rman East
Africa.

GERMANY'S FLEET.--When war was declared the German fleet, which had
cost the people of Germany a billion and a half of dollars, was
something less than two thirds the strength of the British fleet.
Germany's task was to destroy the British fleet or to weaken it to such
an extent that it could no longer protect the British trade in food and
munitions from over seas, nor assure the safe transport of troops from
Great Britain or her colonies to the various fronts.

THE WORK OF THE BRITISH NAVY.--The British navy had two pieces of work
to perform. In the first place its aim was to destroy or bottle up in
port the main German fleet so that it should not be able to interfere
with the British plans for the war. In the second place squadrons had to
be sent out to search for and destroy German squadrons or vessels that
were far from home ports at the outbreak of war or that were sent out to
raid British and neutral commerce.

COAST PROTECTION.--Both Great Britain and Germany protected their
coasts by laying fields of mines in the sea so placed that they would
float just under water and arranged to explode on contact with the hull
of a ship. Through these mine fields carefully hidden channels gave
access to the different ports. So long as ships stayed in port or
inside the fields of mines they were safe from attack.

THE BLOCKADE OF GERMAN PORTS.--In July, 1914, the British navy had a
grand review. When the review was over, the war clouds were so
threatening that the vessels were not dismissed to their stations. At
the beginning of the war Great Britain announced a blockade of German
ports and assigned to her main fleet the task of carrying out the
blockade.

THE BATTLE OF HELGOLAND BIGHT.--Hel'goland is a small island rising
steeply out of the North Sea; it has an area of one fifth of a square
mile. It was ceded to Germany by England about twenty years before the
war. Germany had fortified it and made it a sort of German Gibraltar to
protect her chief naval ports. The Bight of Helgoland is the passage
about eighteen miles wide between the island and the German coast. Here
a portion of the British fleet engaged in patrol or scout duty came in
contact with a part of the German fleet (August 28, 1914). The arrival
of four fast British battleships decided the contest. Germany lost three
cruisers and two destroyers, while every British vessel returned to
port, though some were badly battered.

GERMAN COMMER