Dec. 21 1916, and slipped through the blockade line disguised as a Norwegian schooner laden with timber. Armed with 2 4-in. guns and manned by 68 men she had cruised off S. America and sunk six British ships (" Gladys Royle " Jan. g, " Lundy Is." Jan. 10, " Perce " Jan. 28, " Pinmore " Feb. 19, " British Yeoman " Feb. 26, " Horngarth " March n), and then rounding Cape Horn disappeared into the Pacific. There she anchored off Mopiha, a small atoll in the Society Is. 265 m. W. of Tahiti, but had dragged on to a reef and broken her back. The captain set off with five men in one of the ship's motor-boats for Cook Is., and was captured by a small British steamer. The rest of the crew captured a small French schooner, the " Lutece," calling at Mopiha for copra, and set off in it leaving their 48 prisoners to their fate, only to be wrecked on Easter I. and rescued by the Chilean schooner " Falcon." Capt. Smith, one of the prisoners, steered a leaky whaler from Mopiha to Tutuila in the Samoa Is., and a French schooner was sent from Papeete for the remainder. Out of six attempts by German raiders to pass the blockade, four were successful; their cruises were unstained by the incidents which marred the German submarine campaign, and might rank as the brightest exploits of the German navy during the war.
Conclusion. The war was now drawing to a close. In July 1918 Adml. Scheer was summoned to Great Headquarters and on Aug. ii took Adml. von Holtzendorff's place as chief-of- staff, von Hipper replacing him as commander-in-chief. In Sept. the hammer blows of Marshal Foch in France were begin- ning to tell, and on Sept. 18 Scheer was told to be ready to evacuate the Flanders coast. On Sept. 29 the Bulgarian front collapsed, and on Oct. 5 Germany was suing for peace. Soon immense explosions heralded the evacuation of the Belgian coast. On Oct. 17 their troops evacuated Ostend. Two days later they were in full retreat from Zeebrugge. Eleven destroyers and nine torpedo-boats succeeded in retiring safely to the Bight. The submarines left there were blown up. Scheer was anxious to continue the warfare against shipping to the bitter end, but on Oct. 21 the submarines received orders to cease the campaign and return home. He then set to work to prepare a great final sortie of the High Sea Fleet. The submarines were ordered on Oct. 22 to assemble off the Scottish coast. It was hoped to make a last great raid on the Channel while the submarines attacked the fleet on its way down. A large minefield had been laid outside the Forth to meet such a contingency, and Adml. Scheer included it unwittingly in his plan, not knowing that it had been swept up. But the plan was never to be ful- filled. Scheer saw the weapon he trusted break in his hands. On Oct. 29, when the signal was made to prepare for sea, a great clamour arose, and a mutiny broke out which reached such dimensions that Adml. von Hipper was compelled to abandon his project. The torpedo flotillas and submarines remained true, and the commodore of submarines was joined by 16 boats off Heligoland and on Nov. 8 took refuge in List. But the end was at hand. Revolution flamed up everywhere. The troops sent to quell the disturbance proved untrustworthy. The navy passed into other hands. The war was over.
Under the terms of the Armistice, 10 German battleships, 6 battle-cruisers, 8 light cruisers, 50 destroyers and all sub- marines were to be surrendered. On Friday, Nov. 15, Adml. Hugo von Meurer arrived in the " Konigsberg " in the Forth to make the final arrangements with Adml. Beatty. On Wednes- day, Nov. 20, the submarines began their sorrowful journey to Harwich, to be met by Rear-Adml. Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt'35 m. from the Essex coast. Their old enemies passed in to Harwich in dead silence. Not a sound was heard from the crowds watch- ing them on shore or sea. On Nov. 21 the battleships of the proud German navy passed into Beatty 's hands. It was a misty day, and the Grand Fleet stood waiting off the Forth in two long lines 6 m. apart. The light cruiser " Cardiff," flying Rear-Adml. Alexander Sinclair's flag, led the remains of Germany's navy up the lines.
The naval conditions of the Peace terms, signed in June 1919, comprised 17 articles and provided that the German navy was
not to exceed 6 battleships of a pre-dreadnought type, 6 light cruisers, 12 destroyers and 12 torpedo-boats, and was not to include submarines. Within two months of signature the 8 dreadnoughts still in German possession (" Oldenburg," " Thiir- ingen," " Ostfriesland," " Heligoland," " Posen," " Westfalen," " Rheinland," " Nassau "), 8 light cruisers, 42 modern destroyers and 50 modern torpedo-boats, were to be surrendered, disarmed but with all guns on board. At the expiration of one month all German submarines building were to be handed over; such as could proceed or be towed were to be taken to Allied ports indicated; the remainder were to be broken up. No warships were to be constructed or acquired other than those intended to replace the previously specified strength, and units were only to be replaced in the case of battleships at the end of 20 years, in the case of destroyers at the end of 15. The personnel, in- cluding reserves of the fleet and coast defences, was not to exceed 15,000 officers and men.
The disposal of the German ships gave rise to lively argument. Great Britain was in favour of destroying them. France wished to add her share to her fleet. The question was complicated by the scuttling of the ships at Scapa on June 21. There were interned there n battleships ("Baden," " Bayern," "Fried- rich der Grosse," " Grosser Kurfurst," " Kaiser," " Kaiserin," " Kronprinz Wilhelm," " Markgraf," " Prinzregent Luitpold "), 5 battle-cruisers (" Hindenburg," " Derfflinger," " Seydlitz," " Moltke," and " Von der Tann "), 6 light cruisers (" Emden," " Frankfurt," " Nurnberg," " Coin," " Dresden," " Karlsruhe," " B rummer" and "Bremse"), when at 11:15 A - M v on a sig- nal from the " Emden," the ships were scuttled and began to sink. Only four were salved, the " Baden," " Emden," " Frankfurt " and " Nurnberg." Germany did not gain much by this act. She had to hand over in default of the battleships 400,000 tons (reduced later to 300,000) of floating docks, her remaining light cruisers (" Graudenz," " Konigsberg," " Pillau," " Regensburg," " Strassburg "), to replace the light cruisers, and 42,000 tons of floating cranes, tugs and dredgers, instead of the destroyers; these were more useful than what was sunk.
The terms of peace were no mere formality. The destruction of the submarines and vessels building was entrusted to a naval section of the Inter-Allied Commission, under Vice-Adml. Sir Montague Browning (subsequently under Vice-Adml. Sir Edward Charlton), and was strictly executed. The fortifications of Heligoland were razed to the ground. The destruction of Germany's sea-power was complete. It had been achieved by economic pressure and the imminence of a great military defeat, engineered by the maritime power excited by a superior fleet. Strangled by sea-power, and with a vast military spearhead launched at her heart, Germany collapsed. The year 1920, which had been intended to see the fulfilment of her Navy Law of 1900 embodied in a fleet of 61 capital ships, 40 cruisers and 144 destroyers, saw the fabric of her naval aspirations shattered, her proud fleet sunk beneath the waves in a bleak harbour of the north, her Emperor, who had inspired its creation, a fugitive in a foreign land, and foreign admirals sitting in her capital superintending the destruction of its shattered remnants.
The fleets of the Allied and Associated Powers covered every sea, and their immense superiority is shown in the following figures:
1 CO
T3 **
s-a
as
Battle- Cruisers.
fl
J u
ra A ^
Sub- marines.
Allied and Associated Powers
6 4
16
138
477
356
Germany and Austria
21
6
41
134
239
The Grand Fleet was now almost twice as numerous as when it had steamed N. on its fateful way in Aug. 1914. Its two de- stroyer flotillas had increased to eight, its single light-cruiser squadron had become six. It mustered, with Rear-Adml. Rodman's squadron, 38 battleships, making with Rear-Adml. T. S. Rogers' B.S. squadron at Berehaven (" Nevada," " Okla-
