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NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2007 45
Towards the day
1905 and
of reckoning
all that
Tyne team
ON A dull and rather cold
January morning aboard HMS
Northumberland in 2004, a
THE latest volume from
French journalist buttonholed
Maritime Books championing the
then First Sea Lord Admiral Sir
works of Britain’s shipbuilding
Alan West.
industry casts its eye upon the
Would events marking the
Tyne.
bicentennial of Trafalgar be
Like the Clyde it was a hotbed
plagued by chauvinism, he
of construction from the mid
inquired.
19th to late 20th Century.
It was a question which would
And one name among many
have been even more apt a
on the Tyne stands out: Swan
century earlier.
Hunter.
Back in 1905, Trafalgar was
The firm had been in existence
almost tangible: the last survivor
for four decades before the
of the battle had died just a
Admiralty finally placed a
dozen years before, Victory
contract: a floating dock for
was still afloat in Portsmouth
Bermuda in 1902.
Harbour (as were other wooden
From then until 2006, scores
hulks) and Britain still had the
of warships and auxiliaries
greatest fleet in the world – and
emerged from the Wallsend
one which still possessed an aura
yard – but surprisingly only one
of invincibility.
battleship (HMS Anson).
And memories of Anglo-
That doesn’t mean that Ian
French antagonism were much
SMS Westfalen, one of Germany’s fi rst Dreadnoughtschiffe,
Buxton’s photo-history, Swan
more raw. Fortunately, the Kaiser
leads a battle line of the High Seas Fleet
Hunter-built Warships (£17.99,
decided to build a battle fleet and
ISBN 978-1-904459-293) is not
Germany supplanted France as
bristling with famous names,
Public Enemy No.1.
however.
Indeed the centenary of
... Throughout
The present Illustrious and Ark
Trafalgar could not have fallen
THE assassination of
Germany, Eng
land is
storming ashore in East Anglia. air-craft. And they were granted
Royal both careered down the
at a better – or worse – moment
Archduke Ferdinand and
Swan slipway.
hatred, and, indeed,
Fortunately, as Philip Dumas audiences with the Kaiser.
in the nation’s history, as David
his wife in a Sarajevo
saw it, the German lacked The arrogant, foppish Wilhelm
So too, the wartime Edinburgh,
Shannon shows admirably in his
will continue to be
invention. He was an excellent
II never could understand why
the ‘Geordie Gunboat’ HMS
delicious curate’s egg Nelson
street one Sunday in June so f
or many years to organiser, “but he has little building a German battlefleet
Newcastle and a smattering of
Remembered (Broadside, 1914 might have ignited come...
originality, powers of initiation or
upset the British.
Type 42s, 22s and 23s.
c.£12.50 ISBN 978-0-9804012-
the European powder keg,
The day of rec
independent thought”.
ko
0-2).
ning
“It is absurd England always
The latter, in the shape
but the fuse had been lit
Like Whitehall, Dumas watched
Just the year before Britain
with England is f
elt to
looking at Germany,” he blurted
of Westminster, Richmond,
the growth of the High Seas Fleet
and France had buried the
years before. be not so v
to Capt Hugh Watson barely a
Marlborough and
ery distant.
with alarm. By 1920 it would
Northumberland were the last
year before the two fleets became
hatchet and signed the Entente
Britain’s road to war began
...
be almost a match for Britain’s
true Swan Hunter-built vessels.
outright enemies.
Cordiale... which rather posed
in the dying years of the 19th
The yard went out of business
I believe that at
Grand Fleet.
a problem for His Britannic
Century when Germany began “It is becoming a matter of
In the end, fear begat fear.
at the end of 1994, only to be
Majesty’s Government when it
building a fleet with the explicit
the bottom of ev
ery enormous interest to check this
The Admiralty was worried
resurrected by Dutchman Jap
came to the 100th anniversary
aim of challenging the Royal Navy German’s hear
t today
ambition by every means in our
of the German threat and built
Kroese.
of Trafalgar – grand celebrations
on the high seas.
is rising a f
a battlefleet accordingly. Berlin
aint and
power,” he warned the Admiralty.
A decade later he successfully
really would be rubbing France’s
And that decision to build a
responded in kind. The press of bid to build RFA Largs and
wildly exhilarating
Germans dismissed such talk as
noses in it.
Hochseeflotte – High Seas Fleet nonsense. They chided Britons for
both nations fanned hatred. A Lyme Bays – which ran severely
And so the government took a
– as it was grandly called, led to
hope that a g
lorious talking of the ‘German menace’. showdown between the two navies over budget and sounded the
back seat. There were few official
an insatiable appetite for news day is approac
hing
They denied ever considering was inevitable.
final bell for the yard.
events – and no fleet review.
and intelligence on the latest
when by a bra
ve
invading the British Isles.
But you can’t keep a good man
developments in the Reich.
breaking through of
As the first decade of the 20th
down; the immortal memory
Historian Matthew Seligmann Century became the second,
proved to be, er, immortal.
has ploughed through the
the lines whic
h he feels so increasingly air power was
Despite Whitehall’s best efforts
archives of the Foreign Office and are encircling him a growing factor in the Anglo-
the land, indeed the Empire, was
Admiralty and dug out more than
he might even wrest
German naval race.
gripped by ‘Nelson fever’ (as in
200 of the most important letters,
command of the seas
One Kapitän zur See (Captain)
2005 the admiral was at the hub
memoranda and notes filed by Eduard von Pustau made no
of everything).
successive British naval attachés
from England and thus
secret of what he expected of the
There were torchlight
in Berlin between 1906 and the become a member of new airships:
processions, dances, concerts,
outbreak of war and compiled
the greatest P
ower by
“We have the means of carrying
dinners, church services, town
them in Naval Intelligence from
land or sea the world
the war into British country and
halls and public buildings were
Germany (Navy Records Society, in England one imagines with
decked in flowers and flags,
£70 ISBN 978-0-7546-61573).
has ever seen.
terror that one can already hear
publishers churned out Trafalgar-
And despite the serve Capt Philip Dumas RN the beating of the screws of the
related books, awful doggerels
limitations these officers faced,
Berlin, July 1
908
zeppelin cruisers.”
and tunes (strangely beloved
this impressive volume shows they The attachés enjoyed a
by the Edwardians – witness
built up a comprehensive picture privileged position. They were
the aftermath of the Titanic’s
of the German Navy, its men and permitted interviews with von
loss) were printed, there were
machines, in the rush to war. and promptly scattered their latest
Tirpitz, architect of the High Seas
lectures, talks, slideshows, and, in
The Kaiser’s Reich was barely vessels away from prying English
Fleet. They were given flights over
Monmouth, children formed the
less suspicious of foreigners than eyes.
the Reich in new heavier-than-
letters N E L S O N in a field.
Hitler’s a generation later. Britain It wasn’t just the size, armour
Celebrations in Portsmouth
had no undercover agents and and armament of their ships which
were surprisingly subdued.
what ‘spies’ it sent were invariably the Germans liked to keep under
HP BOOKFINDERS: Established
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as usual and her hull and masts
So much of what was gleaned even to learn the ship’s name as
were illuminated by electric
by the Admiralty came from its they were often referred to by
of print titles on all
RARE AND OUT OF PRINT
lights, powered by submarine
attachés. initials or bore the prefix Ersatz
subjects. No obligation or SAE
NAUTICAL BOOKS
HMS B1 tied alongside.
Instead, the naval attachés pored – substitute – a replacement for an required. Contact: Mosslaird,
ON LINE AT
Trafalgar Square proved
over newspapers and journals; they older ship being decommissioned. Brig O’ Turk, Callander, FK17 8HT
to be the focal point for
relied on a network of informers, German sailors never talked
Telephone/Fax: (01877) 376377
www.mclarenbooks.co.uk
commemorations. Perhaps one
who had access to German about life on board, about
catalogues issued retail premises (restricted hours)
martin@hp-bookfinders.co.uk
million people filed through the
shipyards; they gleaned what drill, about practices, training,
McLAREN BOOKS LTD.
great plaza on October 21 1905
they could from dinner parties exercises.
as the base of Nelson’s column with German officers – learning,
Instead, it fell to a series of Harrier Carriers
22 JOHN STREET, HELENSBURGH, G84 8BA
tel. 01436 676453 email sales@mclarenbooks.co.uk
vanished beneath a sea of wreaths for example, that the Kaiserliche
contacts: engineers, dockyard
Vol 1
from all over the world (one Marine enjoyed “three salt meat
workers, businessmen, politicians,
from New Zealand had been and biscuit days a month”.
senior naval officers, as well HMS INVINCIBLE
encased in ice to preserve it on its Occasionally, German officers
as some clandestine travels
By Neil McCart
mammoth voyage). were even garrulous. Offi cers in
and inquiries by the attachés The well illustrated story of the first of
Publicly, the government could the Admiralstab, the German
themselves to build up a picture
the Royal Navy’s new generation of aircraft
not endorse this outpouring of Admiralty, paraded around Berlin
of the German Navy.
carriers from the Falklands War to the early
nationalistic fervour. Privately, like peacocks within six weeks
And what they discovered did
years of the 21st Century.
it was delighted that the Empire of Dreadnought’s launch, proudly
not always please their masters.
Hardback Price £19.95+ p&p. ISBN 1 901225 08 9
rallied to support its Navy, past crowing that they had the plans of
Admiral Fisher famously told
Also Still Available in Hardback:
and present. Before the decade the new battleship.
the public not to worry about the FEARLESS & INTREPID 1965~2002 £24.00 + P&P
was out, the British public would But invariably, the hospitality
German threat: “Sleep easy in COLOSSUS-CLASS AIRCRAFT CARRIERS 1944-1972 £24.00 + P&P
be on the streets clamouring for of German officers to the visiting
your beds.”
HMS HERMES 1923 & 1959 £24.00 + P&P
more dreadnoughts: We want eight Royal Navy comrades extended
But Capt Philip Dumas, his
THREE ARK ROYALS 1938~1999 £23.00 + P&P
and we won’t wait. only as far as ward rooms; they
attaché in Berlin from 1906-08,
TIGER, LION & BLAKE 1942~1986 £21.50 + P&P
Sadly, it seems unlikely that were less inclined, and often
warned that the invasion Whitehall
2005’s commemorations have bluntly refused, to show other
almost nonchalantly dismissed
HMS VANGUARD 1944~1960 BRITAIN’S LAST BATTLESHIP £19.95 + P&P
sparked similar interest in the parts of their ships.
was distinctly possible.
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Senior Service. When Admiral Jellicoe attended
In a scenario almost identical
HMS GLORY 1944-1961 £19.95 + P&P
Kiel Week in 1910 he did so with
to The Riddle of the Sands, Dumas
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■ Available from Broadside,
PO Box 7040, Karawara 6152, an eye less on the regatta than
envisaged cruisers, steamers and
by sterling cheque, postal order, or by VISA/MASTERCARD/SWITCH. Telephone/Fax/Email orders welcomed.
Western Australia or www. on the battleships of the Kaiser’s
lighters crammed with German
From FAN PUBLICATIONS, 17 Wymans Lane, Cheltenham, Glos GL51 9QA.
broadsidemaritime.com fleet; the Germans were not fooled
troops crossing the North Sea and
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