nough till the
war broke out, which meant that some dreadnoughts had to be more or
less cramped so as to fit into the old-fashioned docks. The decks of
the battle cruisers were not strong enough to keep out armour-piercing
shells; so two of them were sunk at Jutland that might have otherwise
been saved. The means of guarding the big ships against mines and
submarines wore not nearly good enough at the start. There were
fishing craft enough, and fishermen who were as good sailors as the
world has ever seen, and dockyard hands enough to build new boats to
fish for the deadly mines and spread the nets for nosing submarines.
But they were not used in time.

Now look at the Germans. Their officers knew their navy had no chance
in a fair stand-up fight with Jellicoe's Grand Fleet. But even these
officers hoped that their mines and submarines, with a streak of good
luck, might make the odds more even. Apart from their naval experts
the Germans had no doubt at all. Their bluejackets and the German
people as a whole thought everything German the best in the world; and
long before the war the million members of the German Navy League had
been persuading the people to vote most of the money the Kaiser wanted
for his fleet. The Kiel Canal let the German High Sea Fleet play
hide-and-seek between the North Sea and the Baltic without the
slightest risk on the way. The British, on the other hand, could only
get into the Baltic by going round between Denmark and Sweden, both
being neutrals whose territories could not be touched. The way through
is so narrow that the water is all "territorial," that is, it belongs
to the countries beside it, and was, therefore, as neutral as they
were. But even if Denmark and Sweden had let the Grand Fleet go
through, it would have gone to certain defeat; for a weaker navy inside
the Baltic could have crushed the British as they came through one by
one--the only possible way.

Now look at the North Sea, which was the real battleground. The area
is about a hundred and twenty-five thousand square miles. But the
average distance you can see clearly, taking one day with another all
the year round, is only five miles. This was very nice for lurking
mines, sneaking submarines, and sudden cruiser raids against the
British coasts. The coastline of the British Isles is more than twenty
times as long as the North Sea coast of Germany, much easier to
navigate and very much harder to defend--another