The blockade work of the examination service and of the armed boarding steamers has been extremely hazardous. It has called for the greatest qualities of seamanship, because conducted in every condition of weather and when storm and fog have made it extremely perilous to approach the neutral vessels—which, moreover, have sometimes proved to be armed enemies in disguise. Hundreds of vessels have been brought into port by the Navy in those northern waters. Sleepless vigilance has been required and the highest skill of the sea in every possible condition of the service, while the seaman has become a statesman in his dealings with the neutral shipmaster. It has been for the Navy to bring the ships into port, and for other authorities to inquire into their status and to take them before the Prize Court if required.
The German High Sea Fleet having failed, the submarine campaign was instituted, and began chiefly in the North Sea. It has never answered the expectations of its authors. It has not changed the strategic situation in any degree whatever. Great damage has been inflicted upon British interests, and valuable ships and cargoes have been sunk, and officers and men cast adrift in situations of ruthless hardship. The tale of the sea has never had a more terrible record, nor one lighted by so much noble self-sacrifice and unfailing courage.
Far flung the Fleet then, Freeing the seas, Clearing the way for men, Merchantmen these. Sinking or flying, Broken their power, The enemy dying Left England Her dower.
In the foregoing chapter some reference was made to the campaign of the German raiding cruisers and armed liners against British and Allied commerce in the distant waters of the Atlantic and Pacific during the early months of hostilities, and before we go any further this aspect of the war must be discussed. One object of the enemy was to lead to a scattering of British naval strength, but in this he was wholly disappointed. The distribution of the British Fleet remained unchanged, and the great numbers of swift cruisers and armed liners, which had been apprehended as presenting a formidable menace to commerce, made but a feeble appearance. The commerce-raiding campaign gave rise, however, to a good deal of alarm at the time, though it surprised no one who understood the means made available by the scientific and mechanical developments of modern naval warfare, and who had studied them in the light of history.