The seaman of history is a chivalrous and romantic figure, a gallant
and relentless fighter, a generous and a tender conqueror. In
Codrington’s first letter to his wife after the battle of Trafalgar,
he tells her to send £100 to one of the French captains who goes to
England from the battle as a prisoner of war. The British and French
navies cherish a hundred memories of acts like these. If the German
navy survives the war what memories will it have? It must search the
gaols for the exemplars in peace of the acts that win them the Iron
Cross in war.
Note in this drawing that the types selected are not in themselves
base units of humanity. They have been made so by the beastly crimes
superior orders have forced them to commit. But even this has not
brought them so low but they wonder at the topsy-turvydom of war that
brings them honour where poor Black Mary only got her deserts in gaol.
The crimes of the higher command have passed in Germany uncondemned
and unbanned by cardinals and bishops. But the conscience of Germany
cannot be wholly dead. Nor will six years only be the term of Germany’s
humiliation and remorse. The spotless white of the naval uniform,
sullied and besmirched by those savage cruelties, cannot, any more than
the German soul, be brought back “whiter than snow” by any bestowal of
the Iron Cross. The effort to cleanse either would “the multitudinous
seas incarnadine.”