OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE NAVY
Sailor, what of the debt we owe you?
Day or night is the peril more?
Who so dull that he fails to know you,
Sleepless guard of our island shore?
Safe the corn to the farmyard taken;
Grain ships safe upon all the seas;
Homes in peace and a faith unshaken—
Sailor, what do we owe for these?
_The late Viscount Stuart._
No picture of the war work of the British Navy could be complete
without some account of its officers and men. From what has already
been said, the nature of the qualities demanded of them will have
been realised. In the general direction of the Navy by the Admiralty
there have been required calm reflection, profound insight, strategic
imagination, sound and swift judgment as to the full use and the
yet ill-understood limitations of sea-power, an abundant spring of
action, and the unflinching resolution to give effect to the utmost
to the striking and controlling force of the naval arm. In the
Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet there was needed the high ability
to administer and exercise the command, to inspire officers and men of
every rank and rating in the Fleet with zeal, efficiency, and devotion,
as well as sleepless vigilance in the long waiting for the enemy, and
instant readiness for action at all times. The Commander-in-Chief does
not work alone. He has a staff who collaborate in these duties and give
effect to his plans; and admirals secondary in command, who have no
light task in directing the work and operations of the larger elements
of the Fleet. Sir John Jellicoe, who was appointed to the Grand Fleet
at the beginning of the war, was a master of the high attainments
required for his office, and it was he who created the base of his
operations, organised all the agencies of his command, and exercised
that command with consummate ability. The instrument he had shaped
and handled so capably fell to the charge of Sir David Beatty, a most
gallant officer, eminently fitted to use it, whose temperament is the
very spirit of action, and yet who forms his plans in the mould of cool
reflection. Happily for the British Navy, the fire of action is mingled
in its officers with the ice of thought. They know when to strike, and
when they strike they strike hard.
Great responsibilities have rested on the captains of His Majesty’s
ships. They showed in the Jutland battle, in which they were tried by
the searching test of decisive action, that they possessed the ability
to inspire and discipline their men, and to put forth the maximum of
the fighting power of the ships. Officers in detached command away
from the Fleet have rendered very great services. The junior officers
are beyond praise. By universal testimony, their devotion, courage,
and ever-ready professional skill, in every test of emergency and
endurance, have never been excelled. The officers of the destroyers are
men above price. The commanders of submarines, who have even carried
their enterprise into the Baltic, and risked the perils of mine and gun
in the narrow waters of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, are officers
who have won new laurels for the Fleet.
The men of the lower deck, wherever they serve, give daily proof of the
bravery, hardihood, cheerfulness, and long endurance which have always
been the qualities of British seamen. Let Sir John Jellicoe speak of
them as he knew them:—
Nothing can ever have been finer than the coolness and courage
shown in every case where ships have been sunk by mines or
torpedoes; discipline has been perfect, and men have gone to
their deaths not only most gallantly, but most unselfishly. One
heard on all sides of numerous instances of men giving up on
these occasions the plank which had supported them to some more
feeble comrade, and I feel prouder every day that passes that I
command such men. During the period of waiting and watching they
are cheerful and contented, in spite of the grey dullness of
their lives.
It would not be difficult to single out instances from the records of
the war of constructive power in thought, and sound and swift judgment
in action, as well as of splendid courage, enterprise, dash, and
resolution—call it what you will—in the crisis of battle and in moments
of stress, exhibited in a manner rarely exampled in naval warfare. The
British Fleet has been rich in the mental endowments of its officers,
showing them to possess grasp and insight, and moral force, to dominate
hesitation and sustain action in the tremendous emergencies of battle
and when confronted with the most formidable responsibilities.
Excitement has never carried them away. Judgment has worked through all
their endeavours as, in the long watches and waiting, it has sustained
them.
Eulogy is not required. Nothing that has been said exceeds the
merits of officers and men. It is right that these things should be
understood. The man is more than the machine, and the finest fleet and
most compete material equipment are dead and inert without the living
power of the officers who command, and the men who man the ships and
vessels of every class. It is they who have done and are doing the work
of the Navy in the war. They, and not their ships, have given security
to the British Isles, have kept the seas and oceans open for the
Allies, have safeguarded every interest afloat, and have worked and are
working, day and night, to defeat the purposes of the enemy.
We now turn to a consideration which is of paramount importance for
a right understanding of the Navy’s work in the war. England is the
support of all her Continental Allies. If she should suffer or lose
her power of supplying them with armies and arms, or should weaken in
her offensive, the Allies would collapse. This is a fact of primary
importance. The Germans realise it fully. They hesitate at nothing in
their efforts to strike at England. They publicly declared that they
would reduce her by famine. They struck at her mercantile marine, not
merely at ships which were armed and engaged in the naval service
in such large numbers, but at the ordinary cargo vessels, including
neutral vessels carrying British supplies, and at fishermen pursuing
their regular avocations, who, under The Hague Conventions, were,
with their boats, tackle, rigging, gear, and cargoes, to be exempt
from capture, and still more from destruction. Of the officers and
men of these services we must speak also. It became necessary, in the
conditions which had arisen, to bring the whole mercantile marine under
naval direction and orders, and practically it is embodied with the
Navy, and provided for the most part with armaments for defence, and
closely in touch with a great protective organisation.
When Mr. Balfour was First Lord of the Admiralty, speaking in the
House of Commons on March 7th, 1916, he directed special attention to
this aspect of naval work, not merely to the service of ships flying
the White Ensign, but to that of transports and of merchant and cargo
vessels, and their officers and men, conveying imports and exports,
and the supplies required by the Allied armies. “On them,” he said,
“we depend, not less than on our armed forces, for maintaining the
necessary economic basis upon which all war must ultimately be waged.”
There were, as he said, thousands of officers and men whose ships had
been sunk under them by mine and submarine, and yet who had cheerfully
signed on again, and were not to be driven from their ancient heritage
of the sea. England depends upon her mercantile marine for her national
existence. To a great extent, her food and raw materials are in its
charge; and it also brings without ceasing hundreds of thousands
of tons of munitions of many kinds required by the Allies. When,
therefore, we estimate the work of the Navy in the war, we must give
to the merchant branch of the Sea Service the position it deserves, as
an absolute and primary necessity to England and her Allies.
The nobility of the work carried on by the officers and men of
the merchant service and the fishermen, whether in armed ships,
mine-trawlers, or cargo vessels, is a dominant note of the war. Their
heroism has been conspicuous, and, as was stated by Admiral Sir Henry
Jackson, when he was First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, the facility
with which they learned to carry out their duties as part of a trained
fighting force was extraordinary. “The Allied nations,” he said, “owe
them a deep debt of gratitude for their response, as well as for their
indomitable pluck and endurance.” “There is no room in the Navy for
anything but the most sincere admiration and respect for the officers
and men of the mercantile marine,” said Sir John Jellicoe. They had
practically become a part of the fighting force, sharing in the work
of the Navy in the war, and their courageous conduct and unflinching
devotion to duty have gained the testimony of naval officers
everywhere, not only in the British service, but in the Allied navies
which have come into contact with them. Of the magnificent service of
the mine-trawlers we have spoken in a previous chapter.
Let this chapter conclude with an appeal to England and her Allies to
remember the great and enduring services of British seamen. They do
not often speak of one another. Sometimes, as by a flash, as when Sir
John Jellicoe wrote of his men, the truth is revealed. It was that
taciturn old officer, Sir John Jervis, who said of Troubridge that he
had “honour and courage as bright as his sword.” The torch is handed on
from one officer to another. There are many qualities among them. The
fire of Drake meets the resolute gravity of Blake; the long reflection
of Kempenfelt is the foil to the fierce glow of Nelson. The tradition
is continuous. Sir John Jellicoe could find no words to do justice
to his officers and men in the day and night actions of the Jutland
Battle. The glorious traditions of the past were worthily upheld. Sir
David Beatty showed his fine qualities of gallant leadership, high
determination, and correct strategic insight. Great qualities were
manifested by every rank and rating. Down in the engine-rooms, seeing
nothing of the battle, men were working like Titans, and some ships
reached speeds which they had never before attained. This was great
service for England and her Allies.
There is sometimes a tendency to forget—to lose proportion, also—in
censuring seamen for not doing what the power of the sea alone can
never achieve. Howe was burned in effigy in London almost at the very
time when he was fighting his glorious battle of Quiberon Bay, braving
the perils of rocks which were charted and known, and not, be it
noted, of submarines and mines which are invisible and unknown. As the
sarcastic songster wrote at the time:
When Hawke did bang
Monsieur Conflans,
You sent us beef and beer;
Now Monsieur’s beat,
We’ve naught to eat,
Since you have naught to fear.
And so Nelson spoke. “I will only apply,” he said, “some very old lines
wrote at the end of some former war:
“Our God and sailor we adore
In times of danger—not before!
The danger past, both are alike requited:
God is forgotten, and the sailor slighted!”
Now, the object of this book is to show what are the services of the
British Navy to England and to the Allies. Its influence has been
visible throughout the world, working everywhere with unexampled
success. It operates solely because of the qualities and sacrifices of
its officers and men. To them a high tribute must be paid.