JELLICOE'S FLAGSHIP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19766, 14 February 1927, Page 9

JELLICOE'S FLAGSHIP

PASSING OF IRON DUKE A SHIP WITH A HISTORY. “Th e passing of the Iron Duke will especially be regretted in the Navy,” says Mr Archibald Hurd, writing in the “Dlaily Telegraph,” “for she was the Fleet-Flagship in the North Sea during the early and critical months of the war. It was on board this vessel, on the afternoon of August 2, 1914, that Admiral John Jellicoe, las he then was, reported to that fine sailor, Admiral Sir George Callaghan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Home fleets, who for eight unbroken years had been employed at seta, training his squadrons to a high pitch of efficiency. Admiral Jellicoe carried with him a secret envelope, which had been handed to him on the railway platform as he left London. At four o’clock on the morning of August 4, he received la telegram from the Admiralty ordering him to open it. “This envelope,” as he has since stated, “contained my appointment as Commander-in-Chief of tho Grand Fleet, a new designation upon which the naval authorities had decided in place of ‘the Home Fleets.’ Lord Jellicoe has recorded with what unwillingness he played his part on this occasion on board the Iron Duke, and with what magnanimity Sir George Callaghan, ‘a most gallant officer and genleman, 1 keted in circumstances which applied a supreme test of his character and patriotism. “On the following day Admiral CaL laghlan stuck his flag on the Iron Duke, and Lord Jellicoe took over the command of the greatest naval force which had ever been mobilised. From that time until November 28, 1916, the Iron Duke flew the flag of the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet. It took part in all the ‘sweeps’ which were carried out in the North Sea in face of the enemy in intervening months, and was at the head of the Third Division on the afternoon of May 31, 1916, when the Battle of Jutland opened off the Skteggerak. “The Navy has already parted in sorrow with Lord Beatty’s flagship, the Lion, and now Lord Jellicoe’s Iron Duke is to pass almost unnoticed into the oblivion of the shipbreaker’s yh-rd. The Iron Duke of many memories is ‘ for sale. ’ ’ ’