Conjectures were made as to the significance
of this move; it might have meant that England had found the pace
too great and had deliberately decided to abandon her dominance
of the eastern Mediterranean; or that Gibraltar had been secretly
reequipped as a naval base. What it did mean was learned when the
French Minister of Marine announced in the following September that
the entire naval strength of France would thereafter be concentrated
in the Mediterranean. This was the first concrete action of the
_entente cordiale_--the British navy, in the event of war, was
to guard the British home waters and the northern ports of France;
the French navy was to guard the Mediterranean, protecting French
ports as well as French and British shipping from "the Gib" to
the Suez.
What was the comparative strength of these naval combinations when
the war started?
From her latest superdreadnoughts down to her auxiliary ships, such
as those used for hospital purposes, oil carrying and repairing,
England had a total of 674 vessels. Without consideration of ages
and types this total means nothing, and it is therefore necessary
to examine her naval strength in detail. She had nine battleships
of 14,000 tons displacement each, built between 1895 and 1898--the
_Magnificent, Majestic, Prince George, Jupiter, Caesar, Mars,
Illustrious, Hannibal_, and _Victorious_--with engines developing
12,000 horsepower that sent them through the water at 17.
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