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Flag and Fleet, by William Wood
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Flag and Fleet, by William Wood This eBook is for the use of anyoneanywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use itunder the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.orgTitle: Flag and Fleet How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the SeasAuthor: William WoodRelease Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19849]Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLAG AND FLEET ***Produced by Al HainesTHE SEA IS HIS
Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known. --Psalm LXXVII. v.19.
Flag and Fleet, by William Wood1
 
The Sea is His: He made it, Black gulf and sunlit shoal From barriered bight to where the long Leagues of Atlantic roll: Small strait and ceaseless ocean He bade each one to be: The Sea is His: He made it-- AndEngland keeps it free.By pain and stress and striving Beyond the nations' ken, By vigils stern when others slept, By lives of manymen; Through nights of storm, through dawnings Blacker than midnights be-- This sea that God created,England has kept it free.Count me the splendid captains Who sailed with courage high To chart the perilous ways unknown-- Tell mewhere these men lie! To light a path for ships to come They moored at Dead Man's quay; The Sea isGod's--He made it, And these men made it free.Oh little land of England, Oh mother of hearts too brave, Men say this trust shall pass from thee Who guardestNelson's grave. Aye, but these braggarts yet shall learn Who'd hold the world in fee, The Sea is God's--andEngland, England shall keep it free.--R. E. VERNÈDE.[Frontispiece: VIKING MAN-OF-WAR.]FLAG AND FLEETHOW THE BRITISH NAVY WON THE FREEDOM OF THE SEASBYWILLIAM WOODLieutenant-Colonel, Canadian Militia; Member of the Canadian Special Mission Overseas; Editor of "TheLogs of the Conquest of Canada"; Author of "All Afloat: A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways"; "ElizabethanSea Dogs: A Chronicle of Drake and his Companions"; and "The Fight for Canada: A Naval and MilitarySketch."WITH A PREFACE BYADMIRAL-OF-THE-FLEET SIR DAVID BEATTY G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., Etc., Etc.TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN COMPANYOF CANADA, LTD., AT ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE1919COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1919, BYTHE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LIMITEDTo
 Admiral-of-the-Fleet 
Flag and Fleet, by William Wood2
 
 Lord Jellicoe In token of deep admiration And in gratitude for many kindnesses during the Great War I dedicate this littlebook, Which, published under the auspices of The Navy League of Canada and approved by the Provincial Departments of Education, Is written for the reading of Canadian Boys and Girls
PREFACEBYAdmiral-of-the-Fleet Sir David Beatty, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., etc.In acceding to the request to write a Preface for this volume I am moved by the paramount need that all thebudding citizens of our great Empire should be thoroughly acquainted with the part the Navy has played inbuilding up the greatest empire the world has ever seen.Colonel Wood has endeavored to make plain, in a stirring and attractive manner, the value of Britain'sSea-Power. To read his
Flag and Fleet 
will ensure that the lessons of centuries of war will be learnt, and thatthe most important lesson of them all is this--that, as an empire, we came into being by the Sea, and that wecannot exist without the Sea.DAVID BEATTY,2nd of June, 1919.INTRODUCTIONWho wants to be a raw recruit for life, all thumbs and muddle-mindedness? Well, that is what a boy or girl isbound to be when he or she grows up without knowing what the Royal Navy of our Motherland has done togive the British Empire birth, life, and growth, and all the freedom of the sea.The Navy is not the whole of British sea-power; for the Merchant Service is the other half. Nor is the Navythe only fighting force on which our liberty depends; for we depend upon the United Service of sea and landand air. Moreover, all our fighting forces, put together, could not have done their proper share toward buildingup the Empire, nor could they defend it now, unless they always had been, and are still, backed by the Peopleas a whole, by every patriot man and woman, boy and girl.But while it takes all sorts to make the world, and very many different sorts to make and keep our BritishEmpire of the Free, it is quite as true to say that all our other sorts together could not have made, and cannotkeep, our Empire, unless the Royal Navy had kept, and keeps today, true watch and ward over all the Britishhighways of the sea. None of the different parts of the world-wide British Empire are joined together by theland. All are joined together by the sea. Keep the seaways open and we live. Close them and we die.This looks, and really is, so very simple, that you may well wonder why we have to speak about it here. Butman is a land animal. Landsmen are many, while seamen are few; and though the sea is three times biggerthan the land it is three hundred times less known. History is full of sea-power, but histories are not; for mosthistorians know little of sea-power, though British history without British sea-power is like a watch without amainspring or a wheel without a hub. No wonder we cannot understand the living story of our wars, when, asa rule, we are only told parts of 
what 
happened, and neither
how
they happened nor
why
they happened. The
how
and
why
are the flesh and blood, the head and heart of history; so if you cut them off you kill the livingbody and leave nothing but dry bones. Now, in our long war story no single
how
or
why
has any real meaningapart from British sea-power, which itself has no meaning apart from the Royal Navy. So the choice lies plain
Flag and Fleet, by William Wood3
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