Those who prefer to do so may use long words like "psychology" and
"mentality," but the plain English of the situation is that the public
mind in the allied and neutral countries was greatly impressed by the
news that the British fleet had lost several ships, and by the fact
that these losses were announced in the earlier part of the official
communiqué concerning the battle. In the few great sea fights of which
anything was generally remembered, the British had not lost ships.
This, however, was far from being the universal rule.
In the great naval actions of the seventeenth century we lost many
ships. It was recognized that a fleet might be victorious and still
lose ships. The great Lord Hawke at Quiberon Bay lost ships. The
contending fleets of the present day are so very large that they recall
those of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when ships
were lost in action by both sides. This, especially in view of the
power of the naval ordnance of today, is almost certain to occur again.
There is a wide difference between the naval gun of the present day and
that of Nelson's and earlier times. The primary object of the older gun
was to cause casualties among the enemy's crews; the modern naval gun
is meant to destroy his ships. A fifteen-inch gun is not necessary to
kill or wound a man. Naval weapons would be complete failures if, in
sea fights, they were to prove incapable of destroying ships, and there
is no probability that the destruction will fall on one side only.
Mr. Frothingham's final conclusion is that the "actual tactical result
of the battle was indecisive." A very full definition of an indecisive
tactical result would be instructive. One result of the battle of
Jutland is beyond dispute and is in no way a matter of opinion. These
lines are being written on the 12th of May, 1918, close upon two years
after the battle of Jutland was fought. Not once during all that long
time has the German High Sea Fleet ventured on the high seas or done
more than just peep over the edge of its sheltering mine fields.