment of seamen in +operations on shore is at the siege of Leith--then held by French +troops--in 1560. The town was beleaguered from seaward by the English +fleet under Admiral Winter, and on the shore side by a combined English +and Scots army; and in the list of troops detailed for an assault--which +unfortunately proved unsuccessful--we find that the "Vyce-Admyralle of +the Quene's Majestye's Schippes" was to furnish 500 men. + +Drake's men in his expeditions to the Spanish coast were formed into +regiments and fought on shore, and after the Restoration a battalion of +seamen took part in the severe fighting with the Moors at Tangier. It +does not seem quite clear whether this included marines or not.[57] +Anyway, it was under the command of Admiral Herbert and had been put +through a special course of exercise "by an expert old soldier--Captain +Barclay", who, after the first engagement, was reproved by the Admiral +"for suffering too forward and furious advancement, lest thereby they +might fall into the enemy's ambushments". Captain Barclay retorted that +"he could lead them on, but the furies could not bring them off"! + +At the siege of Cork by the Duke of Marlborough, in 1690, besides the +two marine regiments of the Earls of Torrington and Pembroke, a naval +brigade of 600 seamen and marines[58] was landed from the fleet, with as +many carpenters and gunners as could be spared, to assist in the +construction of the siege-batteries and gun-platforms. The brigade was +under the command of the Duke of Grafton, then captain of one of the +ships, though previously in command of the 1st Foot Guards. The +readiness and cheerfulness with which both seamen and marines dragged +their heavy guns into position in the face of the enemy's opposition is +specially recorded. The capture of the "Cat", an important outwork +covering the approaches to the city, is set down to the credit of two of +the seamen. These worthies, with or without leave, were cruising about +in front of the outposts in the early morning in the neighbourhood of +the "Cat", and, seeing no sign of life or movement, crept cautiously up +to its formidable ramparts and found that it had been deserted by the +Irish garrison. They installed themselves in possession and signalled +the state of affairs to their friends, on which 200 men of Colonel +Hale's regiment were sent to occupy it. + +In the expedition to Flanders in 1694 it is stated that 6000 seamen were +"mixed with our land forces, and each of them on landing" was to receive +"a guinea a man".[59] + +In the capture of Gibraltar in 1704 the seamen played a prominent part. +The marines were all landed together under the Prince of Hesse, to cut +off communication with the mainland, while the seamen, under Captains +Hicks and Jumper--Jumper's Bastion commemorates his name at the present +day--stormed its defences at the southern end. The marine regiments +played such a distinguished part in the gallant defence against +overwhelming odds which followed that the corps bears the word +"Gibraltar"[60] on its colours and accoutrements to the present day; but +at one part of the siege a force of seamen and guns was landed from the +fleet and did most useful service. + +One of them[61] has left a very interesting account of his experiences +on this occasion. "On the morning we got thither", he says, "the +Spaniards were discovered that came up the back of the hill. Then there +was a command for twenty of our men to go ashore with fire-arms.... We +were all in high spirits and fit to do execution, not being at all +daunted at their numbers, for they were like swarms of bees upon the +hill and in great confusion, and we like lions in the valley seeking +whom we might devour; as our duty required. At it we went, loading and +firing as fast as we could. Our men had a great advantage of the +Spaniards in firing uphill, and it was a very great advantage they were +not obliged to wade, for the water often overflows that part where we +were obliged to engage them. We were happy enough in missing the tide; +had it been otherwise, we had been but in a bad situation. The Spaniards +rolled pieces of rocks down the hill and wounded a great many of our +men, but our advantage in firing was more than all they could do. When +they found they could do no good they laid down their fire-arms.... We +stayed ashore all night, and in the morning returned to our ship. They +found the duty too hard for the soldiers, and then there were orders +sent for ten men of a ship to go ashore again.... When we went over we +found that the works were very much demolished, for there was not a gun +that we could fire one day without its being unfit for service on the +next, for the Spaniards would dismount them.... We found the duty +extremely hard, for what they beat down by day we were obliged to clear +away at night." + +After a further description of their work, the writer speaks of the +Spanish bombardment and tells how he just escaped a "Jack Johnson" of +the period by throwing himself flat on the ground. "Had I been so +unwise", he says, "as to have stood up when it fell, I should have been +lifted up on its wings. I was hardened in that employment, and a great +many of our men ran in a terrible fright, thinking that I was blown up. +They said, when they saw me, we are glad to see you alive. I thanked +them for their regard for me, and told them I never minded a bomb at +all, only to observe its falling and step out of the way and fall with +my face to the ground.... We continued making our works by night and in +the daytime we were employed in drawing guns from the New Mole to +Wills's Battery. We had very indifferent ground some part of the way, +therefore we were obliged to draw in gears, in the same manner as horses +do. But when we came among the rocks we were obliged to lay deal spars, +and parbuckle them up with hawsers, and by these means we haled them up +to the Battery." + +It is in this kind of work that our seamen have ever proved so +invaluable to the sister service on shore. A military officer, writing +of the taking of Martinique in 1762, writes: "The cannon and other +warlike stores were landed as soon as possible, and dragged by the +'Jacks' to any point thought proper. You may fancy you know the spirit +of these fellows; but to see them in action exceeds any idea that can be +formed of them. A hundred or two of them, with ropes and pulleys, will +do more than all your dray horses in London. Let but their tackle hold +and they will draw you a cannon or mortar on its proper carriage up to +any height, though the weight be ever so great. It is droll enough to +see them tugging along with a good 24-pounder at their heels; on they go +huzzaing, hallooing, sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill, now sticking +fast in the brakes, presently floundering in mud and mire ... and as +careless of everything but the matter committed to their charge as if +death or danger had nothing to do with them. We had a thousand of these +brave fellows sent to our assistance by the Admiral; and the service +they did us, both on shore and on the water, is incredible."[62] + +[Illustration: ENGLISH BLUEJACKETS AT THE DEFENCE OF ACRE + +Seamen and marines constantly worked together on shore during numerous +expeditions in the course of the long series of wars which only +terminated with the Battle of Waterloo.] + +Two or three years previously the seamen of the fleet had performed a +similar duty at the siege of Quebec, and it is related that after +bringing up the guns they met a battalion of soldiers about to go into +action and insisted in falling-in alongside them, some armed with +cutlasses, some with sticks, and others with no weapons at all. General +Wolfe, coming up, thanked them for their spirit, but urged them to +continue on their way to their ships, as they were both unarmed and +unacquainted with military discipline and manoeuvres. He said that it +would be of more service to their country if they did so than for them +to lose their lives for no result. To this address some of them called +out: "God bless your Honour, pray let us stay and see fair play between +the English and the French". Wolfe again urged them to go on board. Some +followed his advice, but others, as soon as his back was turned, swore +that the soldiers should not have all the fighting to themselves. They +contrived to remain with the redcoats, and whenever one of the latter +fell a seaman put on his accoutrements, seized his musket, and charged +with the battalion. Seamen and marines constantly worked together on +shore during the numerous expeditions that were directed against the +enemy's possessions in the course of the long series of wars which +only terminated with the Battle of Waterloo, not so very often in +regular brigades but in landing-parties from their own ships, notably at +the defence of Acre by Sir Sidney Smith, Captain of the _Tigre_, +assisted by Colonel Douglas of the Marines and by Colonel Philpoteaux, +an engineer officer and a French Royalist refugee. A very usual +operation was for one or two of our ships to set about the capture of a +number of the enemy's merchantmen and small craft that had sought refuge +in some harbour on the Mediterranean coast. If there was a battery +defending the entrance the ship would engage it, and after its guns were +silenced, it would be stormed by the bluejackets and marines. After this +the latter would take up a covering position while the seamen brought +out the shipping. + +We have a somewhat amusing account of a naval brigade of seamen which +was put on shore during the unfortunate Walcheron Expedition of 1808. It +was written by a soldier, so perhaps may have been a bit overdrawn, but +it must be remembered that there was no attempt to teach seamen infantry +drill in those days, and none of them was enlisted for longer than a +ship's commission. "These extraordinary fellows", says the writer, +"delighted in hunting the 'Munseers', as they called the French, and a +more formidable pack was never unkennelled. Armed with a long pole, a +pike, a cutlass, and a pistol, they annoyed the French skirmishers in +all directions by their irregular and unexpected attacks. They usually +went out in parties as if they were going to hunt a wild beast, and no +huntsman ever followed the chase with more delight.... They might be +seen leaping the dykes by the aid of their poles or swimming across +others, like Newfoundland dogs; and if a few French riflemen appeared in +sight, they ran at them helter-skelter, and pistol, cutlass, or pike +went to work in good earnest. The French soldiers did not at all relish +such opponents--and no wonder, for the very appearance of them was +terrific, and quite out of the usual order of things. Each man seemed a +sort of Paul Jones, tarred, belted, and cutlassed as they were. Had we +had occasion to storm Flushing I have no doubt they would have carried +the breach themselves." + +The writer gives a humorous description of their drill, of which they +wisely only attempted enough to assist them in moving from place to +place. "'Heads up, you beggar of a corporal, there', a little +slang-going Jack would cry out from the rear rank, well knowing that his +diminutive size prevented his being seen by his officers. Then, perhaps, +the man immediately before the wit, in order to show his sense of +decorum, would turn round and remark: 'I say, who made you fugleman,[63] +Master Billy? Can't you behave like a sodger afore the commander, eh?'" + +Drill was looked upon merely as an amusing interlude in the serious +business of war and appreciated accordingly. It was an exhibition of the +same spirit of cheerfulness which has made us so proud of our Tommies +for "sticking it out" so heroically in the trenches. This spirit never +left these gallant seamen till the last, for the account above quoted +tells how, when one of them was brought to the ground by a bullet which +broke the bones of his leg, while pursuing some of the enemy's riflemen, +he "took off his tarpaulin hat and flung it with all his might after +them, adding a wish, 'that it was an 18-pounder for their sakes!' The +poor fellow was carried off by his comrades and taken to the hospital, +where he died. Such were the men who fought our battles." + +At the landing in Aboukir Bay in 1801 a body of seamen under Sir Sidney +Smith were of great assistance to our army--very badly provided with +artillery with which to reply to the numerous French field-pieces. The +seamen, however, landed some guns, dragged them to a good position among +the sand-hills, and by their fire materially contributed to the victory +which ensued. It was in the same part of the world--to be exact, on the +coast of Syria--that some years afterwards, in 1840-1, a naval brigade +from the Mediterranean fleet, under Sir Charles Napier, assisted by a +reinforcement of the Royal Marines sent out from England, carried on a +campaign against Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, who had revolted from +the Sultan and forcibly occupied Syria. There were Turkish troops also +engaged and a small detachment from one or two Austrian ships, but Sir +Charles Napier was in charge of the operations, and no British soldiers, +other than the few marines, took part in the campaign. + +Sir Charles, though a sailor, always thought that he was a soldier +spoiled, and was very proud of the rank of Major-General which had been +given him by the Portuguese Government about ten years before. He had +seen a little fighting on shore in the Peninsula, and entered into this +shore-going campaign with the greatest zest. The marines, who were +formed into two battalions, did the greater part of the fighting on +land, as the seamen were required to man the guns of their ships, which +constantly co-operated with the land forces by bombarding the enemy's +towns and positions; but the bluejackets took part in the storming of +Tortosa--where they preceded the marines as a pioneer party to remove +obstacles--the assault of a castle near Acre, the occupation of Tyre, +and the capture of Acre and Sidon. The seamen and marines of the fleet +engaged in the Chinese war of 1840-1 also did a considerable amount of +shore work of which space precludes any account, the operations they +were engaged in being so numerous and so scattered. But we may say that, +generally speaking, the seamen acted as gunners, while the marines were +employed as infantry. + +Naval guns mounted in shore batteries played a most distinguished part +in the Crimean War. They were manned both by seamen and by marines, and +were employed at the bombardment and capture of Bomarsund in the Baltic +and in the trenches before Sebastopol. At the latter place, although a +brigade of the Royal Marines had been encamped on the heights above +Balaclava, and though they and the Royal Marine Artillery manned the +guns in the redoubts built to secure our right flank from a Russian +attack, it had not been intended to place naval guns in the +siege-batteries. But when our siege-train found that they had all they +could do to contend with the unexpected efficiency of the Russian guns, +it was hurriedly determined to call on the navy for assistance. Fifty +heavy guns were at once landed, with 35 officers and 732 seamen under +Captain Stephen Lushington. The reinforcement was most valuable. The +guns were powerful and the seamen's fire most accurate. The brigade did +"yeoman service", and sustained by the end of the siege the loss of 7 +officers and 95 men killed, and 39 officers and 432 men wounded. + +Perhaps the most famous naval brigade in history is the _Shannon's_ +brigade, under Captain Peel, which made such a glorious record in the +strenuous days of the Indian Mutiny. Although nearly all accounts would +lead the reader to believe that it was entirely composed of seamen, it +consisted, in point of fact, of 450 seamen, 140 marines, and 15 marine +artillerymen, drawn from both the _Shannon_ and the _Pearl_. The guns +which they took with them and which did such invaluable service were +twelve in number--ten 8-inch guns--pretty heavy pieces to haul +along--and a couple of brass field-pieces. The brigade participated in +the action at Kajwa, 1st November, 1857, when Peel took charge of the +operations on the death of Colonel Powell of the 53rd, and brought them +to a victorious conclusion. On the 13th of the same month eight heavy +guns and 250 of the brigade, with Peel himself, arrived before Lucknow, +where they formed part of the army under Sir Colin Campbell which had +advanced to the relief of the Europeans besieged in the Residency. After +the capture of the Sikander Bagh, the relieving-force was checked in a +narrow way by the desperate resistance offered by the garrison of the +Shah Najif, "which was wreathed in volumes of smoke from the burning +buildings in front but sparkled all over with the bright flash of +small-arms".[64] The guns could make little or no impression on it; +retreat was impossible along the narrow crowded lane by which the +advance had been made. Desperate measures were necessary. Peel was equal +to the occasion. While his marines and the Highlanders did their best to +keep down the fire from the rebel loopholes, his seamen man-handled two +of their big guns to within a few feet of the walls. But they had to be +drawn off again under cover of the fire from a couple of rocket tubes, +which were brought into action for the purpose. Still their gunners had +made a small breach, which they had not even noticed themselves, and by +this breach fifty men of the 93rd Highlanders, under Colonel Adrian Hope +and Sergeant Paton--who received the V.C. for this service--later on +effected an entry and expelled the garrison. The naval guns were of the +greatest service during the withdrawal of the hardly pressed garrison of +the Residency, since they kept down the fire from the Kaisar Bagh, the +principal stronghold of the rebel sepoys. At Cawnpore and at the battle +of Futtygurh, and in the final relief of Lucknow, the _Shannon_ and +_Pearl_ brigades distinguished themselves time after time; but we must +leave further details, to deal with later naval brigades. + +Passing over the operations in China in 1858-9-60, and the attack on +Simomosaki in Japan, in all of which both seamen and marines were +engaged, we come to the Ashanti War of 1873. The opening operations were +entirely carried out by the navy, with the assistance of a few black +troops. The invading army of Ashantis was forced back over the River +Prah by the marines and seamen of the squadron, reinforced by a small +force of the former sent especially from England, Cape Coast Castle and +Elmina were saved, and time was gained for the arrival of the +expeditionary force from England under Sir Garnet Wolseley. A small +naval brigade of 200 seamen, and 60 marines, with a rocket train, +accompanied the army on its advance to Kumassi and played a conspicuous +part in the battle of Amoaful, suffering a loss of six officers and +forty men wounded. + +A little naval brigade of 3 officers and 121 men with two rocket-tubes, +six 12-pounders, and a Gatling gun participated in the fighting with the +Kafirs in South Africa in 1877-8; while in the Zulu War of a year or so +later the _Shah_, _Active_, _Boadicea_, and _Tenedos_ landed a brigade +of seamen and marines of the strength of 41 officers and 812 men, with +several guns. It was employed in somewhat scattered detachments. In 1881 +a small naval brigade took part in the inglorious Boer War and suffered +heavily at the unfortunate battle on Majuba Hill, where it lost more +than half its strength. It is to one of the seamen present that the +following terse summary of that disastrous day is attributed. "We took +three mortal hours to get up that bloomin' hill," he said, "but we come +down in three bloomin' strides." + +The navy and marines played a considerable part in the shore operations +which followed on the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. After the fire +of Sir "Breach'em" Seymour's fleet had driven Arabi and his soldiers out +of the city, the mob gave itself up to murder, looting, and +incendiarism. No troops had yet arrived, and the only thing to do was to +land the naval brigade to keep order and save the city and its European +inhabitants. The bluejackets, with their Gatling guns, supported by the +marines with their rifles, lost no time in clearing the streets of the +murderous rabble. The work was done in a thorough and effective manner, +and as soon as possible a rough-and-ready tribunal was established to +deal with special cases. In addition to these duties the naval brigade +had to find detachments to hold a line of outposts round the landward +side of the city, ready to check a very probable attempt of Arabi to +recapture the city. In a day or so the hardly-worked seamen and marines +were strengthened by the arrival of a battalion of the Royal Marines +which had been specially sent out from England in the _Tamar_ in view +of possible hostilities. It could easily have arrived at Alexandria two +or three days earlier but for a series of orders and counter-orders from +home which delayed it at Gibraltar, Malta, and finally sent it out of +the way to Cyprus, where it was greeted with news of the bombardment, +and the _Tamar_ steamed straight out of Limasol harbour without letting +go her anchor. When the army began to arrive, the naval brigade was +gradually withdrawn on board its ships, but shortly afterwards was +employed in seizing Port Said, Ismailia, and other points on the canal. + +In the advance along the Sweet-water Canal, which culminated in the +victory of Tel-el-Kebir, only a very small naval contingent from the +ships took part, but a battalion of the Royal Marine Light Infantry and +another of Royal Marine Artillery were attached to the army, the latter +being told off as a body-guard to Lord Wolseley. But we must not omit to +mention Lieutenant Rawson of the Royal Navy, to whom was committed the +important task of guiding the night march of the army against the +Egyptian lines of Tel-el-Kebir by the aid of the stars, and who fell in +the moment of victory. "No man more gallant fell on that occasion," +reported Lord Wolseley. + +Naval brigades were well to the fore in the fighting which took place in +the Sudan in 1884-5. At the Battle of El Teb 13 naval officers and 150 +seamen, with six machine-guns, were present, as well as a battalion of +400 marines. It was in this action that Captain A. K. Wilson--now +Admiral of the Fleet, Sir A. K. Wilson, V.C., G.C.B., O.M., +G.C.V.O.--gained the V.C. for the gallant way in which he, +single-handed, engaged no less than six of the enemy who had endeavoured +to capture one of his machine-guns. The naval brigade suffered heavy +casualties at the Battle of Tamaii, which took place not long +afterwards. In the Gordon Relief Expedition the naval brigade was +naturally of great use on the Nile, and a small detachment of +fifty-eight seamen under Lord Charles Beresford accompanied the Camel +Corps in its dash across the desert and took part in the +fiercely-contested fights of Abu Klea and Abu Kru. The marines formed +the fourth company of the Guards Camel Corps on this occasion. In the +operations on the upper Nile which preceded the fall of Khartoum there +were a few naval and one marine officer in command of the Egyptian +gunboats, whose fire proved such a useful auxiliary to the advance of +the Anglo-Egyptian Army, while about a dozen non-commissioned officers +of the Royal Marine Artillery were responsible for the instruction of +their Egyptian gunners and the direction of their fire. + +[Illustration: THE NAVAL BRIGADE IN THE BATTLE OF EL-TEB] + +Naval brigades were very much in evidence in the South African War. No +special squadron and no battalions of marines were sent out, because it +was necessary to keep our main fleet and its personnel ready to hand in +case of complications with European powers. The big cruisers _Terrible_ +and _Powerful_, however, appeared on the scene, and their crews assisted +in the formation of the naval brigades. In October, 1899, one of these +was formed at Simonstown from the _Doris_, _Terrible_, _Powerful_, and +_Monarch_. + +It is noteworthy that for the first time on record both seamen and +marines were provided with khaki uniform in place of their usual +blue-serge service-dress. This brigade was sent to Stormberg, on to +Queenstown, and then, to its intense disappointment, back to Simonstown +by sea from East London. That is, with the exception of the _Terribles_, +who sailed for Durban. However, the very day the brigade arrived at +Simonstown it was ordered off again to join Lord Methuen's force on the +Modder River. The khaki-clad bluejackets, with their straw hats covered +with the same coloured material, were rather a puzzle to the soldiers. +During one of the engagements which took place, some of the Scots +Guards, passing them standing by their guns, said to each other: "Blimy, +Tommy, there's them Boer guns we've took!" + +At the Battle of Graspan the naval brigade particularly distinguished +itself. Captain Protheroe was in command, Commander Ethelston commanding +the seamen, and Major Plumbe the marines. In the course of the action +Captain Protheroe was wounded and both the other officers mentioned were +killed, the brigade being brought out of action by Captain Marchant of +the Royal Marines.[65] The Boers were strongly posted on a pair of +kopjes. The eastern kopje was attacked by a force distributed as +follows:-- + +_Firing Line._--One company bluejackets, 50 strong; three companies +Royal Marines, 190 strong in all; one company King's Own Yorkshire Light +Infantry. + +_Supports._--Seven companies King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. + +_Reserve._--Half a battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. + +The remainder of the seamen belonging to the naval brigade--about 150 in +number--helped to cover the attack by bringing their guns into action at +about 2800 yards range. The kopje was taken, but a heavy price was paid +by the naval brigade. There were 2 naval and 2 marine officers killed +and one of each wounded, 2 seamen and 6 marines killed, and 13 seamen +and 82 marines wounded. During the farther advance on our western flank +the guns of the naval brigade were constantly in action. One of the big +4·7 guns, mounted on the travelling carriage suggested by Captain (now +Admiral) Sir Percy Scott of the _Terrible_, and put into practical form +by one of her engineer officers, arrived in time for the naval brigade +to use it at Magersfontein with considerable effect. At Paardeberg they +had four of these weapons in action, besides smaller guns. Manned either +by bluejackets or marines, and hauled along either by teams of oxen or +by the men of the brigade themselves, they again and again proved most +effective during the operations which followed. + +[Illustration: _Photo. Cribb, Southsea_ + +OUR SEAMEN GUNNERS WITH A MAXIM] + +Meanwhile the _Powerfuls_ had formed a naval brigade of their own, and +in response to the appeal made by Sir George White, the defender of +Ladysmith, for more guns, Captain the Hon. Hedworth Lambton of that ship +rushed up 17 officers and 267 men with two 4·7 guns, four 12-pounders, +and four Maxims, just managing to get into the beleaguered town in time. +On the very first day the 12-pounders managed to put the Boer "Long +Tom", which was lobbing its big projectiles into the place, out of +action, and their presence undoubtedly saved the situation. Another +naval brigade formed part of the relieving force and fought at Colenso. +This force comprised 20 officers and 403 bluejackets and marines, to +whom must be added 2 officers and 50 men belonging to the Natal Naval +Volunteers. A formidable battery of one 6-inch, five 4·7-inch, and +eighteen long 12-pounders accompanied this brigade, which was of the +greatest possible assistance to the army. + +About this time the Boxer outbreak in China led to the formation of +other naval brigades. Though hardly to be termed a naval brigade, it may +be noted that the British portion of the small international force which +so stoutly defended the Pekin Legations consisted of 79 Royal Marines +and 3 officers, together with a leading signalman, an armourer's mate, +and a sick-berth steward. But the relief column, under Vice-Admiral Sir +E. H. Seymour, was a big naval brigade of various nationalities, of +which about half were British--62 officers, 640 seamen, and 218 marines. +The British were under the immediate command of Captain J. R. Jellicoe, +C.B., C.V.O.,[66] the marines being under Major J. R. Johnstone, +R.M.L.I.[67] A determined attempt was made to advance along the railway +line to Pekin, but the Chinese troops, who were exceedingly well armed, +having thrown in their lot with the Boxers, the brigade was unable to +get farther than An-tung, which was occupied by Major Johnstone with +sixty men, while preparations were made to fall back on Tien-tsin. +The force had come up in a series of trains, but, the railway having +been broken behind it in more than one place, a great part of the return +journey had to be carried out on foot. Village after village had to be +stormed, and not far from Tien-tsin the retreating column had to pass +close under the walls of the important Chinese arsenal of Hsi-ku, which +stood on the opposite bank of the river. From this big fortified +enclosure a heavy fire was poured upon the Europeans at short range. It +was a regular death-trap. However, the principal part of the column +sought what cover the rather high bank of the river afforded, while +Major Johnstone, with the British marines and half a company of +bluejackets, contrived to get across in junks a little higher up, and, +forming under cover of a small village, fixed bayonets and stormed the +enclosure in flank with a tremendous rush, driving out the garrison +before him. The column halted for the night and for the next day or two +inside the arsenal, where it was attacked again and again till a relief +column moved out from Tien-tsin and brought off the harassed naval +brigade. In the meanwhile Admiral Seymour's brigade were fighting +fiercely in Tien-tsin itself. The Pei-Yang Arsenal held by the Chinese +had to be stormed, the European quarter defended, and finally the +high-walled native city had to be taken by assault, an operation in +which the British seamen and marines suffered very heavily. + +This is the last important occasion on which a naval brigade was in +action until the European War. So far no naval brigade, in the sense of +a force of bluejackets and marines disembarked from their ships, has +taken part in the fighting, except perhaps at the Dardanelles. The Naval +Division which went to Antwerp was composed of marines and reservists +from their head-quarters and of naval reservists and volunteers, but we +have so little reliable information of what happened on that occasion +that it would be very inadvisable to attempt to give any account of its +performances at the present time. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[57] Possibly not, as there was a composite battalion at Tangier +composed of companies from various regiments, including one of marines. + +[58] "Five or six hundred seamen and others of the Marine +Regiment."--_Reminiscences of Cork_, by Crofton Croker (MS.). + +[59] Lutterell. + +[60] Several years ago the Kaiser bestowed this distinction on a Hessian +Regiment on account of its ancestors--so it is stated--having +participated in the capture. I have studied the taking of Gibraltar +pretty thoroughly, but have never found any mention of a German regiment +taking part in it. + +[61] _Life and Adventures of Matthew Bishop_. London, 1744. + +[62] Quoted in Cassell's _British Sea Kings and Sea Fights_. + +[63] A soldier who used to be placed in front of a regiment, by whose +motions the movements of the exercises with arms were directed. In some +regiments at the present day the right-hand man steps a pace forward on +the order "Fix bayonets", to give the time and ensure all moving +together. + +[64] _Blackwood's Magazine_, October, 1858. + +[65] Now Brigadier-General Marchant, C.B., A.D.C. + +[66] Now Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., the famous +commander of our Grand Fleet. + +[67] Now Major-General Johnstone, C.B. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +War-ships of all Sorts + + "The King's Navy exceeds all others in the World for + three things, viz.: Beauty, Strength, and Safety. For + Beauty, they are so many Royal Palaces; for Strength, + so many moving Castles and Barbicans; and for Safety, + they are the Most Defensive Walls of the Realm. + Amongst the Ships of other Nations, they are like + Lions amongst silly Beasts, or Falcons, amongst + fearful Fowle."--_Lord Cokes Fourth Institute._ + + +IN a previous chapter was set forth the story of the evolution of our +battleships, up to and including the famous _Dreadnought_ of 1907, the +so-called "first all-big-gun type". As there had been several +"all-big-gun ships" among our earlier ironclads, this description seems +hardly warranted. However, the _Dreadnought_ stands pre-eminent as the +first of the modern type of battleship, though in power, speed, tonnage, +and general efficiency she has been far out-classed by the successive +batches of Super-Dreadnoughts which have followed her, which are +represented by the _Bellerophon_, _St. Vincent_, _Colossus_, _Orion_, +_King George V_, _Iron Duke_, and, last of all, the monster _Queen +Elizabeth_, or "_Lizzie_" as she is irreverently called. To describe +this latest product of the naval designer's art is the best way of +explaining what a really modern battleship is like. + +The _Queen Elizabeth_, then, is 600 feet in length--that is to say, just +200 yards. Think of the distance you have often seen measured off for a +hundred-yards' race, multiply it by two, and you will have some idea of +what this means. Or, if you have ever done any shooting on the range, +try to remember how far off the 200-yard target looked, and you will +realize what must be the size of a ship long enough to cover all the +ground between it and the firing-point. (The _Dreadnought_, by the way, +was only 490 feet in length.) The beam of the _Queen Elizabeth_ is 92 +feet--10 feet more than that of the _Dreadnought_. You may well imagine +that the tonnage, or weight of water displaced, by a ship of these +dimensions is enormous, and so it is, being no less than 27,500 tons! +So, also, is the horse-power of her engines--58,000! But when we know +that they have to be able to drive this leviathan through the water at a +speed of 25 knots an hour, we can well understand the necessity for +powerful engines. To feed their furnaces 4000 tons of fuel are carried. +It is not coal, but what is known as "heavy oil", arrangements having +been made by the Admiralty for an immense quantity of this fuel, which +is considered to have many advantages over coal. Earlier ships carry a +proportion of both coal and oil. The engines are, of course, of the +turbine type, which has entirely superseded the old reciprocating +engines in the Royal Navy. + +"The introduction of the turbine engine", writes a naval officer, "has +revolutionized the appearance of the engine-room. The flashing +piston-rods and revolving cranks have vanished. All the driving-power of +the ship is hidden in some mahogany-sheathed horizontal cylinders, and +there is nothing to indicate that the engines are in movement but a +small external dial and needle no larger than a mantelpiece clock, +attached to each of the shafts, of which there are two in each +engine-room."[68] + +The _Queen Elizabeth_ can hardly be called an "all-big-gun ship", since +besides the eight huge 15-inch guns which form her principal armament +she carries sixteen 6-inch quick-firing guns, firing projectiles of 100 +pounds weight, and about a dozen little cannon specially mounted for +firing up at Zeppelins or aeroplanes. But her 15-inch guns are the +biggest and most powerful cannon now afloat. Not only do they fire huge +elongated shells of 1950 pounds weight, but their range and accuracy is +most remarkable. We have seen a little of what they can do in the +Dardanelles, when the ship, steaming well out at sea, pitched these +terrible projectiles right over the peninsula of Gallipoli, to descend +like a combination earthquake and avalanche upon the Turkish forts in +the straits. The _Dreadnought_ had 12-inch guns firing 850-pound +projectiles, but she carried ten to the four of all her predecessors. +But though the _Queen Elizabeth_ had to give up one turret,[69] and +therefore two guns, in order to make room for more boiler-power for the +production of greater speed, her broadside totals 15,600 pounds of metal +as against the 8500 of the earlier war-ship, or the 12,500 pounds of +later Super-Dreadnoughts armed with ten 13-1/2-inch big guns. But the +ability to throw heavier projectiles was by no means the only reason for +increasing the calibre of our big guns. The fact was that gradual +improvements in the 12-inch gun had made it so long in proportion to its +calibre that there was an imperceptible sort of "whip" at the muzzle on +discharge that was yet quite enough to interfere with its accuracy.[70] +So we brought out the 13.5-inch, a most formidable weapon, and, later +on, the 15-inch gun. With each of these the difficulty of making sure of +hitting at long range decreased, and the encounters in the war that have +taken place between our ships and those of the Germans which have had +the temerity to put their noses outside their harbour defences have all +gone to prove the previously-advanced theory that the battles of the +immediate future will take place at immense ranges, at which the smaller +guns and torpedoes cannot be effectively used. + +[Illustration: DECK OF A _DREADNOUGHT_ CLEARED FOR ACTION] + +It would be superfluous to describe the general appearance of the _Queen +Elizabeth_ in words, the photograph opposite presenting it better than +the most detailed description: but it may be fairly said that while in +picturesque beauty modern battleships cannot compete with the +masterpieces of "the days of wood and hemp", there is yet an appearance +of power, proportion, and impressiveness about them which forms a +combination that may be almost called a beauty in itself. In the same +way we may compare the plain, severe beauty of the Parthenon at Athens +with the elaborately carved, gilded, and painted workmanship of a +Japanese temple. Both are attractive to the eye in their own peculiar +and far differing ways. In the old wooden ships an appreciable +proportion of their cost went in decoration alone, but out of the +£2,400,000 expended on the "_Lizzie_" such expenditure may be set down +practically as _nil_. A plain slate-coloured coat of paint, extending +from truck to water-line, is all the painter has had to do with her +external appearance. + +The turrets in which the _Queen Elizabeth's_ big guns are carried are +four in number, and are placed on the centre line of the ship--two +forward and two aft. Each turret contains a pair of guns, and the two +innermost turrets are perched up on a species of protected tower or +pedestal in such a way that they can fire directly over the foremost and +aftermost turrets. By this arrangement four guns can be discharged dead +ahead, four astern, and the whole eight on either broadside. We have +been some time evolving this arrangement of turrets--in point of fact +some foreign "Dreadnoughts" were the first to adopt it. + +Our original _Dreadnought_ had five turrets, three on the centre line of +the ship and one on either broadside. The same arrangement was carried +out in the _Bellerophon_ and _St. Vincent_ classes, which followed her, +but in the _Colossus_ class, which succeeded them, the position of the +five turrets was altered. There was one right forward on the centre line +of the ship, then one on the port side, and farther aft another on the +starboard side. In fact, these two turrets were arranged _en echelon_, +just as they were in the earlier _Colossus_ and other ships. The fourth +and fifth turrets were on the centre line, and the fourth was able to +fire over the fifth, just as the second can fire over the first in the +_Queen Elizabeth_. In the _Orion_ class, which came next, the same +arrangement as in the _Queen Elizabeth_ was followed, but as there was +an additional turret it was placed by itself right amidships. No change +in this respect was made in the _King Georges_. + +We must not leave our typical modern battleship without some reference +to the way in which she is protected by armour. As in all such ships, +the armour-plating is distributed (_a_) to protect her flotation and +(_b_) to protect her guns. With the former object in view she has a +broad water-line belt of the finest and strongest 13-1/2-inch armour +procurable, which is supplemented by an armoured deck of considerable +thickness. Each turret stands on a species of armoured tower, going +right down to the armoured deck, and is itself made of 13-1/2-inch +armour. Her flotation is further safeguarded by minute subdivision below +the water-line. + +"Long experience of naval war has established a belief, shown by the +practice of maritime powers to be unanimous, that a navy should comprise +three great classes of ships, these classes admitting of much internal +subdivision. In the period of the great naval wars there were ships of +the line, frigates, and small craft. These are now represented by +battleships, cruisers, and smaller and special-service vessels. +Individuals of the first-mentioned class are intended to fight in large +groups, that is to say, in fleet actions; those of the second class are +intended for solitary service, or, at any rate, to fight only in small +groups; while those of the third are intended, according to the +subdivision to which they belong, for a variety of special purposes." So +writes Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge in his _Art of Naval Warfare_, and his +definitions are clear and compact. + +With the battleship class we have already dealt, both as regards its +evolution and present-day pitch of perfection; but want of space has +precluded any attempt to trace the evolution of the cruiser in the same +way. It is therefore necessary, before going on to describe the cruisers +of our modern navy, to glance, in the briefest possible manner, at +their predecessors of days gone by. Perhaps we may take the viking +_skuta_, or fast scouting vessel, as its first prototype, scouting being +one of the most important duties of a cruiser. Possibly the galleys and +balingers of mediæval times may be regarded as the _skuta's_ successors, +while the low-lying _Tiger_ and other ships of her class in Tudor reigns +may be considered as the immediate precursors of the famous frigates and +corvettes which figured so largely and did such yeoman service in our +eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century maritime campaigns. Our first +frigates were the _Satisfaction_, _Adventure_, _Nonsuch_, _Assurance_, +and _Constant Warwick_, all built in the year 1646; and from that time +up to about 1870 a constant succession of ships of this useful type were +added to the navy, the latest ones being, of course, steam frigates. + +A frigate, according to an old work of 1771, was defined as "a light +nimble ship built for the purposes of sailing swiftly. These vessels +mount from twenty to thirty-eight guns, and are esteemed excellent +_cruisers_." The name was derived from _fregata_, a Mediterranean vessel +propelled both by sails and by oars. It is said the British navy was the +first to adopt frigates for use in war, but the French, and afterwards +the Americans, were generally successful in building the finest vessels +of this class. These ships were full-rigged, with three masts, and +carried all their principal guns in one battery on the main deck. The +corvette may be regarded as a smaller frigate, but was not square-rigged +on her mizzen-mast, and carried her main battery on her upper deck. This +later type of cruiser outlasted the frigate by some years, and the last +of them, such as the _Opal_ and other corvettes of the "Jewel" class, +were very handsome vessels, though by no means so formidable as the +pole-rigged cruisers which took their place. + +The frigates in the old French War were considered "the eyes and ears of +the fleet". They sought out and reported the enemy, they attacked his +cruisers and commerce and protected our own, and fully justified their +name and the general reputation for smartness which they were accorded. +The duties of our cruisers of to-day are of a very similar kind, +although the invention of wireless telegraphy and the aeroplane has +supplemented and to some extent superseded their scouting work. + +As for what they have actually done, we have only to recollect the +various incidents of the Great War as regards its aspects at sea. Acting +in unison with those of France and Japan, they have swept German +commerce and German cruisers from the face of the ocean, and so far, +except for shore bombardments and submarine attacks, have been the only +war-vessels engaged on either side. At the time of writing no +battleships have as yet been in action against one another, for we may +regard all those ships which have been reported in action at sea as +cruisers, from the big battle-cruiser _Lion_ down to the destroyers--and +even, perhaps, our submarines, which are very useful scouts. + +Cruisers proper in our navy are now officially classed in three main +divisions--"battle-cruisers", "cruisers", and "light cruisers", though a +very short time ago they were subdivided into "armoured cruisers", +"first-class protected cruisers", "second-class protected cruisers", +"third-class protected cruisers", "unarmoured cruisers", +"lightly-armoured cruisers", and "scouts". + +The battle-cruiser is a hybrid and, as this war has proved, a most +useful war-vessel. She is not so heavily armed or armoured as a +battleship of equivalent age, but has much greater speed. She is as big +or bigger, and costs just about as much. Thus the _Lion_ was launched in +the same year as the battleship _Orion_--1910. Note the comparison +below:-- + + Thickest + Displacement. Guns. Speed. Armour. Cost. + _Orion_ 22,300 Ten 13·5 in. 21 knots 12 in. £1,900,000 + _Lion_ 26,350 Eight 13·5 in. 28 knots 10 in. 2,100,000 + +Thus it will be seen that of these two contemporary ships the +battle-cruiser is the bigger, cost £200,000 more, has two less big guns, +2 inches less protection, but steams at least 7 knots faster than the +battleship. Indeed, it is hard to say whether she is or is not, on the +whole, the more useful ship, even as a battleship. The Admiralty and +naval constructors would seem to incline to this opinion, for, as we +have seen in the latest battleship--the _Queen Elizabeth_--two guns have +been sacrificed for the sake of 4 knots more speed than the _Orion_. + +The cruiser-battleship or battle-cruiser, then, not only has almost +precisely the same appearance as a battleship, though probably of rather +greater length, but has special battle duties as well as cruiser duties. +Thus, if working with battleships, it is her business to pursue an +enemy's battle squadron in retreat, and, by bringing its rearmost ships +to action, try to induce their consorts to stand by them till her own +slower but more powerfully gunned consorts can come up and take a hand. +As for her cruising duties, we have had conspicuous examples during the +course of the war, both as to the right and wrong way of such ships' +employment. The unexpected and opportune intervention of the +_Inflexible_ and _Invincible_ in the Falkland Islands battle, whose mere +appearance convinced von Spee that his "game was up"; and the way in +which Sir David Beatty was "on the spot" and swooped down on the German +North Sea raiders, are both excellent examples of the way these +formidable fighting-cruisers should be used. If you want to see "how not +to do it" you have only got to consider the misuse of the _Goeben_ in +the Mediterranean, where, after a useless bombardment of one or two not +very important Algerian towns, she fled for shelter to the Dardanelles, +instead of trying to break out into the Atlantic. It is claimed, of +course, that, but for her appearance at Constantinople, Turkey would not +have been drawn into the war on the side of Germany, but it is hard to +believe that the long-pursued German intrigues in Turkey would have all +gone for nothing without the arrival of the somewhat discredited +_Goeben_. Nor was the use of battle-cruisers to bombard a few +defenceless coast towns a sound method of strategy. As it was, they were +within an ace of being lost--and for what result? Absolutely _nil_ from +a military point of view. The battle-cruiser has a great future before +it, and it does not seem unlikely that, now that the enormous advantages +of high speed have been so clearly demonstrated, it will altogether +supersede the slower and heavier armed and armoured battleship proper. + +After battle-cruisers we come to cruisers. Our typical modern cruisers +may be taken to be represented by the "_Defence_" and "_Achilles_" +classes, the latest of which dates from 1909. The former class have a +displacement of 14,600 tons apiece, and carry four 9·2 and ten 7·5 guns. +The latter are about 1000 tons smaller, and have an armament of six 9·2 +and four 7·5 guns. Both types have 6- to 8-inch armour, and about 23 +knots speed. They are exceedingly smart-looking vessels, with their +numerous turrets or gun-houses, four funnels, and two lightly-rigged +masts. They sit comparatively low in the water, and present an +appearance of both speed and war-like efficiency. + +The "County" class of cruisers, which immediately preceded those just +mentioned, are considerably smaller, though to some minds but weakly +gunned for their size. None of them have heavier guns than 7·5-inch, and +most only 6-inch weapons. Neither have they a great deal of armour +protection or an extraordinary high rate of speed. As none have been +built within recent years, we may fairly assume that they are not +considered quite what we want at the present time, though many or most +of them have done excellent work in the present war. You will remember +how the _Kent_ and _Cornwall_ fought at the battle off the Falklands. + +The "Town" class, of not much more than half the size, would appear to +have superseded the "Counties", and they, too, have been very much in +evidence in the hostilities which have been carried on afloat. The +biggest of these are of 5400 tons displacement, and carry eight 6-inch +guns, and as these are the latest cruisers built, with the exception of +the monster battle-cruisers, it seems likely that it is not intended to +have any cruisers of intermediate size. Big sparsely-armoured cruisers, +like the unfortunate _Good Hope_, which did not steam faster than +smaller ones, and which carried but a poor armament considering her size +and cost, cannot be considered a good investment. The "Town" class have +done splendidly in the war at sea. The _Birmingham_ had the distinction +of sinking the first German submarine; the plucky little _Gloucester_ +hung closely on the heels of the giant _Goeben_ and her consort the +_Breslau_ during their flight to Constantinople, though one +well-directed shot from the former would have put her out of action and +probably sent her to the bottom. The _Glasgow_, _Carnarvon_, and +_Bristol_ were of great use in the Falklands fight, the first-named +having already fought against the heavy batteries of the _Scharnhorst_ +and _Gneisenau_ off the coast of Chile, while later on she sank the +Dresden; while the _Sydney_ won undying fame by defeating and driving on +shore the notorious commerce-destroyer _Emden_. + +Another distinctly modern type of cruiser is the "light cruiser", a fast +unprotected vessel with light guns of 4-inch calibre, which has proved +of immense value in the area of "liveliness" in the North Sea. The +_Amphion_ opened the ball by sinking the German mine-layer _Königin +Luise_ at the very opening of hostilities, but was very soon after +herself blown up by a mine the latter had laid. She, like her sisters, +was almost exactly like a big destroyer in appearance. The "Saucy" +_Arethusa_ has proved a worthy descendant of the famous frigate after +which she was named, and has more than once particularly distinguished +herself, notably in the fight off Heligoland. But space forbids more +than the mere mention of the smallest class of cruiser, the "scouts", of +just under 3000 tons, which are also extremely useful little vessels, +since it is necessary to give some account of destroyers and +submarines. + +The destroyer was originally built to "destroy" the torpedo-boat, which, +from its small size, had its limitations in anything of a sea-way. The +earliest torpedo-boats were ordinary steamboats, such as are carried by +most ships of any size, fitted with a long spar with a tin of gun-cotton +at the end of it, which could be run out some way over the bows. The +idea was to approach an enemy's ship under cover of the darkness, lower +the outer end of the spar with its "torpedo" below the water-line, place +it in contact with the enemy's ship, and explode the charge by means of +an electric current. This seems a crude way of going to work, but +several ships have been sunk by its means, notably the Confederate ram +_Albemarle_, which was attacked by Lieutenant Cushing of the United +States navy in this way in the course of the Civil War in America. +Special boats were then made for this purpose, but the advent of the +"Whitehead" automobile torpedo provided them with a much more formidable +weapon. Naval powers built these "torpedo-boats" in considerable +numbers, and they were considered such a menace to bigger ships that the +destroyer, an almost exactly similar boat, but of larger size, was +designed to cope with them. In point of fact it did destroy them, for it +was found to be so much better an "all-round craft", not only for +attacking torpedo-boats, but to act as one itself, that the smaller +craft before long were entirely superseded by the destroyers. Beginning +about 1897 with boats of about 180 tons, armed with 6-pounder guns, we +have now improved our destroyers till at the present day our latest +types are more than twice as big, and are armed with 4-inch guns, which +give them a decided advantage over less heavily-gunned destroyers, as +has been amply demonstrated in more than one encounter with German +destroyers. The destroyer is used, generally speaking, for scouting +purposes, and especially to attack an enemy's submarines, which, if +caught at the surface, may be approached in a swift destroyer and sunk +by gun-fire before they are able to dive, or, with luck, may even be +rammed. Destroyers, too, may be used to attack at night as +torpedo-boats, or even in the course of a naval action if a favourable +opportunity offers; it will be remembered that the _Goliath_ was +torpedoed by a Turkish destroyer. + +"Vessels of stealth", as submarines have been called, have now taken the +place of the obsolete torpedo-boat. The latter relied on torpedoing her +enemy under cover of the darkness, but the submarine is most dangerous +in day-time. At night it is almost impossible for her to find her target +or to estimate the speed at which she is travelling if under way, +without which knowledge it is extremely difficult to arrange for a +torpedo to intercept her course unless fired at very close quarters +indeed. As the particulars of our submarines are wisely kept secret, no +more can be said about them than is already public property. + +The "E" class, our latest improved "Hollands", are 176 feet long, with a +beam of a little over 22 feet, and have a displacement--when +submerged--of 800 tons. When at the surface their heavy oil-engines, of +something like 2000 horse-power, enable them to travel at a speed of +from 16 to 20 knots. When under water the electric engines are brought +into play, but owing to the increased friction and larger area of the +vessel to be forced through the water the speed of the boat drops to 10 +knots. Moreover, travelling at the most economical rate of speed, not +more than 140 knots can be negotiated when submerged, while at the +surface an "E" submarine can travel for no less than 5000 miles without +refilling her oil-tanks. + +These boats preserve the "porpoise" shape, are equipped with wireless +apparatus, and provided with panoramic periscopes to enable them to +sight their target when submerged. There is no necessity nowadays to +describe the principle of a periscope, since little portable patterns of +this optical instrument, of various types, made for use in the trenches, +can be seen exposed for sale almost anywhere. But, of course, those in +use on a submarine are of a large and highly perfected type. The +conning-tower of the "E" boats is armoured, and they carry a couple of +quick-firing guns of 3 inches calibre in recesses on their decks, closed +in by folding doors. These little weapons can be quickly raised into +position by an arrangement of hydraulic machinery, and by merely +pressing a lever they sink down and are boxed in again in a second or +two.[71] They are so mounted as to be able to fire at a very high +elevation, in order to defend the boat against bomb-dropping air-ships +or aeroplanes, but, of course, can be used against surface vessels in +the same way as those of the German submarines, which have made several +attempts to sink merchantmen. As a modern Whitehead has a range of +something like 3 miles, travels at a speed of 50 miles an hour, and +carries a heavy charge of high explosive in its head, we need not dwell +on its formidable nature, which has been amply proved in the course of +the war. It has also been equally proved that it is almost impossible +for a submarine to torpedo a fast and well-handled vessel once it has +located the position of its attacker. + +[Illustration: _Photo. Cribb, Southsea_ + +THE BRITISH SUBMARINE _E 2_ + +It was a boat of this class, _E9_, by which the German cruiser _Hela_ +and a destroyer were sunk by Lieutenant Max Horton; and another, _E11_, +specially distinguished herself at the Dardanelles.] + +"The modern submarine has every comfort commensurate with the size and +service of the vessel. The principal item making for comfort is, of +course, properly-prepared food.... As time passed, electric +cooking-apparatus was installed. This was always subject to the many +troubles inherent in early electrical heating-apparatus. However, the +idea was a step in advance. To-day there is installed a well-arranged +oven, four or five independent plates for cooking meats and vegetables, +and an urn for keeping coffee constantly hot and on tap when cruising. +All of these things, though small in themselves, make for contentment in +the crew."[72] Whether or not such cooking appliances are installed in +our own submarines I am unable to say, but there is no doubt that +everything necessary for the comfort of their crews has been provided by +the Admiralty, and the boats themselves are very like the American +submarines which are referred to above. + +"Monitors" are novel vessels in our navy, and at present we have only +three of them--the _Humber_, _Mersey_, and _Severn_--which were +originally built for Brazil, but were acquired from their builders, +Vickers, Maxim, & Co., immediately on the outbreak of war. They proved +their usefulness by standing close inshore and attacking the flank of +the German advance on Nieuport in the fighting between that place and +Ostend which took place in the autumn of 1914. Their light draught of +water--under 9 feet--enabled them to do this, and rendered them very +difficult targets for the German submarines, which, moreover, could not +operate in such shoal water. + +The appearance of the original _Monitor_ in the Civil War in America has +already been referred to. The United States Navy had a considerable +number of such vessels during and after that campaign. Russia also +purchased several of a similar type. But for many years, if we except a +few of an improved type which were built for the United States Navy +between 1885 and 1895, they fell quite into disuse, except for river +work. The Austrians have a small flotilla of such vessels on the Danube, +and Brazil has had others for use on the Amazon before the ones we took +over were ordered. It is, however, one would imagine, not without the +bounds of probability that there may be some return to the +shallow-draught "Monitor" type among the battleships of the future, as +being less vulnerable to torpedo attack. A battleship design put forward +some years ago by a Russian inventor, which he claimed to be nearly +torpedo-proof, certainly approximated somewhat to a "Monitor". + +The three "Monitors" which were added to our own navy as described, are +of only 1200 tons displacement apiece. They are 265 feet long, with a +beam of 49 feet, and have a speed of 11-1/2 knots only. But it is +obvious that speed was of very secondary consideration for the purposes +for which they were designed. They have thin armour-plating on their +sides, and carry two 6-inch guns in a turret at the bows. Aft are a +couple of 4·7-inch howitzers under revolving shields, while half a dozen +machine-guns are mounted on their upper works. They are smart-looking +little craft, with one funnel and a single military mast with a +search-light platform. + + * * * * * + +Having described the various classes of our fighting-ships, we may for a +moment or two consider the subject of fighting tactics afloat. In the +old sailing-ship days it was the object of the commander of a +fighting-ship to get what was known as the "weather-gage" of his +opponent. Put into shore-going English, this meant that, as far as +possible, he kept his own ship between the direction of the wind and his +enemy, which enabled him to manoeuvre more easily, close in upon him or +not as he considered more advantageous to himself. The French were not +so keen in seeking for the weather-gage, since in that position it was +not so easy to break off the engagement and get away. This remark must +not be necessarily taken as imputing any want of courage to our then +gallant enemy, for whereas the Admiralty orders to our captains were to +find the enemy and "sink, burn, or destroy" him, those given to the +French naval officers impressed upon them that it was their first duty +to save their ships. The result was that though as a general rule our +sea-captains took the weather-gage whenever they could get it, there +were some of them who, according to a pamphlet published in 1766, were +fond of "engaging to leeward", to prevent an enemy from running away! + +In fleet actions in Nelsonian times our object was to break the enemy's +line in one or more places, and, having effected this, to set upon the +broken portions with all the strength available and defeat them in +detail. This was the principle followed so successfully at Trafalgar. +Of course the leading ships of our two lines suffered severely from the +broadsides of the enemy as they approached him at right angles, but it +must be remembered that the range and efficiency of the guns of those +days was so limited that the leading and rear ships of the combined +French and Spanish fleets could not damage any of our rear ships very +much, nor even our leading ones. As for our own ships, we were prepared +to take this preliminary pounding and not really to begin our offensive +till we had broken their line and got within close range of that portion +of their fleet we intended to destroy first. If, as at the Nile, the +enemy foolishly chose to await our attack at anchor, it simplified +matters for us pretty considerably. We could, as we did, move towards +one end of their line at an angle on which we could exchange broadsides +as we advanced on equal terms, and as soon as one-half of our ships had +passed the flank selected for attack, both halves altered course so as +to move parallel to the line of anchored Frenchmen and engage half their +line with a superiority of two to one. Each French ship had to fight two +British ones, one on either side. The ships farther down the line could +do nothing to assist them unless they weighed anchor, made sail, and +broke their formation, and so simply lay there waiting their turn to be +dealt with. + +Steam has, of course, put all this class of manoeuvring long out of +date, though as long as naval warfare endures on this earth the main +principle of attempting to take the enemy at a disadvantage must always +remain. In the early days of ironclads there were various theories as to +the best fighting-formations. There were advocates of "line ahead", that +is to say, each ship following the other in "Indian file"; of "line +abreast", in which ships advanced like a line of soldiers in "extended +order", and which necessitated that each ship should have a very +powerful "right ahead" fire; and various group formations. At the battle +of Lissa, in 1866, practically the only fleet engagement during the +ironclad period prior to the Chino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, +the victorious Austrians attacked the Italian fleet in a wedge-shaped +formation; but they intended to use their rams and to fight at +absolutely close quarters, a procedure which in the present days of +long-range guns of tremendous power and extraordinary accuracy would be +almost, if not quite, impossible. The ram, moreover, is now practically +obsolete. In the naval actions in the Far East, to which reference has +been made, the generally adopted battle-formation was that of "line +ahead", the first of those explained above, and the ideal manoeuvre was +considered to be what was known as "crossing the T"--that is to say, to +get one's line of ships into such a position with regard to the enemy's +line that, while his represented the perpendicular part of the "T", +one's own would be in the place of the horizontal line forming the top +of the letter: in fact, to be in the same relative position as were the +enemy's fleet at Trafalgar to our advancing lines. With modern guns and +gunnery the whole fleet could concentrate on and smash up the leading +ships one after the other, those following in rear not being able to do +very much to assist them. Obviously it is the object of every fleet +commander to avoid being caught in this way. If he sees the enemy's line +are steering so as to cross his course at right angles, he will alter +course to one parallel to theirs. If within range, broadsides will +doubtless be exchanged while passing, but each opposing line will then +try to turn and cross the enemy's "T" for him by passing in rear of his +line. Both will be awake to this manoeuvre, so that if the manoeuvre +continues on normal lines the battle will resolve itself into two curved +lines of ships chasing each other round the circumference of a circle. + +But varieties of speed, the disabling of some ships, and the menace of +destroyers or submarines will probably throw any such regular sequence +entirely out of gear, and, other things being equal, victory will +incline to the fleet whose commander is quickest to adapt its formation +to meet the sudden emergencies of the fighting and to turn them to his +own advantage. But he will not be able to do this unless his fleet is +well drilled in manoeuvre, and at least as capable of carrying out his +orders and signals with smartness and efficiency as that of the enemy. + +[Illustration: Squadron in "Line on a Bearing" or "Bow and Quarter Line" + +Observe the first position of the five battleships A, B, C, D, E +(shaded). Each can fire right ahead, right astern, and on both +broadsides. They are steering due west. Now suppose they all turn +directly south. They will then be in similar formation, as indicated by +a, b, c, d, e (unshaded).] + +At the present time, perhaps what is known as the "line on a +bearing"--i.e. compass bearing--or "bow and quarter line" as it is +sometimes called, is the favourite formation, and there is a very great +deal to be said in its favour. It is what is known as an "echelon" +formation when applied to the manoeuvres of soldiers. The word "echelon" +is derived from the French _echelle_, a ladder, and the ships in this +case are disposed in a way suggestive of the steps of a ladder or stair. +Thus, suppose the flagship leading, the next ship would follow her on a +parallel course, not immediately in her wake but some way astern on her +port or starboard quarter, the next in a corresponding position with +regard to the second ship, and so on, as indicated in the annexed +diagram. + +If you look at this you will at once see its advantages over "line +ahead". Every ship can bring its broadside to bear either to port or +starboard, as in that formation, but, in addition, every ship can fire +directly ahead or astern as well. If ships in "line ahead" all turn +together to the right or left, or, to use the correct wording, alter +course together eight points to starboard or port, only the leading and +rear ship could use their broadsides, and only one of them at that. But +a similar turn in "bow and quarter line" can be made without any loss of +fire effect. + +In the Great War we have not, at the time of writing, yet had a fleet +action. The German Navy has shown itself most determined--to take no +risks. It seems to be imbued with the principles impressed by the French +Government on its sea commanders in the old wars with us.[73] Never, on +any account, are ships to be hazarded against superior force, or, in +other words, the ships of the "admiral of the Atlantic" are not to fight +unless in very superior force to their antagonists, as was the case in +the action off Chile. The German squadron, starting out on the second +raid on our coasts, no sooner clapped eyes on Admiral Beatty's +ships--which only numbered one more ship than the German squadron--than +it turned tail and made off for all it was worth. So the British had no +chance of crossing the "T", or of any manoeuvre other than a stern +chase. Such a chase is proverbially a long one, but in this case it was +long enough to enable our seamen and marines to sink one German and +badly damage at least two others, who only got away "by the skin of +their teeth", thanks to the intervention of their mine-fields and +submarines. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[68] Engineer-Commander Chas. E. Eldred, R.N., _Everybody's Book of the +Navy_. + +[69] "The Progress of Dreadnoughts", _Journal of Commerce_, 4th March, +1915. + +[70] "Your Navy as a Fighting Machine." Fred. T. Jane. + +[71] Particulars from _Submarines, Mines, and Torpedoes in the War_. C. +W. Domville Fife. + +[72] Paper by Lieutenant C. N. Hinkamp, United States Navy, reprinted in +_Journal of Commerce_, 29th April, 1915. + +[73] German ships, by the way, are often provided with a heavier astern +fire than a forward one, so that apparently they have long decided to +fight a retreating action. The opposite system is pursued in our navy. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +The Manning of a Ship + + "We're sober men and true, + And quite devoid of fe-ar. + In all the Royal N. + There are none so smart as we are. + When the wind whistles free + O'er the bright blue sea + We stand to our guns all da-ay; + When at anchor we ride + By the starboard side, + We've plenty of time for play." + --_H.M.S. "Pinafore"._ W. S. Gilbert. + + +AT the beginning of our naval story we found our fleets composed of +rowing-vessels, fought and commanded by soldiers. Then came a time--the +viking period--when fighting-ships were manned and fought by warriors +who were emphatically "soldiers and sailors too". In battle their +dragons and long-serpents relied mainly on their oars, but the sail +began to take a much more important position than before, and the oars +were not pulled by slaves but by the crew proper, all of whom were +fighters. In the period that followed, the sail--in northern waters at +any rate--continued to grow in importance, till in the biggest ships it +entirely ousted the oars. + +Then arose the professional sailor. Ships carried but a few sails, so +that comparatively few men were required to handle them, and the +fighting-men on board and the commanders of ships and squadrons were +once more soldiers. When the fully rigged ship arrived--in Tudor +times--the sailor element naturally was considerably increased, and, the +heavy gun making its appearance on shipboard at about the same time, +the "gunners" seem to have been taken from that class rather than from +the soldiers, who formed about half the ship's company. But in the royal +ships the supreme command was always in the hands of a military officer, +till the successes gained by the privately-equipped ships commanded by +men like Drake and Frobisher introduced a new type of distinctly naval +officer. But he did not supersede the military ship-commander much +before the time of William III. Up to that time ships seem to have had +sometimes a soldier, like Blake, in command and sometimes a sailor, like +Sir George Rooke and others. + +The latter is a good example of what may be called the transition +period, because he, like Sir Cloudesley Shovel and many other +sea-commanders, had a commission in the Duke of York and Albany's +Maritime Regiment, instituted in 1664 and generally accepted as being +the ancestor of the present corps of Royal Marines. But it seems +possible that there must have been an idea underlying the institution of +this regiment of sea-soldiers that has never been explained. The key to +it may perhaps be found in the oft-repeated reference to marine +regiments at this period as "nurseries for the fleet". The idea did not +work, as the men trained as soldiers did not volunteer to become sailors +to an appreciable extent; but in my own opinion there was more in the +idea than this. It must be remembered that at this time there was a +great controversy as to the most suitable officers to command our +war-ships. The "gentleman captains", who were in many cases soldiers, +but often merely courtiers, clung tenaciously to their position, and the +Court influence at their back enabled them to stand their ground. But at +the same time the claims of the real sailors--the "tarpawlins", as they +were called--who were neither soldiers nor gentlemen, were being more +and more recognized by the public, and grew stronger and stronger. And +they certainly had a very strong case. They could themselves sail, +navigate, and fight their ships, while the other class had to have +"masters" to do everything but the fighting for them. + +It seems possible that the intention of those responsible for the +raising of the "Maritime Regiment", the men of which were indifferently +referred to as "marines" or as "mariners", was not only to provide the +nucleus of a disciplined personnel, but to produce a corps of officers +who, while retaining a military status, would yet be professional +seamen. It was an experiment, but not on a sufficiently comprehensive +scale, to transform the ill-paid, ill-treated, and ill-fed seamen of the +day into a loyal, contented and disciplined body, or to supply a +sufficient number of "gentleman-tarpawlins" to command our ships and +fleets. A large number of these officers did do so, but quite as many +continued to serve as soldiers, some afloat in command of marines, and +many others in the army. + +As time went on, things adjusted themselves, and before the eighteenth +century had progressed very far the sailor came into his own. The "days +of oak and hemp" were at their zenith. Our men-of-war were commanded by +officers who were thorough seamen, able to handle their ships under sail +themselves, though masters who were navigation experts still remained. +Their crews were composed of two distinct classes--seamen and +marines.[74] The former were, as before, still recruited for the +commission only, while the latter were enlisted for a fixed period of +service.[75] The best seamen, nevertheless, made a regular profession of +the navy, going from one ship to another as they were paid off and +commissioned. If they made an occasional trip to sea in a merchantman or +privateer between whiles, that by no means impaired their professional +ability, and the "prime seamen" of those days were the finest sailors in +history. Unfortunately their number, for various reasons, was somewhat +limited, and a ship's company, especially if she or her commander bore a +bad name afloat, had to be completed by all kinds of people. Even the +marines, regularly enlisted men as they were, were by no means always of +the same calibre. + +According to our apparently interminable national practice, we always +began our wars shorthanded in this as well as in every other militant +service, and recruits had on these occasions to be sent on board in the +rawest stages of their training. Yet, in spite of all these drawbacks, +look at the victories our navy won in those glorious days! Good, bad, or +indifferent, sailor or marine, the men were all true Britons when the +time came to "strike home" for King and Country, just as their gallant +descendants have proved themselves in the Great European War. As the +nineteenth century progressed, and our navy had no big wars on hand, the +seaman element by no means deteriorated. The professional sailor was +forthcoming in sufficient numbers to man our navy in peace-time or in +minor operations, and there was no necessity to send untrained marines +afloat. Steam had made its appearance, but it was far from superseding +sail-power. The executive were still sailors, heart and soul, and had no +hankering after soldiering and drill ashore. All the same, the +sailing-masters were still retained, and seemed to be indispensable. +Admiral John Moresby, in his interesting work entitled _Two Admirals_, +which relates his own and his father's naval experiences from 1786 to +1877, gives the following account of the naval officers of 1847:-- + +"The officers, with few exceptions, were content to be practical seamen +only. They had nothing whatever to do with the navigation of the ship or +the rating of the chronometers. That was entirely in the hands of the +master, and no other had any real experience or responsibility in the +matter. I may instance the case of a captain whose ship was at Spithead. +He was ordered by signal to go to the assistance of a ship on shore at +the back of the Isle of Wight. In reply he hoisted the signal of +'Inability: the master is on shore.' 'Are the other officers on board?' +he was asked. He answered 'Yes,' and to the repeated order, 'Proceed +immediately,' he again hoisted 'Inability', and remained entrenched in +his determination until a pilot was sent to his assistance." + +If a "practical seaman" was so dependent on his master as this he would +not appear to have been much of an improvement on the soldier-captains +of earlier times. It seems a most extraordinary position, and it is +almost as extraordinary that now, when sailoring proper is a thing of +the past, we may be quite certain that no captain in His Majesty's +service would hesitate to get under way on receipt of an order to go to +the assistance of a ship in distress, whether the navigating officer was +on board or not. But, probably on account of the long period of peace +which had followed after Waterloo, neither our navy nor army was in such +a high state of efficiency as it had been earlier in the century or is +at the present minute. The Crimean War broke like a thunder-clap on our +peace-organized forces. We know what terrible times our gallant soldiers +went through before Sebastopol on account of deficiency of commissariat, +equipment, and every other aid to efficiency which ought to have been in +readiness, but which, in fact, had no existence. We commissioned a fine +fleet for the Baltic, but it practically effected nothing, and we had +the greatest difficulty in manning it. + +"Public opinion", writes Admiral Moresby, "resented the revival of the +press-gang; therefore the only alternative was the offer of a large +bounty, and by this means the ships were filled with counter-jumpers and +riff-raff of all sorts, and rarely a sailor amongst them. What this +meant only those who had to do the necessary slave-driving can tell.... +In the _Driver_ ... we may have had twenty seamen as a nucleus. The rest +were long-shore fellows, and when Admiral Berkley came on board and told +us that the Russians were at sea, and probably in a few days we should +be in action, there was a strong dash of anxiety in our satisfaction." + +So short were we of men that I have been told by an officer who served +in that fleet that had it not been for the coast-guardsmen and marines +it would never have been ready for sea. "On board the _St. Jean +d'Acre_," said this officer, "we had a splendid crew, thanks to the +popularity of Harry Keppel: the work of fitting out from a mere hulk was +done by the Royal Marines with a small number of seamen-gunners from the +_Excellent_ and some boys. The officers at Portsmouth and other places +raised men _who would not join until the hard work was over_." But good +arose out of this evil, which was so patent that it could not be +overlooked by anyone. The usefulness of the seamen-gunners and Royal +Marines pointed the way to a remedy. The marines were a permanent force; +the seamen-gunners were on the spot and under naval discipline. It was +determined to institute an equally permanent establishment of +bluejackets. The creation of this force was the most momentous and +beneficial step ever taken by the Admiralty, and to it we owe the +magnificent body of trained seamen who have done such yeoman service to +the country during the war. Where should we have been without it? +Imagine the disasters which would have befallen us if, as at the +outbreak of the Crimean War, we had had to hunt up crews for our fleet +after the 4th of August, 1914! As it was, everything went "on wheels", +as the saying is. The Grand Fleet was ready and other ships were put +into commission without the least delay or hitch in the smooth running +of our mobilization for war. Reserves were so plentiful that a residuum +of both bluejackets and marines was available as the nucleus of the +Royal Naval Division, which was soon recruited up to a high figure. + +It is not too much to say that the end of the Crimean War saw the +beginning of our modern naval forces, with the exception of the Royal +Marines, who had been in existence as a naval force under the Admiralty +ever since 1755, and the later instituted Royal Naval Reserve, Royal +Fleet Reserve, and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. It may be noted, in +passing, that the first-mentioned reserve consists of men in the +merchant service, who, seamen by profession, receive a training in +gunnery and other matters connected with naval warfare, and are paid an +annual retaining-fee, which renders them liable to be called up for +service when required. + +The Royal Fleet Reserve consists of both bluejackets and marines, who, +having served for twelve years on the active list, are permitted to +transfer to this force. They receive a small daily rate of pay, and have +to undergo a short revision of their drills annually. The last-mentioned +reserve has been in existence on and off under one name or other for a +considerable number of years. In 1861 Captain Vernon of the 4th Cinque +Ports Artillery Volunteers at Hastings instituted a so-called "marine +company" in his regiment, which wore a semi-naval uniform and was +drilled at naval guns. From this small beginning grew in time the Royal +Naval Artillery Volunteers, first formed in 1873, which assumed +considerable proportions and had branches at every important seaport. +This corps was eventually abolished because the naval authorities did +not quite see how men who in very many cases had at most but "a bowing +acquaintance" with Father Neptune could well be utilized afloat. This +decision was a great blow to its members, who were very proud of their +voluntary duties, and after a time the Admiralty was strongly pressed by +those interested in the movement to resuscitate it. Hence the Royal +Naval Volunteer Reserve was created.[76] + +The bluejacket of the present day is better termed a seaman than a +sailor, since sails are non-existent in the navy except in boats.[77] +Besides, his official rating is seaman--ordinary seaman, able seaman, +&c. Some writers in journals dealing with naval matters have coined the, +to me, objectionable-sounding name of "fleetman". This may answer for a +comprehensive term, including seamen, marines, and stokers, writers and +other auxiliary branches of the service, but they might all be equally +well classed together as seamen or mariners, since there is little if +any difference nowadays between the time each branch spends afloat. +There are big naval barracks now at our ports as well as marine +barracks, and bluejackets often spend there as much time as, or more +time than the marine does in his barracks. + +The outstanding difference between the ship's company of to-day and of +past centuries is that it is composed entirely of trained men. There are +no "landsmen" and odds and ends of humanity pitchforked on board to +complete the number of the company. Seamen, marines, and stokers all are +specially instructed in their own line of business before they appear on +board a ship in commission. The same holds good in the case of their +officers. No more boys of nineteen are appointed captains on account of +family connections; no more are officers of marines appointed from line +regiments or even from the cavalry, as they were in days gone by. It is +only fair to say that we must go back a long way to find cases of this +sort, for as regards its officers the navy has been a permanent +profession for centuries, though its seamanhood was not in the same +position before the middle of the last century. + +What our naval officers and men are to-day in their work and duties is +best demonstrated by a glance at the crew of a modern man-of-war in +commission. First and foremost, of course, is the captain, not +infrequently referred to by those under his command as the "skipper", +"the Old Man", or sometimes as the "Owner". His rule may be termed a +benevolent despotism. He can no longer be the tyrant that he +occasionally was "in the days of wood and hemp", and has no desire to be +anything of the kind. He is far too much of a gentleman and a good +fellow. But there can be little limitation to his monarchy or the +machine would not work. He lives somewhat apart from his subjects, +having his meals in lonely state, and only occasionally comes into the +ward-room, in which most of the ship's commissioned officers live and +move and have their being. The sub-lieutenant's, midshipmen's, junior +engineer officers', assistant paymasters', and clerks' mess is known as +the gun-room. In the old days what is now the ward-room was called the +gun-room, and what is now the gun-room, the midshipmen's berth. It is +probable that this enforced seclusion is one of the worst trials of the +captain's greatness, since he has spent the whole of his previous +service afloat in the _camaraderie_ and good-fellowship of the ward-room +and gun-room. At sea he passes a great portion of his time on the +bridge, and in most ships has a special sea-cabin in its close +proximity. He is the supreme court of justice on board, and as he can +dispense punishment up to ninety days' imprisonment with hard labour +"off his own bat", it must be a pretty bad case, or one in which an +officer is concerned, that he has to send before a court martial. + +This should be remembered when, as is sometimes the case, comparisons +are drawn in the Press between the numbers of courts martial in the +naval and military services, or between those held on the men of the +navy and on those of the marines. A naval court martial is a very big +affair, only resorted to on rare occasions, while in the army, besides +the general court martial, which may be ranked with the naval court, +there are district and even regimental courts martial, the latter very +small affairs, composed of three junior officers, which deal with +offences which in the navy would probably be settled off-hand, if not +by the commander, at any rate by the captain. When marines are serving +ashore in their barracks they come under army rules, so that the +proportion of courts martial held on a given number of marines must +always be expected to be greater than in the case of a similar number of +bluejackets or stokers. No comparison as to good conduct or otherwise +can therefore be instituted along these lines. + +The captain of a ship, being in supreme command, exercises a general +supervision over his ship and all that it contains, and is, of course, +directly responsible to the admiral under whom he is serving and to the +Admiralty for its condition both as to material and personnel. But the +second in command--the "commander"--addressed by the courtesy title of +"captain" also--may be regarded as the managing man. He lives, or rather +has his meals, in the ward-room. As to where he actually _lives_, it may +be said to be everywhere on board except in his own cabin. He is perhaps +the hardest-worked man in the ship. Up at daylight, he is engaged in +running the whole show till he goes the rounds at 9 p.m. to see that +everything and everybody is properly settled down for the night. He +draws up a regular daily and weekly routine, which he personally sees is +regularly carried out. He "tells off" the "hands" for this, that, and +the other duties, and sees that everyone is at his proper station at +"general quarters" for action, fire quarters, collision stations, and +many another "evolution". He holds a daily court of justice, and either +deals with the defaulters who have been "shoved in the rattle", i.e. put +in his report, himself, or in more serious cases passes them on to the +higher court--the captain. In most ships there is yet a minor court, +held by the senior officer of marines on his own men. His powers are yet +more limited, and if after investigation he finds that they will not +admit a sufficient punishment for an offence, he takes the offender +before the commander. In some ships he is empowered by the captain to +bring such cases directly to him. + +In spite of the commander's hard work, he has little to grumble at, nor, +I believe, does he ever do so, except in the ordinary conversational way +we all do at times, when we "let off steam". For he knows that, unless +he is very unfortunate in his "skipper", he has his promotion in his own +hands. He is showing what he is made of, and once he succeeds in +negotiating the big jump to captain's rank he is assured of going right +on to admiral, even if he is not fortunate enough to "hoist his flag" in +command of a squadron or fleet. He has the relative rank of a +lieutenant-colonel in the army, and is almost invariably a much younger +man, probably from thirty to thirty-five years of age, and can take and +bear the strain of his position. + +After the commander the lieutenants. Of these in a battleship three or +four are lieutenant-commanders, and five or six lieutenants. The senior +of these is known as the first lieutenant, or, less officially, as "No. +1". In smaller ships they are, of course, fewer. One of these will be +the gunnery lieutenant, another navigating lieutenant, and a third +torpedo lieutenant. The remainder are classed as watch-keepers, in which +duty they are now assisted when in harbour by the officers of marines +belonging to the ship. As everyone knows, the day and night on board +ship are divided into periods of four hours, known as "watches", except +for the "dog watches" of two hours apiece. They run as follows:-- + + NAME. TIME. BELLS. + Middle watch ... Midnight to 4 a.m. ... 8 to 8 + Morning watch ... 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. ... 8 to 8 + Forenoon watch ... 8 a.m. to noon ... 8 to 8 + Afternoon watch ... noon to 4 p.m. ... 8 to 8 + 1st Dog watch ... 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ... 8 to 4 + 2nd Dog watch ... 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. ... 4 to 8 + First watch ... 8 p.m. to midnight ... 8 to 8 + +The bell is struck, generally by the marine sentry posted nearest to it, +or the corporal of the gangway, every half-hour, after reporting the +time to the officer of the watch, and being instructed to "make it so". +Thus at 8.30 in the morning he strikes it once, at 9 twice--two strokes +quickly following each other; at 9.30 three times--two quick strokes, an +interval, and a single stroke--and so on up to eight bells struck in a +succession of double strokes. There is also "little one bell", a gentle +stroke five minutes after midnight for the watch to "fall in". The dog +watches have stood from time immemorial, in order to change the men of +the night watches every twenty-four hours. Otherwise the same men would +always be keeping the same watches. Some men would always be on at night +and others in the daytime. By dividing the 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. watches into +two halves--the "first" and "second" dog watches--the rotation is +changed, so that men come on watch at fresh periods. There is said to be +a tradition that the origin of the word "dog" is "dodge", and that they +were originally known as "dodge watches", the reason being obvious. But +I should be sorry to vouch for the accuracy of this statement. + +The officer of the watch is practically in command of the ship for the +time being. He has to deal with any sudden emergency himself; there may +very probably be no time to refer to the captain, even if it is +advisable to do so. He keeps his watch on the fore-bridge, and sees that +the quartermaster at the wheel keeps the ship upon her proper course. He +takes observations from time to time, and is entirely responsible--under +the captain--for the safety of the ship and all on board. All sorts of +reports have to be made to him from time to time, and he makes or sends +any necessary reports to the captain. + +The lieutenants have charge of their "divisions", which may be said to +correspond to the companies of a regiment; have to inspect them at +morning and evening parades, known respectively as "divisions" and +"evening quarters", and are responsible for their men's clothing being +uniform and kept up to the regulation quantities. They have many other +incidental duties, such as boarding ships coming into harbour as +"officer of the guard", going ashore in charge of men for drill, +musketry, and other miscellaneous work of which space precludes the +merest mention. + +The gunnery lieutenant is, of course, responsible for the guns and +gunnery of the ship, which includes the musketry and infantry drill of +the seamen and stokers. The torpedo lieutenant, as his name implies, has +charge of the torpedoes and their tubes and the mining gear, and it is +his business to see that they are all kept in proper working order and +in instant readiness for action. In addition, he has entire charge of +the electric lighting and wireless telegraphy. + +The navigating lieutenant has taken the place of the old "master", but +is not, as he was, outside the executive line. His duty is to lay off +the course for the ship, take her position at various times during the +day by "shooting the sun" with his sextant, keep the chronometers wound +up, and take general charge of the navigation of the ship. Following the +order taken in the Navy List of the officers of a ship, we come to that +very important personage the engineer commander. In some sort he +occupies a similar position to the old sailing-masters in the days when +ships were commanded by soldiers. The ship couldn't get along without +the special engineering knowledge of this officer and his understudies +any more than William the Conqueror could have got across Channel +without Stephen FitzErard, his sailing-master. + +We may note, in passing, that to this day the executive ranks of the +navy always call themselves the "military branch". They are, of course, +the "militant" branch, though in one sense no one on board a ship in +action can help being a militant too. + +The engineering branch, at any rate, stands as good a chance of +casualties as even the executive or marine portions of the ship's +complement, and it is perhaps partly for this reason that its officers +have recently been allowed to wear the much-prized executive "curl" of +gold lace on their sleeves. The engineer commander has charge of all the +engines on board, the number of which runs to several dozen, for besides +the big main engines for propelling the ship there are smaller engines +for almost every conceivable purpose. There are engines to work the +steering-gear, the winches and hoists, the dynamos to produce electric +light, for the magazine refrigerating machinery, and many others, to say +nothing of those in the steamboats belonging to the ship. He and the +carpenter are also responsible for the hull of the ship, the expenditure +and replenishment of coal and oil, and goodness knows how many other +things! To assist him in all this mass of work and responsibility he has +two or three engineer lieutenants and a number of artificer engineers, +engine-room artificers, mechanicians, chief stokers, and, in a big ship, +hundreds of stokers. + +[Illustration: UNIFORMS OF THE ROYAL MARINES + +Gunner, R.M.A. Colour-Sergeant, R.M.L.I. Major, R.M.A.] + +The duty of senior engineer lieutenant is no sinecure either, since he +occupies much the same position in regard to his chief as the commander +does to the captain of the ship. The remaining engineer lieutenants keep +watch down in the engine-room in the same way as the other lieutenants +do on deck. + +Still following the order of the Navy List, we come to the officers of +marines. In the old days there were, perhaps, five or six of these in a +line-of-battleship, but the biggest "Dreadnought" of to-day never +carries more than two, unless, perhaps, there is another one attached to +the admiral's staff--supposing it to be a flagship--for special duties +in connection with the Intelligence Department, &c. Generally in a +flagship there is a major and a subaltern. Of the two, one, probably, +will be a marine artilleryman. Other big ships will have a captain and a +subaltern, and in smaller ones a captain or subaltern alone. Their +duties are considerably more onerous than they used to be, since they +are wisely made of much more use in the general work of the ship, +instead of being relegated to the unsatisfactory rôle of being "lookers +on at life". + +The major is, of course, responsible for the conduct, drill, and +military efficiency of his detachment, which may number about 100 men, +but he has, in addition, to inspect those of other ships in the squadron +or fleet from time to time, and to command and drill the marines of the +fleet when landed together for drill or tactical instruction. He or the +captain of marines in another ship has charge also of the gunnery of his +men, who are told off to man some of the guns in the ship, and may very +possibly be himself stationed in one of the control-positions in time of +action. He also commands the detachment when drawn up as a guard of +honour to receive the admiral or any distinguished visitor who is +entitled to this mark of distinction. His subaltern assists him +generally with the detachment, visits the sentries from time to time +during the night and day, keeps his turn of watch in harbour and of +officer of the guard, drills and looks after the marine guns, and not +infrequently acts as assistant gunnery or torpedo officer. All this is +very different from the old days, when the captain or major of marines +was popularly supposed to spend his time on the stern lockers practising +the flute, and when on arrival in harbour it was considered to be a near +thing as to whether he or the "killick"[78] touched the ground first. + +The Church takes the next place, in the shape of the chaplain, generally +a great acquisition to the mess. The "padre" or "sky pilot" requires to +be a man of considerable tact, and generally speaking he is. He has to +be on more or less friendly terms with everyone fore and aft, or he +would find it difficult to carry out his spiritual duties effectively. +On the other hand, I may fairly say that it is his own fault if, in this +respect, he is not met more than half-way both by his messmates in the +ward-room and by the "lower deck".[79] He reads prayers at divisions or +morning parade, visits the sick-bay and cells, superintends the +instruction given by the ship's schoolmaster, and, of course, carries +out divine service on Sundays. Sometimes he occupies the post of naval +instructor in addition to his strictly clerical duties, and in that +capacity instructs the midshipmen in various more or less scientific +subjects, such as applied mathematics and navigation, &c., and generally +musters his pupils on deck with their sextants at noon to take their +observations and work out the exact position of the ship. He and the +paymaster often look after the men's savings-bank, and make themselves +useful in other small matters connected with the interior domestic +economy of the ship and her ward-room mess. + +[Illustration: _Photo. Cribb, Southsea_ + +THE 13.5-INCH GUN: SOME IDEA OF ITS LENGTH + +Thirteen midshipmen seated upon this monster naval gun seem to emphasize +its length. Sixteen of our super-Dreadnoughts each carry eight or ten +13.5-inch guns. They settled the fate of the _Blücher_ in the Dogger +Bank fight, and sent the other German ships back to port shattered and +on fire.] + +The fleet surgeon, with one or two surgeons, has entire charge of the +health of both officers and men. His special domain is the "sick-bay", +generally situated forward, so that the sick get the freshest air, and +he is assisted in his duties by a staff of sick-berth stewards and +sick-berth attendants. He is an autocrat in his way, as not even the +captain can traverse his decisions as to health or disease. He makes a +daily report of the officers and men on the sick-list to the captain, +and arranges that one of his surgeons is always at hand in case of +accidents. In action he and his staff and what extra assistants can be +spared arrange a place down below the armoured deck where they can do +what is possible for the wounded that are passed down to them. But in +these days, when guns are closed up in separate turrets and casemates, +it is not too easy a business to arrange for the transport of these poor +fellows. + +The fleet paymaster is another non-combatant--so far as it is possible +for anyone to be so classed on a ship-of-war--and has the responsible +duty of looking after the pay, accountant, and clerical work of the +ship, stores of all kinds, and many other matters of a like nature, +including "slops" or clothes for the ship's company. The paymaster line +has no curl on the sleeve and wears white cloth between the gold stripes +of rank. The surgeons also have plain stripes, but with scarlet cloth +between them. The engineers wear purple between their stripes, and the +naval instructors sky-blue, but this is rarely seen, since most naval +instructors are also chaplains and wear the ordinary clerical rig. +Personally I have never set eyes on the sky-blue. + +This about finishes the list of ward-room officers, but those in the +gun-room are at least as numerous. The autocrat of the gun-room is the +senior sub-lieutenant, who is supposed to rule his subjects with a rod +of iron, or, to be more exact, a leather dirk scabbard, which at times +forms a useful and effective instrument of justice. In the gun-room live +the midshipmen, clerks, and assistant-engineer officers, and their +duties have, generally speaking, been already indicated in describing +those of the senior officers of the various branches to whom they are +assistants and understudies. But a word or two about the midshipmen--the +"young gentlemen" as they are generally called--will not be out of +place. They have plenty to do. They have to keep watch like their +seniors, and one important, though unofficial, part of a watch-keeping +midshipman's duties used to be to brew and bring up a cup of cocoa to +the officer on the bridge in the middle watch. But this is probably now +an exploded custom. A midshipman generally has charge of one of the +boats, and takes great pride in keeping it and its crew well up to the +mark. The "young gentlemen" drill under the gunnery lieutenant before +breakfast, work with the chaplain or naval instructor during the +forenoon, and at any moment must be ready to go away in charge of their +boats. Every midshipman is expected to keep a daily "log", which is +periodically inspected by the captain. Some of them take the greatest +pains not only to make their logs models of neatness, but to decorate +them with sketches, drawings, and plans, often of considerable merit and +interest. This is but a very partial and fragmentary account of the +duties of the boys from whom our future admirals and commanders-in-chief +will be recruited, but it is time this chapter was drawing to a close, +and we cannot leave our ship without at least mentioning a few other +people who, though not commissioned officers, are yet of very great +importance in her interior economy. + +[Illustration: _Photo. Cribb, Southsea_ + +6-INCH GUN DRILL: THE BREECH OPEN] + +First and foremost there are the warrant officers, pre-eminent among +whom are the boatswain, gunner, and carpenter, three time-honoured +titles. The first-named may be regarded as the commander's right-hand +man, and has multifarious duties and responsibilities. The duties of the +other two are sufficiently indicated by their titles. Then there are +engineer warrant officers, and of late years marine warrant officers +known as "Royal Marine gunners". The "sergeant-major" of marines, which +is the courtesy title borne by the senior non-commissioned officer of +the corps on board, is also a man of considerable importance on a +man-of-war. Then there are the chief petty officers, and petty officers +such as the yeoman of signals, the chief quartermaster, chief +boatswain's mate, and many others, together with sailmaker, blacksmiths, +armourers, electricians, coopers, cooks, bandsmen, plumbers, and all +kinds of ratings whose presence on board His Majesty's ships and vessels +of war is little suspected by the man in the street. Then there is the +ship's police, headed by the master-at-arms or "jaundy".[80] These men +are recruited from all branches of the navy, and perform much the same +duties as the "bobby" on shore, look after the prisoners in cells, and +are supposed to detect all irregularities that may take place on board +and to bring the delinquents to justice. + +If a ship is a flagship there is naturally a more important personage on +board than any of the officers whose ranks and duties have been +detailed--the admiral in command of the fleet or squadron. He may be +a full admiral--the highest rank employed afloat--a vice-admiral, or a +rear-admiral, the difference in rank being indicated by the number of +stripes on the cuff of his coat, placed above the lower very wide stripe +of gold lace. Thus a rear-admiral has one narrow stripe above it, with +the executive curl, a vice-admiral two additional narrow ones, and an +admiral three. The admiral lives in a regular suite of cabins, generally +right aft, consisting of a dining-room or fore-cabin, a sitting-room or +after-cabin, and two or three sleeping cabins. The captain of a flagship +is known as the flag-captain, and he, with the flag-lieutenant, +secretary, and sometimes an officer of marines, form the admiral's +staff. All these officers are distinguished from the rest of the +officers in the squadron by wearing aiguillettes. The captain, of +course, has to command his ship like other captains, but the secretary, +who is a staff-paymaster or paymaster told off for this special duty, is +the admiral's right-hand man as regards the tremendous amount of paper +work connected with the command of a fleet or squadron. The +flag-lieutenant is the admiral's personal aide-de-camp and so is +specially to the fore, both in the big man's inspections of ships and +naval establishments and in social duties and functions. He is also an +authority in connection with signalling in its various branches, and +necessarily and generally a smart young man all round. He and the +secretary mess at the admiral's table and not in the ward-room. A +man-of-war, it will be realized, even from this necessarily very brief +attempt to describe those who make their "home on the rolling deep" on +board her, is a little world in herself. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[74] Except between 1713 and 1739, when there were no marines. + +[75] "Fixed" is, perhaps, not the right word to use. Up to and including +part of the nineteenth century, marines and soldiers seem to have been +enlisted for an indefinite period--for as long or short a time as the +Government chose to keep them. + +[76] The Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers were disbanded in 1892 on the +report of a Committee of which the late Admiral Sir George Tryon was +president. The report said: "The corps of Royal Naval Artillery +Volunteers is composed of men who have not, as a rule, practical +acquaintance with the sea, but are attracted by sympathy and aspiration. +The Committee suggest that there are grounds for maintaining that a +Volunteer Force affiliated to the Royal Marine Artillery--from the +system of training and discipline that would be established--would be a +far more permanently valuable force than any so-termed naval force in +which are enrolled men not inured to sea-life and who have no sufficient +practical experience at sea, which experience cannot be given by +Government under any volunteer system we can devise." + +[77] The bluejacket of to-day, by the way, often refers to himself as a +"Matlow" or a "Flat-foot", while the marines are often termed +"Leather-necks". + +[78] i.e. the anchor + +[79] i.e. the ship's company. + +[80] Said to be a corruption of _gendarme_. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Beginning of the War Afloat + + "Hark! I hear the cannon's roar + Echoing from the German shore." + Old Nautical Ballad (in Huth Collection). + + "Come all ye jolly sailors bold, + Whose hearts are cast in honour's mould, + While English glory I unfold. + Huzza for the _Arethusa_! + Her men are staunch + To their fav'rite launch, + And when the foe shall meet our fire, + Sooner than strike we'll all expire + On board of the _Arethusa_. + + "And, now we've driven the foe ashore + Never to fight with Britons more, + Let each fill his glass + To his fav'rite lass; + A health to our captain and officers true, + And all that belong to the jovial crew + On board of the _Arethusa_." + Old Naval Song. + + Ordered by the Admiralty to be engraved upon a brass + plate and fixed in a conspicuous position on board + H.M.S. _Arethusa_, after the Battle of the Bight, 28th + August, 1914. + + +IN July, 1914, it was determined to have a "test mobilization" of the +British fleet. "Mobilization" means, in connection with either the navy +or the army, the calling up of reserves and filling up regiments or +ships till they have the numbers necessary to complete them for war +service. In previous years it was usual to have a series of naval +manoeuvres during the summer or autumn, to practise our fleets in +working together or to work out strategical problems. This generally +entailed a partial mobilization, but in 1914 it was determined to see +how the machinery for mobilization would work at full power. + +On the 19th and 20th July the magnificent naval force formed by the +assembly of the first, second, and third fleets, with various flotillas +of destroyers and submarines, was inspected at Spithead by King George. +After a few days' fleet exercises in the Channel the great armament +dispersed, the first fleet going to Portland, the remainder to their +home ports to give manoeuvre leave. But in the meanwhile affairs on the +Continent became so threatening that it was deemed a wise precaution to +keep the first fleet in readiness where it was, and to defer giving +leave. On the 27th July Austria declared war against Serbia. Two days +later the first fleet steamed out of Portland and disappeared from +sight. Where it went we do not know, but in a short time it and all our +other fleets were swallowed up in "the fog of war", from which some of +their ships have from time to time made dramatic entrances upon the +scene of conflict, generally attended with unpleasant consequences to +the enemy. + +Events now moved with the greatest rapidity. Germany declared war on +Russia on 1st August, and on the day following her troops violated the +neutrality not only of Luxembourg but of Belgium, although she--equally +with Great Britain and France--had guaranteed the neutrality of the +latter country by a formal treaty. On 3rd August the action of Germany +automatically brought France into the war, and on the same day the +mobilization of the British fleet was completed at four o'clock in the +morning. On the 4th the British ultimatum was dispatched. It was +summarily rejected, and by 11 p.m. the two countries were at war. + +The next morning the first shots were fired by the British Navy. H.M.S. +_Amphion_, a smart four-funnelled vessel of the light-cruiser class, +which, with a flotilla of destroyers, was on patrol duty in the North +Sea, was spoken by a trawler about 9 a.m., who reported having recently +seen a suspicious steamer "throwing things overboard". The skipper +described her position as nearly as he could. It was easy to guess what +the "things" in question were. Germany had made little or no secret of +her intention to pursue a policy of strewing mines in the open sea, +though she had a fine fleet, only second to our own, both in numbers and +discipline. (Nelson, it may be pointed out, won the battle of St. +Vincent with 15 line-of-battle ships, 4 frigates, a brig and a cutter, +although he attacked an enemy fleet consisting of 27 line-of-battle +ships, 7 of which carried more guns than any English ship, and 13 +frigates.) We may well imagine the zest with which our little squadron +set off to punish the naval "dynamitards", and it was not long before a +mercantile-looking steamer hove in sight, which proved to be the +_Königin Luise_, of 2000 tons, belonging to the Hamburg-Amerika Line. +She was steering east, and four destroyers shot after her like +greyhounds unleashed. The chase was good for about twenty knots, but +after a thirty-mile run the _Amphion_ and destroyers opened fire, which +the German returned. The destroyer _Lance_ now crept up abreast of her +on the port hand and fired[81] at comparatively close quarters. Four +shots did the trick. The first absolutely wrecked her fore-bridge, the +second got her fair amidships between the funnels, while the last two +made such a mess of her stern that she began to founder. + +With true British sportsmanship and humanity, every attempt was at once +made to rescue her crew, with the result that twenty-eight escaped a +watery grave. The _Amphion_ and her satellites, having disposed of the +mine-layer, proceeded with their work until about 6.30 the following +morning. The flotilla was at this time in the neighbourhood of the spot +where the _Königin Luise_ had been dropping her mines. Every precaution +was taken to avoid what was supposed to be the dangerous area, but +suddenly, without any warning, the _Amphion_ struck a mine and the +catastrophe occurred. "A sheet of flame instantly enveloped the bridge, +rendered the captain insensible, and he fell on the fore-and-aft bridge. +As soon as he recovered consciousness he ran to the engine-room to stop +the engines, which were still going at revolutions for 20 knots. As all +the fore part was on fire, it proved impossible to reach the bridge or +to flood the fore magazine. The ship's back appeared to be broken, and +she was already settling down by the bows. All efforts were therefore +directed to placing the wounded in a place of safety, in case of +explosion, and towards getting her in tow by the stern. By the time the +destroyers closed, it was clearly time to abandon the ship. They fell in +for this purpose with the same composure that had marked their behaviour +throughout. All was done without hurry or confusion, and twenty minutes +after the mine was struck the men, officers, and captain left the +ship."[82] + +It was not long before the corner of the curtain shrouding the North Sea +was again raised for a moment to give us a fleeting glimpse of the +destruction of the German submarine U15 by the cruiser _Birmingham_. +There have been one or two versions of this event. According to one +account, the look-outs on board the cruiser "spotted" the periscope of a +German submarine rather over a mile distant and opened fire; and so good +was the marksmanship of her gunners that, small as was the target +offered by the periscope, it was carried away at the first shot. The +submarine dived, but, being unable to see where she was going, came to +the surface, only to have her conning-tower wrecked by another +projectile, which did so much damage that the U15 sank like a stone. +According to a well-known writer on naval matters[83] this story, +however, is "entirely fictitious, except in so far that the +_Birmingham_ did sink the U 15; but the real truth of the matter is that +the U 15 fired at a certain British ship and missed her. Thereafter the +U 15 might have got home in safety had not her captain imagined that he +had succeeded, and come to the surface to shout 'Deutschland über +alles'. That little incident settled the fate of the U 15, as she came +up alongside the _Birmingham_ and was sunk at once." + +This incident took place on the 9th August, and for the next fortnight +or so the "fog of war" rolled very thick over the North Sea. There is +reason to believe that things were not exactly peaceful during all this +time, since on the 19th there was an official reference to some +"desultory fighting", resulting in no loss to either side. Between the +24th and 28th the Germans sank twenty-two fishing-boats. Immediately +after, a well-planned move by the British Navy resulted in what is known +as the "Battle of the Bight". The rocky, cliff-bound islet known as +Heligoland--the German Gibraltar of the North Sea covering the +approaches to Cuxhaven and the Kiel Canal--was not so long ago a British +possession. It had been ours for over a century when we exchanged it for +Zanzibar, because we thought "there was more money in it". We had never +made any use of it when we had it. Had we fortified it, as the Germans +have now done, its value in the war would have been priceless. That we +did not do so may be set down to our fear of offending German +susceptibilities and to our fixed resolve not to contemplate a war with +Germany as being in the plane of practical politics. If any Government +had attempted to make an advanced naval base of it, what an outcry there +would have been! + +It has been described by a German naval writer as "the strategical basis +of the German fleet, distant about 40 miles from the mouths of the Elbe, +the Weser, and the Jadhe. It is a fortress of the most modern kind, +furnished with the newest weapons, and fortified with the utmost +technical skill. Its guns, contained in armour-plated revolving towers +and bomb-proof casemates, dominate the sea over a circle from 20 to 25 +miles in diameter. Powerful moles, some 650 feet long, protect the +flotillas of torpedo-boats and submarines, and great stores of +ammunition and supplies facilitate the provisioning of our ships."[84] + +Over and around this rock-bound fortress in the early hours of the +morning of 28th August hung a thick mist--almost a light fog. Now and +again the watchers on duty caught sight of the phantom shapes of the +German destroyers and torpedo-boats as they carried out their +never-ending sentry-go over the approaches to the Elbe. Presently out at +sea there were ruddy glimmers through the haze, followed by the slam of +small cannon. Away to the westward, in a lift of the mist, the German +patrols suddenly "spotted" the porpoise-like forms of three big +submarines brazenly exposing themselves on the surface, and a general +dash was made in the direction of this splendid "bag". + +But they were too late. The intruders had dived, and were out of sight +or hearing. Then suddenly broke out a rapid banging all round in the +mist. + +What was happening? As a matter of fact, our First and Third Destroyer +Flotillas, supported by the First Light-cruiser Squadron, and with the +First Battle-cruiser Squadron in reserve, were carrying out an ingenious +plan which was described as "a scooping movement" against the German +war-craft known to be in the neighbourhood of Heligoland. Some of our +submarines were also playing their part, and it is probable that the +"scoop" was planned on information previously gained by these little +craft, since it was officially announced by the Press Bureau, after the +battle, that "the success of this operation was due in the first +instance to the information brought to the admiral by the submarine +officers, who have, during the past three weeks, shown extraordinary +daring and enterprise in penetrating the enemy's waters". + +[Illustration: THE SINKING OF THE GERMAN CRUISER _MAINZ_ + +A snapshot from one of the British war-ships engaged in the fight off +Heligoland.] + +The three submarines were a decoy to draw the enemy's flotillas to the +westward. Then down came the saucy _Arethusa_, looking not unlike a big +destroyer herself, flying the broad pennant of Commodore R. Y. Tyrwhitt, +and the destroyers of the Third Flotilla. The new-comers immediately +attacked the German Flotilla, which was now making for Heligoland. The +_Arethusa_, in her turn, was attacked by two German cruisers, and there +was something in the nature of a general mêlée, in which the _Fearless_ +and the First Destroyer Flotilla very shortly took a hand. Our gunnery +seems to have been the more effective, but all the same our flotillas +were somewhat hardly pressed until the Light Cruiser Squadron, and +finally the battle-cruisers, with their enormous guns, came looming +colossal out of the mist and gave the German cruisers the _coup de +grâce_. The _Köln_ and _Mainz_ were set on fire and sunk outright, the +third cruiser, subsequently understood to have been the _Ariadne_, +disappeared blazing into the fog, only to founder shortly afterwards, +while two destroyers were also accounted for. The _Arethusa_ was +somewhat damaged, and was towed out of the fight by the _Fearless_. Of +course, with the arrival of our reinforcements, we were in overwhelming +superiority, and our principal risk lay in the enemy submarines, which +attempted an attack that was balked by the high speed of our ships and +the alertness of our destroyers. + +A thrilling account of the engagement is contained in a letter[85], +written by a naval officer who evidently was serving on board one of our +destroyers. I do not think I can do better than quote from it: "We +destroyers went in and lured the enemy out and had lots of excitement. +The big fellows then came up and did some excellent target practice, and +we were very glad to see them come; but they ought not to consider we +had a fight, because it was a massacre, not a fight. It was superb +generalship having overwhelming forces on the spot, but there was really +nothing for them to do except shoot the enemy, even as Pa shoots +pheasants. For us who put up the quarry in its lair, there was no doubt +more to do than 'shoot the enemy', for in our case the shooting was +passive and not active only! For that very reason the fight did us of +the destroyers more good than it did our big fellows, for my humble +opinion, based on limited observation, is that no ship is really herself +until she has been under fire. The second time she goes into action you +may judge her character; she is not likely to do normally well the first +time. We all need to be stiffened and then given a week or two to take +it all in. After that we are 'set'. A ship will always do better in her +second action. To see the old _Fearless_ charging around the field of +fight (it was her second engagement) seeking fresh foes was most +inspiriting. Until the big brothers came up she was absolutely all in +all to us, and she has no bigger guns than we have. I also learn that +there is all the difference in the world between a 4-inch gun in a +cruiser and a 4-inch gun in a destroyer. I would regard a cruiser armed +with a 3-inch as about a match for a destroyer with a 4-inch; but then I +have personally only looked at it from a destroyer point of view. But it +must be more unpleasant to have half a dozen plumped accurately and +together at you, with a well-arranged 'fire-control' guiding them, +watching their fall, and applying corrections to the range +scientifically and dispassionately, rather than to have isolated shots +banged off from a vibrating pulsating destroyer, turning this way and +that, with no one to look where the shot falls, except, perhaps, the +captain, who has a lot of other things to attend to.... + +"Have you ever watched a dog rush in on a flock of sheep and scatter +them? He goes for the nearest and barks at it, goes so much faster than +the flock that it bunches up with its companions; the dog then barks at +another and the sheep spread out fanwise, so that all round in front of +the dog is a semicircle of sheep and behind him none. That was much what +we did at 7 a.m. on the 28th. The sheep were the German torpedo-craft, +who fell back just on the limits of range and tried to lure us within +fire of the Heligoland forts. _Pas si bête!_ But a cruiser came out and +engaged our _Arethusa_; they had a real heart-to-heart talk while we +looked on, and a few of us tried to shoot at the enemy too, though it +was beyond our distance. We were getting nearer and nearer Heligoland +all the time; there was a thick mist, and I expected every minute to +find the forts on the island bombarding us; so _Arethusa_ presently drew +off after landing at least one good shell on the enemy. + +"Seeing our papers admit it, so may I--our fellows got quite a nasty +'tummy-ache'. The enemy gave every bit as good as he got there. We then +re-formed, but a strong destroyer belonging to the submarines got +chased, and _Arethusa_ and _Fearless_ went back to look after her, and +we presently heard a hot action astern. So the captain, who was in +command of the flotilla, turned us round and we went back to help, but +they had driven the enemy off, and on our arrival told us to form up on +the _Arethusa_. + +"When we had partly formed and were very much bunched together, a fine +target, suddenly out of the 'everywhere' arrived five shells not 150 +yards away. We gazed at whence they came, and again five or six stabs of +fire pierced the mist, and we made out a four-funnelled cruiser of the +'Breslau' class. These five stabs were her guns going off, of course. We +waited fifteen seconds and the shots and the noise of the guns arrived +pretty simultaneously fifty yards away. Her next salvo went over us, and +I, personally, ducked as they whirred overhead like a covey of fast +partridges. You would have supposed the captain had done this sort of +thing all his life; he gives me the impression of a Nelson officer who +has lived in a state of suspended animation since, but yet has kept pace +with the times, and is nowise perturbed at finding his frigate a +destroyer. He went full speed ahead at the first salvo to string the +bunch out and thus offer less target, and the commodore from the +_Arethusa_ made a signal to us to attack with torpedoes. + +"So we swung round at right angles and charged full speed at the enemy, +like a hussar attack. We got away at the start magnificently and led the +field, so that all the enemy's fire was aimed at us for the next ten +minutes. When we got so close that the debris of their shells fell on +board, we altered our course and so threw them out in their reckoning of +our speed, and they had all their work to do over again. You follow that +with a destroyer coming at you at 30 knots it means that the range is +decreasing at the rate of about 150 yards per ten seconds. When you see +that your last shot fell, say, 100 yards short, you put up 100 extra +yards on your sights; but this takes five seconds to do. When you have +in this way discovered his speed you put that correction in +automatically; a cruiser can do this, a destroyer has not room for the +complicated apparatus involved. Humanly speaking, therefore, the +captain, by twisting and turning at the psychological moment, saved us; +actually I feel we are in God's keeping these days. + +"After ten minutes we got near enough to fire our torpedo, and then +turned back to the _Arethusa_. Next our follower arrived just where we +had been and fired his torpedo, and of course the enemy fired at him, +instead of at us. What a blessed relief! It was like coming out of a +really hot and oppressive orchid house into the cool air of a summer +garden. A 'hot' fire is properly descriptive; it seems actually to be +hot! After the destroyers came the _Fearless_, and she stayed on the +scene, and soon we found she was engaging a three-funneller, the +_Mainz_. So off we started again to go for the _Mainz_, the situation +being, I take it, that crippled _Arethusa_ was too 'tummy'-aching to do +anything but be defended by us, her children. + +"Scarcely, however, had we started (I did not feel the least like +another gruelling) when from out the mist and across our front in +furious pursuit came the First Cruiser Squadron, the Town class, +_Birmingham_, &c., each unit a match for three _Mainz_, and as we looked +and reduced speed they opened fire, and the clear 'bang! bang!' of their +guns was just a cooling drink! To see a real big four-funneller spouting +flame, which flame denoted shells starting, and those shells not aimed +at us but for us, was the most cheerful thing possible. Even as +Kipling's infantryman, under heavy fire, cries 'The Guns, thank Gawd, +the Guns', when his own artillery has come into action over his head, so +did I feel as those 'Big Brothers' came careering across. + +"Once we were in safety I hated it. We had just been having our own +imaginations stimulated on the subject of shells striking us, and now, a +few minutes later, to see another ship not three miles away reduced to a +piteous mass of unrecognizability, wreathed in black fumes, from which +flared out angry gouts of fire like Vesuvius in eruption, as an unending +stream of 100-pound shells burst on board; it just pointed the moral and +showed us what might have been! The _Mainz_ was immensely gallant. The +last I saw of her, absolutely wrecked alow and aloft, her whole midships +a fuming inferno, she had one gun forward and one aft still spitting +forth fury and defiance, 'like a wild cat mad with wounds'. Our own +four-funnelled friend recommenced at this juncture with a couple of +salvos, but rather half-heartedly; and we really did not care a ----, +for there, straight ahead of us in lordly procession, like elephants +walking through a pack of 'pi-dogs', came the _Lion_, _Queen Mary_, +_Invincible_, and _New Zealand_, our battle-cruisers. Great and grim and +uncouth as some antediluvian monsters, how solid they looked, how +utterly earth-quaking. + +"We pointed out our latest aggressor to them, whom they could not see +from where they were, and they passed down the field of battle with the +little destroyers on their left and the destroyed on their right, and we +went west while they went east, and turned north between poor +four-funnels and her home, and just a little later we heard the thunder +of their guns for a space, then all silence, and we knew. Then wireless: +'_Lion_ to all ships and destroyers; retire'. That was all. + +"Remains only little details, only one of which I will tell you. The +most romantic, dramatic, and piquant episode that modern war can ever +show. The _Defender_, having sunk an enemy, lowered a whaler to pick up +her swimming survivors; before the whaler got back an enemy's cruiser +came up and chased the _Defender_, and thus she abandoned her whaler. +Imagine their feelings; alone in an open boat without food, twenty-five +miles from the nearest land, and that land the enemy's fortress, with +nothing but fog and sea around them. Suddenly a swirl alongside, and up, +if you please, pops His Britannic Majesty's submarine E 4, opens his +conning-tower, takes them all on board, shuts up again, dives, and +brings them home 250 miles! Is not that magnificent? No novel would dare +face the critics with an episode like that in it, except, perhaps, Jules +Verne--and all true!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[81] The first shot, probably from the _Amphion_--thus the first shot of +the war afloat--was fired by Private J. B. King, R.M.L.I. (Plymouth), +who died of wounds in Netley Hospital soon after the sinking of the +_Amphion_. + +[82] Official account. + +[83] Fred. T. Jane, _Your Navy as a Fighting-machine_. + +[84] _Naval and Military Record._ + +[85] In the _Morning Post_. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Operations in the North Sea and Channel + + "Grey and solemn on the wave, + Vast of beam, immense of length; + Coldly scorning death and grave-- + Citadel of monster strength. + + "Darkened sky and troubled sea, + Thunder-crashing sound in air; + Massive citadel--was she + Such a thing as founders there." + "Submarined." (From _The Battleship_, by Walter Wood, 1912.) + + +THE next phase of the naval operations in the Channel and North Sea does +not afford quite such satisfactory reading as the "Battle of the Bight", +for the loss of several of our cruisers and smaller vessels by mine and +torpedo has to be recorded. At the same time the very fact that our +ships were at sea, and so offering a target to the German submarines, +while their ships were hiding under the fortifications of Kiel and +Heligoland, must not be lost sight of. + +If we claim command of the sea we must face the risks of the position. +The sinking of a few men-of-war by mines or submarines will not transfer +the "trident of Neptune" to a fleet which only plays for safety, any +more than the destruction of one or two public buildings by a dynamitard +will give him the reins of government. The "silver lining" to the cloud +of our losses in men and material is the magnificent bravery and +discipline displayed by the crews of the vessels attacked, officers, +seamen, and marines alike. Space forbids a detailed account of each of +these losses, but it is as well to mention them. + +Thus the _Speedy_ and _Pathfinder_, small cruisers of mature age, were +blown up, the first by a mine, the second by a submarine, during +September. In the month of October the cruiser _Hawke_, when in company +with the _Theseus_ in the North Sea, was attacked and torpedoed by a +German submarine, while the _Hermes_, fitted as a tender for aeroplanes, +was sunk in a similar way in the Channel, where, on the 27th, the German +submarine service went so far as to torpedo the French steamer _Amiral +Ganteaume_, crowded as she was with 2500 refugees. The biggest and most +dramatic of the losses occasioned by the enemy submarines was the +torpedoing of the three big cruisers _Aboukir_, _Cressy_, and _Hogue_ on +the morning of 22nd September. The ships were by no means new, and their +loss is not to be compared with that of the many gallant men who formed +their crews. + +To quote the official statement issued to the Press: "The duty on which +these vessels were engaged was an essential part of the arrangements by +which the control of the seas and the safety of the country are +maintained, and the lives lost are as usefully, as necessarily, and as +gloriously devoted to the requirements of His Majesty's Service as if +the loss had been incurred in a general action." The ships were in the +neighbourhood of the Hook of Holland when they were attacked by the U +9--alone, according to the German story, though some of the survivors +think there were more, and claim that one was sunk. The _Aboukir_ was +the first victim, and the other ships, seeing her plight, stopped, or at +any rate reduced their speed, to lower their boats to pick up her men, +thus giving the enemy an opportunity of torpedoing them also which he +was not slow to take advantage of. + +"The natural promptings of humanity have in this case led to heavy +losses which would have been avoided by a strict adherence to military +considerations," remarked the authorized statement published by the +Press Bureau, which went on to point out the necessity of this rule +being observed, especially in the case of large ships. + +The material loss inflicted on the navy by the loss of the _Aboukir_, +_Cressy_, and _Hogue_ was not great. The three ships were all designed +as far back as 1898, which may perhaps account for the rapidity with +which they foundered, since the torpedo at that time was by no means so +formidable, either as regards range, accuracy, or explosive effect, as +those of to-day. It is probable, therefore, that the precautions against +these weapons, in the shape of internal subdivision, were not so +extensive as in our more modern ships of war. The _Aboukir_, _Cressy_, +and _Hogue_ were among our very oldest armoured cruisers, and, big as +they were, had a comparatively light armament considering their 12,000 +tons of displacement. + +Considering the extremely limited opportunities afforded by the coyness +of the German so-called "High Seas Fleet", our submarines and destroyers +retaliated fairly effectively. The E 9, one of our newest submarines, +commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Max K. Horton, R.N., torpedoed the +_Hela_, a light 2000-ton cruiser of an old type, on 13th September. The +ship was not a great loss to the German Navy, as she was quite an old +stager, dating from 1895, but the exploit was a notable one, being +carried out, as it was, well behind the Island of Heligoland, that very +formidable German naval fortress. + +The same boat scored another success on 6th October, when she sighted +two German destroyers patrolling off the mouth of the Ems, not far from +the island of Borkum, and managed to torpedo one of them--the S 126, of +420 tons. "It was an easier case than that of the _Hela_," said one of +the E9's crew on her return to Harwich, "but luck was with us." + +"When we rose," he said, "we saw two German destroyers travelling at a +speed of some 30 knots. Our commander was at the periscope, and ordered +the forward tubes to be fired." They then rose to the surface, and the +commander said: "Look at her; the beggar is going down." Then they saw +the German rise perpendicularly, and men rushed up to her stern and +dived into the water. The submarine then submerged and made her way +back. + +"I don't want to boast," continued the narrator, "but we got our +'rooties'[86] home. It was not a bad performance."[87] + +Again, a smart little action was fought on the afternoon of 17th October +between the light cruiser _Undaunted_, commanded by Captain Fox, who was +blown up in the _Amphion_--with the destroyers _Lance_, _Lennox_, +_Legion_, and _Loyal_, and four German destroyers, all of which were +sunk. + +"We steamed out of Harwich," wrote an officer who was engaged, "with all +the ships' companies jubilant and eager to get into the danger zone, as +it was reported that a 'certain amount of liveliness' prevailed in the +North Sea.[88] All was quiet till two o'clock, when, heading up +northwards and skirting the Dutch coast-line, we sighted the smoke of +four vessels. Our captain immediately cleared for action, and signalled +the order to chase. We steamed at top speed, with two destroyers +disposed on either side of us. It was a never-to-be-forgotten +sight--nerves strained to their utmost tension, and everybody as keen as +mustard. Sea and spray flew all over us, and covered us fore and aft. +The German destroyers turned about and fled, but we had the advantage in +speed, soon got within range with our 6-inch bow gun, and opened +fire.... Once within effective range our 4-inch semi-automatic guns +blazed away, the destroyers acting independently. The Germans, seeing +themselves cornered, altered course, with the intention of obtaining a +better strategic position. Most of their shooting was aimed at the +destroyers. Lusty cheers rang from our ships as the first German +destroyer disappeared. A 6-inch lyddite shell struck her just below the +bridge. She toppled over on her beam-ends like a wounded bird, then +righted herself level with the surface, and finally plunged, bow first, +all in about two minutes. + +[Illustration: "MISSED!"; THE HELM THE BEST WEAPON AGAINST TORPEDOES + +This picture illustrates an incident which has frequently occurred in +the patrol flotillas when destroyers have been hunting down submarines +and the latter have retaliated by firing torpedoes. Clever manoeuvring +in combination with good gunnery is the war-ship's best protection +against attack by submarine.] + +"We had by this time closed, and the enemy commenced firing their +torpedoes. They must have discharged at least eight, one missing our +stern by only a few yards. Fortunately for us, we caught sight of the +bubbles on the surface denoting its track, and just missed the fate of +the _Aboukir_, _Cressy_, _Hogue_, and _Hawke_ by a hairbreadth. At 2·55 +p.m. the second of the enemy's vessels was seen to be out of action, +being ablaze fore and aft, showing the fearful havoc our lyddite shells +were making. As each shell hit its mark, funnels, bridge, torpedo-tubes, +and all the deck fittings disappeared like magic, dense fumes from the +explosive covering the vessels fore and aft. We actually passed over the +spot where the first vessel had sunk, and just for the space of a couple +of seconds, as we were tearing through the water at over 30 knots an +hour, we caught sight of scores of poor wretches floating about and +clinging to charred and blackened debris and wreckage. This was truly a +pitiable sight, but as we had two more combatants to put out of action, +to stop at such close range, even to save life, would have been courting +disaster. We should have been merely exposing ourselves to torpedoes. We +had to tear along and try and forget the gruesome result of our work. +The second ship, now a mass of seething flame, sank quite level with the +water, and we soon had the remaining two literally holed and maimed. +Their firing was very poor and inaccurate, although several shells flew +around, throwing shrapnel bullets about. It was a marvel that none +struck us. The _Loyal_ and _Lennox_ got quite near one of the German +vessels. The surviving German fired her last torpedo, which, however, +went wide of the mark. During these activities we had closed in with the +last of the Kaiser's destroyers, and placed her _hors de combat_. The +_Legion_ had two wounded. By 3·30 the action was over, and the German +fleet had been reduced by four units. Then came the order to get out +boats and save life. Altogether we saved 2 officers and 29 men.... Those +wretched Teutons made a good fight. They were, of course, completely +outmatched." + +A few days afterwards the destroyer _Badger_ did a smart piece of work +in ramming and destroying a German submarine off the Dutch coast. The +Admiralty wired to her commanding officer--Commander C. A. +Fremantle--that they were "very pleased with your good service". But +about the same time our submarine E 3 was reported to have been lost in +the North Sea. The navy made rather a surprise appearance on the Belgian +coast towards the end of October, enfilading the right of the German +attack on Nieuport, which was being stoutly defended by the Belgians, +and formed the extreme left of the "far-flung battle line" of the +Allies. Three "Monitors"--novel craft in our service--which had been +building for Brazil, but had been taken up by the Admiralty at the +outbreak of war, played the leading part to begin with, but later on +other heavier ships took a hand in the proceedings. The "Monitors" were +especially well adapted for work in the shallow waters between Dunkirk +and Zeebrügge. Their appearance was unexpected by the Germans, who +suffered severely from their fire, and were unable to press their attack +against Nieuport. The "Monitors" _Mersey_, _Severn_, and _Humber_, +assisted by destroyers and a French flotilla, steamed within a couple of +miles of the shore and were in action from 6 a.m. till 6 p.m. on the +first day. Their fire was incessant, one vessel alone firing 1000 +lyddite and shrapnel shells. The German trenches, which were about 3 +miles inland, were especially aimed at, and the most terrible execution +was done upon the troops in them. The German batteries among the big +sand-dunes along the beach also came in for a good deal of attention. +One battery of field-guns was entirely wiped out, a train collected to +force the passage of the Yser was totally dispersed, an ammunition +column blown up, and General von Tripp and the whole of his staff, who +were near Westende, were killed. + +The Germans seemed unable to make an effective reply, and even an +aeroplane sent up to signal the ranges by smoke-balls proved a failure. +By the end of the day the Germans had lost 4000 men and had been driven +from the coast, where nothing was visible but dense masses of black +smoke and lurid patches of flame. The British fire was extremely rapid, +some of the guns firing no less than fourteen rounds a minute at times. +A few casualties were suffered by the British, but no material damage of +a serious nature was sustained, although exposed both to gun-fire and, +it is stated, to submarine attacks, which were warded off by the +attendant destroyers. + +The British Navy continued to do valuable work on the Belgian coast for +a considerable time. The _Venerable_, a pre-Dreadnought battleship, did +great execution with her big 12-inch guns, which outranged the German +batteries. In November, Zeebrügge, where the enemy had established a +submarine station, was heavily bombarded and considerable damage done. +The British casualties during these coastal operations were but slight. +The destroyer _Falcon_, however, received one very destructive shell, +which killed 1 officer and 8 men and wounded 1 officer and 15 men. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[86] i.e. torpedoes. + +[87] _Naval and Military Record._ + +[88] _Ibid._ + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +In the Outer Seas + + "The idea that an inferior power, keeping its + battleships in port and declining fleet actions, can, + nevertheless, bring the trade of an enemy to a + standstill, has no basis either in reason or + experience." + + SIR GEORGE SYDENHAM CLARKE. + + +IT had been generally understood that the German programme of +hostilities against this country--when the "selected moment" +arrived--was to deliver a sudden blow with the full force of their fleet +against ours, before the declaration of war and during a time of +"strained relations". The first move would probably have been made by +submarines and destroyers, and it was hoped that after a successful +surprise attack, before war was declared, the German High Seas Fleet +would be stronger than the residuum of our own. + +For various reasons, which we have not room to discuss here, the Germans +had made up their minds that in August, 1914, Great Britain would _not_ +fight, and that they would be able to carry out their programme against +France, Russia, and Belgium, after which they would decide exactly their +selected moment to attack us. At the outbreak of war their High Seas +Fleet was apparently lying in different deep fiords on the Norwegian +coast. What it was doing there, goodness only knows; but we may be sure +it was not for anybody's good, except, possibly, Germany's. + +Anyway, these ships were not in a position to carry out the programme +laid down for war with England, and so scurried back to the security of +their fortified bases. So, also, they were not quite ready for raiding +our commerce. Still, they were able to put a good many cruisers, regular +and auxiliary, on the ocean highways, and for a time gave us a good deal +of trouble. In the Mediterranean they had the big battle-cruiser +_Goeben_ and the small cruiser _Breslau_, and on the morning of 4th +August these two ships bombarded Bona and Philippeville on the Algerian +coast. They did but little damage; in fact, it was merely a "runaway +knock". The next morning they arrived at Messina, a neutral port, where +they had either to remain indefinitely and be disarmed or leave within a +prescribed period. The German officers decided to leave, and after a +theatrical business of devoting themselves to death, and depositing +their wills and private papers with the German Consul--taking good care +to report this to the Berlin Press, which published glowing accounts of +the "mad daring" of their devoted seamen--they got under way and steamed +out, with colours flying and bands playing. + +Soon after midnight--6th-7th August--the look-outs on board the +_Gloucester_, a light cruiser carrying no heavier gun than a 6-inch, +"spotted" them moving along under cover of the land. After steering a +parallel course for some time she crossed their sterns to get between +them and the land in order to see them better, and hung closely to them +all night and morning. "We let the two ships go on under cover of the +darkness," wrote one of the crew, "and they were moving without lights +at about 23 knots, and then followed almost at full speed. The _Goeben_ +went on ahead, and the _Breslau_ not far behind her. Just about two +o'clock the _Breslau_ slowed down.... As far as we could tell she fired +two torpedoes ... and then discharged several salvoes from her 4-inch +guns. We at once replied with our fore 6-inch gun, and, although it was +dark, we found that with the second shell we cleared her +quarter-deck.... Neither the torpedoes nor shells from the _Breslau_ hit +their mark.... Although they were slightly faster vessels, we kept our +distance from them without losing anything all day, and in the +afternoon sighted the Greek coast after having made the fastest run +across that open bit of water that ever was made. The weather was fine, +and there was not a sight of another war-ship except the Germans.... +When they were off Cape Matapan, the most southerly point of the Greek +mainland, the _Breslau_ stopped again, as she had done in the night, and +waited for us to come on. This time we did not wait for her to open +fire, but discharged our fore 6-inch gun directly we got within +range."[89] + +"After the first shot," wrote another _Gloucester_, "our lads were quite +happy, and they kept firing as quickly as possible. One chap near +swallowed his 'chew of 'baccy' when the first shot fell short. The next +one he spat on for luck, and it took half the _Breslau's_ funnel away. +He repeated the operation on the next shot, which cleared her +quarter-deck and put her after-gun out of action. Then he began to +smile."[90] + +This interchange of compliments lasted nearly five-and-twenty minutes. +The _Breslau_ fired heavily, but, though her gunnery was good, she had +nothing bigger than a 4-inch gun, and the _Gloucester_ was so well +handled by her captain--W. A. H. Kelly, M.V.O.--that every salvo arrived +just after she had left the spot where it arrived. At last the big +_Goeben_ turned slowly round and approached the plucky little British +cruiser and opened fire, but without effect. As a single shot from her +heavy guns would have put the _Gloucester_ out of action, and probably +sunk her, she withdrew in accordance with her instructions. The _Goeben_ +and _Breslau_ eventually arrived at Constantinople, where the farce of a +sale to Turkey was carried out; but they left behind a good deal of the +prestige of the German Navy and a new phrase for our bluejackets' +vocabulary--the "_Goeben_ glide"--that is, to "skedaddle rather than +fight". + +About five German cruisers were known to be in the Atlantic, and a +considerable force of both our own and the French cruisers set to work +to "round them up". The _König Wilhelm der Grosse_, a big armed +mercantile cruiser of 14,000 tons and ten 4-inch guns, was "bagged" by +the _Highflyer_ off the Oro River on the West African coast on 26th +August. She had sunk three of our merchantmen, and was holding up a +couple more when the _Highflyer_ hove in sight. The German, a much +faster vessel, was made fast to a captured collier, from which she was +coaling, which enabled the _Highflyer_, which dated from 1900, to get +within range with her heavier guns. "If all British ships shoot as +straight as the _Highflyer_," said the captain of _König Wilhelm der +Grosse_, "I shall be sorry for our poor fellows in the North Sea." +Nearly a month later the _Carmania_, a big armed liner, sank the _Cap +Trafalgar_, a similar vessel--which was disguised as a "Castle" liner +with grey hull and red funnels--off the Island of Trinidad to the +eastward of Rio de Janeiro. + +"We sighted the German", wrote an officer on board the _Carmania_, +"about 10 a.m. on 14th September, in the South Atlantic. She was coaling +from a collier, and two others were standing off. On sighting us the +_Cap Trafalgar_ hurried off, smothering the colliers, and soon after the +latter steered to the eastward and the _Cap Trafalgar_ to the +southwards. We steamed after her at top speed, and when about 4 miles +off, she turned and steered towards us. We were cleared for action, and +had been standing by our guns for some time, all strangely fascinated by +the movements of our enemy. When about 3-1/2 miles off we fired our +challenge shot across her bows, and immediately after this she displayed +her colours at the masthead, and fired her first shot from her starboard +after-guns. This shot came right close over our heads, dropping in the +water. Then the firing from both ships became fast and furious. +Projectiles and splinters from bursting shells showered around us. The +engagement began at 12.10 midday and lasted hot until about 1.10 p.m., +when she showed signs of having been badly hit, and was taking a heavy +list to starboard, and was on fire fore and aft. We were also on fire +on our fore-bridge. Our bridge-telegraphs and steering-gear were +completely wrecked, and the captain's cabin, the chart-house, and a +number of officers' quarters were gutted. We were also badly holed by +her fire. When we found we had crippled our enemy, and that she was +sinking, we ceased firing, although her colours were still flying. She +gradually listed over till her funnels nearly touched the water. Then +she settled down forward till her second funnel almost disappeared. At +last she rolled over, showing her keel and propellers, stood up on end, +and gradually assumed a perpendicular position and dived out of sight. + +"We could make out some boats with survivors, and one of the colliers +rendered assistance. We had to clear away, because low down on the +horizon the signalman saw smoke and what appeared to be the _Dresden_. +We steered away south, and then doubled on our course. By that time +darkness was setting in, and we thus escaped her clutches." + +An auxiliary cruiser, of course, would not stand much chance in a duel +with a man-of-war cruiser, as was shown by that between the _Highflyer_ +and the _König Wilhelm der Grosse_, a much newer, larger, and faster +ship. Rather later in the year the _Navarra_, another German auxiliary +cruiser of the Hamburg-Amerika line, was sunk also in South Atlantic +waters by the British auxiliary cruiser _Orama_, an Orient liner. The +Germans do not appear to have put up much of a fight, and the British +gunnery proved much superior, but details are wanting.[91] + +If space permitted, a good deal more might be written about the cruiser +operations in the Atlantic, but we have now to turn our attention to the +Indian Ocean. The first incident to be noticed is an adverse one to the +British. The _Pegasus_, a small cruiser dating from 1899, after having +in conjunction with the _Astrea_ destroyed the German wireless station +at Dar-es-Salem, and sunk the gunboat _Möwe_ and a floating-dock, was +caught while overhauling her machinery in the harbour of Zanzibar by the +German light cruiser _Königsberg_, a much newer vessel. + +The _Königsberg_ approached at full speed at five o'clock on Sunday +morning, 20th September, and, having sunk the British patrol boat by +three shots, opened fire on the _Pegasus_ from 5 miles distance, closing +to 7000 yards. The _Pegasus_, being at anchor, presented an easy target, +and the German fire was so well directed that in a quarter of an hour +the only guns she could bring to bear were put out of action. + +After an interval the German re-opened fire for another fifteen minutes, +after which she stood out to sea. The British crew, caught under such +disadvantageous circumstances, showed true heroism, though, as may be +supposed, they suffered very severely. The ensign was twice shot away, +but afterwards held up proudly by hand by two men of the detachment of +Royal Marines, who stationed themselves in the most conspicuous place +they could find. One was killed by a shell and his place was at once +taken by another comrade. The _Pegasus_ was holed badly on the +water-line, her fires had to be put out, and she was run aground in +shallow water but subsequently driven by wind and tide into deeper +water, where she sank. + +It was at about this time that the German light cruiser _Emden_ began to +gain notoriety. She had belonged to the German squadron in China, but +had slipped away south, and now began to sink one after another of our +merchantmen in the Indian Ocean. This was in contravention of +international law, but as, generally speaking, her commander, Captain +Müller, saved their crews, and showed both dash and humanity, the +British public were more or less inclined to look with a lenient eye on +his semi-piratical proceedings. He fired a few shots at Madras and +destroyed an oil-tank, and at Singapore torpedoed the _Jemtchug_, a +Russian gunboat, and the _Mousquet_, a French destroyer. The _Emden_ was +enabled to approach unsuspected on account of having rigged up an extra +funnel and hoisted Japanese colours. However, her day was yet to come. + +By this time British, Russian, Japanese, and French cruisers in the East +were on the qui vive, as well as those belonging to the newly-formed +fleet of the Australian Commonwealth, and it is to one of the Australian +cruisers, the _Sydney_, that the honour of ridding the seas of the +"wanted" _Emden_ belongs. On 9th November the raiding German arrived at +the Cocos Keeling Islands, an isolated group in the Indian Ocean, and, +landing a party of men, set about destroying the British wireless +station. Luckily the operators were suspicious of the strange craft, and +managed to get off a message which reached the cruisers _Melbourne_ and +_Sydney_ in a somewhat broken condition. "Strange warship--off entrance" +it ran. This was about seven in the morning, when they were 50 miles to +the eastward of the islands, and in charge of a convoy. The _Melbourne_, +as senior officer, ordered the _Sydney_ off at full speed to +investigate. Before half-past nine the tops of the _Emden's_ funnels +were made out close to the feathery palm tops denoting the position of +the Cocos. She was 10 or 14 miles distant, but she "spotted" the +_Sydney_, and very soon opened fire at a tremendous range. + +"Shortly after, we started in on her," wrote one of the _Sydney's_ +officers.[92] "The Australian opened fire from her port guns. Before +long a shot from the _Emden_ knocked out nearly the whole gun's crew of +No. 2 gun on the starboard side." + +"There was a lot of 'Whee-oo, whee-oo, whee-oo'," continued the officer +above quoted, "and the 'But-but-but' of the shell striking the water +beyond, and, as the range was pretty big, this was quite possible, as +the angle of descent would be pretty steep. Coming aft, I heard a shot +graze the top of No. 1 Starboard. A petty-officer now came up limping +from aft, and said that he had just carried an officer below (he was +not dangerously hit) and that the after-control position had been +knocked right out, and everyone wounded (they were marvellously lucky). +I told him if he was really able to carry on to go aft to No. 2 +Starboard and see there was no fire, and, if there was, that any charges +about were to be thrown overboard at once. He was very game and limped +away aft. He got aft to find a very bad cordite fire just starting. He, +with others, got this put out. I later noticed some smoke rising aft, +and ran aft to find it was but the remnant of what they had put out, but +found two men, one with a pretty badly wounded foot, sitting on the +gun-platform, and a petty-officer lying on the deck a little farther aft +with a nasty wound in his back. I found one of the men was unwounded but +badly shaken. However, he pulled himself together when I spoke to him, +and told him I wanted him to do what he could for the wounded. I then +ran back to my group.[93] + +"All the time we were going at 25 and sometimes as much as 26 knots. We +had the speed of the _Emden_ and fought as suited ourselves.... Best of +all was to see the gun-crews fighting their guns quite unconcerned. When +we were last in Sydney, we took on board three boys from the +training-ship _Tingira_ who had volunteered. The captain said: 'I don't +really want them, but as they are keen, I'll take them'. Now the action +was only a week or two afterwards, but the two out of the three who were +directly under my notice were perfectly splendid. One little slip of a +boy did not turn a hair, and worked splendidly. The other boy, a very +sturdy youngster, carried projectiles from the hoist to his gun +throughout the action without so much as thinking of cover. I do think +that for two boys absolutely new to their work they were splendid.... +Coming aft the port side from the forecastle gun, I was met by a lot of +men cheering and waving their caps. I said: 'What's happened?' 'She's +gone, sir, she's gone!' I ran to the ship's side and no sign of a ship +could I see. If one could have seen a dark cloud of smoke it would have +been different. But I could see no sign of anything. So I called out: +'All hands turn out the life-boats; there will be men in the water'. +They were just starting to do this when someone called out: 'She's still +firing, sir,' and everyone ran back to the guns. + +"What had happened was, a cloud of yellow or very light-coloured smoke +had obscured her from view, so that looking in her direction one's +impression was that she had totally disappeared. Later we turned again +and engaged her on the other broadside. By now her three funnels and her +foremast had been shot away, and she was on fire aft. We turned again, +and after giving her a salvo or two with the starboard guns, saw her run +ashore on North Keeling Island. So at 11.20 a.m. we ceased firing, the +action having lasted one hour forty minutes. Our hits were not very +serious. We were 'hulled' in about three places. The shell that exploded +in the boys' mess-deck, apart from ruining the poor little beggars' +clothes, provided a magnificent stock of trophies. For two or three days +they kept finding fresh pieces. The only important damage was the after +control-platform, which is one mass of gaping holes and tangled iron, +and the foremost range-finder shot away. Other hits, though +'interesting', don't signify." As for the _Emden_, she was a perfect +shambles. Her voice-pipes had been shot away early in the action, and, +with the exception of the forecastle, everything was wrecked on the +upper deck. The German party on shore seized a schooner, the _Ayesha_, +and contrived to escape to sea. + +Thus ended the adventurous career of the _Emden_, by far the most +successful of the German commerce-raiders. In seven weeks she had +destroyed something like 70,000 tons of British shipping, so that the +news of her suppression was most welcome in Great Britain. But no one +who has not been in Australia will be able to realize the delight and +exultation the news of the _Sydney's_ exploit brought to the people of +that island continent. That one of their own ships, out of the many that +were looking out for the _Emden_, should so effectively have disposed of +her was the most magnificent and acceptable news that could be imagined, +and it is hoped that her guns will be salved and placed as trophies in +the big Australian cities. + +Almost simultaneously another sea-wasp, the _Königsberg_, the same +vessel which had so mauled the _Pegasus_, besides doing other mischief +among our merchant-shipping, was "cornered" by the cruiser _Chatham_ in +the Rufigi River on the East Coast of Africa. Harried this way and that +by our cruisers, she at last took refuge so far up the river that she +was out of range from the _Chatham's_ guns. At the same time she landed +a party of her men on an island at the mouth of the river with Maxims +and quick-firing guns. Here they entrenched themselves. The British at +once sent secretly to Zanzibar and procured a steamer--the +_Newbridge_--loaded with 1500 tons of coal, which, upon arrival, they +deliberately anchored across the river channel, in spite of the fire +directed upon them by the German detachment on the island. When all was +ready, her crew took to their boats, blew three holes in her bottom, and +sank her, effectually "bottling up" the _Königsberg_. Several casualties +were incurred during this operation. The German cruiser after this +contrived to conceal her exact position for some time, by fastening the +tops of palm-trees to her masts, but an aeroplane, being brought down +the coast in the _Kinfauns Castle_, flew over her and indicated her +position by means of smoke bombs, enabling her to be fired at, at long +range, by the 12-inch guns of the battleship _Goliath_, which had now +arrived on the scene. + +Powerful as were the battleship's guns, they were unable to effect her +destruction. It was not until several months had elapsed that the +British Navy was able to finish off the German cruiser. The work was +eventually carried out by the little monitors _Severn_ and _Mersey_, +which had made their _debut_ on the Belgian coast. While the _Weymouth_ +and _Pioneer_ engaged the guns on the island and others which had been +mounted on the river bank, the two monitors steamed up the river and +engaged the _Königsberg_. The battle lasted for a long time, as the +raider was so ensconced in jungle that the airmen who were "spotting" +for the British found the greatest difficulty in seeing where their shot +fell. Most of the time the German got six guns to bear on the monitors, +and generally fired salvoes. After six hours her masts were still +standing, but shortly afterwards she was set on fire by a salvo from the +monitors. Her effective guns were reduced to one, and before long she +ceased fire altogether. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[89] _Naval and Military Record._ + +[90] _Ibid._ + +[91] _Journal of Commerce_, Weekly Edition, 14th April, 1915. + +[92] In the _Times_. + +[93] i.e. of guns. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A Reverse and a Victory + + "Through the fog of the fight we could dimly see, + As ever the flame from the big guns flashed, + That Cradock was doomed, yet his men and he, + With their plates shot to junk and their turrets smashed, + Their ship heeled over, her funnels gone, + Were fearlessly, doggedly, fighting on. + + . . . . . . . . . . + + "We could see by the flashes, the dull, dark loom + Of their hull as it bore toward the Port of Doom, + Away on the water's misty rim-- + Cradock and his few hundred men, + Never, in time, to be seen again. + + "While into the darkness their great shells screamed, + Little the valiant Germans dreamed + That Cradock was teaching them how to go + When the fate their daring, itself, had sealed, + Waiting, as yet, o'er the ocean's verge, + To their eyes undaunted would stand revealed; + And snared by a stronger, swifter foe, + Out-classed, out-metalled, out-ranged, out-shot + By heavier guns, but not out-fought, + They, too, would sink in the sheltering surge." + JOHN E. DOLSON. (In an American Newspaper.) + + +A SAD but glorious day in the annals of the British Navy has now to be +referred to--the defeat of Sir Christopher Cradock's squadron off the +coast of Chile, with the loss of the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_ with all +hands. Sad because of the defeat and the loss of so many gallant +officers and men--glorious on account of the way they fought and met +their deaths. It is the only thing approaching a naval victory scored by +the Germans up to the time of writing. + +The German squadron, which was commanded by Admiral Graf von Spee, +consisted of the _Scharnhorst_, _Gneisenau_, _Dresden_, _Nürnberg_, and +_Leipzig_. The two former had been on the Chinese station and were big +armoured cruisers of 11,600 tons, dating from 1907. They were sister +ships, each mounting eight 8·2-inch, six 6-inch, and several smaller +guns. The _Scharnhorst_ (flag) was the crack gunnery ship of the German +fleet. The other three ships were third-class cruisers of between 3000 +and 4000 tons, similar to the _Emden_, and carried ten 4·1-inch guns +apiece, firing 34-pound projectiles. They had been carrying on various +separate commerce-raiding operations in the Pacific, had bombarded the +French port of Papeete in Tahiti, and now, when the numerous cruisers of +the allied Powers were beginning to make the Pacific Ocean "unhealthy" +for them, had apparently concentrated off the Chilian coast with the +view of slipping out of it into the Atlantic in hopes of doing further +mischief, after capturing the Falkland Islands as a base, or possibly of +eventually attempting to find their way back to a German port. + +On 1st November at 2 p.m. a British squadron consisting of the _Good +Hope_ (14,100 tons), _Monmouth_ (9800 tons), _Glasgow_ (4800 tons), and +_Otranto_ (12,100 tons) were at sea to the westward of Coronel, in +Chile, when it was reported that there were enemy's ships in the +neighbourhood. The two first-named ships were armoured cruisers of large +size, but not too well gunned for their displacement. The _Good Hope_ +had a couple of 9·2-inch guns and sixteen 6-inch guns, the _Monmouth_ +fourteen 6-inch guns. The _Glasgow_ was a light cruiser with two 6-inch +and ten 4-inch guns, while the _Otranto_ was merely a big mail-boat, +belonging to the Orient line, armed as a mercantile auxiliary. + +At 4.20 the smoke of hostile ships was made out on the horizon, and +about a quarter to six the British squadron was formed in line ahead in +the order in which their names have been already noted. The enemy came +in sight about this time at 12 miles distance, but kept away as long as +the sun was above the horizon, as it showed them up well to our gunners +and was in the eyes of their own. As soon as it dipped, the light was +entirely in their favour. The grey forms of their ships were but dimly +discernible, whilst ours were silhouetted black against the ruddy glow +of the sunset. + +The following account of the action is from the pen of one of the crew +of the _Glasgow_:[94] "By 6 p.m. we were steaming abreast each other. +The _Monmouth_, as she passed us close on our port side, gave us a few +cheers, which were readily returned. Everyone was stripped and ready, +and all seemed satisfied to think that we had found the enemy after +searching for nearly three months. The sea was still very rough, and the +ships were washing down forward. The enemy's squadron seemed to be going +faster than we were, and were getting on our port bow. The sun was +setting in the west, and we must have made very nice targets for the +Germans, as we were between them and the sun. They had some dark clouds +behind them and were difficult to see even then. As soon as the sun had +set they altered course towards us, and we turned slightly towards them, +the _Otranto_ going away off our starboard quarter and taking no part in +the action. As soon as the enemy were within 14,000 yards they opened +fire, each of the armoured ships firing at the _Good Hope_ and +_Monmouth_, while the two smaller ships concentrated their fire on the +_Glasgow_, although they did not open fire until the fourth ship had +joined them and they had got much closer than when the armoured ships +opened fire. + +"The _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_ returned the enemy's fire, and soon the +action became general. We were very close to each other on the British +side, but the Germans were much farther apart. The enemy soon got the +range of our ships and were hitting the _Good Hope_ and the _Monmouth_ +very often, and it was not long before the _Good Hope_ was on fire. Soon +after the _Monmouth_ took fire, but this was kept under. + +"After about forty minutes the _Good Hope_ seemed to break out of the +line and close towards the enemy, and she was not seen again (although +some state that she was still firing her after-turret)." According to +the official report made by the captain of the _Glasgow_: "At 7.50 p.m. +an immense explosion occurred on board _Good Hope_ amidships, flames +reaching 200 feet high. Total destruction must have followed. It was now +quite dark." + +The _Monmouth_ and _Glasgow_ still fought on gamely, both sides firing +at the flashes, the Germans firing salvoes. "The _Monmouth_ was very +badly damaged by this time", continues the account we have already +quoted, "and she hauled off to starboard, followed by the _Glasgow_, as +the big ships had now commenced to fire on us as well as the small ones. +It was very dark now, but owing to the fire on the _Monmouth_ no doubt +the enemy had a good mark to aim at. The enemy's fire ceased as soon as +we turned away to starboard. It could easily be seen as we passed the +_Monmouth_ that she had suffered heavily, and it appeared to me that she +was still on fire. She also had a list to port and was down by the head. + +"Our captain made a signal to her, asking if she was all right, and was +told that she was making water badly forward and was trying to get her +stern to the sea. He then asked him if he could steer north-west, but +received no reply. The enemy were now coming towards us, and we thought +that we might have drawn them away from the _Monmouth_, but in a few +minutes we could see search-lights and gun-flashes, and we knew that it +was the _Monmouth_ they were firing on." Under the growing light of a +full moon, which was now rising slowly in the stormy heavens, the +practically undamaged German squadron was seen bearing down directly on +the little _Glasgow_, which, as she could by no possibility be of any +assistance to the _Monmouth_, made off at full speed to avoid +annihilation, and by 8.50 had run the enemy out of sight. About half an +hour later a number of flashes were seen afar off, which, without doubt, +marked the death throes of the gallant _Monmouth_. The _Glasgow_ was +badly knocked about. She had an enormous gash in her side 9 feet long +and 3 feet wide, besides minor injuries. But she lived not only to fight +another day, but to take signal revenge on her opponents. + +"Nothing could have been more admirable than the conduct of the officers +and men throughout. Though it was most trying to receive a great volume +of fire without chance of returning it adequately, all kept perfectly +cool, there was no wild firing, and discipline was the same as at +battle-practice. When target ceased to be visible, gunlayers +spontaneously ceased fire."[95] + +It must be borne in mind that the only guns in the British squadron +equal in power to the sixteen 8·2-inch much more modern weapons of the +two big German armoured cruisers were the two 9·2-inch guns carried by +the _Good Hope_, one of which was knocked out ten minutes after the +battle began. + +The _Glasgow_, on the second day after her escape, had a curious +experience, if we are to believe the story of one of her men, as she ran +plump into a sleeping whale! "That was another shock for us. The ship +trembled and we all rushed up on deck to find out what had happened." +The _Glasgow_ picked up the pre-Dreadnought battleship _Canopus_, which +at the time of the fight was unfortunately 200 miles away to the +southward, and both ships proceeded in company to Port Stanley in the +Falkland Islands. The German ships do not appear to have followed them, +but went to Valparaiso, presumably to send home news of their victory. +The news of the disaster to Sir Christopher Cradock's squadron naturally +created great enthusiasm in Germany and corresponding grief in this +country. But the naval authorities, in dead secrecy, at once prepared to +settle accounts with Von Spee and his ships. On the 8th December, just +over a month after the catastrophe off Coronel, their efforts bore the +fullest fruit. On the previous day a squadron consisting of the +battle-cruisers _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_ and the cruisers +_Carnarvon_, _Cornwall_, _Bristol_, and _Kent_, under the command of Sir +F. C. Doveton Sturdee, had arrived at Port Stanley in the Falkland +Islands, their crews greeting the _Glasgow_, which was lying there in +company with the _Canopus_, with round after round of cheering. + +The inhabitants of these remote islands were unfeignedly glad to see the +new arrivals, since they had received warning that they might expect a +German raid. At 8 a.m. the look-outs on Sapper Hill to the south-west of +Port Stanley reported columns of smoke coming up over the south-west +horizon. Soon afterwards a two-funnelled ship and a four-funneller were +made out, and the _Kent_ was ordered out to the harbour mouth and orders +given for all ships to raise steam for full speed. The _Kent_, it is +interesting to note, went into action this day flying the silken ensign +and jack which had been presented by the ladies of Kent on her first +commission. To conceal the presence of the two big battle-cruisers, +which might be spotted by their tripod masts, these two ships were +ordered to stoke up with oil fuel, and the thick black greasy smoke +billowing from their funnels soon shrouded the harbour with a dusky +veil. Twenty minutes later other smoke columns were reported more to the +southward. + +The two ships first observed, which proved to be the _Gneisenau_ and +_Nürnberg_, continued to advance steadily towards the island, training +their guns on the wireless station, and about an hour and a half after +they had first been sighted came within 11,000 yards of the _Canopus_, +which let fly at them with her big guns, firing over the low-lying land +between the south side of the harbour and the open sea. The Germans at +once hoisted their colours and turned away. Then, seeing the _Kent_ at +the harbour mouth, they turned towards her, but very shortly afterwards +turned away again and went off at full speed towards their consorts, who +were now coming up. It is thought that they must have got a glimpse of +the "surprise packet", in the shape of the _Invincible_ and +_Inflexible_, that was awaiting their advent. + +At a quarter to ten the _Carnarvon_, _Inflexible_, _Invincible_, and +_Cornwall_ weighed and stood out to sea in the order named, and overtook +the _Kent_ and the _Glasgow_, which had gone out and joined her a few +minutes earlier. The German ships were now in full sight to the +south-east--hull down, and doing the "_Goeben_ glide" for all they were +worth. In the British ships the stokers were working furiously, the +smoke belching in thick volumes from the funnels; and, with every man at +his post, their decks flooded with water as a preventive against fire, +and hoses ready, the vessels gradually gathered way. + +At 10.25 the big ships were making 23 knots, and gradually drew ahead of +their consorts. The _Invincible_ led, the _Inflexible_ followed at some +little distance on her starboard quarter. The _Glasgow_--all on board +burning with eagerness to avenge their late squadron-mates--was ordered +to keep at 2 miles distance from the flagship. It was a fine, clear, +bright day, comparatively warm for those latitudes, and it was easy to +keep the enemy in sight. + +Shortly before one o'clock the two battle-cruisers opened fire with +their big guns, presently concentrating on the light cruiser _Leipzig_. +She was not hit, but the big shots crept closer and closer, till after +about a quarter of an hour she turned away to the south-west, followed +by the _Dresden_ and _Nürnberg_. At the same time the remaining German +ships, the two big armoured cruisers, turned slightly to port and began +to return the fire of our battle-cruisers. Thenceforward the fighting +resolved itself into two battles, one between the big ships, the other +between the smaller cruisers. + +As soon as the German light cruisers turned off to their starboard hand +the _Kent_, _Glasgow_, and _Cornwall_ started after them in accordance +with the orders they had received from Admiral Sturdee. The _Bristol_ +had previously signalled that three more Germans, looking like colliers +or transports, had appeared off the Falklands, and, having received +orders to take the armed auxiliary cruiser _Macedonia_ with her and +destroy them, had proceeded to chase them to the westward. The strangers +turned out to be two and not three ships, the _Baden_ and _St. Isabel_. +Both were captured and sunk after the removal of their crews. + +Meanwhile the _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_ were pressing closer and +closer on the _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_. "Suddenly we altered +course", wrote a midshipman on board the _Invincible_ to his father,[96] +"and made for the enemy. I had not noticed we were closing, and when +their first salvo went off I was still on the top of the turret. I could +see all the shells coming at us, and I felt they were all coming +straight at me. However, they all missed except one, which hit the side +of the ship near the ward-room, and made a great green flash, and sent +splinters flying all round. I hopped below armour quickly and started +working again. We were nearing the _Scharnhorst_ and began firing for +all we were worth. We hit again and again. First our left gun sent her +big crane spinning over the side. Then our right gun blew her funnel to +atoms, and then another shot from the left gun sent her bridge and part +of the forecastle sky-high. + +"We were not escaping free, however. Shots were hitting us repeatedly, +and the spray from the splashes of their shells was hiding the +_Scharnhorst_ from us. Suddenly a great livid flame rushed through the +gun-ports, and splinters flew all round, and we felt the whole 150 or +200 tons of the turret going up in the air. We thought we were going +over the side and would get drowned like rats in a trap. However, we +came down again with a crash that shook the turret dreadfully, and +continued firing as hard as ever. Nothing in the turret was out of order +at all. The range continued to come down, and the whistles of the shells +that flew over us grew into a regular shriek. Down came the range, +11,000, 10,000, 9000, 8800 yards. We were hitting the _Scharnhorst_ +nearly every time. One beauty from our right gun got one of their +turrets fair and square and sent it whizzing over the side." By 3.30 the +_Scharnhorst_ was in a bad way. She was on fire, smoke and steam poured +out of her in many places, and when a shell would knock a big hole in +her side a dull furnace-like glow was seen within. Several of her guns +were out of action and she now turned partially to starboard, apparently +with the idea of getting her starboard guns to bear. + +Just after four o'clock she was observed to give a heavy roll to port. +She slowly listed farther and farther over, till she lay on her +beam-ends, and at 4.17 disappeared below the waves in a dense cloud of +smoke and steam. The _Gneisenau_, passing on the far side of the mass of +scattered debris marking the grave of her consort, still spat out +defiance from her guns. But her hours were numbered, and everyone on +board must have known that it was only a matter of minutes before her +two huge opponents settled accounts with her. She put up a first-rate +fight for nearly two hours longer. She ranged her guns well and hit her +adversaries again and again. But each of them was much more than her +match, and their great 850-pound projectiles got her time after time. + +"5.10. Hit, hit!" wrote one of the _Gneisenau's_ officers in a pocket +diary.[97] "5.12. Hit! 5.14. Hit, hit, hit! again! 5.20. After-turret +gone. 5.40. Hit, hit! On fire everywhere. 5.41. Hit, hit! burning +everywhere and sinking. 5.45. Hit! men dying everywhere. 5.46. Hit, +hit!" The ship must have been an inferno. At last she could only fire a +single gun at intervals, and at 5.40 the _Invincible_, _Inflexible_, and +_Carnarvon_ closed in on the stricken leviathan and the "cease fire" was +sounded. At six o'clock she turned slowly, slowly, over to port till +only her rounded side was visible lying in the water like a great whale, +with those of her crew who survived walking and crawling over it. Then, +suddenly, down she went amid a swirl of waters, leaving those of her +crew who were not sucked down with her struggling amid the waves. During +the fighting the weather had changed for the worse, the sea had begun to +rise, and now a cold drizzle was falling. + +"Out boats," was the order on board the British ships, and no pains were +spared to rescue their late enemies. Some of them had their heads quite +turned and tried to kill their rescuers, or jumped into the sea again +and drowned themselves. "One officer tried to shoot us with an automatic +pistol, but it was wrenched from his hand and we escaped," wrote the +midshipman before quoted. It is thought that before she sank 600 of the +_Gneisenau's_ ship's company had been killed or wounded. The British +seamen, working indefatigably, were only able to save less than 200, +fourteen of whom subsequently died from the effects of cold and +exposure. + +We must now return to the other running fight which had been proceeding +between the smaller ships on both sides. The Germans had no notion of +fighting if they could avoid it, and seem to have gone off +"helter-skelter" without assuming any definite formation. The _Glasgow_ +was our fastest cruiser and was ordered to head off the _Nürnberg_ and +_Leipzig_. As for the _Dresden_, she seems to have got a very long start +from the first and was never overtaken. The _Glasgow_ opened fire on the +_Leipzig_ and _Nürnberg_ with her 6-inch guns about three o'clock, and +succeeded in making them alter course. The former turned to meet the +_Glasgow_, while the latter was obliged to turn in a direction which +rendered it easier for the _Kent_ to come up with her. The _Kent_, an +older and slower ship than the _Nürnberg_, made a record spurt and +succeeded in getting within range of the German. She had but little coal +on board. "The old _Kent_ set off and her engines worked up to 22 +knots--more than she had ever done on her trials. Then the word was +passed that there was hardly any coal left. 'Well,' said the captain, +'have a go at the boats.' So they broke up all the boats, smeared them +with oil, and put them in the furnaces. Then in went all the armchairs +from the ward-room and the chests from the officers' cabins. They next +burnt the ladders and all. Every bit of wood was sent to the stokehold. +The result was that the _Kent's_ speed became 24 knots."[98] But it was +five o'clock before she could get within range and both ships went at it +hammer and tongs for an hour, by which time the _Nürnberg_ was evidently +on fire. The sea was by now rather choppy and the atmosphere somewhat +misty. Just after half-past six the _Nürnberg_, well alight forward, +ceased firing. The _Kent_ thereupon ceased fire also and closed in to +3300 yards; but, as the German still kept her colours flying, she once +more set her guns to work. Five minutes of this and down fluttered the +German ensign, and the _Kent_ set herself to save as many of her late +opponents as she could; but she was, of course, handicapped by having +burnt her boats, and only twelve could be rescued with the assistance of +the _Cornwall_. It was nearly half-past seven before the _Nürnberg_ took +her final plunge. + +The _Kent_ was hit a considerable number of times and lost four killed +and a dozen wounded, nearly all by one shell. She had, moreover, a very +narrow escape from destruction, from which she was only saved by the +heroism of Sergeant Charles Mayes of the Royal Marines. In the words of +the notification awarding him the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal: "A shell +burst and ignited some cordite charges in the casemate. Sergeant Mayes +picked up a charge of cordite and threw it away. He then got hold of a +fire-hose and flooded the compartment, extinguishing the fire in some +empty shell-bags which were burning. The extinction of this fire saved a +disaster which might have led to the loss of the ship." + +While the _Kent_ was disposing of the _Nürnberg_, the _Glasgow_ and +afterwards the _Cornwall_ tackled the _Leipzig_. "We continued to fight +the _Leipzig_," writes one[99] of the _Glasgows_," and the _Cornwall_ +was now coming up to help us, so she hauled off again, and we followed. +We soon got close enough to open fire again, and this time we had begun +to make good shooting though it was at a long range. She had then turned +slightly towards us, and we began to get her range; but she was altering +her course so much that it made it extremely difficult to hit her. We +got one shell through our control and the splinters killed one man and +injured several others. This was the only shell that did much damage. We +were getting much closer now and our shells were hitting her as her fire +slackened, but we had to be careful owing to the enemy throwing mines +over the side. As we got closer ... our fire became even more effective, +she turned to port and we had to cease fire for a while. Then the other +battery had a chance and they made some very good shooting. By this time +she had altered course again and this allowed the _Cornwall_ to open +fire on her, but it looked to us as if her fire was going very short. +The _Leipzig_ now fired at the _Cornwall_ and we got up fairly close and +poured in a heavy fire. She then took fire on her stern, and her mast +and funnel went over the side. Then she was smoking amidships and a +shell knocked away the upper half of her second funnel. She was now +beaten but she refused to answer our signal to surrender, and after a +while we opened fire on her again, and, as it was by this time quite +dusk, we could see the shells strike and burst. She was lying quite +helpless now and burning fiercely from amidships to the after end. The +smoke which came from her in dense clouds, came across us and we could +smell the faint burning. + +"Then she fired one of her guns, and this was a signal for a fresh +outburst from us. We kept steaming round near the burning ship, and then +we saw them fire a white rocket. We and the _Cornwall_ then lowered +boats and went nearer to the now sinking ship." "When we went right +close to", says another eyewitness, "she looked just like a +night-watchman's bucket--all holes and fire. She was a mass of white +heat. You would not think an iron ship would blaze like that." To +continue to quote the previous narrator: "Our boats had just arrived +near the ship, when she rolled gently over and then sank. Our boats +picked up ten of them and the _Cornwall's_ four.... Everyone seemed +overjoyed to think we had avenged the loss of the _Good Hope_ and +_Monmouth_, and especially so later on when we heard that the _Kent_ had +sunk the _Nürnberg_!" + +The _Glasgow_, which had fought and escaped at Coronel, and participated +in the signal revenge taken upon Von Spee and his squadron off the +Falklands, was lucky enough to assist in the final act of retribution +when the _Dresden_, which had got away for a time, was caught and sunk +off Juan Fernandez--Robinson Crusoe's island. The _Glasgow_ and _Orama_ +came up from the south-west, and presently the _Kent_ appeared hurrying +up from the south-east. After the exchange of some shots the _Dresden_ +appeared to be on fire and hoisted a very large white flag, while many +of her crew jumped overboard and made for her boats, which were in the +water at a little distance off. "As soon as it was clear she did not +intend to fight again, we lowered boats and sent medical aid, and +several of the wounded were brought alongside the ship for treatment." +Eventually the magazine seems to have been blown up--possibly +intentionally by her officers, as just previously the German ensign was +re-hoisted, and she sank with it and the white flag of surrender both +flying. + +With the sinking of the _Dresden_ the German Navy disappeared from the +ocean. Not a man-of-war of German nationality floated in the "Seven +Seas", and only in the security of their own fortified harbours and in +the mine-defended area of the Baltic dared the "black, white, and red +flag" show itself. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[94] Lance-Sergeant H. Blanchard, R.M.L.I., in _The Globe and Laurel_. + +[95] Captain Luce of the _Glasgow_ in his official report. + +[96] Mr. Esmonde, published in _Penny Pictorial Magazine_. + +[97] Quoted by Mr. Esmonde in his letter. + +[98] Mr. Esmonde's letter. + +[99] Lance-Sergeant H. Blanchard. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +German Raids and their Signal Punishment + + "I saw a mast abaft the light + In the tail of the offshore breeze, + A beacon flared on Dover Head, + A lean hull slipped the quays; + And out of the mist beyond the Fore, + Hell howled across the seas. + + "Sudden and terrible, in one night, + A fleet had sprung to grips; + Nor' and nor'-east the signal sped + To the scattered scouts and the ships; + And racking the Channel fog the war + Roared in apocalypse." + LEWIS HASTINGS in the _Navy_. + + +EARLY in November, 1914, a German squadron of considerable force made +what the Germans proudly termed a "hussar stroke", a number of big ships +approaching the English coast, driving off the _Halcyon_, an antiquated +gunboat, and firing a few futile shots at long range at Yarmouth. +Suddenly they turned tail and made off. They strewed mines behind them, +one of which blew up the submarine D5; but the so-called raid was a case +of "much cry, little wool", and finally ended by the _Yorck_, a very big +cruiser, running into a German mine defending the entrance to the Jahde +and being blown up with great loss of life. + +On the 23rd November a patrol vessel rammed the German submarine U 18 +off the north coast of Scotland. She was badly damaged and shortly +afterwards foundered. Five days later the navy suffered a severe loss in +the blowing up of the pre-Dreadnought battleship _Bulwark_ as she lay +at her buoy off Sheerness. The cause of this catastrophe was, of course, +impossible to ascertain with any certainty, as the ship was sunk and +destroyed with almost every soul on board. + +Encouraged by what they seem to have considered the success of their +vaunted "hussar stroke" at Yarmouth, the Germans thought they might as +well have another. This time their raid resulted in the deaths of a +large number of civilians, men, women, and children, at East and West +Hartlepool, Whitby, and Scarborough, upon which undefended places they +opened fire with their heavy artillery. Another "famous victory!" To +make it look more like an operation of war, and to excuse themselves to +neutrals, they tried to make out that these towns were fortified +positions. It is not very likely that anyone believed them, since these +places are well known to be nothing of the kind. + +As a matter of fact, it was a carefully-planned affair. "Practically the +whole fast-cruiser force of the German Navy, including some great ships +vital to their fleet and utterly irreplaceable," wrote Mr. Winston +Churchill to the Mayor of Scarborough, "has been risked for the passing +pleasure of killing as many English people as possible, irrespective of +sex, age, or condition, in the limited time available to this military +and political folly. They were impelled by the violence of feelings +which could find no other vent." + +There is little doubt that the First Lord's diagnosis of the cause of +the raid was absolutely correct, though it was perhaps more generally +considered that it had the ulterior motive of "frightening" the British +nation. So far from doing anything of the kind, it produced a perfect +rush to enlist. Men wanted to take a personal hand in the payment due +for such violence. The few British destroyers and patrolling vessels +that were encountered opened fire on the big German leviathans, but were +naturally in no position to put up anything of a fight against such +overwhelming odds. That the Germans were unable to sink them goes to +prove that they were in too great a hurry to fire carefully, as all they +wanted to do was to escape, for, to quote the official announcement, "on +being sighted by British vessels the Germans retired at full speed, and, +favoured by the mist, succeeded in making good their escape". What a +pity that mist intervened! But it merely postponed the evil day for the +raiders after all. + +Our men-of-war about this time set to work to give the German positions +along the Belgian coast another shaking up, and the year finished by a +brilliantly executed naval air raid on Cuxhaven and the German war-ships +lying in the Elbe, in the process of which their escorting flotilla had +a somewhat unique scrap with German submarines and Zeppelins, an account +of which will be found in a later chapter. + +The year 1915 opened badly for us with the loss of the _Formidable_--a +sister-ship to the _Bulwark_--which was torpedoed, it is supposed, by a +German submarine well down the Channel. At two o'clock in the morning +there was a heavy explosion, and the ship began to settle down to +starboard. There was no panic, the boats were got out, and some were +already in the water when there was a second explosion and a mass of +debris was shot into the air. The sea was rough, and the survivors, who +numbered less than a hundred, endured severe hardships. Some were +rescued by a Brixham trawler, and others managed to row ashore at Lyme +Regis. "The discipline was splendid," said a bluejacket survivor.[100] +"The last that I saw of Captain Loxley"--who was in command of the +ship--"was that he was on the bridge calmly smoking a cigarette. +Lieutenant Simmonds superintended the launching of the boats, and as he +got the last away I heard the Captain say: 'You have done well, +Simmonds'. The stokers must have done magnificently, as they drew all +the fires, and, steam being shut off, there was no boiler explosion when +the _Formidable_ sank. + +"Captain Loxley was as cool as a cucumber. He gave his orders calmly and +coolly, just as though the ship was riding in harbour with anchors down. +I thought nothing was amiss. The last words I heard him say were: +'Steady, men, it's all right. No panic, keep cool; be British. There's +life in the old ship yet!' Captain Loxley's old terrier 'Bruce' was +standing on duty at his side on the fore-bridge at the last." + +One of the few stokers who were saved said that they were expecting to +be relieved, and to have gone back to port, in about another hour. "An +officer passed down by us. He stopped and explained in a matter-of-fact +way that the ship had been struck, was sinking fast, and it was now a +question of saving as many lives as possible. He advised us to go on +deck and lay hold of anything we could." One of the finest examples of +self-sacrifice was given by Bugler S. C. Reed of the Royal Marines, a +mere boy, who, when advised to use his drum to keep himself afloat, +replied that he had thought of it, but had given it to one of the +bluejacket boys for that purpose, as the lad had nothing to keep himself +afloat in the heavy seas then prevailing, and _that he did not feel very +nervous_. Surely the cool courage in the face of death, superlative +bravery, and absolute self-devotion that have been displayed during the +last few months by officers and men--yes, and boys too--of navy and army +alike, have equalled, if not eclipsed, the finest deeds of our +forefathers "in the brave days of old". + +At last, on 24th January, our eager navy had its chance of castigating +the evasive enemy. The Battle-cruiser Squadron, consisting of the +_Lion_, _Princess Royal_, _Tiger_, _New Zealand_, and _Indomitable_, +under the command of Sir David Beatty, who flew his flag on the _Lion_, +in company with Commodore Goodenough's Light Squadron, comprising the +_Southampton_, _Nottingham_, _Birmingham_, and _Lowestoft_, was +patrolling in the North Sea, preceded some way ahead by the _Undaunted_, +_Arethusa_, and _Aurora_, with destroyer flotillas, when about half-past +seven in the morning the flashing of guns was observed to the +south-south-east. Presently came a message to the flagship from the +_Aurora_ that she was in action with the enemy. + +Speed was increased, and the British squadrons rushed at full speed +towards the scene of conflict. Other messages came in from the ships in +advance reporting that the enemy's force, consisting of the _Blücher_, +three battle-cruisers, and six light cruisers, had altered course to +south-east, while a number of destroyers were heading to the north-west. +The main body of the enemy very shortly came in sight, but they were at +a great distance, and making off as fast as they knew how. After them +ploughed the British leviathans and their satellites, but it was not +till nine minutes after nine that the _Lion_ got in her first hit on the +_Blücher_ at something like 10 miles distance! + +The enemy were in "line ahead", the _Blücher_ being the rearmost ship. +Their light cruisers were away ahead and their destroyers on their port +flank, apparently meditating a dash against the advancing British. Our +flotillas, with their attendant cruisers, were at this time away on the +port quarter of the battle-cruisers, where they had been placed so as +not to obstruct the aim of the big guns by their smoke, but the "M" +division of destroyers was now sent ahead in order to attend to the +German flotilla. + +By this time the leading German ship--supposed to be the _Seydlitz_--was +on fire, and so was the third ship in their line. The enemy's destroyers +now began to stoke up, and threw out thick black clouds of smoke, under +cover of which their big ships altered course to the northward. As soon +as this manoeuvre was apparent, the British ships, which by now were +tearing through the water at tremendous speed, turned to follow, +whereupon their destroyers again evinced a disposition to attack. But +upon the _Lion_ and _Tiger_ turning their guns upon them they thought +better of it, and returned to their former position. Our light cruisers +kept station on the port quarter of the enemy, ready to pounce upon any +cripples. Just after a quarter to eleven the _Blücher_, which had been +gradually falling astern, turned out of the line to port. She was on +fire, had a heavy list, and was evidently very badly mauled. A few +minutes later the periscopes of a number of submarines were noticed on +the starboard bow of our battle-cruisers, which at once turned to port +to avoid them. + +At the pace at which our ships were travelling these insidious foes +would soon be left behind. Soon afterwards the flagship, having received +damage which could not be at once repaired, was ordered to go off to the +north-west, the admiral calling the destroyer _Attack_ alongside and +going in her to the _Princess Royal_, on board of which he rehoisted his +flag. On arrival he was informed that the _Blücher_ had been sunk, and +that the remainder of the enemy's ships were making off to the eastward +in a badly-damaged condition. + +The _Seydlitz_ and _Derflinger_, particularly, were said to have been +desperately knocked about. But as the battle had now approached the area +of the German mine-fields, it was wisely determined to break it off and +return to English waters, the _Lion_, which had received a shot in her +condensers, being taken in tow by the _Indomitable_. The only ships on +our side that were hit were the _Lion_ and the _Tiger_, and the little +_Meteor_, which led the destroyers interposed between the German +destroyers and our main line; and the total casualties were only +fourteen officers and men killed and twenty-nine wounded. The German +losses must have been terrible. + +One of the survivors of the _Blücher_ gave a vivid account of the +effects of our gunnery.[101] "The British guns were ranging. Those +deadly waterspouts crept nearer and nearer. The men on deck watched them +with a strange fascination. Soon one pitched close to the ship, and a +vast watery pillar, a hundred metres high, fell lashing on the deck. The +range had been found. Now the shells came thick and fast, with a +horrible droning hum. At once they did terrible execution. The electric +plant was soon destroyed, and the ship plunged in a darkness that could +be felt. Down below there was horror and confusion, mingled with gasping +shouts and moans as the shells plunged through the decks. At first they +came dropping from the sky. They penetrated the decks, they bored their +way even to the stokehold. The coal in the bunkers was set on fire. +Since the bunkers were half-empty the fire burned merrily. In the +engine-room a shell licked up the oil, and sprayed it around in flames +of blue and green, scarring its victims and blazing where it fell. Men +huddled together in dark compartments, but the shells sought them out, +and there death had a rich harvest. + +"The terrific air-pressure resulting from explosion in a confined space +left a deep impression on the minds of the men of the _Blücher_. The +air, it would seem, roars through every opening and tears its way +through every weak spot. All loose or insecure fittings were transformed +into moving instruments of destruction. Open doors bang to and jamb, and +closed iron doors bend outwards like tin plates, and through it all the +bodies of men are whirled about like dead leaves in a winter blast, to +be battered to death against the iron walls." Has Dante beaten this +description of an Inferno? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[100] _Globe and Laurel._ + +[101] _Times._ + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +The Royal Naval Air Service + + "The human bird shall take his first flight, filling + the world with amazement, all writings with his fame, + and bringing eternal glory to the nest whence he + sprang." + + LEONARDO DA VINCI. + + "The feathered race on pinions skim the air, + Not so the mackerel, and still less the bear; + Ah! who hath seen the mailèd lobster rise, + Clap her broad wings, and claim the equal skies?" + Poem in _The Anti-Jacobin_. + + "The French are all coming, for so they declare; + Of their floats and balloons all the papers advise us; + They're to swim through the ocean and ride on the air, + On some foggy evening to land and surprise us." + _The Invasion._ DIBDIN. + + +WE have had a good many surprises during the Great War, and so also have +the enemy; but the fine record of the British air service is not the +least of them. It is not that we had not every confidence in the pluck +and resourcefulness of our gallant British flying-men, but, if we may +trust available sources of information, we began the war miles behind +our French friends and our German foes, both in numbers and +organization. + +Of course no exact figures can be quoted, but, according to an authority +on aeronautic matters,[102] Germany alone was in possession of a +thoroughly organized and equipped fleet of 1300 aeroplanes. According to +the same authority, Austria had about 100, France 800, and Russia 300, +while we ourselves are credited with 100 machines belonging to the +military wing of the air service, besides those in the naval wing, whose +number is not forthcoming, but which, I think, may fairly be put down +at well below a hundred. Neither we nor our allies had more than three +or four air-ships or dirigible balloons, while Germany had a fleet of +nearly twenty, most being of the famous Zeppelin type, from which very +great things were expected. The naval and military authorities in this +country either did not or would not believe in these "gas-bags", and, so +far, events seem to have proved that they were correct in their views. + +In every estimate of the strength of navies we must not only make +comparisons of material, but of personnel. "The man behind the gun" is a +factor of the highest importance, and it is here that we "came in", +handicapped as we were in other respects. I do not think that I can do +better than again quote the same authority on this point. As regards the +enemy, his estimate of the German air personnel is that its pilots were +"mediocre, with a few brilliant exceptions". The Austrians were "brave +and skilful pilots badly organized". As to our allies, he considers the +French to have had "a very uneven air service". "Many magnificent +fliers, many very bad"; while the Russians possessed "numerous skilful +and daring aviators, but not very well equipped". We must not overlook +the little Belgian squadron of five-and-twenty aeroplanes, which he +assesses as "good", both in men and machines. We may, without vanity, +accept his estimate of our own aerial establishment as "a small but +highly efficient flying corps", since its efficiency has been proved +over and over again. + +The "Royal Flying Corps" only dates from a few years ago, and we are +principally indebted to Major-General--then Lieutenant-Colonel--Sir +David Henderson, K.C.B., D.S.O., for its formation. He had no easy job +before him when he took the matter in hand, since neither Admiralty nor +War Office appeared to be in any hurry to attain a commanding position +in the novel arm, in spite of the great efforts being made by France, +and more especially by Germany. However, nothing daunted, he made the +very best possible of the small beginnings he was able to deal with, +and we are now reaping the harvest he sowed. For a time naval and +military officers and men worked together, but gradually, as numbers +increased, drew rather more apart, and the naval wing had its own +flying-schools at Eastchurch, near Sheerness, and at Upavon, near +Salisbury, its central air office at Sheerness, an establishment at +Hendon, and nine or ten air stations on the coast. + +At the beginning of the war, confident in their numbers and +organization, the German aviators showed considerable boldness, and +their skilfulness in picking out our guns and positions, and signalling +them by flares, strips of glittering tinsel, circling movements, and +other devices to their gunners, rendered the fire of their +artillery--which at first greatly outnumbered that of the Allies--very +deadly indeed. Our own airmen were by no means such adepts at this +particular work to begin with, but, few as they were, they soon proved +themselves the better men. They worked on the old principle that so +often brought us victory afloat in Nelsonian days. "Directly you see an +enemy go for him." This system of fighting enabled Sir John French to +report, quite early in the campaign, that "The British Flying Corps has +succeeded in establishing an individual ascendancy which is as +serviceable to us as it is damaging to the enemy.... Something in the +direction of the mastery of the air has already been gained." The fact +was that the very qualities of preciseness, method, painstaking, and +avoidance of risk which make the German so formidable in some respects +do not fit in where such warfare is concerned. + +The German cavalry was the same. It worked by the book. If it could mass +against ours at a strength of three to one, then by all the rules of the +game we ought to have retired or waited for their ponderous squadrons to +ride us down and overwhelm us by sheer weight of flesh and bone. But +when our dashing horsemen whirled into their masses in their +shirt-sleeves, and plied sabre and lance in a way that showed they meant +business, and then turned round and cut their way home again in the +same way, they did not like it. They have never dared to "take on" our +cavalrymen on anything approaching equal terms. Brave as we must admit +the Germans have shown themselves, they have not the same individual +dash and self-reliance as the British races. + +No German would ever attack single-handed like Sergeant O'Leary, V.C. If +any proof were wanted of this, one has only to consider that the mass +attack formations, which have proved so deadly to our enemies, were +deliberately designed by the German military experts, with full +knowledge of the growing power of modern guns and rifles, because from +their experience of the war of 1870 they had formed the reasoned opinion +that in no other formation could they keep their "cannon fodder" up to +the scratch. All their views are well set forth in a German pamphlet +published some years ago, entitled _A Summer Night's Dream_. It has been +translated into English, and is well worth perusal at the present time. + +Now look at our own men. Here is what Viscount Castlereagh wrote of them +from the front to his wife last autumn. "The thing that has impressed me +most here has been the aeroplane service; a splendid lot of boys who +really do not know what fear is."[103] The German army was provided with +a large quantity of guns especially designed for bringing down hostile +airmen; but they proved singularly ineffective, and our flying-men +simply laughed at them. And yet, with all their talk of air-raids and +the effect they were supposed to have on this country, the German fliers +have never attempted to attack any place over here where they thought +there might be any guns in waiting to receive them. + +The Naval Air Service, primarily intended for scouting at sea, not only +for hostile ships but for submarines--for from high up these deadly +craft are visible deep under water, just in the same way that one can +see fish from a bridge that are invisible from the bank--was originally +equipped with water-planes, fitted with floats instead of wheels, so +that the naval aeronauts could rise from or alight on the water. + +But though these machines proved of the greatest service in guarding and +watching the Channel and the Straits of Dover, the enterprising spirit +of the naval and marine officers who acted as air pilots, squadron +commanders, &c., was not content to devote itself entirely to such +necessary but perhaps rather monotonous work. The Naval Air Service +after the outbreak of war went ahead by leaps and bounds. Not only were +the numbers of sea-planes increased, but wheeled aeroplanes were +purchased as fast as they could be obtained, and supported by a whole +fleet of armoured motors fitted with machine-guns, a regular naval air +contingent appeared on the Continent ready to assist the army by raiding +in any direction likely to be of service. All sorts of mechanics, +motor-drivers, and other men were enlisted for special service with this +new organization, which lost no time in proving its great value and +efficiency. + +The leading spirit and commanding officer was Commander Samson, R.N., +and by 4th September, 1914, he was able to report that bombs had been +dropped on four German officers and forty men who had got rather too +near Dunkirk. Then, about a fortnight later, came the first raid in +force against the enemy's country, which created quite a scare in the +German frontier cities, since, judging our gallant airmen by their own +low-down standards, they feared for the lives and property of civilian +inhabitants. + +After carefully and successfully assisting in covering the transit of +the Expeditionary Force to France, a temporary base for the naval wing +was established at Ostend. It was to assist in establishing this base +that the three battalions of Royal Marines were dispatched to that place +in the early part of the war. Other outlying bases were gradually +established in Belgium. The naval motors, acting in conjunction with the +Belgians, made things very warm for the prowling Uhlans, and eventually +a regularly organized combined expedition of motors and aeroplanes was +directed against Cologne and Düsseldorf, with the object of destroying +the Zeppelin sheds at these places and, haply, any Zeppelins that might +be taking their repose within. + +It fell to Flight-Lieutenant Collet of the Royal Marine Artillery to +score the first "bull's-eye". This officer had attracted some attention +by the way he had handled a heavy German-built biplane which the +Admiralty had bought from a Leipzig firm in 1913. In the hands of the +German pilot who came over with her the new machine appeared but a slow +and lumbering affair, but flown by Collet she became endued with a new +life, and was made to perform all sorts of startling manoeuvres. "To see +him descend for a thousand feet or so," says an eye-witness, "in a +closely wound spiral, with the machine standing vertically on one +wing-tip, was an education in the handling of big aeroplanes." + +Accompanied by other aviators, Lieutenant Collet set out from their base +on 22nd September, and made for Düsseldorf, about 100 miles distant from +Antwerp. Here, flying very low, he dropped four bombs on the Zeppelin +shed which was the special object of attack. What damage was done was +not ascertained. The attacking machine was only struck by a single +bullet, which did no damage, and Collet and his companions regained +their base without difficulty. + +About a fortnight later another raid was made against the same sheds and +also against those at Cologne. + +The aviators on this occasion were Squadron-Commander Spencer-Grey and +Flight-Lieutenants Marix and Sippe, all belonging to the Royal Navy. The +last-named had trouble with his engine shortly after starting and had to +drop out, but the remaining two rushed along through the growing +light--the start had been made at the first streak of dawn--Grey making +for Cologne and Marix for Düsseldorf. There was a good deal of fog, +which, while it served them to a certain extent by concealing their +approach, at the same time made it no easy job to steer a correct +course. Travelling at 80 miles an hour Grey reached Cologne, but had no +luck. Owing to the fog he was unable to locate the Zeppelin shed of +which he was in search, and would not drop a bomb without a definite and +legitimate objective, for fear of harming women and children. He, +however, was able to do some damage to the railway station. + +As for Marix, he found his way to the shed already struck by Collet. +Rising to a great height, he made a spiral dive at the tremendous speed +of 140 miles an hour. He had been seen some time before, and was greeted +with a tremendous fusillade from machine-guns, anti-aeroplane guns, and +rifles. His machine was struck several times, but he descended to within +500 feet of the shed to which a Zeppelin had been recently removed from +that damaged by Collet, let go his bombs, and shot upwards again with +marvellous velocity. As he went he saw that at least one of his +projectiles had scored a success, for a volcano of flame was spouting +500 feet into the air. There was one Zeppelin the less. His "mount" had +been hit no less than twenty times and two of his control-wires cut, but +by the exercise of great judgment and skill he contrived to travel for +10 miles on his way back and to get across the frontier, where he was +met by a Belgian car and taken safely to Antwerp. + +A correspondent of the _Globe_ who was at Düsseldorf at the time gives +the following account of what an eyewitness saw of Flight-Lieutenant +Marix's exploit and its effect. "A friend of mine saw an aeroplane one +day near Düsseldorf. He followed its movements with great anxiety, and +saw that it dropped when it was close by the Zeppelin shed. He had an +idea that something was wrong, but about 200 metres from the ground the +machine turned again and disappeared. Almost at the same moment he heard +two explosions, and a few moments after saw big flames of a light +colour, giving him the impression that the whole shed was on fire. My +friend went down to the place as quickly as he could, but at a distance +of a few hundred metres the people who had already run to the spot were +kept away by a ring of soldiers. A few minutes later a rumour spread +through the crowd that two more enemy aeroplanes were reported from +Cologne, and immediately all the soldiers were ordered near the shed to +be ready for firing at the new-comers. My friend followed the soldiers, +and came quite near the place where he had seen the flames. He saw that +the contents of the shed had been entirely burnt out, and only the walls +of the building were erect. In the shed was the carcass of a Zeppelin, +burned and broken to pieces. It was one big heap of aluminium." + +The next exploit of the Naval Air Service was the attack on the Zeppelin +sheds at Friedrichshafen, on the Lake of Constance. There are three or +four big sheds here close together, with workshops and all appliances +for building and fitting out these monster air-ships. The newspapers had +for some time previously been publishing paragraphs giving accounts of +Zeppelin experiments at this place. Some may have been more or less +correct, while others bore the stamp of the usual "bogey-bogey" stories +set about by the Germans with the somewhat childish idea of frightening +us. Anyway the naval airmen made up their minds to go and see for +themselves. Of course their departure from the usual scene of their +activities in the north was made "without beat of drum", and, as +Friedrichshafen was something like 150 miles from the French frontier, +their visit was entirely unexpected. + +The raiders were Squadron-Commander Briggs, Flight-Commander Babbington, +and Flight-Lieutenant Sippe, all of the Royal Navy. They are supposed to +have started from the neighbourhood of Belfort, that very strongly +fortified town on the eastern frontier of France. They were mounted on +similar machines--Avro biplanes. Heading almost due east, they struck +the Rhine in the vicinity of Basle--where it turns almost at a right +angle from east to north--flew upstream as far as Schaffhausen with its +picturesque falls, and then struck across country to Ludwigshafen, at +the western extremity of Lake Constance, or the Boden See as the Germans +term it. Thence they steered directly down the lake at their objective, +the cluster of hangars and workshops on the lakeside, just east of the +town of Friedrichshafen. Their advent was both seen and heard, and the +whirr of their propellers was at once answered by the stutter of Maxims, +the banging of guns, and the popping of musketry. But it is not easy to +disable an aeroplane unless you are successful in damaging it in a vital +part; so, regardless of this very warm reception, the naval airmen +swooped down one after the other from the high altitudes at which they +were travelling, and, passing over their target at a height of about +1200 feet, discharged their cargoes of bombs. + +Commander Briggs was the first to arrive and drop his bombs, but his +petrol tank being pierced by a bullet the petrol ran out and he was +brought to the ground, where he was made prisoner and taken off to +hospital, having received some injuries from his fall. Babbington and +Sippe, following in his tracks, bombarded first the hangars and +afterwards the Zeppelin factory, and, circling round, flew off down the +Rhine and arrived safely at their starting-point, though their machines +had suffered some minor damages. Both were decorated on their return +with the Cross of the Legion of Honour, which was pinned on their +breasts by General Thevenet, the Governor of Belfort. All three, too, +appeared as recipients of the Distinguished Service Order in the New +Year's Honours List. And they had well earned their distinctions. +Putting on one side the risks inseparable from such an enterprise, they +had flown right into the enemy's country for a very considerable +distance, over a mountainous district and in quite unfavourable weather +conditions, and had created a tremendous moral effect in the enemy +nations. They had probably done a considerable amount of material +damage to the hangars and workshops, possibly to one or more Zeppelins +as well, but no certain details as to the extent have yet become +available. + +The Germans had been taught to expect great things from their +well-organized and numerous fleets of air-ships and aeroplanes. They +were to bombard London, defeat our fleets, and terrorize the whole of +our "right little, tight little island" with these monster gas-bags. +And, lo and behold! before anything of the kind had happened, here were +these pestilent English flying-men attacking them in their own country. +Not blindly dropping bombs just anywhere in haste to get rid of them, +frighten civilians, and get away as fast as possible, but deliberately +attacking--and hitting--selected targets. German opinion was profoundly +moved. No wonder that their airmen felt that it "was up to them" to show +their fellow-countrymen what _they_ could do. But what a poor show it +was! On 5th December one gallant airman got within sight of Dover, but +turned round and made off again. On the 24th this one, or another, +actually flew over the town and dropped a bomb into a cabbage-patch. He +was in too much of a hurry to select a more important target, much less +hit it. The British reply, if such an unimportant exploit could be +deemed worthy of receiving a reply, was prompt and effective. The very +next day--Christmas Day--the Naval Air Wing, working in conjunction with +its own branch of the service, carried out an extremely well-organized +attack upon Cuxhaven, the strongly-fortified port at the mouth of the +Elbe which protects the approaches to Hamburg. The following officers +participated in this exploit: Flight-Commanders Oliver, Hewlett, and +Ross, R.N., and Kilner, R.M.L.I., Flight-Lieutenants Miley and Edmonds, +R.N., and Flight Sub-Lieutenant Blackburn, R.N. + +The aeroplanes were all of an identical type--Shorts--just as those used +against Friedrichshafen were "Avros" and against Düsseldorf "Sopwiths". +They were carried on three very fast Channel steamers that had been +"taken up" by the Admiralty, each of which was commanded by a naval +officer belonging to the air service. It is interesting to note that the +navigating officer of one of these vessels was Mr. Erskine Childers, a +lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, the author of that +fascinating novel _The Riddle of the Sands_, which deals most minutely +with the navigation of the German coastal waters between the Elbe and +the Zuyder Zee. The little expedition was convoyed by the _Undaunted_ +and the "saucy" _Arethusa_--a pair of new light cruisers which have +proved themselves a most effective type of war-vessel--and a cordon of +submarines and destroyers. Everything had been worked out in detail. + +[Illustration: THE BRITISH AIR RAID ON CUXHAVEN + +_Drawn by John de G. Bryan_] + +On approaching Heligoland, that German Gibraltar with which we so +foolishly parted some years ago, the sea-planes were hoisted out and +sped away on their errand of destruction. It was a misty morning, and on +arrival at Cuxhaven the aviators were much hampered by a fog which lay +in shallow patches over the town and harbour, but it is thought that +they succeeded in destroying a Parseval air-ship in its shed and in +badly knocking about some of the Zeppelin sheds. According to the German +account they also dropped bombs on a gasometer and on some men-of-war +lying in the river, of course "without doing any damage". The fog was, +however, much closer and thicker over the Elbe than over the town, so +that ships were in any case difficult targets. + +But while our aviators were carrying out their mission, under fire from +guns of all sorts and kinds, there was a most remarkable fight going on +outside--a battle unprecedented in the annals of warfare. + +The aviators left the flotilla sharp at daybreak, and it would seem that +neither they nor their escort were seen. But as the light grew, the +British ships were picked up by the look-outs on Heligoland, and an +instant attack was made upon them by submarines, sea-planes, and a +couple of the redoubtable Zeppelins. But the high speed of the +British vessels and the consummate seamanship and gunnery of their crews +defeated every attempt made to injure them. For three hours they fought +while waiting the return of the aviators. The white flash made by the +German torpedoes in the water was detected by sharp eyes, ships and +boats dodged and turned and cleared the "lurking death" by the "skin of +their teeth". The sea-planes whirred overhead and dropped their deadly +bombs, which exploded in fire, smoke, and fountains of water; but though +they often fell close alongside, none of the flotilla was touched. The +big bluffing Zeppelins also dropped a few, but they soon felt "they +could no longer stay", since the 100-pound shells from the _Arethusa_ +and _Undaunted_ were coming closer and closer, and their crews +knew--none better--that one fair hit would mean annihilation. So, as the +official report stated, they "were easily put to flight". None of the +German surface vessels dared to show their noses outside, or, perhaps, +were able to disentangle themselves from their elaborate defences in +time, and after three of the daring raiders had been safely re-embarked +with their machines, the flotilla stood out to sea again, leaving a +detachment of submarines to look out for the remainder. Three of the +four remaining airmen were rescued by this means, though their machines +had to be sunk. The seventh--Flight-Commander Hewlett, son of the famous +novelist--after dropping bombs on some of the German ships, one of +which, at any rate, he felt certain he had hit, lost his way in the fog, +missed the flotilla, and, having trouble with his engine, descended to +the sea not far from Heligoland. Here he was picked up by a Dutch +trawler. He destroyed his engine and sank his machine, and after +experiencing two or three days of very heavy weather on board the +fishing-vessel was landed safely at Ymuiden, in Holland. + +Curiously enough, the same day was selected for a somewhat feeble raid +up the Thames by a German Taube, which, apparently, was working +independently. The hostile air-craft was seen, fired on, and, after +harmlessly dropping a bomb here and there, was chased away by three of +our own airmen, and there is reason to believe that its return journey +ended at the bottom of the North Sea. + +[Illustration: _Photo. Cribb, Southsea_ + +THE BRITISH AIR RAID ON CUXHAVEN + +Seaplane 151, which was flown by Flight-Commander R. Ross in the raid +which shook up the Germans and gave them a dose of their own medicine.] + +The day before the big expedition to Cuxhaven a dashing attack was made +by Squadron-Commander R. B. Davies, R.N., on a hangar which the Germans +had erected at Etterbeek, a suburb of Brussels, probably on the +manoeuvre-ground of the crack Belgian cavalry regiments, the Guides. +This officer travelled on a Maurice-Farman biplane and dropped eight +bombs on a shed which was supposed to contain a Parseval air-ship, +circled round, and dropped four more on his return journey. He was +unable to see exactly what damage he had effected, on account of the +clouds of smoke which arose from the hangar. His machine was recognized +by the citizens of Brussels as belonging to the Allies, and his exploit +created great enthusiasm among them. + +At last the German airmen determined to have a raid of their own. A nice +quiet little trip this was to be, out of the way of nasty, unpleasant +guns and Maxims. And so we had the "great Zeppelin raid" on Yarmouth and +on a few quiet out-of-the-way villages in Norfolk, and the slaughter of +men, women, and children. The German aviators, however, did more +respectable work when considerable squadrons of aeroplanes twice +attacked Dunkirk in January, 1915. The first attempt would appear to +have been originally directed against Dover or some other place on this +side the Channel, as sixteen German aeroplanes were sighted hovering +over the Channel. But either by reason of the good look-out kept by our +own airmen and gunners, or on account of unfavourable weather +conditions, the "Boches" changed the direction of their flight and a +dozen of them attacked Dunkirk and dropped about thirty bombs. As usual, +most of the victims were civilians, but Dunkirk was a fortified town and +an important position of the allied armies, so that, but for the fact +that on one occasion the market-place seemed to be selected for an +especial target, we may consider these raids as legitimate military +operations. But the Germans were not able to carry them out at their +leisure. Belgian, French, and British airmen rushed their machines aloft +and engaged and drove off the raiders with the loss of one of their +machines, while a couple of our naval officers flew off and countered at +Zeebrugge, dropping twenty-seven bombs on a couple of submarines and on +the guns mounted on the mole. One of them, Squadron-Commander Davies, +R.N., was attacked during his approach by no less than seven hostile +aeroplanes, but got away from them with a slight wound and delivered his +bombs at their destination. + +The following letter, written shortly before, and referring to the first +German raid on Dunkirk, is interesting as showing the consciousness of +superiority in the minds of our airmen:-- + +"I must tell you something about the beano we had yesterday. It _was_ a +day! Engaged with three Taubes in the morning and in the afternoon--and +I went and dropped 18 bombs and 6 grenades on various works and the +railway at Ostend, with incidentally another scrap with a German +machine. Hope we tickled them up and gave them ---- at Ostend. We've got +'em scared stiff--absolutely. It's a great game entirely. I hope we get +to hear about what damage we did at Ostend, though I'm afraid it's +impossible. I know I got the railway with one bomb--a clinking shot +right in the middle. I tell you they let us have it. The machine was hit +in nine places."[104] + +The writer was evidently "keen as mustard", and against such airmen the +German air service could make no headway. + +The biggest air raid on record took place on Tuesday, 16th February, +1915, when no less than thirty-four sea-planes and aeroplanes belonging +to the Naval Wing made a combined attack on the German positions on the +Belgian littoral. They were assisted by eight French airmen, who made a +determined attack on the German aeroplane depot at Ghistelles, situated +inland and south of Ostend, thereby preventing the German airmen from +intercepting our main attack. This big "flight"--a regular "aery +navy"--was commanded by the redoubtable Wing-Commander Samson, R.N., who +had made things so hot for the Germans in Belgium that a price of £1000 +was set on his head; Wing-Commander Longmore, R.N., and +Squadron-Commanders Porte, R.N., and Courtney and Rathbone of the Royal +Marine Light Infantry. + +It was a great performance. Most of the British aeroplanes crossed the +Channel in the teeth of very violent winds, flying in the bitter cold of +high altitudes and obstructed by not infrequent "flurries" of snow. Once +over the water, they flew down over Ostend, Middelkirke, and Zeebrugge. +Bombs were dropped on the German guns hidden from the view of our ships +at all three places: the stations at Ostend and Blankenberghe were +either destroyed or much damaged, as well as the power-station and +mine-sweeping vessels at Zeebrugge and a Zeppelin shed. Unfortunately no +submarines were seen. All this was carried out in the face of a very +heavy gun-fire from every class of weapon that the Germans could get to +bear on our "wild ducks". But all got away without loss of life or limb, +and with only a couple of machines damaged. The celebrated airman +Grahame-White, who served in the expedition as a flight-commander, fell +into the sea off Nieuport, but was rescued by a French vessel. This is +the last big air raid carried out by the Naval Wing up to the time of +writing, and space forbids any mention of the hundred-and-one smaller +exploits carried out by its fliers, either aloft in the air or working +on the ground in their armoured motor-cars. The price set on Commander +Samson's head by the exasperated "Boches" sufficiently indicates what a +thorn in the side they proved to the German desecrators of Belgium and +France. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102] Editor _Aeronautical Journal_. + +[103] Published in _The Sphere_. + +[104] _Naval and Military Record._ + + + + +Conclusion + + "The Fleet of England is her all in all: + Her fleet is in your hands, + And in her Fleet her fate." + + +HAVING now traced the beginnings of the Royal Navy, glanced at some +little-known episodes of the naval history of Great Britain, sketched +the development of our men-of-war and their weapons, and finally +endeavoured to portray--in a very inadequate way, I am afraid--the +gallant men who man them, and some of their deeds in the greatest and +most terrible war that has ever been known in the history of the world, +I have arrived at the time when I must hoist the signal "Permission to +part company" with my readers. + +But I cannot leave the subject of this book without some reference to +the part played by the navy in the Dardanelles. The outstanding points +in regard to the navy's participation in these operations were without +doubt the tremendous effect of the monster guns of the _Queen +Elizabeth_, the severe fighting which fell to the lot of the Naval and +Marine Brigades in the attack of the Turkish shore positions, and last, +but not least, the wonderful exploits of our submarines. The +achievements of Lieutenant Norman D. Holbrook, who, in the B11, crept +under five rows of mines and blew up the Turkish ironclad _Messudiyeh_; +and of Lieutenant Commander Martin Nasmith, who, in the E11, penetrated +right into the Sea of Marmora, torpedoing transports and creating a +scare in Constantinople itself, are examples of that brilliant daring +which has been exemplified again and again during the war. + +The operations against the Dardanelles forts opened on the 3rd November +last year, when an allied British and French squadron bombarded those +nearest to the entrance. Operations were then practically suspended +until the 19th February, when the allied fleets returned to the attack +in greater force, and made a resolute attempt to break down the defence +of the narrow waterway leading to Constantinople. The outer forts having +been silenced, the _Queen Elizabeth_, with four other battleships, +entered the Dardanelles and bombarded the defences of what are known as +the Narrows. But they were unable to advance farther, partly on account +of the heavy mobile batteries of the Turco-Germans, but more especially +from the great danger of floating mines and of torpedoes launched from +stations on shore. These submarine weapons began to take heavy toll of +the allied ships. The British battleships _Irresistible_, _Ocean_, and +_Goliath_ were all sunk--the two first on the same day. With them, too, +went down the French battleship _Bouvet_, and, later on, the _Triumph_ +and _Majestic_ succumbed to torpedoes said to have been fired from one +of two submarines which are supposed to have made their way to the scene +of action from Germany. Space forbids any further account of these +operations, which are still being continued; but, in order to give some +idea of what they were like, I cannot do better than quote from a letter +just written to his chum by a midshipman on board one of the ships +engaged in the Straits, so vivid an account does he give of the fighting +as it presented itself to his eyes: + +"Since we have been out we have been in four or five big actions and a +large number of small ones. I think the hottest one that this ship +personally has been in was on Sunday, ----. This ship and one other were +ordered to reduce, or attempt to reduce, two of the most powerful forts +going. The action commenced just when you--if you were a good boy--were +going to church. As usual we cleared for 'immediate action' on the way +in. I must say before the action I felt rather as if I was going to the +dentist to have a bad tooth out, but once the show started and we were +fighting I felt as happy as a lark, despite the infernal noise and +smell! + +"My action station is in No. -- turret, two -- guns. I wear the +officer's telepads, and have to sing out all the orders, ranges, &c., +that come down from the controls, and work all the voice pipes, &c. If +the lieutenant of the turret gets knocked out I am supposed to take +charge. The forts opened a heavy fire as soon as we were in range, and +as we were the leading ship we had the concentrated fire of _both_ forts +on us for the first quarter of an hour, one fort shifting to the second +ship later. The water round both ships soon became like an animated +moving fountain, with the ships as the centre, from the splashes made by +the falling shell, most of the splashes reaching as high as the foretop +(about 110 feet). We really had a most miraculous time, considering the +large amount of shells fired at us and the comparatively small number of +hits we received. Also the way we managed to avoid getting any +casualties was a miracle, some of the men having most marvellous +escapes. However, we let them have it pretty hot as well, and it was +absolutely ripping to feel the ship lurch and stop on her course as we +let rip broadside after broadside at them. After two and a half hours +the forts ceased firing altogether, and we drew off, having done our +job. + +"About the most exciting show I have had myself was when I had to go +away sweeping up the Straits one night in a picket-boat. Our objective +was to locate and blow up an electric cable which was connected to a +long row of mines at a certain point in the Dardanelles. We started off +at about 7.30 p.m., and it was an absolutely pitch-black night. There +were five other boats with us, and of course we could show absolutely no +lights. I was steering the boat, and it was hard to see anything at +all.... We arrived at about 10 p.m., and at the position for commencing +the sweep at about 11.15. The Turks had a lot of beastly search-lights +going. The first sweep up they did not discover us, but the second time +they fairly caught us and let rip with all sorts of things--Nordenfeldts, +rifles, pom-poms, and a few howitzers. It was beastly uncanny hearing +the shells shrieking and whizzing about in the still air of the +night--much worse than in daytime. However, a picket-boat is a very +difficult thing to hit even at the best of times, and in a pitch-black +night it wants a lot of luck despite all the search-lights. As soon as +they started firing I commenced zigzagging all over the place, and the +nearest we had was about ten yards away, although a lot of rifle bullets +went whistling overhead. I was never more pleased than when we turned +round and started back to the fleet. We blew up something, but whether +it was the cable or not I don't know. The boat next to us got into the +middle of a bunch of mines, and we had to stand by her; however, by +great luck she managed to clear, blowing up two mines with rifles. We +got back to the ship about 5 a.m., after quite an exciting night. I +really thought I looked quite ferocious that night; life-saving +waistcoat, overcoat, sea-boots, muffler, a huge revolver with 60 rounds +of ammunition, both my pockets full of sandwiches, and a Thermos flask +full of cocoa, which I kept on spilling all over myself in the dark. + +"We have been covering the landing and supporting the advance of the +troops. It is a pretty strenuous time, as we are at action stations on +and off from 5 or 6 a.m. till 7 or 8 p.m., with a night watch to keep as +well, so we are kept pretty busy. We also live in a constant state of +'immediate action'." + +But as it had been decided to supplement the naval attack by the landing +of an army, a disembarkation was effected towards the end of April at +five points on the Gallipoli Peninsula and one on the Asiatic shore. The +latter was carried out by the French, but it was only intended to be a +temporary measure to assist the British landings on the western shore. +The troops, which were composed of British, Australians, and New +Zealanders, effected their landing in the face of the most tremendous +opposition, making their way through masses of wire entanglements under +a terrible fire from all kinds of weapons. Their losses were very great, +but they effected their object and established themselves on shore, and +set about a series of operations against the Turkish positions which are +still continuing. The navy's share was to cover the landing with the +fire of its big guns, and to transport the soldiers to the shore. Its +work was magnificent. The Turkish entrenchments were plastered with +high-explosive shell, while the bluejackets and marines employed in the +actual business of landing the troops behaved with a coolness, energy, +and gallantry which has never been surpassed. Nor must it be forgotten +that the navy was represented in the landing force by the newly-formed +Naval Division, under the command of Brigadier-General Paris of the +Royal Marine Artillery, consisting of several battalions of the Royal +Marines and a number of others formed from the R.N.V.R. and other +reserves, and distinguished one from the other by bearing the names of +celebrated naval commanders--such as "The Drake Battalion". These had +all been organized and trained by the staff of the Royal Marines under +the Adjutant-General, Sir William Nicholls, and were commanded by naval, +marine, or in some cases army officers. As for their work in the +campaign, we have, so far, little or no information. Beyond extensive +mention in the casualty lists, the press seems to have overlooked them. +But their very losses prove that they have been well to the front, and +we may be sure that they have given a very good account of themselves. + +Everywhere the Royal Navy has proved itself worthy, nay, more than +worthy, of its gallant ancestors and their gallant deeds. To quote Lord +Charles Beresford, in a letter written to the London Chamber of +Commerce: "The brilliant work of the Navy in clearing the North Sea and +providing safety for the transport to France of their comrades in the +sister service will be gratefully appreciated by the country. Such work +could only have been effective by superb organization, loyalty to duty, +and discipline, requiring not only caution but courage. The watching +fleets of the present day have none of the charm and change to occupy +their mind which accompanied the sailing-ship navy, making and +shortening sail, trimming sails, tacking, and wearing, necessary for +cruising on the look-out. There were no air-vessels, mines, submarines, +or torpedoes in the old days, no under-water warfare. The strain upon +officers and men of the sea-going fleet in these days is terrific: +nothing to occupy their thoughts as in the days of sailing-ships." + +But with all this we know what the navy has done, and we know that it +will never be found wanting. Only let us all try to emulate the spirit +of thoroughness and devotion to duty which has made our navy what it is; +let us all try to "do our bit", however small, and, in those inspired +words of our great poet Shakespeare which we should always bear in +mind-- + + "Nought shall England rue, + If England to herself do prove but true". + + + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN + _At the Villafield Press, Glasgow, Scotland_ + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Obvious punctuation errors were corrected. + +The text uses both warships and war-ships. This, and other varied +hyphenation, was retained. + +The text uses both Zeebrügge and Zeebrugge. + +The remaining corrections made are listed below. + +Page 6 and also on actual illustration near 192, the hyphen was removed +from BLUE-JACKETS to reflect the many uses in the text. + +Page 44, "Mont-joie's" changed to "Mont-Joie's" (of the _Mont-Joie's_ +passengers) + +Page 105, "intollerable" changed to "intolerable" (too intolerable to +suffer the) + +Page 107, "ther" changed to "their" (written over to their) + +Page 130, "Greite" changed to "Griete" (_Dulle Griete_ or "Mad Marjery") + +Page 172, "fforged" changed to "forged" (forged cases to be shot) + +Page 182, "cassion" changed to "caisson" (caisson at least 17) + +Page 238, illustration caption, "Blucher" changed to "Blücher" (fate of +the _Blücher_ in) + +Page 245, "markmanship" changed to "marksmanship" (was the marksmanship +of her) + +Page 295, footnote 103, number of footnote added to citation. Footnote +text: (Published in _The Sphere_) + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41677 *** |