Produced by Brian Coe, Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: ThePocketBooks] [Illustration: ThePocketBooks] THE GERMAN FLEET _BEING THE COMPANION VOLUME TO "THE FLEETS AT WAR" AND "FROM HELIGOLAND TO KEELING ISLAND."_ BY ARCHIBALD HURD AUTHOR (JOINT) OF "GERMAN SEA-POWER, ITS RISE, PROGRESS AND ECONOMIC BASIS." HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MCMXV CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION 7 I. PAST ASCENDENCY 19 II. THE FIRST GERMAN FLEET 26 III. GERMANY'S FLEET IN THE LAST CENTURY 51 IV. BRITISH INFLUENCE ON THE GERMAN NAVY 80 V. THE GERMAN NAVY ACTS 93 VI. GERMAN SHIPS, OFFICERS, AND MEN 142 VII. WILLIAM II. AND HIS NAVAL MINISTER 155 APPENDIX I.--GERMANY'S NAVAL POLICY 183 APPENDIX II.--BRITISH AND GERMAN SHIP-BUILDING PROGRAMMES 189 INTRODUCTION In the history of nations there is probably no chapter more fascinating and arresting than that which records the rise and fall and subsequent resurrection of German sea-power. In our insular pride, conscious of our glorious naval heritage, we are apt to forget that Germany had a maritime past, and that long before the German Empire existed the German people attained pre-eminence in oversea commerce and created for its protection fleets which exercised commanding influence in northern waters. It is an error, therefore, to regard Germany as an up-start naval Power. The creation of her modern navy represented the revival of ancient hopes and aspirations. To those ambitions, in their unaggressive form, her neighbours would have taken little exception; Germany had become a great commercial Power with colonies overseas, and it was natural that she should desire to possess a navy corresponding to her growing maritime interests and the place which she had already won for herself in the sun. The more closely the history of German sea-power is studied the more apparent it must become, that it was not so much Germany's Navy Acts, as the propaganda by which they were supported and the new and aggressive spirit which her naval organisation brought into maritime affairs that caused uneasiness throughout the world and eventually created that feeling of antagonism which found expression after the opening of war in August, 1914.