September 19, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
TO 11,I,U«TKVTK APl-EOXIMATKLV THE NKUTRAI, COASTS AND INI^ND COMMUNICATIONS BY WHICH I-001>S AND KAW MATERIALS CAX B« 
OCT IXTO OEBXMtV AND AC8TBIA. THE DOTTEB LINES BKPKKSKNT THK API-BOX IMATJ! KXTKKT Ol DRLOEKY AKEA. 
THE WAR BY WATER. 
By FRED T. JANE. 
THE NORTH SEA. 
A T the time of writing the past week lias been 
/^L uneventful so far as any lighting is concerned. 
/ ^ A sweep has been made so far as the Heligo- 
/ ^k land Bight, but no hostile warships wei'e sighted. 
-A- .^- The sweep must not be regarded as inefTec- 
tive on that account, for it must have had a 
considerable moral value as indicating to the Germans that we 
are both ready and willing to attack. 
By order of the Admiralty (which has secured all the 
more willing obedience from issuing its directions in the form 
of a polite " request ") all light.s along the coa.st have been 
greatly reduced; and in certain places the lighthouses have 
been left unlit. To this latter circumstance has been attri- 
buted the loss of the armed liner Oceanlr, of 17,274 gross 
tonnage and 21 knot speed. She )s alleged to have been 
wrecked, but no official details arc forthcoming. Unofficial 
stories range from her having gone full-speed a'^horo on an 
unlit coast to having been submarinc<l and beached. 
The losses of trawlers and neutrals by Nortli Sea mines 
indicates a pleasing diminution, which may be attributed 
partly to the circumstance that Admiralty advice as to courses 
to be followed is now more strictly observed, and to the 
untiring efforts of the mine sweepers. 
Special regulations have been promulgated, and came 
into force on Monday, as to vessels entering the Thames. These 
must now all call at the Tongue Iiglit«hip or at (he Margate, 
Deal, or Dover liglit;;liips, and txakc on board a licensed pilot. 
Outgoing vessels liave to take instructions as to tiie exact 
course to be followed. Tliis. of course, means that mines have 
been or are about to be laiil in certain places as a precaution 
against Germans seeking to lay mines under the British or 
a neutral flag. 
Some remarks of mine last week on the subject of Holland 
appear to have been misunderstood by one or two readers, 
who fail to realise thati the Dutch will presently be in 
the same invidious position as the Danes were in the 
Napoleonic wars. Behind Holland is Germany— a long- 
dreaded power which has suddenly become very polite, for 
Dutch ports offer useful facilities for food supply. If the 
Dutch fleet is wanted, Gennany will no more hesitate to seize 
it and use Dutch harbours as a war base against us than she 
hesitated to use Belgian territory as a base again.st France. 
The immediate result would be double work for our Noa-th 
Sea patrols. Against this is to be put the utility of Holland 
as a convenient neutral through whom German supplies can 
be obtained. Just at present these two circumstances more or 
less balance each other for oiilieir side, but this balance can 
only be maintained so long as the Germans do not obtain control 
of French harbours. Tlie value of Holland as a source of food 
import to Germany would then decline appreciably, while the 
value of taking possession of Dutch harbours and Dutch 
torpedo craft would rise correspondingly. 
On the other hand, supposing the Germans to be beaten 
back and contained at bay in their own country, the question of 
whether we can afford to allow them to be fed through Holland 
will assuredly rise as a problem of naval strategy. The' business 
of the Fleet is to fight the enemy's fleet if it comes out, and 
if it will not come out to put on sufficient economic pressure 
to compel a sort'c or surrender. 
Wo know that already, on account of the blockade, some 
1500 idle ships lie at Hamburg, that food prices in Germany 
are very high, and that the scarcity of raw material has led 
17* 
