-"A Fleet in Being"
[November
5th 2003]
Publication
The full title of this booklet, published in
In
Sussex Edition, Volume XXVI, Page 478 (1938). Burwash Edition, Volume XX, Page 408 (1941).
Scribner's Edition did not include them. The first collected form in
The cover
The drawing on the cover of the booklet (above) shows a battleship of "the
great Majestic class", probably the Majestic herself, but
the details are not quite clear enough to rule out the Magnificent.
[Although the class of nine ships were officially identical, even when new
there were subtle differences which would have distinguished one from another
(e.g., the precise positioning of the cowls, clustered around the base of the
funnels which admitted combustion air to the boiler-rooms. And if that were not
sufficient (and at a distance it might well not be), the ships sported a ‘bar
code’, one, two or three horizontal bars) on their funnels. Today’s books of
reference indicate that this was introduced in the Channel Fleet in 1903, when
the old black, white and buff paintwork gave way to grey. However, Norman
Wilkinson’s illustration on the cover of the 1898 edition clearly shows a ship
with a single distinguishing band on her funnel. Unfortunately, there are no
books of reference to confirm which ship this might have been. A.W.]
The artist, then a young man of 20, had a distinguished career. He became
President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, was well-known
for his marine painting in both oils and water colour, and was awarded the
C.B.E. In the 1914-18 War, he was responsible for the
"dazzle-painting" of H. M. ships and merchantmen, to make them more difficult
targets for U-boats. A number of his paintings, covering both World Wars, which
he presented to the nation, may be seen in the
Some general comments
As Kipling says, it was a new world into which he stepped and it is hardly
surprising that he fell into an occasional error. These, however, are of no
great account. His interest in all that went on, his appreciation of men
devoted to their profession, and his fresh, keen eye, raise the book well above
mere journalism and give a valuable picture of the Royal Navy at an interesting
stage in its development.
In contrast to ten years earlier, when the number and quality of the ships
assembled for the Queen's Golden Jubilee Naval Review had been a source of
concern to those in a position to judge their real worth, in 1897 the Fleet was
strong, up-to-date, and bent on using its new weapons effectively. Nonetheless,
there was still a characteristically British and somehow engaging touch of amateurism
in its methods and outlook. This was typified, perhaps, in the appearance of
the ships themselves; they still had black hulls, a red or coppersheathed waterline, white upperworks and buff or ochre funnels and masts.
Long-range gunnery and wireless were still in an experimental stage. (Wireless
was first used on a large scale in the Manoeuvres of 1899, after which the
First Lord was able to report that it worked well so long as it was confined to
one ship at a time.) Cruisers, responsible direct to the senior Admiral and
controllable only within visual signalling range, still enjoyed their last
taste of the romantic independence of their forebear, the frigate, cf.
Kipling's poem "Cruisers". A few years later they were being
organised in squadrons under cruiser admirals, with a control greatly extended
by wireless.
[In the paragraph above, Admiral Brock refers to late Victorian warships having
a “coppersheathed
waterline”. This was the literal truth, though it applied only to ships on
tropical stations. The copper-sheathing of ships’ underwater hulls had
commenced in the 1770s, with a view to reducing the fouling by weed, and
preventing the depredations of the marine boring worm ‘teredo navalis’
– hence something which was copperbottomed
was solid and reliable. When the first iron ships were built, it was found that
an unprotected iron bottom grew weed and barnacles much faster than a copper
bottom, and the Admiralty called a halt to iron shipbuilding in the 1840s until
this, and other problems, had been sorted out. In the mid-1850s the first
anti-fouling paints were introduced, but even then, ships needed to be docked
at fairly frequent intervals to remove marine growth. In the ‘far-flung’
corners of the empire, dry docks were few and far between, so the battleship
flagships of the China Station, and a number of cruisers, had their steel hulls
below the waterline sheathed in teak, and then coppered in the old way. This
endured until about 1903/4, when new dry-docks at Hong Kong came into use, and
better anti-fouling paints were in use. A.W.]
Other changes were also just over the horizon. Amongst these were the challenge
implicit in the German Navy Laws of 1898 and 1900, framed by Admiral Tirpitz
and backed by Emperor Wilhelm II, and the far-reaching, if not invariably
well-aimed, reforms of the Royal Navy tirelessly and relentlessly forced on by
Admiral "Jackie" Fisher, the First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910. These
were to make life real and earnest indeed. Though it would have been surprised
to know it, the Channel Squadron in 1897 was enjoying a comparatively peaceful
interlude of assimilation and quiet evolution.
Title
The title, "A Fleet in Being", was borrowed by Kipling from the pages
of British naval history, where it has a special significance dating back to
1690 when Lord Torrington, commanding William III's naval force in the Channel, found himself
facing a stronger French fleet. He proposed to avoid a set battle, except under
very favourable conditions, until he could be reinforced. By thus keeping his
fleet in being, he could maintain an active threat which would force the enemy
to remain concentrated and so prevent him from taking the initiative elsewhere.
(Sir Julian Corbett discusses this policy at some length in his book "Some
Principles of Naval Strategy", Chapter III, Section I). Kipling, of
course, is using the phrase in a literal sense.
Sub-title
Though often called the Channel Fleet, which was natural enough in view of the
number and variety of its ships, officially this force was the Channel
Squadron, until June 1903, when for eighteen months it was a Fleet. In
December, 1909, as part of a general reorganisation started by Admiral Sir John
Fisher (First Sea Lord 20th October 1904 to January 1910), it became the
Atlantic Fleet. At the same time the Home Fleet became the Channel Fleet.
[P.W.B./A.W.]
Source:
© These notes were originally
written by Rear Admiral P. W. BROCK, C.B., D.S.O.
for the ORG in 1961. For the new Guide, additions and minor amendments have
been made by Commander Alastair Wilson, Royal Navy. So thorough were Admiral
Brock’s notes that very few changes have been found to be necessary. Some
additions have been made, to add explanations of what might have been expected
to be known generally, forty years ago. They will be found in square brackets
© http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_fleet_intro.htm
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Academic
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Universitat
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