WEST COAST OF AFRICA.
Gunboat.—Dwarf.
S.E. COAST OF AMERICA.
Cruiser.—Glasgow.
WEST COAST OF AMERICA.
Sloops.—Algerine, Shearwater.
WEST ATLANTIC.
Armoured Cruisers.—Suffolk, Berwick, Essex, Lancaster; cruiser Bristol.
This narrative of the opening phases of the war between six of the great fleets of the world would be incomplete were no reference made to the conditions of the German Fleet. A month before the final cleavage between the two nations, Kiel had kept high festival in honour of the British Navy. At the invitation of the German Government, Vice-Admiral Sir George Warrender had taken some of the finest battleships of the British Navy into this German port. During the Regatta Week official Germany entertained the officers and men with the utmost hospitality, and, for a time, the Emperor had his flag, the flag of an honorary admiral of the British Navy, flying from the mainmast of one of the latest “Dreadnoughts,” the “King George V.,” and was in technical command of this important section of the Home Fleet. Luncheons, dinners, and receptions filled the days over which the yacht racing extended, and when Sir George Warrender steamed out of Kiel to meet at a rendezvous at sea the British squadron, under Rear-Admiral Sir David Beatty, which had been visiting the Baltic ports of Russia, and the other squadrons which had been entertained by the peoples of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, every indication encouraged the belief that peace was more completely assured than at any time during this century.
The Kiel festivities at an end, the High Sea Fleet, reinforced by a number of reserve ships, put to sea for its summer cruise in Norwegian waters. The Emperor, in the Royal Yacht “Hohenzollern,” also left for the coast of Norway. These were the conditions when the bolt fell. Can it be doubted that, when in after years and in full knowledge, the history of the war is written, it will be concluded that Germany, in giving her support to Austria-Hungary, had no thought that this would involve her use of her fleet against the greatest sea Power of the world? With much labour, and at great sacrifice, she had created a formidable diplomatic weapon to be brandished in the eyes of a timid and commercially-minded people—and such she believed the British people to be; but it was not a fleet of sufficient standing to face the greatest sea Power with confidence.