The man-in-the-street must have wondered what the Grand Fleet was doing at sea so often in view of the fact that the enemy hid themselves almost throughout the war. The difficulty lay in the fact that we could not be perfectly certain that the constitution of German naval valour would continue to include ninety-nine per cent of discretion. Time after time the Grand Fleet hoped against hope that they might meet the enemy. The operations off the Belgian coast seemed to hold out yet another slender hope; this, pardon the anticipation, proved to be as forlorn as usual. The history of the High Seas Fleet, with respect to their oft-repeated desire to try conclusions with the Grand Fleet, can be briefly narrated. In the four and a quarter years following the outbreak of war the High Seas Fleet came out once, and once only, with the express intention of meeting the Grand Fleet--and that was to surrender! On the one other occasion when they met our fleet, incidentally by accident, they concentrated all their efforts at escape and then claimed the victory. The German Navy never had any traditions--now they have one less! The reader may well ask what connection these remarks have with the subject of the blocking operation. A very close connection indeed. Napoleon--perhaps the greatest student of war and certainly one of the greatest generals that the world has seen--remarked, and repeated again and again, that in war "the moral is to the physical as three is to one." Every great leader understands the value of morale and every man who has served his country in war has at least a subconscious realisation of the moral factor. {96}