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.