Admiral Jellicoe Part 5

When Drake was dying on board his ship in Nombre Dios Bay his thoughts turned of course to England, the country he loved, had fought and died for. He yearned to be back on the red cliffs of Devon; he wanted to sail once again through Plymouth Sound and to be laid at rest in the dear home waters that washed his native sh.o.r.es.

He was dying far from the beloved land. There were battles yet to be fought, victories to be won for England. She might want him again and he would not be there to answer her call.

So he told his men to take back his drum and to hang it upon the sea wall, and if ever England was in danger and called, the sailors were to strike upon his drum and he would rise from the far seas and come back and fight for her.

When England was threatened two hundred years after Drake's death his drum was heard one stormy night by the fisher folk. And there are those who will swear that a strange shadow shape was seen hovering about the old sea wall for many a night.

Then Nelson came to England's rescue and saved her in her hour of need. But let Alfred Noyes tell the tale in his inspiring verse:

"D'you guess who Nelson was?

You may laugh, but it's true as true!

There was more in that pore little chawed-up chap Than ever his best friend knew.

"The foe was creepin' close, In the dark, to our white-cliffed isle; They were ready to leap at England's throat, When--O, you may smile, you may smile;

"But--ask of the Devonshire men; For they heard in the dead of night The roll of a drum, and they saw him pa.s.s On a ship all shining white.

"He stretched out his dead cold face And he sailed in the grand old way!

The fishes had taken an eye and an arm, But he swept Trafalgar's Bay.

"Nelson--was Francis Drake!

O, what matters the uniform, Or the patch on your eye or your pinned-up sleeve, If your soul's like a North Sea storm?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARLY PORTRAITS OF SIR JOHN JELLICOE AS MIDSHIPMAN AS LIEUTENANT]

When the author was in Devonshire a little while after the outbreak of the world-war he was talking to an old sailor who had seen service, now retired at the age of nearly eighty years. He stood on the red cliffs beyond Brixham close to the doors of his cottage straining his eyes, still clear and bright, seaward, watching for the ships he loved.

The author referred to this story and the sailor's face grew grave and he was silent for a long time.

"The drum was beat," he whispered at last. "Drake's drum was heered to beat a while back; our lads heered 'er, one night when they was puttin' out from Plymouth Sound."

He nodded his head to and fro as he took off his cap: "But I knawed long back when I stood afore Jacky Jellicoe, close as I be standin' to yew; I caught his eye--and I knawed it was Drake come back.... Yes, sir; the old drum beat and he come back as he said he would----"

"If England needs me, dead Or living, I'll rise that day!

I'll rise from the darkness under the sea Ten thousand miles away."

That's what he said; and he died.

"They lowered him down in the deep, And there in the sunset light They boomed a broadside over his grave, As meanin' to say 'Good Night'

"They sailed away in the dark To the dear little isle they knew; And they hung his drum by the old sea-wall The same as he told them to."

And now once again the drum has beaten and the spirit of Drake has returned to England. The materialists may laugh; the superst.i.tious may speculate. But the sea folk on the red cliffs of Devonshire, _they know_.

It was some months after Pekin had been relieved by the Allied forces of twenty thousand men--the British, under Lieutenant-General Sir A.

Gaselee, being the first to enter the Legations--that Mr. Whittall met Jellicoe on board the _Centurion_. The latter told him that he had played cricket for the flagship on the way down and had made 124--not out!

His lung had healed and his left arm was as strong as his right.

A cheeky midshipman on hearing of Captain Jellicoe's third and most marvellous escape from death said that obviously he was born to be hanged--or to be Commander-in-Chief of the whole British Navy.

On his return to England Jellicoe received the C.B. for his services, and the German Emperor decorated him with the Order of the Red Eagle of the Second Cla.s.s with crossed swords.

Jellicoe learnt something about the fighting qualities of the German sailor during the attempt to relieve Pekin: later on he became a personal friend of the Emperor's, and his portrait appears in the great picture which the Kaiser ordered to be painted of the Allied Naval Brigades in action in China and which now hangs on the walls of the Imperial Palace at Potsdam.

A few months after his return from China, Captain Jellicoe married Gwendoline Cayzer, the daughter of Sir Charles Cayzer, Bart., of Gartmore, N.B., the chief of the Clan Steamship line. Curiously enough one of his best friends, Rear-Admiral Madden, married Sir Charles'

other daughter. Admiral Madden is now Jellicoe's Chief-of-Staff.

Captain Jellicoe's next appointment was to superintend the building of war-ships. At this task his success was phenomenal. A little later he was serving as a.s.sistant to the Controller of the Navy, and in 1903 he was given command of the _Drake_, then one of the latest additions to our fleet.

She was completed in 1902; her tonnage is 14,100; she has a Krupp armoured belt of six inches; she carries two 92 guns, sixteen 6-inch, twelve 12-pounders, and three 2-pounders, besides six machine guns and two torpedo tubes. The _Drake_ is still in commission and heads the Drake Cla.s.s of armoured cruisers. She is at present attached to the Sixth Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet.

Under Jellicoe's command the _Drake_ became famous for her gunnery, and when he left her she had obtained the highest efficiency in shooting and was "top-dog" in the Navy.

CHAPTER VII

AS ORGANISER

In 1905 Captain Jellicoe went to the Admiralty as Director of Naval Ordnance. Having been Fisher's a.s.sistant late in the 'eighties he knew his department and the men connected with it. He knew better than any other man of his age what the Navy wanted, and he evidently made up his mind that she should have it.

He was heart and soul a "Fisher man" and a great admirer of the splendid work Sir Percy Scott had performed. Indeed, much of Scott's genius might have been lost or wasted without Jellicoe's help and enthusiasm.

He took the part of Director of Naval Ordnance just at the right time.

One of the most important reforms for which the Service has to thank him was fitting all guns mounted in ships of the first line with new day and night sights, and the installation of fire-control instruments for "spotting" and controlling at long range firing. He was also instrumental in getting rid of all gunnery lumber, and he put his foot down on many little tricks and dodges which had been practised in shooting compet.i.tions.

It was almost entirely due to him that in a period of eighteen months the percentage of "hits" was raised from forty-two out of a hundred rounds to an average of seventy.

In recognition of this a knighthood was conferred upon him in 1909; though previous to this honour he was made Controller of the Navy.

Here, again, his knowledge of _materiel_ necessary to the Service and his great technical ability were invaluable; his quickness, firmness and quiet manner had a great effect on the celerity with which work was done in private as well as in the royal dockyards. There had been a great deal of trouble in the past with contractors owing to the difficulty in getting plans and estimates pa.s.sed quickly.

Jellicoe soon changed this, and inspired the men under him to be decisive and swift and thorough. Describing the work he accomplished during his Controllership of the Navy a critic in _Engineering_ paid Sir John high and deserved tribute, on the occasion of his leaving the Admiralty and hoisting his flag as Vice-Admiral of the Atlantic Fleet; this was in December, 1910.

After pointing out that Jellicoe's tenure of office was marked by a period of unusual naval shipbuilding activity, the author of the article in _Engineering_ gave the number of new vessels of all cla.s.ses added to the Navy between 1907 and 1910 as ninety, including twelve battleships and armoured cruisers, eight protected and unarmoured cruisers, and seventy destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines.

In addition to the numbers given, there were then about sixty ships building, including eight battleships and armoured cruisers, seven protected and unarmoured cruisers, and forty-five destroyers and submarines, whilst the preliminaries to laying down were well advanced in the case of a further twenty-two ships; these, as enumerated in the current year's naval estimates, included five battleships and armoured cruisers, three protected and unarmoured cruisers, and fourteen destroyers, submarines and fleet auxiliaries. The sea-going and fighting efficiency of all these warships was in advance of their prototype in many important respects in _materiel_.

Shipbuilding output has thus been well maintained in the dockyards, and there, as in the private yards doing Admiralty work, the delay in beginning new vessels is now at a minimum. The whole machinery of administration in this respect has been accelerated. The period of construction of large armoured warships remained at two years, notwithstanding the great increase in the size and displacement of the latest types. Admiral Jellicoe was a frequent visitor at the works of contractors, and by this means was enabled to a.s.sist and encourage those responsible in realizing the best results and to infuse them with his characteristic enthusiasm for the efficiency of the Service.

"The repairs and maintenance of the Fleet have been well looked after by Sir John Jellicoe," wrote the critic of _Engineering_, "who has realized throughout the importance of liberal financial provision to enable the prompt and proper execution of repairs. The total number of men employed (shipbuilding and repairs, etc.) in the home dockyards has considerably increased during his period of office. Sir John, having at one time been a.s.sociated with the building of warships in private yards, has devoted much attention to improving and extending the resources of the dockyards for shipbuilding and repair work. A recent important innovation in dockyard and port equipment is the adoption of large floating-docks for Dreadnoughts and floating-cranes to serve them, a policy which recognizes _inter alia_ the importance of the quality of mobility in docks and cranes. The equipment of temporary bases in time of war becomes easy of arrangement when floating-docks and floating-cranes lie fully equipped and ready for use and transfer. Two such docks, capable of lifting 32,000 tons--one for Portsmouth and one for the Medway--are now under construction, whilst contracts for two large floating-cranes, capable of lifting 100 tons at a radius of 125 feet, and 150 tons at about 90 feet, will very shortly be placed.

"Sir John Jellicoe has been a strong Controller and his severance from the Admiralty is a matter of personal regret, which is not by any means confined to the members of the Board and the heads of departments. No Controller has been more popular; none has commanded greater respect as an administrator."