In this wise did the struggle for the command of the sea open. Germany reaped as she had sown. Since 1898 she had boasted how she would challenge the greatest sea Power. When the day and hour came it was not the British fleet only, but the navies of France, Russia, and Japan which confronted her. By her words and acts she had alienated the sympathies of every nation except her ally, Austria-Hungary. The war began with her fleets and squadrons sheltering behind the forts of her naval bases, and with a few cruisers in the Atlantic being hunted by an overpowering force of British and French ships. Such was the fruit of her diplomacy and her forward naval policy; her shipping suffered instant strangulation; her colonies were divorced from the Motherland, and she was confronted with the approaching ruin of that world-politic which had been her pride and inspiration. [Illustration] _H.M.S. Vanguard._ _Photo: Sport & General._ =VANGUARD CLASS.= ST. VINCENT, VANGUARD, COLLINGWOOD. Displacement: 19,250 tons. Speed: 22 knots; Guns: 10 12in., 18 4in.; Torpedo tubes: 3. [Illustration] Astern fire: Broadside: Ahead fire: 6 12in. 8 12in. 6 12in. CHAPTER I THE RELATIVE STANDING OF THE BRITISH AND GERMAN FLEETS The relative strength of the British and German navies at the moment when war was declared is of historical interest. The appended particulars have been prepared from “Fighting Ships, 1914,” and brought up-to-date by the inclusion of the two Turkish battleships and the two Chilian destroyer leaders, which were purchased on the outbreak of hostilities by the British Government. BRITISH NAVY. Super-Dreadnought battleships 11 Super-Dreadnought battle-cruisers 3 -- 14 Dreadnought battleships 13 Dreadnought battle-cruisers 5 -- 18 -- Total of ships of Dreadnought era: 32 (Three more super-Dreadnoughts near completion, and due to commission late in 1914.) Pre-Dreadnoughts: Powerful ships all completed between 1905 and 1908 8 Older and less powerful ships completed between 1895 and 1904 30 -- 38 -- Total battleships 70 Armoured Cruisers: Big, heavily-armed ships completed between 1905 and 1908 9