"JACKIE" FISHER.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

"JACKIE" FISHER.

A GREAT ENGLISHMAN. CREATOR OF MODERN NAVY.

(By E.V.D.j

The British ' Navy is by the 'public admired, trusted, and — taken for granted. School histories have much to tell of the glorious days of sail, from the Armada to Trafalgar, but of the making of the modern-navy how little is known. Yet the differences between the fleet which Nelson gave' imperishable renown and that which Jellicoe commanded at Jutland are so great. at to be. ludicroui. And the man who did incomparably more. than any other to create the modern British Navy—how many laymen know even his name? ; A study of 1 the life of "Jackie" Fisher* must convince every reader that he was not only the greatest figure in British naval history after' Nelson, but one of the strangest and most momentous personalities in the whole history of the racfe. His character and achievements are not yet known to "every schoolboy," but when a popular biography or. a biography for boys . comes to be" written it will reign for long above the most exciting works of Kingsley, ; Marryatt and Ballantyne — even, perhaps, Edward S. Ellis! ... I ; ;; Major Reforms in Fleet. , j Fisher rose in the Navy from the rank of midshipman ,to the highest rank of Admiral of the Fleet. The significance of this ; rise was that the ■ Navy which he left was vitally different from the j• ' * one. he joined, and the revolutionary changes that were made were largely due to his own vision, courage and prodigious, tenacity. He introduced the wafer tube; boiler, reorganised the education of naval officers, introduced the Dreadnought type of battleship, purge f the fleet of ships useless for fighting, j and redistributed the fleets to suit the changing international situation. These were lii» major reforms; there were many, minor ones. For every one he had to fight.. His enemies at first were conservatism, ignorance and honest doubt, but to these were added-jealousy, envy and malice, both in the Navy and out of it. His own temperament, which, was swift, autocratic and ruthless, estranged and offended many people, but it alone does not explain the campaign of vicious calumny, which was directed against him in tlie years immediately before the -war, and during and after-tie wax.

■ "Ready.; for Instant War.' 1 The ( man himself; as revealed in his letters,, which -form a 1 large part of this book, was delightful. He was'in the Navy,a Mussolini, but he had a sense of humour —sardonic and devastating, it .is true, but natural and irrepressible. , He had. but one aim, to .jnake and keep the Navy "ready for instant war." An initial 1 naval defeat, he was convinced, would be "irreparable, irretrievable and eternal"; he would leave nothing undone- which might preyent it. He broke almost every tradition of the service, but never wantonly, and the traditions he created were, it seems to the reader, the traditions of the Navy which are most admired to-day. Chose Jellicoe to Command. In November, 1911, Fisher predicted that Britain \v;ould be : at war with Germany in October, 191'4. It was no idle guess, and the fact that heavas two months out was; due to his calculation that Germany would not fight until after the harvest had been gathered. So certain was he of what was coming, and when, that unofficially he exerted' all his. immense influence "to get Jellicoe Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet prior to October, 1914, which is the date of the Battle of Armageddon." Two ■ months later, again referring to Jellicoe, he wrote: "He has all the attributes of Nelson, and., his age." When the war came in August, 1914, >Fisher had been nominally in retirement for. five years, but all the time he had been watching the tendency of events at/the Admiralty, and using persuasion and influence to ensure that his work was carried on. Before the war was 'three,, months old he was recalled to his old poet of First Sea Lord.' He was then 73 years of age. Twenty-four hours after he resumed office the disastrous battle; off Coronel was fought. With all his characteristic decisiveness and vigour,' he immediately sent two cruisers to the Falkland and soon after came the- news of Sturdee's' victory in an engagement that was, at least from the •British point of view, the only really satisfactory naval battle of the war. The credit was undoubtedly Fisher's. In May, 101f>, the veteran retired, in consequence of the Dardanelles expediion, of Which he disapproved. The history of his wrangle with Winston Churchill and the War Council is given at length— and, one suspects, not entirely dispassionately —in this book. It makes sorry reading, and a ead end to the • illustrious career of a great patriot. One could wish that he had died as Nelson died, at the crest of his greatest achievement. ' . - Admiral Bacon has done his work well ;by* making '< full use J of Fisher's letters, the meaning of which is never obscure. And the stories told about Fisher are capital. , " ♦"Lord Admiral of the Fleet." A biography by Admiral Sir R. M. Bacon. Two volumes. „ Hodder and Stougfrtoii,; pautom