The brute is usually a coward at heart. The sinking of unarmed
merchant ships and of hospital ships by the German U-boats, the bombing
of undefended towns and hospitals, and the firing upon Red Cross
workers were acts of brutes and cowards. So it is not strange that the
great German fleet which all through the war, except at the battle of
Jutland, had hidden in security behind the guns of Heligoland and the
defenses of the Kiel Canal lost its soul when, as a last hope, it was
ordered out to fight the Allied fleet. The German sailors knew the
battle would really be a gigantic sacrifice and refused to fight it for
the Fatherland.

There is always a very slight chance that through accident or some
peculiar combination of unusual circumstances, a battle even against
very great odds may be won. The German fleet had this chance--a very,
very slight one, to be sure; and did not take it. The fleet had lost
its soul.

Two weeks later, after the signing of the armistice, the German fleet
surrendered to the Allies. It was the greatest, the most amazing, and
some add, the most shameful surrender in the naval history of the
world. It was also the greatest concentration of sea power and the
most magnificent spectacle old ocean has ever witnessed.

The surrender was demanded by the terms of the armistice and was made
on November 21, according to the program laid down by the commander of
the British fleet. It was not the surrender of a foe beaten in a fair
battle and yet recognized by his enemies as worthy of his steel. It
was the surrender of a foe who declined to fight with the strong and
the armed, but who had taken every opportunity to kill the weak and the
defenseless. The British sailors could not forget, and they say they
never will, the barbarous treatment of their brothers in the merchant
marine by the German U-boats. There was therefore none of the sympathy
and the fraternization that usually has accompanied a great surrender
at sea.

On the afternoon of the day before the surrender the following notice
was posted on all the Allied ships:--

"Let it be impressed on all--officers and men--that a state of war
exists during the armistice. Their relations with officers and men of
the German navy with whom they may now be brought in contact are to be
strictly of a formal character in dealing with the late enemy, while
courteous.

"It is obligatory that the methods by which they waged war must not be
forgotten.