322 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



writing what has been accomplished during the last 

 few years. 



One of the first as well as one of the most 

 revolutionary acts of the New Board of Admiralty, 

 with Sir John Fisher as First Sea Lord, Lord Selborne 

 as First Lord, and Mr. Arnold Forster as secretary, was 

 to abolish at one stroke all the obsolete or even semi- 

 obsolete ships which had made so big a show on paper, 

 but were useless for modern warfare when opposed to 

 the newer vessels. It was a bold stroke, involving an 

 apparent waste of millions of money, but in reality it 

 meant a great saving, since to keep each of those 

 obsolete ships seaworthy, not battle-worthy, meant 

 enormous and wasteful expenditure. Another far- 

 reaching edict was that which consolidated our exist- 

 ing fleets at the best strategical points, such as the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, the Cape of Good Hope, Singapore, 

 and the English Channel. The scattered squadrons 

 of inefficient ships were recalled and their cost saved ; 

 for, in the first place, they could not uphold the might 

 of Britain if it were necessary, and, in the next, there 

 was no possible combination of circumstances which 

 could render their services necessary in such places as 

 the west coast of South America, the Canadian coast, 

 or even the West Indies, the days being gone when 

 brag took the place of efficient force. Another 

 splendid achievement was the keeping of all the 

 efficient ships of the Navy ready for service, with 

 nucleus or skeleton crews on board, so that although 

 in harbour and really out of commission they might be 

 mobilized in the shortest possible time. 



But those epoch-making changes in the disposition 

 of the ships were not more important than others 



