THE BRITISH NAVY

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 48

THE BRITISH NAVY

THE COMING OF ADMIRAL SHI JOHN FISHER. The best of ships for the bsst of men, The best of guns for the best of shots, Vnd the" best of the Fleet at its head, and j then — : Pooh-pooh! for the whole world's noisy p-]ots. ; On the eve of the anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar— a good fighting day, us he himself has called it, — Sir John Fisher becomes the First Sea Lord of Great Britain. It is a big day for England, this 21st of October, a day which brings the rich sound -of waves and the colour and motion Df the sea into the lives of townsmen, a Any of salt breezes and wide shores, a day of great deeds and everlasting memories. However far_we may be from the ocean, however circumscribed by bricks ani- mortar, we recognise to-day that we are an island people, a race of sailors. We can almost feel the pavements of London roek•ng with -the -movement of the surrounding tea. We are • almost tempted t^Assume a wiling gaitj- and to hitch up^mr neat , grousers as" we walk up the Strand. And jrhen we look up to Nelson on his Column, draining his eye through 'the fog towards ihe -Admiralty -and Westminster, we are reninded that for this island Empire the lommand of -.the sea is our first necessity, md that the navy is, and must always, be, iur all in all. -. Sir John Fisher .carries the- Nelson tradition into our modern navy. He was born b 18*1, and when he stepped on board the jld Victory as a little boy of 13, he touched fcis cap to Admiral Sir William Parker, one af Nelson's captains. As soon as he learned 16 read he took Nelson for his hero,- and of Nelson arid his victories he never tires to talk. There is even a touch of Nelson in the man^a changing countenance, a look which every now and then suggests one of Nelson's pictures. Hie is a short, olean-ehavep. man, .with •quare shoulders and strong arms; his- eyes »re large and round, the mouth .thioklipped and strong, the nose short, the forehead hard as a rock, the hair stubby and thick. The deep lines running- from the ourve^ of the nostrils to the depression at the- corner of the -lips suggest scorn and contempt, and of scorn for inefficiency and contempt for shuffling the First Sea Lord t*s an inexhaustible store. But he is not by any means a~lbitter-minded man. On the contrary, he is a cheerful and a merry soul, a man full of good spirits and filled with the zest- of life. He is a great .dancer, a laughing philosopher, an excellent teller of ■breezy stories. He never gives one the impression oi a, man in a hurry. " He- is one of those honest natures which •Vvrays say what is in the .mind, and find it difficult to -understand Jioyr truth should ever offend. On one occasion, during the reign of Queen Victoria, and at a time •when. English relations Tvith France were not ■o pleasarit as they are now, a French admiral j was paying a visit to the Queen at Osoorne, j and Sir John Fisher was there to meet him. (Before die arrival of the Frenchman, the Queen, well aware of Sir John's frankness, laid diplomatically to her favourite sailor, j " We^hope you will be very nice to Admiral Gervais." ' "Ma'am," said Admiral Fisher, " I will kiss him if he desires it." ! Queen. Victoria was among the first to Peeognise the ability of Sir John Fisher, nd the King has been his wise friend and j encouraging admirer fox many years. It- ' is this friendship and admiration of his Sovereign which will support the First Sea Lord in the tremendous work to which he has. now put his hand. For it must not be supposed that Sir John Fisher is a man without enemies and detractors, an admiral in whom every officer in the British navy reposes supreme confidence. There are many opinions in the navy, and the Fisher School is only one of the divisions; but, happily for the Bavjr and the nation, the Fisher School represents the intelligence and the youth of *he fleet, and enjoys the discriminating approval of the King. The sailors, as a whole, have a high regard for their Jackey Fisher, but I doubt if they feel for him quite the same intimate Affection which, they, give so generously to tKat other good seaman, Lord Charles Beresford. But whatever they may think of him — and at least they know him as the pleverest admiral on the high seas, — the First Sea Lord has for them the greatest «nd most delightful affection. He once regretted to me that these revo-lutions-in* the- navy left- him no time to be "skylarking with the delightful attributes of the British" sailor — childlike in his faith and confidence, if you once acquire them, mnd iion-like in his pugnacious tenacity trhen once his enthusiasm is aroused." The British sailor is to Sir John Fisher the ljest man in tHe world, the finest material |vec oHvluted hs a ?rcat people, aud it a

' perhaps to this genial love of our sailors that much of his enthusiasm in the work of reform may be attributed. For, think what it must be to know the British sailor as Sir John Fisher knows him, j to know his skill, his faith, his courage, and his cheerful endurance of every hardship of a sea life, and to know at the same time that many of the ships on which this British sailor will ride out to battle are obsolete and useless — death-traps for the souls of heroes! To sweep away all these worthless hulks, which cut so fine a figure in navy lists, and make so miserable a show on the high seas, will be one of the first reforms of Admiral Fisher. He is a good man at bluffing an enemy, but he will permit of no bluffing where British sailors are concerned. Every ship in the British navy must be worthy of the seamen who mail it. There must be no shamming and make-believe, no pretty pretence and vain show. Not a single British sailor must be allowed to lose his life to ingratiate the taxpayer and to ease the worries of polite officialdom. _ | It is not enough that Admiral Fisher— though he rise, according to his custom, at 5 o'clock in the morning, and though ho has Lord Selborne for his sympathetic supporter in all his reforms — should be at th-e head of the navy; behind him must always be the will of a healthy >and a sober people, insisting with all its force upon a supreme right arm, and seeing -to it that the First Sea Lord is- not let or hindered, by political partisanship or by cavilling jealousies, in the herculean task to which he addresses himself. n . Not that Admiral Fisher will hang back for want of such support, for I do almost think that if Parliament voted for the abolition of the navy.' Fisher would bring » shoal of -little boats up the Thames, blow up the Houses of Parliament, and inform the nation that he would serve them in the same fashion till they found their wits again. He is not at all the man, I mean, "who must be surrounded by backers before he can move. Often has he stood alone, | and just as often as he conceives it neees- ! sa-ry will he stand alone again. And not bitterly, or eoniplainly or sulkily; but with good humour, high spirits, and supreme content. He has reformed the army ; he -will certainly complete his reform of the navy. To be ready before the hour of need is the policy of Admiral Fisher, and he wishes the nation to perceive, as eiearly as every sailor in the fleet perceives, the wisdom and common prudence of this policy. The navy "is our one and only guard against destruction. When that is gone we are a con- . quered people, however bravely march our 'soldiers, and however intelligently act our 'War Office. It is not on the rivers and roads of England that our commerce goes and our ' freedom thrives ; it is on the wide seas, watched by the fleets of the world and paraded by ships which, have no love for us or for our prosperity., Let our navy be broken and scattered by the enemy, and, as far as bread is concerned, we might as well ;have a single policeman flourishing a truncheon on Plymouth 'Hoe' as all the -army corps in the Empire marching and wheelington the shores of our island. We should starve lilce-rats in a cage. This is co obvious a 'proposition^ that one need not labour it'; but, alas ! it is • necessary to remind the nation that- an efficient navy is not <xj 'be had by the recognition of ,a truth. Admiral' Fisher "would have us as determined and as insistent on 'this matter ,of an invincible navy as we are about Edu- ; cation Bills and local taxation. I one© asked him whether he had a motto for his oountrymen which would keep this matter in their heads, and his reply was after this manner : — "The^notto for my countrymen is always in' my heart and on the tip of my tongue, and many •» great personage has no doubt hated my dashed reiteration ! Here it is, out of Mahan's book: 'Nelson's far-distant, storm-beaten -ships, upon which the grand army never looked, stood between it and the dominion of the world.' t "If we have a supreme fleet, supreme beyond argument (no twaddle about the twoPower standard or the three-Power 'pause !'), supreme as with Nelson in the confidence of victory begot by efficiency (and remember above all remembrance that supremacy doesn't consist in types or numbers, it's the men and the spirit !), then, and then only, no hand can touch us, no combination can overwhelm us, no invasion of our shores is possible, and no finger can be lifted if we say ' No !' The frontiers of England are the coasts of the enemy, and we have got to be there exactly five minutes before war is declared." This, or something like it, is the view of Admiral Fisher, and he is now at the head of the navy to give it shape and substance. It was only last year that he stood rxp at the banquet of the Royal Academy, and swinging his arm so that he sent a decanter of wine flooding towards Mr St. John Brodrick, declared that " on^ the. British navy rests the British Empire. We are different from Continental nations. No soldier of. ours oan go anywhere unless a sailor carries him there on his back." And now he is the Eirst Sea Lord, and must do for the whole navy what he 1 did ; s for the Mediterranean fleet during the Boer war — every -ship and every man ready for instant battle-, and every officer capable of command. We shall hear little of Sir John Fish-er as a figure in society, we shall read few anecdotes of his experience in drawing rooms. But he will bring with him to London a sense of wide seas and invisible shores, and we may hope that from the ■ walls of the Admiralty he will distill ! throughout the capital of the Empire a heartening enthusiasm for the. British navy. ! The ships of Nelson on which the grand army never looked are now the ships of , Fisher, unseen by the armies of Europe-, and unfortunately seldom visible to our j own eyes. But those ships — outnung across the seas of the world — stand between us and ruin, between our freedom and slavery, between our prosperity and hunger. Surely wo should do well to think about them, to have them iit\ remembrance, and to be earnest in our demands for efficiency. " Give me a boy young enough and I will make anything out of him." This is a saying of his, and it sums up his opinion of the nayy — a service which makes men sober, vigilant, intelligent, 'healthy, and contented. Of euch is the navy, and of such, let us hope will it some day be said, is the British nation. Admiral iisher certainly desires such a nation, and the day may come when he will work to this great end. He is a man full of vigour, conscious of high ambitions, and determined to give his life in his country's service. So acknowledged nowadays is his genius for reformation and organisation that one is apt to forget his fame as a fighting seaman. But in the navy Admiral Fisher is kaowa 85 a cunning handler of chi&a» a bold

fighter, and a crafty strategist. " Fisher," said an English admiral, " is the one man we have got who can be compared to Nelson. If Britain were involved in a greatj, naval wav Fisher could achieve as great renown as that of Lord Nelson." Such, then, is the First Sea Lord ; a marvellous organiser, a great captain, a burning patriot. The influence of such a mind in the counsels of the nation must, I think, 'permeate and influence all the various activities of our corporate life, and make for greater earnestness and keener energies. For this reason, as well as /or the sake of the navy, we are fortunate in our First Sea Lord. — Hakold Begbip, in the Daily Mail.