This incident illustrates the method of protection chiefly employed by the British Navy. When the original Expeditionary Force was sent to France, the Grand Fleet was in readiness if the High Sea Fleet should venture to issue to sea. Cruisers, destroyers, naval aircraft, and submarines were on watch and guard in the North Sea and the Channel, and the patrol was maintained, day and night, without intermission until the army had been effectively transported. The patrol was then organised upon a greater scale as the transport grew in volume. The Dover Patrol undertook a work of the highest importance, and was instrumental in holding off all destroyer attacks from the eastward. Cruisers, destroyers, armed motor launches, mine-trawlers and drifters, and other vessels have been constantly at work, and observation balloons and seaplanes have never ceased their vigil. The triumph has been complete, the enemy submarines have never penetrated the guard, and the Channel communications of all the armies in France have been made secure. There are certain features of this organisation which cannot be dealt with here. The same system has been carried into the Mediterranean and elsewhere, and the French, Italian, and Japanese navies have shared in the work.
In this matter of transport protection the British Navy has rendered magnificent service to all the Allies. General Sir Charles Munro, after the evacuation of Gallipoli, said it was a stroke of good fortune for the Army to be associated with a service “whose work remained throughout this anxious period beyond the power of criticism or cavil,” and General Sir Ian Hamilton reported that “one tiny flaw in the mutual trust and confidence animating the two services would have wrecked the whole enterprise.” This is true not only of Gallipoli but of every place in which the Navy has been serving as the guard of the communications, and the base and support of the military forces.
It will be understood that the Transport Department of the British Admiralty undertook a colossal work at the beginning of the war. It possessed the unrivalled experience gained during the South African War, 1899–1901, when about 275,000 men were dispatched and supplied with all army requirements over a distance of 7,000 miles of sea and land. Then there was no enemy afloat, but the operation was greater than any previously undertaken, and evoked the admiration of the world as a revelation of resource, energy, organisation, national spirit, good management, and business-like capacity. What will be said when the now incalculable work of the Transport Department in this war can be estimated and described? The inspection and selection of ships and the conversion of them for the accommodation of troops and horses was a great business. In 1899 it was estimated that a satisfactory transport should be capable of carrying a number of men equal to 25 per cent. of her tonnage. What is the rule now one cannot say. There are important considerations of ballasting, speed, coal consumption, and other matters in such business, and the removal or adaptation of existing fittings and the allotting of space for various purposes have occupied the Admiralty officers and officials.