Fifty Years in the Royal Navy Book

PREFACE IN this volume I have set down the recollections of a lifetime of sixty-five years. It deds with my service in the ltoyd Navy during a period of over half a century. I entered it when most of the ships were propelled by wind, steam being only an auxiliary our gun carriages differed little from those of Queen Elizabeths day midshipmen were punished in peculiar ways, and seamen received the c cat for comparatively minor offences. In 19 13 I was retired at my own request, and I thought that my active career had ended. I was mistaken, for, as these pages record, I was drawn into the back waters of the War and became associated again with gunnery matters, with the fight against the enemys submarines, and with the defence of London against aircraft, rendering to the best of my ability what service I could do to the country. I should not have decided to issue these chapters, which 1 began writing by way of recreation and amusement after I had gone on the retired list, if I did not hope that they might serve a useful purpose in future years. From the time when 1 was a junior lieutenant I was interested in gunnery, realising its importance, and this book is devoted mainly to describing my efforts, assisted by other officers-in particular, Admirals of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone and Viscount , Jellicoe-to improve the shooting of the British Fleet. How far these pages may prove of general interest I cannot tell, but they will at least show how opposed the Navy can be to necessary re forms, involving radical departures from traditional routine the extent to which national interests may be injured owing to conservative forces within, and without, the public services and what injury the country may suffer from politicians interfering in technical matters, which they necessarily do not xnderstand. It is my hope that ultimate benefit may result from an honest attempt to shed light upon matters of vital concern to the nation by means of my personal record. In that belief, these reminiscences have been published, and I would only wish to add that nothing has been set down in malice. Rly intention has been not to attack persons, but to expose rather the weaknesses and defects of our administrative machinery, in so far as I had experience of it. Obstinate opposition to change and reform is, in my opinion, a crime. In these days of rapid advance of science and swift development of mechanics, unless we move ahead we are bound to become retrograde. In order to hold our place in the world, in naval as well as in other affairs, v e must encourage initiative, and, above all, so far as the Sea Service is concerned, inculcate in our officers ideas consistent with a modern steam Navy, instead of clinging to traditions and routines which were good in their day, but are now obsolete. And I may add that I have not much belief in the influence of an eIabowtely organised Naval Staff at the Admiralty, for the best creation of that character, possessed by Germany, failed under the test of war, as Lord Jellicoes book on the record of the Grand Fleet has revealed. The Navy does not require a greatly expanded Naval Staff sitting in offices at the Admiralty performing routine work, most of which is unnecessary and seems to be done mainly in order to swell the number of officials employed. The Service requires open eyed, well-educated, progressive, practical seamen, spending most of their time afloat, and when employed at the Admiralty not immersed in dayto-day routine, but with time to think of the needs qf thefutz re a nd horn they should be met...Read More