45. THE BRITISH NAVY. Over a thousand years ago Alfred the Great fought and blockaded the Danes with his fleet of rowing boats. A thousand years later found Great Britain still the undisputed mistress of the seas, fighting and blockading the greatest military and the second strongest naval power on earth. It is a far cry from the wooden galleys of Alfred to the huge, steel and iron floating fortresses of the 20th century. Through out all their innumerable wars, the British people have never had the truth of Tennyson's ringing words more forcibly brought home to them that "the fleet of England is her all in-all," than in the gigantic struggle that broke out in 1914. If one were to ask the question, "What is the cause of the British Navy?' the answer could be given in one word— "geography.* The lives of nations, like those of individuals, are governed rather by acci dental circumstances than by design. The ac cident of her geographical position dictated that England must either become a maritime power of the first rank or remain the appanage of some other European state. There could be no alternative between these two extremes beyond, perhaps, a political status similar to that of Holland or of Belgium — an independ ent existence on sufferance "guaranteed* by stronger neighbors and liable to revocation. In so far as the British people had any opinion on the matter, it .was well expressed by the poet Thomson in 1740: When Britain first at Heaven's command Arose from out the azure main.
This was the charter of her land.
And guardian angels sung the strain: Rule. Britannia! Britannia rules the waves! Britons never shall be slaves.
In 56 B.C. Casar prepared the way for his invasion of Britain by leading an expedition to the estuary of the Loire, where he destroyed a great fleet massed by the Veneti to oppose his progress, and included in that fleet was a British contingent. In the third century of our era the Roman emperor Maximianus sent General Carausius to defend the coasts of Britain against the activities of Scandinavian pirates. For that purpose he was provided with a fleet and invested with the title of "Count of the Saxon shore in Britain." But Carausius was a pirate himself. He attacked the sea-rovers, appropriated their plunder, and wound up by appointing himself Emperor of Britain. His imperial status was acknowledged by Rome after he had defeated the Roman fleet that was sent to chastise him. He ruled the country well for seven years when he was murdered in 293 A.D. He made Britain an in dependent state and incidentally became the "father of the British Navy.' Some 600 years later King Alfred created an organized per sonnel and built vessels that were longer, higher and swifter than any others. The Saxon king Edgar (958-975) possessed a con siderable naval force divided into three squad rons stationed in the North Sea, the Irish Channel and off the north coast of Scotland. The warships of that time differed entirely from merchantmen in type of construction, but as the art of sailing developed, the two be came interchangeable. All the seas then trav ersed being infested with pirates, it was neces sary for every merchant vessel to be armed and its crews trained to fight. These ships formed a vast reserve to the standing naval forces. William the Conqueror granted cer tain privileges to the Cinque Ports (q.v.) on condition that they agreed to provide a six cific number of manned and armed vessels when ever needed. King John had some vessels of his own in addition to the feudal squadrons, but it took many years before a real national or "Royal' navy was created. Henry VII, who reigned from 1485 to 1509. founded the national dockyards at Portsmouth and Wool wich and also built the first "two-decker' in the British fleet, the Henri Grace d Dieu.
A court jester once remarked that it was better for a country to be ruled by a queen than by a king, for in the latter case the in fluence of women would prevail, whereas in the former the ascendancy of men was sure to make itself felt. Queen Elizabeth illus trated this maxim in a way never contemplated by the humorist, for it was in her reign that the foundations of England's maritime great ness and of her world-wide empire were laid.
When she ascended the throne England had not a single possession outside of Europe. The English navy was small and inefficient; con sidered apart from privately owned ships the Royal Navy can hardly be said to have ex isted at all. England was not then "a nation of shopkeepers,' but a nation of fishermen. During Plantagenet times England was no mis tress of the seas, hardly even a maritime state. Occasionally we find Medieval England in war times possessing a considerable fleet, which al ways dwindled away again when peace came. This decay of the navy frequently recurred. Then, when a new war broke out, the govern ment would issue a general license to all mer chant ships to act as privateers, and those ships responded by becoming pirates. Henry VIII laid the foundation of the modern Admiralty by creating the "Navy Office.' His navy at first consisted of but one ship—the Great Harry — a gaudy conception that resembled a floating circus. At his death he bequeathed a fleet of 12,500 tons to his successor. The Span ish navy, however, was at that time the finest in the world, for it owed its importance to the discoveries in America and was kept in an effi cient state in order to guard those recently acquired possessions in the west. Religion and America were the great causes of enmity between England and Spain. Philip II of Spain was actuated by a double policy— to crush the new-born Protestantism and to keep the newly discovered continent across the At lantic for Spain. In fact, until the Reformation Spain and Portugal had practically divided the New World between them. "Never since the Norman conquest had England counted so small a territory, never were her fortunes at so low an ebb as when, in the year 1558, the last of the Tudors assumed the reins of power." Elizabeth found able assistants in the mariners of Devon and Cornwall, who were always ready for adventure and not over scru pulous whether that spirit was satisfied by voyages of legitimate commerce or by the ex ploits of illegitimate piracy. But whether genuine traders or bold buccaneers, there is no doubt that they were mariners who had no rivals in seamanship. After the Reforma tion, which was carried out in the spirit and according to the methods of those times, a terrific energy began to seize the English people. It seemed as though the way across the ocean had suddenly been opened in all directions to English ships. The discovery of America and the West Indies had opened up new opportu nities for exploration and trade. Three na tions grasped the opportunity—first Spain, then Portugal, then Holland: England came last. Spain and Portugal had over 150 years' start of Great Britain, while both Holland and France were well in advance of her. But when that country did enter the lists, it was not only "Westward Ho!" that the British flag Was carried at the masthead. British ships at tempted the northeast and northwest passages; they sailed the Mediterranean — where English ships had not been seen since the Crusades. They sailed to America and discovered the coasts and creeks of the North; they sailed round the cape to India and China; they at tacked the Spaniard wherever they found him; they plundered his towns and took his ships. Commercial enterprise, combined with a love for adventure and the driving force of political necessity, led the hardy seamen of Elizabeth to the remotest corners of the world. They cultivated a creed they called the "Idolatry of Neptune." Since those "spacious days° the British navy runs like a continuous thread through almost every event in British history; in every great crisis it appears as the doininant and decisive factor. These early voyages gave the English sailors a mastery in the art of navigation and a contempt of danger, thus forming a valuable education which has ever stood their country in good stead.