Another event which had happened shortly before showed that naval policies would have to be modified, if they were to utilize recent advances in scientific methods.  This event was the unprecedented success at target practice of H. M. S. Terrible, commanded by Captain Sir Percy Scott, which proved that by a long and strenuous training and the adoption of instruments of precision, it was possible to attain a skill in naval gunnery never attained before.  Up to this moment the British navy had almost despised gunnery.  Inheriting the traditions brought down from Howe, Rodney, and Nelson, permeated with the ideals of the “blue-water school,” proud of being British seamen, proud of the pure white of their ships, enamoured of the stimulating breeziness of the quarterdeck and bridge, imbued with almost a contempt for such mathematical sciences as were not directly used in practical navigation, British naval officers exalted seamanship as the acme of their art, and took little interest in gunnery.  All the battles of the past had been won by dash and seamanship and dogged persistence.  Ships had always fought close alongside each other.  No science had ever won any naval battle of the past, so why should they bother with science now—­and why should they bother with target practice, except just enough to insure that the battery was in order, and that the men were not afraid of their guns?  Besides, target practice dirtied the ship—­a sacrilege to the British naval officer.

But the events of the war between Japan and Russia, especially the naval battles of Port Arthur, August 10, 1904, and the Sea of Japan, May 27, 1905, riveted their attention on the fact that something more than seamanship and navigation and clean ships would be needed, if the British navy was to maintain its proud supremacy on the sea; for in these battles, overwhelming victories were won purely by superior skill in gunnery, strategy, and tactics.

To these causes of awakening was added one still greater, but of like import—­the rapid rise of the German navy from a position of comparative unimportance to one which threatened the British navy itself.  The fact became gradually evident to British officers that the German navy was proceeding along the same lines as had proceeded the German army.  Realizing the efficiency of the German Government, noting the public declarations of the German Emperor, observing the excellence of the German ships, the skill of the German naval officers, and the extraordinary energy which the German people were devoting to the improvement of the German navy—­the British navy took alarm.

So did the other navies.