Of course our deepest regrets were immediately forthcoming, and
were accepted by the Italian Government in like spirit.
CHAPTER IX
Our Battleship Fleet--Great Workshop of War--Preparations for Foreign
Service--On a Battleship During a Submarine Attack--The Wireless That
Went Wrong--The Torpedo That Missed--Attack on Submarine Bases of
Doubtful Expediency--When the German Fleet Comes Out--Establishment of
Station in the Azores
When the German fleet of battleships and battle-cruisers sallies forth
into the North Sea for a final fight against the British Grand Fleet,
they will find American dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts ready and
eager to lend the material weight of their assistance to the Allied
cause. A substantial number of our capital ships, under command of
Rear-Admiral Hugh Rodman, are with the Grand Fleet, and have been for
some months. Both in Washington and in London a German sea offensive on
a grand scale has long been regarded as a possibility, and the admiralty
authorities at the Entente capitals are anxious for the supreme test,
and confident concerning its outcome. We have already noted Admiral
Beatty's action in assigning American battleships to the place of honor
in the line of sea-fighters which went forth to meet a reported German
attack some time ago. It was a false report, but the honor done our
naval fighters stands.
The expansion of the United States Navy has also included an enormous
increase in our battleships and battle-cruisers; definite details are
withheld, but it is not too much to say that we are thoroughly equipped
to assist Great Britain very vitally in this respect.
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