We were able to send the old battleship Revenge, whose guns had been specially re-mounted for long range fire, and several smaller vessels under Admiral Hood, and the naval bombardment of the German right was effectively resumed. ‘The conditions on the coast,’ Hood, however, reported on the 22nd, ‘are quite different from what they were during the first few days. To-day there was a heavy fire from guns I could not locate or damage. No troops are ever visible. The inundation has stopped their movement.’
To the situation of strain and effort which gripped us during November came the welcome relief of the victory at the Falklands. Lord Fisher received it with a moderated satisfaction.
‘We cannot,’ he wrote to me on December 10, ‘but be overjoyed at the Monmouth and Good Hope being avenged! But let us be self-restrained—not too exultant!—till we know details! Perhaps their guns never reached us! (We had so few casualties!) We know THEIR gunnery was excellent! Their THIRD salvo murdered Cradock! So it may have been like shooting pheasants: the pheasants not shooting back! Not too much glory for us, only great satisfaction. Not a battle for a Poet Laureate! Let us wait and hear before we crow! Then again, it may be a wonder why the cruisers escaped—if they have escaped—I hope not, for we had such a preponderating force—such numbers! (How the Glasgow must have enjoyed it!) Anyhow, don’t let us encourage ourselves in too many joy messages till we know more.’
But I made haste to ascribe to him all the credit that was his due.
December 10.
This was your show and your luck.
I should only have sent one Greyhound[[93]] and Defence. This would have done the trick.
But it was a niggling coup. Your flair was quite true. Let us have some more victories together, and confound all our foes abroad—and (don’t forget) at home.
This delighted the Admiral, and in his reply (December 11) he threw a friendly light upon other fields of activity than those with which this chapter has been concerned.
Your letter pleasant! There is another quite lovely scheme! I am to be praised so as to get ‘swelled head’ and think myself ignored by you, and to be in your shoes! It is all too sweet for words! It is palpably transparent! I was told of this yesterday! It really is curious why they so hate you! I think I told you what G—— said, that though he abhorred me, yet ... I have splendid friends in the Tory camp!