or destroyer sweeping by in the distance, but the great
battleships had gone. Somewhere, in some hidden harbor, lay the vigilant
fleets of England.

Sea fighting had changed since the days of Admiral Nelson. The old
wooden ship belonged to a past generation. The guns of a battleship
would have sunk the Spanish Armada with one broadside. In this modern
day the battleship was protected by aircraft, which dropped bombs from
the clouds. Unseen submarines circled about her. Beneath her might be
mines, which could destroy her at the slightest touch. Everything had
changed but the daring of the English sailor.

In command of the Home fleet was Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. He had had a
distinguished career. Beginning as a lieutenant in the Egyptian War of
1882, he had become a commander in 1891. In 1897 he became a captain,
and served in China, commanding the Naval Brigade in the Pekin
Expedition of 1900, where he was severely wounded. Later he became naval
assistant to the Controller of the Navy, Director of Naval Ordnance and
Torpedoes, Rear-Admiral in the United Fleet, Lord Commissioner of the
Admiralty and Controller of the Navy, Vice-Admiral commanding the
Atlantic fleet, Vice-Admiral commanding the second division of the Home
fleet, and second Sea Lord of the Admiralty. He had distinguished
himself in the naval maneuvers of 1913, and was one of the officers
mainly responsible for the development of the modern English navy. He
had the confidence of his colleagues, and a peculiar popularity among
the British seamen.

On the day after the declaration of war, the first shots were fired.
German mine layers, it is now believed, in disguise, had been dropping
mines during the preceding week over a wide area of the North Sea. On
the 5th of August the mine layer, Koenigen Luise, was sunk by the
destroyer Lance, and on August 6th the British light cruiser Amphion
struck one of the mines laid by the Koenigen Luise and was sunk with
great loss of life. On August 9th, German submarines attacked a cruiser
squadron without causing any damage, and one submarine was sunk.

It was in the Mediterranean, however, that the greatest interest was
felt during the first week of the war. Two German war ships, the Goeben
and the Breslau, were off the Algerian coast when war broke out. It is
probable that when these ships received their sailing orders, Germany
depended on the assistance of Italy, and had sent these ships to its
assistance. They w