These may be reckoned as scout cruisers, for they
showed much speed, the fastest making 30 knots and the slowest
19 knots. The oldest dates from 1900, and the newest from 1914.
Germany had, also, thirty-nine more fast protected cruisers which
were designed for scout duty.

In destroyers she was well equipped, having 143 ready for service
when war was declared. Her twenty-seven submarines were of the most
improved type, and much about their construction and armament she
was able to keep secret from the rest of the world. It is probable
that even their number was greater than the intelligence departments
of foreign navies suspected. The best type had a speed on the surface
of 18 knots and could travel at 12 knots when submerged. The type
known as _E-21_, of the design of 1914, measured 213 feet 8 inches
in length and had a beam of 20 feet.

Austria, though not renowned for her naval strength, had certain
units which brought up the power of the Teutonic powers considerably.
She had nine first-class battleships, the _Erzherzog Karl, Erzherzog
Ferdinand Max, Erzherzog Friedrich, Zrinyi, Radetzky, Erzherzog
Franz Ferdinand, Teggethoff, Prinz Eugen_, and _Viribus Unitis_.
These, at the time Austria went to war, ranged in age from nine
years to one year, and varied in displacement from 10,000 tons
to 20,000 tons. The largest guns carried by any of them measured
12 inches, and the fastest, the _Prinz Eugen_, made 20 knots. Of
secondary importance were the battleships _Kaiserin Maria Theresia,
Kaiser Karl VI_, and _St. Georg_. The register of battleships was
supplemented with ten light cruisers of exceptionally light
displacement, the highest being only 3,966 tons. Scouting was their
chief function. Austria had, also, 18 destroyers, 63 torpedo boats,
and 6 submarines.

Such were the respective strengths of the opponents on that day
in July, 1914, when the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary lost his
life. For ten years the officers of the navy created by the German
Admiral von Tirpitz had at all dinners come to their feet, waved
their wine glasses and had given the famous toast "Der Tag"--to
the day on which the English and German naval hosts would sally
forth to do battle with each other. "Der Tag" found both forces
quite ready, though the British naval authorities stole a march
on their German rivals in the matter of mobilization.

It had been the custom for years in the British navy to assemble
the greater part of the Britis