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SECRETS OF THE GRAND FLEET

i < ; :" »■ • ! RECENT GROWTH OF ITS ' j POWER i l THE NEXT FIGHT j '. ■ i DOMINION SHIPS TO TAKE \ PART , ■ I 1' ■ I (From a Special Correspondent of tho I "Daily, News.") I The invisibility of the Grand Fleet is one of the most remarkable of all the re- : niarkable things in this war. No one -. for a. ciertaiuty dare say where it is. Its operations, proceeding ceaselessly night and day since the. first rumblings pre- ' saged war; are still enshrouded behind an impenetrable veil. Far-reaching as ' this work is, and formidable in trinmpn, J Admiral Jellicoo has still to publish Ins , first dispatdli. A glimpse of the fighting was given when Admiral Sturdeo ana j Admiral Boatty, described their respective victories oyer the enemy,, but these ' were mere skirmishes to what should ' have been the real' thing. When one ' speaks to men attached to the squadron * hidden away, "somewhere" about the fine ships under. Beatty's command or the great ships forming his squadron,' 1 they'emphatically-reply: "That is only ' : £f cruiser squadron—it is nothing to the ' Grand, Fleet." And the way the sailor- ' men talk about: the .Grand. Fleet ana ' Jellicoe's ships imparts" a wealth of <■ mcaniiig and conveys a feeling of awe at 1 its power.. s Many Inventions. I ' The Archbishop of Canterbury visited ' the Fleet, aiid three eminent Scottish ' divines and a party.of Frenchmen ivere" privileged to see the Fleet. None ot ' them told anything about it that was 1 not known before the war even to the ( longshoremen; they said nothing' of the ! way the ; Fleet has grown to measureless ' $ower since the war began; they told us ? nothing of the wonderful new mine- c sweepers or the equally 'wonderful new ■! submarine destroyers; they were silent 1 about the guns of the new battleships and the speed of the new battle cruisers, '* The new mine-sweepers need not now be '1 employed on the swooping of tho lflines I from our estuaries, and the open seas, '<■ for the German mine is how a very rare ' thing. , --, c The special boats constructed to deal I with the . submarine pirates were built -i to our plans, after much experience in* ' destroying tlie commerce raiders; now I they are hardly necessary, to combat the i few remaining submarines the Germans I can'send to sea. These destroyers are i possessed of incredible speed, an 3 they. \ turn in about their own length. What 1 little remains of the submarine menaco 1 is not a problem, for tho old boats and 1 the new craft are going to be used some-, where. < The Latest Ship. , i The guns of that , great battleship i which joined the Fleet not many days 1 ago are very true. •: The few on shore : who. knew of the leviathan's unheralded < 'coming, and waiphed with well-justified 1 pride the passing of the battle squad- 1 ron—the last word in naval Construe- i tion—-said to each other: "The guns < mounted on that boat are not intended i to hit ships." No, nor will they. They i will hit something else, and will crumble what they hit into ashes and dust. The i Germans recently launched a new i battleship, the von Hindeuburg. There ! were realistic pictures in the Gorman : .papers.-of...the ceremony. Even in this • country excellent illustrations appeared i of the great sliij leaving the ways; the i publicity was excellently stage-managed, ] and the built of the von Hindenburg ; launching into the water, even though ■ its engines may never b,s built in -—, i was supposed to show the people of tho Central Powers that the German "com- 1 niand" of the seas is no chimera, and i that organisation for its fruition-is pro- i ceeding. ~ 1 ■ Wo have a different 'way of doing i things in this country. Legions of men j work night and day among the great steel ribs, in the shipyards, legions ] more are at work-in the engine-rooms, ' and still more legions are in the forges i at Newcastle, Birkenhead, Barrow, and ] Parksliead casting the guns that will ■ scon make the British nation open the < eyes of the- Whole world.' The" great ; ships are.finished silently and secretly. : They pass out to their appointed place, | and wp hear nothing. Only a- few on : shore,watch them sail away. Prido in ■ their power beats fast in tli.e hearts of those who speed the moharehs of tlie deep on their way. All is conducted behind a veil. Heligoland. \ When, ill 1890, Lord Salisbury exchanged Heligoland to Germany, it is not improbable that ono of the secret considerations of the Cabinet of that time'was the knowledge that the island, was'rapidly crumbling away, and •that, at tho then' current rate of. sea erosion, in-less than twenty T five years the North Sea would make a clean sweep over-the disintegrated rubble heap.', ' ' . But Potsdam also knew all about the crumbling island, and they .grasped their opportunity-with.both hands. To the Salisbury diplomacy Heligoland was a disappearing island, disappearing before the ravages of the sea. As soon as the Germans came into. possession they proceeded to spend three million pounds iii concrete and steel, in facing up- the cliffs. They defied , the inroads oftho sea. and to-day they have an area of perhaps two miles, and behind them they have the harbour. The Germans, thinking of their movements a quarter of a century ahead, saw in i3io .dim outline of; tlieir naval policy the shadow of a harbour needed. Everybody knows that we have much ,ts be thankful for in tho configuration of our coast, unrivalled for tho purposes of defence. The East Coast is-planted like an iron wall a natural barrier to the foe. Into this coast Nature has let a wonderful harbour —ideal for our purpose. It has natural advantages, which, not very long before the war, were brought fc'o the Fleet's requirements, and the harbour has proved of inestimable value to our naval policy. The Toll of Rosyth, The Firth of Forth is familiar, and, in namo at least, so is tho vast naval base of Rosyth. The Firth of Forth, spanned by the great bridge which carries a valuable strategic railway, is opeii to attack by submarines, and possibly to aerial- craft, although its distance from the German coast almost precludes tho Zeppelin danger. But where the Grand Fleet goes attack in any form is impossible, either by air-'or , by sea, ' It is idle to think -that the Germans I are not aware of. the fastnesses of our Grand Fleet. Tlie lure of the Fleet to , their submarines has been more deadly than the brilliant glitter of the fenely 1 lighthouse to the migratory birds. There would 1 have been unbounded jubilation along'the banks of the Kiel Canal if a German submarine had steered its way up the Forth and [returned safely from an attack; honours would have been heaped upon any submarine commander who succeeded, in landing " but a single torpedo effectively among • the ships that lie in theso unnameablo. 3 waters, and returned to AVilhelnishaven • to tell the' tale. Tlicy know tlie way ■ Like brave men they have come, but f from thorn wo havo taken a full toll. Tlieir hardihood has exacted the full penalty, for whero the Grand Fleet goes it is imprcgnablo. Farther North. If you failed along ono part of/the .JjJ.oast .where thQ Grand Fleet sometimes

anchors, ami .you wore out three miles at sea, you would not know there was a break in the coastline, for so close do the headlands come, so narrow is the entrance, that it is scarcely observable to the untrained eye. I'et pass through the narrow neck, and thero in a beautiful stretch of water .designed by Nature, one would say, for tho very purpose for which it is now used. The water is of great depth, and it falls away like a lake sheer from tho mountain sides. Within recent times the hillside havo been transformed; the harbour;'is now a supply base with every modern equipment. Our battleships can go right up to the land under their own steam, and from the wooden piers, can be loaded with whatever they require; fuel can. bo obtained by pipes turned on to the enormous' oiltanks. This harbour is placed exactly wliero wo would design it to be. Away in the northern fastnesses, in regions trodden by few, there arc others. We have a 'harbour where tho fleets of. the whole- world could lie or manoeuvre, but no civilian can approach it. ■ I have told you of one priceless possession ; the mists must obscure the other. The Fleet does not always rest behind theso two headlands.. It is a far-flung net that we stretch in our blockade of the German ports, and there is patrol work to bo done away on the icy waters on tho border of the Polar regions, where the ships steam into tho teeth of the cruel nor'eastcr. The Nelson Tsuch." Our Jack Tars havo not lost tlie Nelson touch.. One of these patrol boats came homo one night with her bows smashed in. She was twelve hours from the port when she crashed into another boat. The one could not tender assistance to tho other, and tho patrol boat had to steam to her port, stern first. Tho twelve hours' voyago took her four days, and many times it looked as if a wave would nave been tho end of the crippled craft. It is exhausting, dangerous work but the men keep fit, and are always ready. On the hill-road the bluejackets are f route marching, and they look as Hard as'nails. The men have their long and tryii)£ their searching gunnery work", but tlicy aro exercising ;on' shore fairly often, or playing football.. The officers get recreation on the adjoining golf links. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand will be in the next, sea fight. In tho French journalists' account of a visit to the lileet they' mentioned four boats— Jellicoe's Iron Duke, Beatty's flagship, the Lion, the. boat the Germans "sank" i off the-Dogger.' Bank—the Tiger, and the boat the Turks 'destroyed'.' in the Dardanelles—the Queen Elizabeth. These inay have been the ships that ap-pealed-to tlieir imagination. But it will give joy in :our overseas Dominions to know that, whim we come to strike

the next blow on the sea the colonics, which have already won imperishablo fame in -Flanders and in Anzac, will be given their opportunity to strike for the freedom of the seas. AVheii 1 looked at the Fleet the other day Beatty's Lion crouched, tho far-thest-out ship in the anchorage. Immediately at heir head lay the Princess Royal, and then, further up the lino stretching for a mile, came tho Canada, the Australia, and the New Zealand. To us at homo the knowledge that, tho Iships, of .the colonies are with us iscauso for pride. To the Dominion especially tho news that the Canada is ;in commission will lie particularly gratifying:. Their men of war, I am tola, tiling it "does them proud." Formidable as the. Lion,' the Tiger, and the Princess Royal were, thegiajit of tho Maple Leaf appeared to one a more vivid touch of fighting power. Her lines faded into the. grey wavcsj_ and slio stood a naked fighting machine, stripped to t'ho waterline, perfect in sliapo and fashioned to . battle', with not one unnecessary fitting showing on the massive bull-dog frame. When shall we strike? When will

this vast armada cast off from its moorings, -not for a practice cruise—for it is useless-to-look on sea- for tho foe that is ever skulking on 'land—hut for a mission in which it will unshackle its mighty charged-up energy? Time only can tell where or whon tho next blow'will be struck. .Will, theso tc-rrible guns first blow into ruin that rubble-heap of the North Sea, and leave flip waves •to away tlio wreckage, or shall we go right on and cut our way on another course? These are Admiral Jellicoe's secrets, but . his 'men'think--that the Fleet, which has grown in strength every week since tlie War began, will, soon . show its giant poivet. ' ■

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19151228.2.56

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2654, 28 December 1915, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
2,017

SECRETS OF THE GRAND FLEET Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2654, 28 December 1915, Page 6

SECRETS OF THE GRAND FLEET Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2654, 28 December 1915, Page 6

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