3 frigates, mounting a total of 112 guns.
3 brigs, mounting a total of 4 guns.
2 schooners, mounting a total of 4 guns.
Also without Fighting Value.
40 rowing-boats, mounting a total of 76 guns.
Denmark, on the other hand, had 31 steam war vessels, among which were 1 battleship, 5 frigates, 3 corvettes, and 4 armoured craft. Even with the assistance of a number of Austrian ships, which arrived in the North Sea from the Mediterranean, the Prussian fleet could contribute nothing decisive towards the issue of the war. At the most it prevented the Danish blockade of the German coast-line from being effective. The Prussian Government attempted to reduce its inferiority by hiring merchant vessels, and hurriedly purchased warships in France and England. One of these latter, the monitor Arminius, which was of English build, was almost entirely paid for with the voluntary contributions which had continued to flow in. This fact shows how steady and keen the interest of a large section of the population in the development of the navy already was, and how erroneous it is to ascribe the naval enthusiasm in Germany of recent years entirely to the official agitation. Peace was concluded before the new ships could be made ready for sea.
The war of 1864 was one of the great cross-roads of British history. Difficult as it is to "overlook the cards of Providence," as Bismarck puts it, there can be little doubt that we took the wrong turning. The great German Chancellor candidly admitted that the possession of Kiel and a strategic canal through Holstein were two of the principal objects which Prussia had in view when she drew the sword. The two leading members of the British Cabinet were in favour of backing up Denmark; and one of them, Palmerston, used language in Parliament which might well have led that country to count upon our support. A strong body of English public opinion also warmly espoused the Danish cause. But Queen Victoria, largely influenced by the sympathy for Germany which she had imbibed from the Prince Consort, threw all the weight of the Crown into the opposite scale.
There are few more agitated passages to be found in the records of diplomacy than those letters to Lord Granville in which she argued, threatened, entreated, and, finally falling back on the last strength of woman, her weakness, complained that she was "completely exhausted by anxiety and suspense," and "so tired and unwell she can hardly hold up her head or hold her pen." Her will prevailed in the end, and she was able to congratulate herself that, "owing to the determined stand she had made against her two principal ministers, she had saved the country from an unnecessary war." When Prussia, completely reversing her attitude, made those very claims of the Danish King which she had contested by force of arms her pretext for annexing the two duchies under the "rights of conquest," the Queen suffered a bitter disillusionment, and, on her instructions General Grey wrote to Lord Granville, that "Prussia should at least be made aware of what she and her Government and every honest man in Europe must think of the gross and unblushing violation of every assurance and pledge that she had given which Prussia had been guilty of." It will hardly be contended now that a war which should have left Schleswig-Holstein in the hands of Denmark would have been anything but exceedingly advantageous, economical, and opportune for Great Britain.
Even before, in the formal division of the spoils, Prussia had obtained Austrian recognition of her right to Kiel, she had occupied that port and transferred her naval headquarters thither from Dantzig. The construction of the North Sea Baltic Canal was delayed many years, mainly by the opposition of Count Moltke, who argued that its cost would be so great that it would, on the whole, be cheaper to build a second fleet with the money. He further urged that the canal would be navigable only in the summer, and that in the event of a war the army would be weakened by the necessity of providing for its defence. But for the doubts and jealousies of the sister service, the German Navy might years ago have enjoyed the benefits of that prolongation of the Canal, contemplated by Bismarck, which would have allowed its ironclads to steam from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven without putting out into the open sea.
In the hope that the lessons of the war would have produced the desirable effect on the public mind, the Prussian Government, in 1865, laid before its Parliament a bill that may be considered as the definite inauguration of the naval policy which Germany has ever since pursued. In the Memorandum submitted to the House with the measure, it was contended that the time had come for Prussia to join the ranks of the Sea-Powers, in order that she might be in a position to protect her own and the other German coasts and maritime trade, and, for all future time, to assert her European position as against such States as were accessible only by water. "For the present," it was stated, "she is unable to enter into rivalry with the first-class naval Powers, but she must occupy a position commanding esteem among those of the second class."
Accordingly, the Government asked for authority to build 10 armoured frigates of the highest efficiency, an equal number of armoured vessels of the cupola or turret type for coast defence, 16 corvettes for the protection of sea-borne trade, 6 despatch-boats, and at least 4 transports. It was calculated that ten years would be necessary for the execution of this plan, but rather for the training of the personnel and the provision of the indispensable harbour works than for the actual construction of the ships. The cost of the proposed fleet was estimated at 34,500,000 thalers, that of its annual maintenance at about 5,000,000 thalers. In recommending the scheme to the Diet, Bismarck used the following words, which contain very noteworthy implications: "During the last twenty years no question has so unanimously interested public opinion in Germany as precisely the naval question. We have seen associations, the Press, and the Diets give expression to their sympathy, and this sympathy exercised itself in the collection of comparatively important sums. The Government and the Conservative party have been reproached with the slowness and parsimony with which action has been taken in this direction. It was particularly the Liberal parties which carried on this agitation. We believe, therefore, that we are doing you a great pleasure with this Bill."
But the Liberal majority, then exclusively preoccupied with the constitutional struggle against the masterful and autocratic Minister-President, threw out the Bill, and modified naval estimates were given the force of law by royal decree. The attitude of the Prussian Liberals of that epoch was very similar to that of the Socialists in recent years.