CHAPTER X.
“HOME AND BEAUTY” 300
ILLUSTRATIONS.
_From Drawings by the CHEVALIER EDOUARDO DE MARTINO and FRED T. JANE._
PAGE
“They were all a mass of lights” (_see page_ 35) _Frontispiece_
“Even some obsolete gunboats” 9
“Masthead electric lights of novel design are being fitted to some of the larger battleships” 13
“Was only a steam yacht” 19
“Certain craft were ordered to use their search-lights in combination” 29
“A number of French ships were coming out” 33
“Suddenly a ship near the centre of the French line began to use her search-lights” 37
“The effect of the light when it shines in the eyes of the spectator is confusing” 41
“It is impossible to guess how far off the projector is” 45
“A torpedo hit us on the port bow” 49
“By the enemy’s terrible fire” 53
“Remember what they will say at home” 57
“The _Alexandra_ has also arrived” 61
“The Channel Fleet has been ordered home” 67
“Ships were taking in powder and shell” 71
“A couple of first-class torpedo boats were sent out” 75
“Every vessel opened in the direction of the foe” 79
“They rendered all the other craft of the enemy invisible” 83
“It was fearful work; the very silence of the grey boats made the scene the more impressive” 87
“The blowing up of the _Minotaur_” 91
“The attack on the _Hercules_” 95
“May I never live to have another so awful experience” 99
“A torpedo exploded under her own port quarter” 103
“The _Bellona_ ashore” 107
“Whose steam launch narrowly escaped being run down” 111
“The Fleet at Spithead” 115
The letter of marque _Valdivia_ (afterwards _Mary Rose_) 121
Deck plan of the _Valdivia_ 129
“Off the Rock” 139
“They opened a furious fire” 143
“All night long the bombardment continued” 147
No. 70 153
“I have done it!” 159
The _Mary Rose_ escorted out of the Tyne 171
“The foretop over which peeped the covered muzzle of a gun” 177
“Give her the bow 9·4-in. gun” 185
The _Mary Rose_ and prizes entering Plymouth Sound 189
Coaling off the Wadi Gloug 197
“Steaming with his coal” 201
“Ordered the starboard 9·4-in. gun to be fired” 207
“It was impossible to distinguish the order in which the French Fleet was steaming” 217
_Mary Rose_ torpedoing an ironclad 223
“Suspicious-looking objects were creeping up” 241
“It was short, quick, terrible work” 245
“Their white bow waves betrayed them” 249
“Suddenly a rocket shot up” 253
“The _Troude_ was warily coming up” 259
“On board the _Cécille_ a perfectly awful state of affairs was found” 263
The _Cristoforo Colombo_ 275
“In the days of sailing ships” 279
An Atlantic greyhound 283
“Gib” 287
The _Royal Sovereign_ 291
“I had the misfortune to lose the _Dreadnought_” 295
A “glorious first of June” 301
PREFACE.
To every Briton, the question: “What will the sea-fighting of to-morrow be like?” is of supreme interest and importance. Ours is a sea empire. The confines of our dominions lie, not upon our own coasts, but upon the coasts of our neighbours; and unless in the future we can, as we have done in the past, hold our dominions, be they shore or be they ocean, against all comers, our national glory will be eclipsed, our wealth will vanish, and our greatness will be annihilated.
It is primarily in order to put forward a tentative answer to this question that I have written the story of the _Mary Rose_. I have seen no real fighting at sea. There are very few who have. But I have seen an immense amount of sham-fighting--more, it is possible, than anyone else; for, besides witnessing manœuvres abroad, I have for eight successive years gone afloat to follow the operations consequent upon the annual mobilisation in our own home waters. The sham thing, I am quite aware, must be very different from the terrible reality. It affords, nevertheless, a key to the reality; and, armed with that key, I have been so bold as to endeavour to open the future. Similar endeavours have been made before. In conjunction with my friend, Commander Charles Napier Robinson, R.N., I myself made the endeavour in 1886, when Messrs. Hatchards re-published for us, from the pages of the _St. James’s Gazette_, “The Great Naval War of 1887.” Not long afterwards another friend, Mr. H. O. Arnold-Forster, now M.P. for West Belfast, contributed to a monthly magazine his excellent forecast called “In a Conning Tower; or, How I took H.M.S. _Majestic_ into Action,” and last year he re-published it. Last year, also, appeared “The Last Great Naval War: An Historical Retrospect,” by “A. Nelson Seaforth,” whom, I shrewdly suspect, I have the pleasure of knowing under a name which, in the Navy, is closely identified with lamps, signals, speeches at the Royal United Service Institution, and letters to _The Times_. Other endeavours I need not particularly allude to. The present one is intended to differ from its predecessors in being less technical, and in paying attention to some aspects of naval warfare that have been neglected by all the rest. These aspects, I venture to hope, will especially recommend themselves to British boys. If they will take an intelligent interest in modern naval developments, we shall not, twenty or thirty years hence, have to lament that upon naval questions the tax-paying public is ignorant or apathetic; for not only the boy is the father of the man, but also the study of matters naval is so seductive that, I believe, no Englishman who has once taken it up has ever willingly relinquished it.
My first aim, then, has been to give a readable tentative answer to the question: “What will the sea-fighting of to-morrow be like?”
My second has been to call attention to our position in the Mediterranean. We maintain there a large Fleet of fine ships, and it is our duty to do so; because we are a Mediterranean Power of the first rank; because, while we are paramount in the Mediterranean, we are, to a far greater extent than is commonly realised, the peace-keepers of Europe; and because our paramount position in the waters of the Mediterranean is essential to the preservation of most valuable material interests, which, if we once lost them, we might never be able to regain. And so we maintain a large Mediterranean Fleet. But “large” is, after all, only a comparative term. France has at her immediate disposal a far larger one in the same sea, and unless we keep our naval strength in the Mediterranean, as elsewhere, superior to that of France, our only dangerous naval rival, we imperil our position. The ships which are mentioned in the story are all existing ships. The Mediterranean ships mentioned are practically the existing Mediterranean Fleets.
In writing as I have written, I have been animated by no unfriendly and by no unfair feeling towards France. I have represented French officers as being fully as scientific and brave as their British “opposite numbers,” and I have never represented a Frenchman as doing a thing which, if done by an Englishman, would shame him. In the past, when we have been enemies, we have, I trust, been honest and cordial ones. I am sure that, in the future, if fate should unhappily make us opponents, we shall not be less loyal foes than we were ninety years ago, and that afterwards we shall not diminish our respect one for the other.
I am most fortunate in having had, in this work, the co-operation of my friend, that most distinguished of marine painters, the Chevalier Edouardo de Martino. He volunteered to illustrate what I should write; and to receive such an offer from so admirable an artist was, of course, to gladly accept it. When, as he and I believed, we had completed our labour, he was called to South America. The editor of _The Engineer_ was then so good as to think that the story of the _Mary Rose_ might be welcome to the readers of his paper. He wished, however, to have additional illustrations, and these were in due time supplied by Mr. F. T. Jane, a young artist who has already made his mark in this particular branch of black and white drawing. While the story was being published in _The Engineer_, Mr. Jane offered to prepare a number of further illustrations, and these, now printed for the first time, will, I think, be found among the most effective of his contributions. To the proprietors of _The Engineer_, for their permission to use Mr. Jane’s first series of illustrations, and for the facilities which they have placed in my way, I tender my grateful thanks.
NEW TRAVELLERS’ CLUB, PICCADILLY, _November, 1892._
THE CAPTAIN OF THE “MARY ROSE.”