But in the eventful year of 1914, perhaps by accident, perhaps by design, for the truth may never be known, the review had a different aspect.  There was no gaiety.  The number of ships assembled this time was greater than ever before—­216 actual fighting ships passed slowly before the royal yacht—­there were no flags, no bunting, no holiday crowds, no smart dress for officers and men.  Instead, the fleet was drawn up ready for battle, with decks cleared, guns uncovered, steam up, and magazines replenished.  During the tense weeks in which the war clouds gathered over southern Europe this great fighting force remained in the British home waters, and when, at fifteen minutes after midnight on August 4, “Der Tag” had come, this fleet sailed under sealed orders.  And throughout the seven seas there were sundry ships flying the Union Jack which immediately received orders by cable and by wireless.

Of the disposition of the naval forces of Germany less was known.  Her greatest strength was concentrated in the North Sea, where the island of Helgoland, the Gibraltar of the north, and the Kiel Canal with its exits to the Baltic and North Seas, furnished excellently both as naval bases and impenetrable protection.  Throughout the rest of the watery surface of the globe were eleven German warships, to which automatically fell the task of protecting the thousands of ships which, flying the German red, white, and black, were carrying freight and passengers from port to port.

The first naval movements in the Great War occurred on the morning of August 5, 1914.  The British ship Drake cut two cables off the Azores which connected Germany with North and South America, thus leaving these eleven German fighting ships without communication with the German admiralty direct.  And the war was not a day old between England and Germany before the German ship Koenigin Luise was caught sowing mines off the eastern English ports by the British destroyer Lance.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXIII

FIRST BLOOD—­BATTLE OF THE BIGHT

The Germans had taken heed of the value of mines from lessons learned at the cost of Russia in the war with Japan, and set about distributing these engines of destruction throughout the North Sea.  The British admiralty knowing this, sent out it fleet of destroyers to scour home waters in search of German mine layers.

About ten o’clock on the morning of August 5, 1914, Captain Fox, on board the Amphion, came up with a fishing boat which reported that it had seen a boat “throwing things overboard” along the east coast.  A flotilla, consisting of the Lance, Laurel, Lark and Linnet, set out in search of the stranger and soon found her.  She was the Koenigin Luise, and the things she was casting overboard were mines.  The Lance fired a shot across her bow to stop her, but she put