| I. | When I left the Admiralty in January, 1910: | |
| Submarines ready for fighting | 61 | |
| Building and on order | 13 | |
| II. | When I returned to the Admiralty, in October, 1914, as First Sea Lord: | |
| Submarines fit for fighting | 53 | |
| Building and on order | 21 | |
| But of these 21, only 5 were any good! | ||
| 2 were paid off as useless. | ||
| 3 sold to the Italians, not of use to us. | ||
| 4 sold to the French, not of use to us. | ||
| 7 of unsatisfactory design. | ||
| 16 leaving only 5 of oversea modern (“E”) Type. | ||
Nominally, there were 77 Submarines when I returned in October, 1914, but out of these 24 were useless, or had gone to the Antipodes, as follows:
| 2 | to Australia. |
| 3 | to Hong Kong. |
| 1 | sold to Italy useless. |
| 8 | “A” Class scrapped, 10 years old. |
| 10 | “B” Class scrapped, 9 years old. |
| 24 |
77 - 24 = 53 total Submarines fit for Service when I returned in October, 1914.
There were 61 Submarines efficient when I left the Admiralty in January, 1910.
Of those that were on order when I returned, 14 were of “G” Class, but were of an experimental type, and so were not ready till June, 1916, or one year after the Submarines were ready which I ordered on my return to the Admiralty in October, 1914.
Here may be stated the great service rendered by Mr. Schwab, of the Bethlehem Steel Works. I specially sent for him. I told him the very shortest time hitherto that a Submarine had been built in was 14 months. Would he use his best endeavours to deliver in six months? He delivered the first batch in five months! And not only that, but they were of so efficient a type (“H” Class) that they came from America to the Dardanelles without escort, and were of inestimable service out there, and passed into the Sea of Marmora, and were most effective in sinking Turkish Transports bringing munitions to Gallipoli.
The type of Submarine (“H” Class) he built hold the field for their special attributes. I saw one in dock at Harwich that had been rammed by a Destroyer—I think a German Destroyer—and had the forepart of her taken clean away, and she got back to Harwich by herself all right. The Commander of her, an aged man, was in the Merchant Service. (What a lot we do indeed owe to the Merchant Service, and especially to those wonderful men in the Trawlers!)
But Mr. Schwab did far more than what I have narrated above. He undertook the delivery of a very important portion of the armament of the Monitors.
The idea was followed up in making old Cruisers immune from German Submarines—the “Grafton,” an old type Cruiser (and so also the “Edgar”), thus fitted, was hit fair amidships by a torpedo from a German submarine off Gibraltar, and the Captain of the “Grafton” reported himself unhurt and going all the faster for it (as it had blown off a good bit of the hull!), and those vessels were ever so much the better sea boats for it!