OCR Text |
Show WHERE IS NELSON? We are reminded by the shelving ot ir John Jellicoe, master of the mightiest might-iest navy in the tide of time a world in itself that in the greatest of wars no great admiral has been produced. Somewhere in that navy, no doubt, there is a Xelson or a l'arragul, a dynamic genius, who knows how to hurl the: thunderbolts that .love has given to Neptune. But the circumstanc.es of the war at sea have not been favorable ko the discovery of a genuine commander. com-mander. On both sides able, scientific, hardhitting hard-hitting fighters have been found, notable among them Admiral Beatty, who, however, lost some of his prestige at the battle of Jutland because his battle cruisers were worsted by the battleships bat-tleships of the kaiser. It was not his fault. He was playing the part of a lure. He furnished the tempting bait to the Teutonic admiral and tried to drag him into the trap set by Sir John Jellicoe. Beatty was to sacrifice himself him-self and his battle cruisers while Jcl licoe pounced upon the enemy with the dreadnoughts and cut him off from the base at Kiel. But the plan went somewhat some-what awry. The battlo cruisers wore too long under fire of the German high seas fleet and Sir John was (00 slow in carrying out his part of the grand maneuver. He delivered some terrible blows with his big guns, but darkness came on and tho enemy was able to slip through the trap and regain the shelter of tho German base. Like so many fights on land during the present conflict con-flict tho battlo of Jutland was indecisive indecis-ive and because of that fact neither the British nor the German commander was able to claim immortal laurels. Tho little undersea hornets have played their part in preventing a decisive de-cisive naval action. They have been so valuable to the Germans in cutting the enemy's line of supplies that the high seas fleet has been kept off the high seas and the British dreadnoughts have lieen left unchallenged while the U-boats have gone about their methodical methodi-cal business of reducing the merchant tonnage of the world. Perhaps the seafighters fail to loom large because the proportions of the naval machine are so gigantic. The shadow of tho machine is so grandiose that w-c are lost in wonder and neglect to note the little lordlings who strut about in the shadow and call themselves them-selves admirals. But Nelson or Farragut may yet appear. ap-pear. In the final combat which will make the world reel some dynamic, figure may stride forth from the shadow-and shadow-and give the command which will doom I the foe, and render his name forever luminous. |