Admiral Jellicoe is one of the officers of the Royal Navy who have received the Board of Trade medal for gallantry in saving life at sea. He himself, too, has been saved from drowning at sea, for he was in command of the Victoria which was rammed by the Camperdown twenty-one years ago; in fact, he was one of the very few who were saved in that terrible disaster. Quite early in the war, a bluejacket of H.M.S. Zealandia, the fine battleship which was given to the Mother Country by the great Dominion of New Zealand, wrote a poem called “The Walls of Jellicoe.” He sent it to his aunt, and she, aunt-like, was so pleased with it that she sent it to a paper! There I read it, and I thought it so good and so true that I cut it out. Here are the verses I like best. But I like them all. “On the flagship’s bridge a man Takes a long and quiet scan Of a certain bit of coastline lying east, Vaterland. And it’s him who has to think How to get your food and drink And likewise how to save you from ‘The Beast.’ · · · · · There’s no one by to say ‘Can I lend a hand, J. J.?’ There’s no one near to treat him Like a friend. He’s the loneliest man at sea, And thank God it isn’t me; But you are safe while he is Keeping up his end. He’s Admiralissimo, Which is Johnny Jellicoe, And I hope you’ll breathe his name in all your prayers, And don’t forget. For he’s you and me and all, And if his old walls fall, Earth would close for alterations and repairs, Burn the map!” This sailor poet expresses in his homely way the exact truth. Admiral Jellicoe had indeed a good many things to think about; and while he was keeping his ceaseless watch in the North Sea he had the grief of hearing that his old father, a seaman like himself, had died in the Isle of Wight. He could not be at his father’s death-bed; he could not follow his father’s coffin to the burial. His place was at the post of duty and of danger. I have said that in the first months of the war the German Fleet would not come out from under the shelter of the German fortress guns. But you must not think that its commander, Admiral von Ingemohl, a very gallant seaman, was content to do nothing. He counted on taking some of our ships by surprise, and so making matters more equal before having a regular big battle. But as we shall see, he found that Admiral Jellicoe could play at that game too. II The Germans may be said to have drawn first blood at sea. Very early in the war, in fact on the very day that most people knew our country was at war, on August 5, 1914, H.M.S. Amphion, while searching for the mine-layer Königin Luise, was blown up, whether by a mine or a torpedo will probably never be known.