1 82 ALL AFLOAT 



which will probably surprise most students of 

 Canadian history. At Halifax alone eighteen 

 Nova Scotian privateers took out letters of 

 marque against the French between 1756 and 

 1760, twelve more against the French between 

 1800 and 1805, and no less than forty-four 

 against the Americans during the War of 18 12. 



The century of peace which followed this 

 war gradually came to be taken so much as a 

 matter of course that Canadians forgot the 

 lessons of the past and ignored the portents of 

 the future. The very supremacy of a navy 

 which protected them for nothing made them 

 forget that without its guardian ships they 

 could not have reached their Canadian nation- 

 ality at all. Occasionally a threatened crisis 

 would bring home to them some more intimate 

 appreciation of British sea-power. But, for 

 the rest, they took the Navy like the rising and 

 the setting of the sun. 



The twentieth century opened on a rapidly 

 changing naval world. British supremacy was 

 no longer to go unchallenged, at least so far 

 as preparation went. The German Emperor 

 followed up his pronouncement, ' Our future is 

 on the sea,' by vigorous action. For the first 

 time in history a German navy became a 

 powerful force, fit to lead, rather than to 



