Chart showing in pecked lines the area in which the ships of the 10th. Cruiser Squadron usually worked after about the middle of the year 1915; the positions of the ships being constantly changed.
Prior to this the areas were in the vicinity of A.B.C.D.G.
When going to or from Liverpool the ships had to run the gauntlet of enemy submarines, which were passing down the west coast of the Hebrides and Ireland, and as no destroyers were available with which to screen them against attack, the risk was considerable. They had also to face the constant danger of mine-fields. Several ships of the squadron fell victims to submarines or mines with a resultant heavy loss of life.
Whilst the ships were on patrol, the work of the boarding parties was very arduous. The preliminary examination could not be carried out without boarding, and the manner in which the boats of the squadron were handled in the very heavy weather, almost constant in northern latitudes, was a fine tribute to the seamanship of the officers and men. In this boarding work the fishermen of the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, hardy and experienced seamen, rendered most conspicuous service.
The efficiency of the Blockade increased gradually from its inception, as is well known, and after a time the percentage of vessels that evaded the ships of the 10th Cruiser Squadron became so low as to be almost negligible. The procedure adopted was to send all ships, preliminary examination of which at sea aroused any suspicion, into Kirkwall or Lerwick harbours, where regular examination services were instituted. The ships were taken in under the supervision of an armed guard, sent on board from the boarding-vessel, and these guards underwent many unpleasant experiences. Several lost their lives in ships which were torpedoed by German submarines, and in many cases, particularly in badly found sailing ships, they underwent great hardships. The guards were also the means of saving more than one such ship from shipwreck, by working her themselves when the crew refused to do so any longer, and in all cases great tact and discretion on the part of the officer in charge, usually a junior officer of the Royal Naval Reserve, were necessary in his dealings with the neutral captains. The whole question of the efficiency of the Blockade—as shown by the returns furnished to me from Headquarters—was constantly under review by my Staff and myself.
The fate of the detained ship was decided in London on receipt of the report of examination. As was perhaps natural, the sentence on many ships’ cargoes pronounced in London was not accepted without question from the Fleet, and a good deal of correspondence passed with reference to individual ships. We, in the Fleet, were naturally very critical of any suspicion of laxity in passing, into neutral countries bordering on Germany, articles which we suspected might find their way into Germany, and constant criticisms were forwarded by me, first to the Admiralty, and, later, to the Ministry of Blockade, when that Ministry was established. The difficulties with which the Foreign Office was faced in regard to neutral susceptibilities were naturally not so apparent in the Fleet as to the authorities in London, and though many of our criticisms were perhaps somewhat unjustifiable, and some possibly incorrect, it is certain that in the main they were of use. Indeed, they were welcomed in London as giving the naval point of view. The decisive effect of the Blockade did not become apparent until the end, when the final crash came, and it was seen how supreme an influence on the result of the War this powerful weapon had exercised. Even those who during the War had been asking what the Navy was doing, recognised at the last how victory had been achieved, largely, as the result of the silent pressure of Sea Power.
VI.—The Grand Fleet Bases
Mention has been made elsewhere of the unprotected state of the Grand Fleet bases against submarine attack in the early part of the War. The matter was one of supreme importance, and formed the subject of very urgent representations to the Admiralty. Many brains were at work on the problem at the Admiralty, at the bases, and in the Fleet itself.
The first step was that taken under the direction of Captain Donald S. Munro, the King’s Harbour Master at Cromarty, who devised a system of submarine obstruction which later formed the pattern for the deep-water obstructions at most of our naval bases. Owing to his energy and driving power, the entrance to Cromarty was rendered fairly secure by October 26th, 1914. Whilst he was working out a defence for Cromarty another officer, Lieutenant Bircham, R.N.V.R., under the command of Admiral Sir Robert Lowry, the Commander-in-Chief of the coast of Scotland, suggested a method for providing an obstruction for the Rosyth base. This was fitted in place by the end of October, 1914, and was also entirely successful.
As soon as the Cromarty scheme was in train, I requested that obstructions on similar lines should be fitted to the three main entrances to Scapa Flow, the Hoxa entrance (by far the most likely to be attempted) being taken in hand first. Exasperating delays in the supply of the necessary material were experienced, and the first line of obstructions in the Hoxa entrance was not completed until December 29th, 1914, the first line in Switha Sound by January 12th, 1915, and that in Hoy Sound by February 19th, 1915. Meanwhile officers and men of the Fleet had improvised obstructions, first at Lough Swilly and Loch na Keal, and later at Scapa Flow, which, while not giving thorough security against a determined attempt at entry, had a psychological value. These obstructions, which were kept in existence even after the completion of the more efficient methods of dealing with the problem, involved much labour.