“Battleships have been put onto four hoursfor steam, Adams.”
The Captain’s voice from behind him.
“Good morning, sir. Anything for us?”
“The commodore is active. Cruiser divisionis about to receive orders, I would say, judging by the activity on her bridge.”
Christopher looked across at Defence, twocables distant from Warrior and Duke of Edinburgh and Black Prince, the fourforming the First Cruiser Squadron under Captain Venn Ellis.
The Yeoman of the Signals had the acknowledgementflag bent onto the lanyards, waiting for the signal.
“For First Cruiser Division, sir. Go totwo hours readiness for steam, sir. Executive, sir.”
“Acknowledge.”
The order was passed down to the engineroomand within minutes the ship was vibrating as all of its boilers were lit up andthe engines were turned over, given their final checks.
“Engineroom reports ready in one hundredminutes, sir.”
Christopher wondered how that had beenachieved. They had been on enhanced readiness previously, on eight hoursnotice; to turn that to less than two hours was an achievement, suggesting thatthe Chief had been cheating, had had all of his boilers lit and ready.
“Received a signal in the night, Adams.”
There was a chuckle in the captain’s voice,not a common event, Captain Gilpin-Brown not being the most light-hearted of men.
“Warning of wireless activity over on theJade and Kiel Canal, a likelihood that some or all of the High Seas Fleet wasmoving. Probably going out on gunnery exercises in the Baltic. Normal enough. Iwould not be surprised if the engineroom had heard and taken appropriateaction.”
Coal-fired boilers needed hours to come upto temperature, just how many depending on the foresightedness of theengineers.
“Clouds of black smoke all over the Flow,sir. The battle fleet is in readiness as well, it would seem.”
A few minutes and a message came up fromthe wireless cabin two decks below.
“Battlecruisers are out. Beatty has all ofhis command under steam.”
The officers on the bridge exchanged glances– it might be for real, the big battle finally on the horizon.
“Call all hands, Commander.”
Five minutes of apparent chaos, men runningto their stations, some still chewing on a sandwich, most grinning, a fewshouting their delight.
“Close watertight doors, sir?”
“Not yet. Allow the men access to theheads. Get an issue of cocoa to all stations.”
It might be the last hot drink availablefor a day or more if they remained closed up overnight. Most of the men wouldhave water bottles with them; the older, experienced hands would have tucked acan of bully beef or a packet of biscuit away as well. All would be making use ofthe heads, doing their best to empty their bowels before being locked away intight enclosed metal boxes for the duration of the battle. A ship could be a smellyplace after a prolonged period of action stations.
The bridge was crowded with the extra officers,additional to the ordinary watchkeepers, all waiting for something to happenbefore they went to their stations at the guns.
Hours passed, no signals coming from IronDuke, the flagship.
“Waiting for the battlecruisers to makecontact. Hoping that Beatty will actually tell Jellicoe what is going on. Hemade a cock of Dogger Bank for not using the wireless, you know.”
The Battle of Dogger Bank was generallyrecognised by the Navy as a failure, Beatty’s ships having sunk one heavycruiser and allowed a flotilla of battlecruisers to escape almost unharmed,due, it was thought, to Beatty’s inability to formulate and clearly convey thenecessary orders to his captains. He had relied on flag signals for all of hiscommands. The newspapers had all shouted success and victory, Beatty being afavourite of theirs and well loved by Royalty. He had retained his command andwas believed to be the heir-in-waiting, successor to Jellicoe when his time came.
The fleet finally sailed, going out slowlyin order, so many big ships having to manoeuvre carefully in the confinedchannels leading out of the anchorage. The First Cruiser Division tucked itselfinto its place, on the northern, port flank of the battleship divisions.
“Doing no good at all here! Supposed to beout scouting, taking a lead. Venn Ellis won’t be happy, that’s for sure.”
The Commander’s words were heard by all,agreed with wholeheartedly. The armoured cruisers could do nothing where theywere placed.
“Orders for twenty knots, sir.”
Christopher retired to his charts, layingout the mean course, allowing for zigzagging to put off submarines.
“Making for the gap in the minefields southwestof the Friesian Islands, close to Heligoland, sir.”
They waited, the wireless operators alertfor any message from the battlecruisers.
“Nothing from Beatty. No contact, onepresumes.”
Captain Gilpin-Brown sounded dispirited –another false alarm.
The fleet continued south, twenty-fourdreadnoughts in six columns of four accompanied by three battlecruisers, threecruiser divisions and a mass of destroyers, the most powerful fleet evermustered on Earth. They were effectively blind, hoping the High Seas Fleet wasout and knowing nothing, for lack of signals coming through from Beatty’sbattlecruisers.
“Our pendant, sir!”
The Yeoman yelled that there were ordersfor the First Cruiser Division.
“To join battlecruisers, sir, making asweep east and south towards the Danish coast. Executive, sir.”
Black Prince joined Defence and Warriorand the Duke of Edinburgh, coming into line abreast, separated for scouting,Black Prince to the far end of the line, to the northeast, the battlecruisersto the south. They increased to twenty-three knots, pulling away from the GrandFleet, wondering how long the speed, their maximum, would be demanded of them.
“Poor visibility, Navigator! Mist and hazein patches, clear elsewhere. Can see twenty thousand yards in places, one thousandin others.”
“I was told it was the same at HeligolandBight in ’14, sir. A bit later in the year, admittedly, but the visibility impossiblethere.”
It was much the same stretch of sea.
Hours passed in the long northern midsummerday, no more than four hours of darkness at this latitude. Black Princegradually fell behind, the speed too great for her to maintain hour after hour.
A runner came up from the wireless cabin,passed a written message to the captain.
“Beatty is in contact with Hipper’sbattlecruisers. Has him outnumbered. Should wipe him out as soon as thebattleships come up.”
Hipper was known to have five battlecruisersto Beatty’s six. In addition, Beatty had been joined by four fast superdreadnoughtsof the Queen Elizabeth class, all with fifteen
