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.
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