Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher returned to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord on October 29th, 1914, and at once set about to use the naval instrument he had been so largely instrumental in creating. In dead secrecy and with incredible speed a force was prepared and dispatched. Admiral Sturdee had with him the magnificent battle-cruisers _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_, the armoured cruisers _Kent_, _Cornwall_, and _Carnarvon_, the light cruisers _Bristol_ and _Glasgow_, and the armed liner _Macedonia_. The battleship _Canopus_ was already at Port Stanley. Before anyone knew he had left England, he arrived at the Falkland Islands on December 7th, after having steamed a distance of 7,000 miles. The German Admiral was known to be approaching with the object of utilising the islands as a base. He arrived on the next day, but was taken by complete surprise, though he was conscious of impending fate, and his squadron ceased to exist. This was one of the master-strokes of the war, made with lightning rapidity. Strategy was seen in action, and thenceforward the control of the ocean was secured. There remained the business of rounding up the enemy cruisers which were still preying upon shipping on the routes of commerce. Cruisers of sufficient force were dispatched, with instructions to remain at certain rendezvous, each forming a base upon which lighter cruisers could fall back, or to the support of which they could proceed. The lighter vessels cruised on specified curves or lines of search, and in this way a network was spread over the oceans comparable to a spider’s web. Thus in due course every enemy cruiser and auxiliary was intercepted, or, conscious of the toils which were spread for her, abandoned her task and sought safety in the internment of a neutral port. The Grand Fleet in the North Sea was the master of the situation, and made possible the decisive blow which was struck at enemy power in the oceans. Thenceforward the enemy was impotent in every sea. Not a man could he send afloat to bring aid to his colonies and protectorates. His distant possessions collapsed like a house built of cards. No means had he to interrupt the transport of troops which have brought about the darkening of every German “place in the sun.” “_Deutschland ist Weltreich geworden_,” it was said. But distant possessions are the ripe fruit which falls into the lap of the ultimate sea-power, and the _Weltreich_ exists no more. By means of sea-power it has been destroyed. The submarine is an effective weapon within its sphere, but no victory has ever been won by evasion, and no sea-power can be exercised by stealthy craft which hide beneath the surface of the sea. CHAPTER IV THE GRASP OF THE MEDITERRANEAN[B] SEA- AND LAND-POWER Others may use the ocean as their road, Only the English make it their abode; Our oaks secure, as if they there took root, We tread on billows with a steady foot. _Edmund Waller_, 1656.