In addition to these first-class battleships, Germany had certain others, individual in type, such as the Von der Tann, Moltke, Goeben, Seydlitz, Derfflinger, Fuerst Bismarck, Prinz Heinrich, Prinz Adalbert, Roon and Yorck, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, Bluecher, Magdeburg, Strassburg, Breslau, Stralsund, Rostock, and Karlsruhe.  These may be reckoned as scout cruisers, for they showed much speed, the fastest making 30 knots and the slowest 19 knots.  The oldest dates from 1900, and the newest from 1914.  Germany had, also, thirty-nine more fast protected cruisers which were designed for scout duty.

In destroyers she was well equipped, having 143 ready for service when war was declared.  Her twenty-seven submarines were of the most improved type, and much about their construction and armament she was able to keep secret from the rest of the world.  It is probable that even their number was greater than the intelligence departments of foreign navies suspected.  The best type had a speed on the surface of 18 knots and could travel at 12 knots when submerged.  The type known as E-21, of the design of 1914, measured 213 feet 8 inches in length and had a beam of 20 feet.

Austria, though not renowned for her naval strength, had certain units which brought up the power of the Teutonic powers considerably.  She had nine first-class battleships, the Erzherzog Karl, Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, Erzherzog Friedrich, Zrinyi, Radetzky, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, Teggethoff, Prinz Eugen, and Viribus Unitis.  These, at the time Austria went to war, ranged in age from nine years to one year, and varied in displacement from 10,000 tons to 20,000 tons.  The largest guns carried by any of them measured 12 inches, and the fastest, the Prinz Eugen, made 20 knots.  Of secondary importance were the battleships Kaiserin Maria Theresia, Kaiser Karl VI, and St. Georg.  The register of battleships was supplemented with ten light cruisers of exceptionally light displacement, the highest being only 3,966 tons.  Scouting was their chief function.  Austria had, also, 18 destroyers, 63 torpedo boats, and 6 submarines.

Such were the respective strengths of the opponents on that day in July, 1914, when the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary lost his life.  For ten years the officers of the navy created by the German Admiral von Tirpitz had at all dinners come to their feet, waved their wine glasses and had given the famous toast “Der Tag”—­to the day on which the English and German naval hosts would sally forth to do battle with each other.  “Der Tag” found both forces quite ready, though the British naval authorities stole a march on their German rivals in the matter of mobilization.

It had been the custom for years in the British navy to assemble the greater part of the British ships during the summer at the port of Spithead, where, decorated with bunting, with flags flying, with visitors in holiday spirit, and with officers and men in smart dress, the vessels were reviewed by the king on the royal yacht.