Goldrick - Before Jutland: the naval war in Northern European waters, August 1914-February 1915

This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest.

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, MD 21402

2015 by James Goldrick

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Goldrick, James.

Before Jutland : the naval war in Northern European waters, August 1914February 1915 / James Goldrick.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61251-881-7 (ebook) 1. World War, 19141918Naval operations. 2. World War, 19141918CampaignsNorth Sea. I. Title.

D581.G629 2015

940.4'54dc23

2015000477

Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First printing

All maps are provided by the author.

WITH LOVE TO RUTH AND OUR SONS OWEN AND EDMUNDAND WITH THANKS FOR THEIR FORBEARANCE CONCERNING THIS AND MANY OTHER PROJECTS OVER THE YEARS.

CONTENTS

PHOTOS

MAPS

DISTANCES

All distances in this book are given in nautical miles giving the old Admiralty mile as the reference for the nautical mile. This is one minute of arc subtended along a great circle. It is some 4 feet or 1.248 meters longer than the current nautical mile:

1 nautical mile = 1,853.2 meters = 6,080 feet

1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour

COMPASS

360 degrees in a circle

32 points in a circle

1 point = 11 1/4 degrees

8 points = 90 degrees

16 points = 180 degrees (reversal of course)

I AM VERY GRATEFUL TO DAVID STEVENSNOT ONLY FOR HIS CONSTANT friendship, but also for all the help and advice he has given me, including the benefit of his own extensive research into the navies of the Great War. I am also grateful to my friends on the staff of the Sea Power CentreAustralia and to Chris Dawkins and the splendid staff of the library of the Australian Defence Force Academy for all their assistance with my research. Similar thanks go to Stephen Prince and the equally splendid staff of the Royal Navys Historical Branch at Portsmouth, as well as the helpful staffs of Churchill College Archives, the Royal Naval Museum Library, the Liddell Hart Centre, the Liddle Archive at the University of Leeds, the UK National Archives, the National Maritime Museum, and the Imperial War Museum.

Although I listed acknowledgments to many old friends in the first edition of this study, I want to recognize a continuing debt to Vice Admiral Peter Jones, Professors Jon Sumida and Jack Sweetman, and to the late Captain Stephen Roskill and the late Lieutenant Commander Patrick Beesly, all of whom gave me much help and counsel. Valuable advice for the new edition as well as the old has come from Commander George Nekrasov (and Christine Nekrasovs original translations of German material have again proved vital) and Commander James McCoy. Dr. Nicholas Rodger, to whom I also owe much, read parts of the manuscript and gave me good advice, as did Dr. Norman Friedman. Dr. Michael Epkenhans assisted me with my inquiries about certain aspects of German operations and very kindly consented to my use of quotations from some of his own scholarlyand extremely importantwork on the Imperial German Navy. Keith Mitchell kindly drew new charts of the North Sea and the Baltic. Dr. Nicholas Lambert gave me the benefit of his reflections on many issues. Steven Firth, as ever, contributed many insights.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors, literary estates, and publishers for permission to quote from the following works in the first edition of this book and that remain in the text: the literary estate of Admiral Sir Henry Pelly and Chatto & Windus Ltd. for 300,000 Sea Miles; the literary estate of Brigadier C. F. Aspinall-Oglander and The Hogarth Press for Roger Keyes; the late Misses King-Hall and Faber & Faber Ltd. for My Naval Life 19061929; the late Misses King-Hall and Methuen & Co Ltd. for A Naval Lieutenant 19141918; Mr. Winston Churchill, the Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., and Charles Scribner & Sons for The World Crisis; the Hutchinson Publishing Group for Admiral von Hipper; the late Mrs. A. J. Marder and Jonathan Cape for Portrait of an Admiral and Fear God and Dread Nought; the late Vice Admiral Sir Peter Gretton and Cassell Ltd. for Former Naval Person; Cassell Ltd. for With the Battle Cruisers and Germanys High Sea Fleet in the World War; the literary estate of Rear Admiral W. S. Chalmers and Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. for Max Horton and the Western Approaches; the literary estate of Rear Admiral W. S. Chalmers and A. P. Watt Ltd. for The Life and Letters of David Earl Beatty; the literary estate of Captain Taprell Dorling and A. P. Watt Ltd. for Swept Channels and Endless Story; MacDonald & Co. for The Kaiser and His Court; Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt; the late Professor A. Temple Patterson and MacDonald & Co. for Tyrwhitt of the Harwich Force; the late second Lord Chatfield for The Navy and Defence; and the literary estate of Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly and Harrap Ltd. for Pull Together.

Among quoted works in copyright in the new edition, I am grateful to the Lieutenant Commanders Phillip and Mark Bush (sons of the late Captain Eric Bush) and Allen & Unwin for Bless Our Ship; and to Conway Maritime Press for Scrimgeours Small Scribbling Diary. For those whose literary heirs and original publishers I have been unable to trace, may I here record my acknowledgments.