CHAPTER XVI

MY RETIREMENT FROM THE NAVY

A Letter from Prince Henry of Prussia - Created a Baronet and promoted to Admiral - Menace of the Submarine - Protective Measures necessary - The Official Attitude - Lessons of Manoeuvres - The Admiralty unconvinced - Mr. Winston Churchill's Suggestion - Director Firing - My Services dispensed with - A Remarkable Letter from Whitehall.

AFTER the successful trial of director firing in November, 1912, a further trial took place between the Thunderer and Orion at Portland. A paper reported that at this trial the Thunderer had been beaten, and the headline was " Surprising Defeat of Sir Percy Scott's ' Director ' System'"

Prince Henry of Prussia, who was at the time staying in London, sent me the cutting, and pointed out to me that this rather contradicted what had previously appeared in the Press. I telegraphed back that newspapers were not always quite accurate, and in reply received the following letter :-

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THE DILATORY ADMIRALTY

On the following day Prince Henry did me the honour of calling upon me at my house, and we had a long talk over gunnery matters. H.R.H. said the principle of my firing was, of course, well known in Germany, though the details of it were not known, and that they were installing in their ships possibly a somewhat similar system. He reminded me of the fact that I had seen at Kiel a system which at that time was ahead of ours.

The subsequent War demonstrated that the Germans were nothing short of barbarians, and we tarred them all with the same brush, but I think that had Prince Henry of Prussia been Emperor of Germany instead of his brother, the Germans would not have been encouraged to sink hospital ships, poison wells, use poisonous gas, insult, starve, and torture prisoners, and commit other atrocities that have disgraced Germany's name throughout the whole civilised world.

As I knew that the Germans were improving their system of firing, I tried in vain to hustle the Admiralty into getting some more ships fitted with director firing. They proceeded in their ordinary leisurely manner, pursuing a dilatory system which would break any commercial firm in a week. Time was to them of no importance. Left thus with nothing to do, I went to Murren, and when the Admiralty ought to have caused me to be very busy getting the Navy ready to fight, I was busy skating.

Just before the end of the year I received a letter from Mr. Asquith, intimating that he had suggested to the King that I should be made a

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MY RETIREMENT FROM THE NAVY

Baronet for my services in connection with gunnery progress, and that His Majesty had approved.

Early in 1913 I was promoted to Admiral, and I retired. It did not appear to me to be of any use remaining on the Active List, as I should only have been blocking the way for younger men. I had been in H.M. Navy for forty-seven years.

I was still employed by the Admiralty in director firing, and there was much more to be done, for their Lordships had not even sanctioned it for the secondary armament, for which it was as much required as for the heavy guns.

In addition to this work my thoughts were much occupied on " submarines." I had been for a long time trying to find some way of successfully attacking them. I found the problem a very difficult one, and as no one else appeared to have evolved a successful method of locating and destroying these newly-devised craft, their advent into sea warfare was a real menace, and necessitated a revolution in our naval building programme.

I took the liberty of pointing out to the Admiralty that the Germans were building many submarines, and large ones ; that we wanted many more for the protection of our coasts and colonies ; and that we wanted aeroplanes to search for submarines, and more fast destroyers with which to attack them.

I found that their Lordships did not realise the potentialities of the submarine, or the deadliness of the torpedo, their theory being that the sub- marine was an untried weapon, and that the torpedo was inaccurate. That this view should have been held at the Admiralty I considered a

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VALUE OF THE SUBMARINE

danger to the country, for it was obvious that if their Lordships did not recognise the power of the submarines they would not consider any anti- submarine measures necessary. The official view was the more surprising since in all recent naval manoeuvres the submarine had over and over again demonstrated its deadliness of attack, and it should have been apparent to every one that the introduction of these vessels had revolutionised naval warfare and put into the hands of the Germans a weapon of far more use to them than their fleet of battleships.

As I could not convince the Admiralty that the submarine was anything more than a toy, I considered it my duty to communicate with the Press. On the 15th December, 1913, I wrote a letter but withheld it on representations by a member of Parliament that the Little Navyites, then very powerful in the country, might use it as a weapon to cut down the Navy Estimates, and that I should better serve the country by waiting until the estimates were passed, and Mr. Winston Churchill had got the money. He could then, if he agreed with me, easily strike off some battleships from the building programme, and spend the money voted for their construction on submarines, aircraft, and anti-submarine measures.

Their Lordships were so annoyed with me for venturing to put their heads straight as regards submarines that at the end of the year they took away the pay that I had been receiving for helping them with director firing. Their letter was remarkable for the statement that the installation was practically completed in several ships and that the

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MY RETIREMENT FROM THE NAVY

manufacture of the gear was in a very advanced stage. As a matter of fact, it was only completed in two ships and was not even designed for the various classes of ships in which it was to be installed. In this letter, dated the 30th December, 1913, the Admiralty bade me farewell, expressing " their high appreciation " of my services in connection with "this sighting gear" and referring to its "marked success."

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