isers,
two ordinary cruisers, and a number of gunboats, destroyers, submarines,
and torpedo boats. In New Zealand there were four cruisers. The
Australian fleet contained a battle cruiser, three ordinary cruisers,
three destroyers and two submarines. Other cruisers and gunboats were
stationed at the Cape, the west coast of Africa, and along the western
Atlantic. At the outbreak of the war two destroyers were purchased from
Chile, and two Turkish battleships, building in England, were
commandeered by the government.

It is evident that the union of France and Britain made the Allies
easily superior in the Mediterranean Sea, so that France was able to
transport her African troops in safety, and the British commerce with
India and the East could safely continue. The main field of the naval
war, therefore, was the North Sea and the Baltic, where Germany had all
her fleet, except a few naval raiders. The entrance to the Baltic was
closed to the enemy by Denmark, which, as a neutral, was bound to
prevent an enemy fleet from passing. Germany, however, by means of the
Kiel Canal, could permit the largest battle fleet to pass from the
Baltic to the North Sea. The German High Sea Fleet was weaker than the
British home fleet by more than forty per cent, and the German policy,
therefore, was to avoid a battle, until, through mine layers and
submarines, the British power should have been sufficiently weakened.
The form of the German coast made this plan easily possible. The various
bays and river mouths provided safe retreat for the German ships, and
the German fleet were made secure by the fortifications along the coast.
On July the 29th, 1914, at the conclusion of the annual maneuvers,
instead of being demobilized as would have been usual, the Grand Fleet
of Great Britain sailed from Portland along the coast into the mists,
and from that moment dominated the whole course of the war.

From the 4th of August, the date of the declaration of war, the oceans
of the world were practically rid of enemy war ships, and were closed to
enemy mercantile marine. Although diplomacy had not yet failed, the
masters of the English navy were not caught napping. The credit for this
readiness has been given to Mr. Winston Churchill, one of the first
Lords of the Admiralty, who had divined the coming danger. When the
grand fleet sailed it seemed to disappear from English view.
Occasionally some dweller along the coast might see an occasional
cruiser