CHAPTER II
A BIT OF HISTORY
Up to this time the German Sea fleet, as a unit, had sufferedcomparatively little damage in the great war. Sheltered as it wasbehind the great fortress of Heligoland, the British sea forces hadbeen unable to reach it; nor would the Germans venture forth to givebattle to the English, in spite of the bait that more than once hadbeen placed just outside the mine fields that guarded the approach tothe great German fortress itself.
To have attacked this fortress would have been foolhardy and theBritish knew it. The British fleet, powerful though it was, would havebeen no match for the great guns of the German fortress, even had thebattleships been able to force a passage of the mine fields; and thislatter feat would have been a wonderful one in itself, could it beaccomplished.
Upon several occasions German battleships, cruisers and submarines hadventured from behind the mine field and had delivered raids upon theBritish coast, almost 400 miles away. How they escaped the eyes of thewaiting British was a riddle that so far had not been explained. Butwhile they reached alien shores in safety, they had not returned withthe same success. Twice the British had come into contact with theseGerman raiders and in each case the enemy had come off second best.Several German cruisers had been sent to the bottom.
After occasions like these, the Germans would lie long behind theirsnug walls before venturing forth into the open again. They held theBritish navy in too great awe to treat it lightly.
But the fact that the British were able to keep the German fleetbottled up was a victory in itself, though a bloodless one. Practicallyall commerce with Germany had been shut off. It settled down to aquestion of how long the German Empire could survive without thenecessary food and other commodities reaching her shores. What littlein the way of foodstuffs did reach Germany came by the way of theScandinavian countries--Norway, Sweden and Denmark; also some grain wasstill being shipped in by the way of Roumania and was being transportedup the Danube, which had been opened to traffic again after Serbia hadbeen crushed.
But these supplies were not great enough to take care of the wholeGerman population. In the conquest of Russian Poland, Germany hadimproved her lot somewhat, for the fertile fields had immediately beenplanted and a good crop had been reaped.
And the one thing that prevented Germany from importing the things thatwould in the end be necessary to her existence was the Britishsupremacy of the sea, abetted now somewhat by the navies of France,Italy and Japan. German commerce had been cleared from the seven seas.What vessels of war had been scattered over the world at the outbreakof the war had either been sent to the bottom, captured or wereinterned in foreign ports. These latter were of no value to Germany.
It had been more than a year now since the last German commerce raiderhad been sunk. The German commercial flag was seen no more in the fourcorners of the globe. It appeared that Germany was nearing the end ofher rope.
And yet, bottled up in Heligoland, remained the German high sea fleetpractically intact. It was a formidable fleet and one, it seemed, thatshould not be afraid to venture from behind the protection of thefortress. And some day, the world knew, when all other ways had failed,this great fleet would steam forth to give battle to the British, in alast effort of the German Emperor to turn the tide in his favor; andwhile, in the allied nations at least, there was no doubt of theultimate outcome of such a struggle, it was realized that the Germanfleet would give a good account of itself when it did venture forth.
Therefore, it was considered just as well that the British keep theGerman high sea fleet bottled up and give it no chance to reach theopen, where, although the greater part might be sent to the bottom,some vessels might escape and embark upon a cruise of commerce warfare.This bloodless victory, it was pointed out, was of just as great valueto Great Britain as if all the German ships of war had been at thebottom of the North Sea. Bottled up as they were, they were just asineffective.
This was the situation, then, when the _Queen Mary,_ with Jack andFrank aboard, steamed down the Thames and out into the North Sea totake up again her patrol of those waters; and there was nothing to warnthose on board of the great battle that even now was impending and thatwas to result disastrously for Great Britain, even though the Germanswere to suffer no less.
Mess over, Frank and Jack made their way to their own quartersamidships. Here they sat down and for some time talked over the eventsof the days gone by.
"I guess there will be nothing for us to do this night," said Frank atlast. "We may as well turn in."
"I am afraid there will be nothing for us to do for some time to come,"was Jack's reply. "I am afraid it will be rather monotonous sailingabout the North Sea looking for German warships, when the latter areafraid to come out and fight."
"Well, you can't tell," said Frank. "However, that's one beauty of asubmarine. You don't have to wait around for something to happen. Youcan go out and make it happen."
"That's so. But, by Jove! I wish these fellows would come out andfight! Maybe we could put an end to this war real quickly."
"Yes, but we might not," returned Frank.
"Why, don't you think we can thrash them?"
"I suppose we can; but at the same time they can do a lot of damage.Besides, some of them have come out. We've sunk some, of course, butthe others have returned safely enough. I can't see any excuse forthat."
"It does seem that they should have been caught," Jack agreed, "but Iguess Admiral Jellicoe, Admiral Beatty and the admiralty know what isgoing on."
"Sometimes it doesn't look like it," declared Frank. "I suppose thereare still some of these German submarines scooting about almost underour feet."
"I suppose so. However, ordinarily, as you know, they won't attack abattleship. It's too risky. If they miss with the first torpedo, thechances are they will be sunk."
"Well, we sunk a few," said Frank.
"I know we did; but we took long chances."
"The Germans take long chances, too."
"You must have a little German blood in you, Frank," said Jack, with asmile. "If I didn't know you better, I would think you were sticking upfor them."
"No, I'm not sticking up for them; but they do things we seem to beafraid to do. To my way of thinking, we should have gone and cleaned upHeligoland a long time ago."
"By Jove! You want the enemy to win this war quickly, don't you?"
"No, but----"
"Come, now. You know very well what would have happened if we had triedto take a fleet into Heligoland. They would have blown us out of thewater."
"Well, such things have been done," grumbled Frank. "I can tell you acouple of cases. At Mobile Bay----"
"Oh, I've heard all that before. But conditions now are absolutelydifferent. What was done fifty years ago can't be done today."
"They aren't being done, that much is sure," replied Frank. "But thisargument is not doing us any good. Me for a little sleep."
"I'm with you," said Jack.
And half an hour later, as the _Queen Mary_ still steamed due east,Frank and Jack slept.
Above, the third officer held the bridge. The great searchlight forwardlighted the water for some distance ahead, and aft a second light castits powerful rays first to port and then to starboard. There was notanother vessel in sight.
Farther to the east, other British battleships patrolled the sea, theirlights also flashing back and forth. It would be a bold enemy who wouldventure to run that blockade; and yet, in spite of this, the strictestwatch was maintained. For the fact still remained fresh in the minds ofthe British that upon two occasions the Germans had run the Britishblockade; and both times the failure of the British to intercept themhad resulted in heavy loss of life on the coast, where the Germanwarships had shelled unfortified towns--against all rules of civilizedwarfare--killing thousands of helpless men, women and children.
It was against some such similar attack that the British warships werepatrolling every mile of water. The British coast must be protected. Nomore
German raiders must be allowed to slip through and bombardundefended coast towns.
Also, strict watch was kept aloft. For almost nightly now, huge GermanZeppelins were sailing across the sea and dropping bombs upon the coastof Kent, upon Dover, and close even to London itself. It was fearedthat one of these monsters of the air might swoop down upon thebattleships and, with a well directed bomb, send the vessel to thebottom of the sea.
All British war vessels were equipped with anti-aircraft guns and thesewere ever loaded and ready for action; for there was no telling whatmoment they might be called into use to repel a foe. Upon severaloccasions attacks of the Zeppelins had been beaten off with these guns,though, up to date, none had been brought down.
But now there had been perfected a new anti-aircraft gun. With this itwas believed that the battleship stood a good chance of bringing down aZeppelin should it venture near enough.
With such a gun the _Queen Mary_ had been equipped as she wasoverhauled in dry dock. With this gun went four men. One to stand bythe gun at night and keep watch of the sky and a second to do duty inthe day time. The other two men stood relief watches and were ofadditional need should one of the first men be injured, taken sick orkilled.
And so it was that, as the _Queen Mary_ continued on her way, one ofthese men stood by his gun just aft of the bridge, watching the sky.Nor did he shirk his task.
Almost continuously his eye swept the dark heavens, following, as wellas he could, in the path of one or the other of the searchlights. Heused powerful night glasses for this purpose. Suddenly he gave a start.He looked closely again through his glasses. Then he uttered a cry ofalarm.
The third officer, on the bridge, gave an exclamation.
"What do you see?" he demanded.
"Zeppelin," was the reply. "Douse the light aft. Have the man forwardsee if he can pick up the craft with his flash. About two points eastby north."
There came sharp commands aboard the _Queen Mary._