THE SPIRIT OF THE NAVY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2790, 7 June 1916, Page 4

THE SPIRIT OF THE NAVY

The details _of the great North Sea. btfttle which are now filtering through serve to bring homo to us onco again tho indomitable spirit of tho British sailor—officer and man. The story of this greatest and most terrible of sea fights presents a picture in which tho outstanding figures are the men who went so bravely and so cheerfully into a struggle tho horrors of which almost surpass' the power of imagination, and fought and endured and died, if fortune so willed, as a simple matter oi duty. While we sorrow for so many bravo men lost, we may well tak6 pride in their confident courage, their supreme readiness to face any odcls, their unsullied heroism, their instinctive devotion to the traditions thab have made tho British Navy at onca the admiration and the envy of tho whole world. The spirit of the Navy is a wonderful thing. It is nbt merely pride of race, or efficiency, or chivalrous courage, or sense of duty, or discipline, or unyielding will, or reckless dafing—it is not ipy one of these things, but a blending of- all strengthened by a deep and ineradicable sentiment for the old ship and the old flag. It is a spirit which carries men to the greatest heights of courago' and self-sacrifice, as though no other course were within their range of thought. The sailors of Britain have shown in this great war tho heroic virtues and all the great fighting qualities of the men who first made Britain the Mistress of the Seas. Whether, facing certain destruction as did the gallant men with Cradock off the coast of Coronel; whether striking a staggering blow at the enemy as did the men with Stuedee off the Falkland Islands; whether helplessly strickcn as were the brave fellows who went down with the Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy. submarined off the coast of Holland; or whether confronted with overwhelming odds as wero the men of Admiral Beatty's battle-cruiser squadron, thoy met ill-fortune or good, as it came to them, with unflinching oourage. We deplore the loss of the brave, but have left us an imperishable memory to treasure and a noble example of duty nobly done to follow.