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The King's idea

Narrator: it is late 1908 and President Roosevelt's "Great white fleet" has just left Sydney in Australia on its worldwide "goodwill" tour. President Roosevelt has sent battleships on goodwill visits before but this was a much bigger deal.

On one of his frequent visits to the admiralty, King Edward VII raised the matter with the First Sea Lord "Jackie" Fisher. Because of the king's great love of the navy, the two men have worked together as allies in the past and now regard one-another as good friends, who can discuss anything together.

King: Jackie, Mr Roosevelt's Great White Fleet has given me a lot to think about lately.

Jackie: You're not alone in that.

King: It's been a brilliant success for Mr Roosevelt. In its peacetime livery of white with a bit of gilding, his 16 battleships do look rather spectacular, I gather. I believe our people in Australia gave it a big welcome. And Britain seems to be the only country they are not visiting. Since they are supposed to be doing "goodwill" visits, that omission seems rather ominous. They are scheduled to stop at Gibraltar so a visit to England would be only the most minor detour for them. They could sail all the way around Cape Horn but still not have time to visit Portsmouth? Very strange

Jackie: Yes. that idea of a peacetime livery for warships is rather good. It conveys the idea that the ships are not being threatening when they visit foreign ports. With all our ships, however, painting and repainting them would be a huge task and a big expense so I would be against it.

King: Yes, Jackie, you are as practical as ever. But I do think we need to reply to the American grand tour in some way. And Mr Roosevelt in particular bothers me. He is even more of a war-monger than the Kaiser. I can handle the Kaiser. He is family, after all. But Mr Roosevelt is very much a loose cannon, as far as I can see. Not only does he speak of war as a purifying force for a nation but he puts his money where his mouth is. During the American takeover of Cuba he even got on his horse and led charges against the pathetic Spaniards.

Jackie: That was before he became President, of course.

King: Yes. But he was already a very senior figure in American politics so he is definitely an unusual chappie.

Jackie: Agreed.

King: Discussions in cabinet are of course highly confidential but I get cabinet papers in my red boxes so I saw all the discussions that went on when we were negotiating to get "Dreadnought" built. The First Lord gave a rather alarming speech about a possible American threat to our colonies in the Far East. Did you get wind of that?

Jackie: Yes the First Lord thought that his First Sea-Lord should be apprised of that so he lent me a copy of the speech. He was rather proud of it I gather.

King: He was right to be. It got the Dreadnought built.

Jackie: The power of a speech!

King: Indeed. So I think that we ought to give Mr Roosevelt a quiet warning that we are not to be trifled with. And the tour of his fleet has given me an idea of one way to do that.

Jackie: Run it past me.

King: I think we should send a "Great Grey Fleet" of our latest battleships to New York on some pretext or other.

Jackie: The crews would enjoy that.

King: As I do. But our fleet would be led by Dreadnought and they've got nothing like that yet, though they are building one or two. So it should make a powerful impression on the American public and let them know that the old Lion is not toothless yet.

Jackie: Yes. Hard to disagree with that.

King: But here's the second part of my idea. I think the fleet should take a far-Northern route during winter!

Jackie: Wow! you are thinking outside the box. As every sailor knows, the North Atlantic during winter is a very dangerous place. The Dreadnought is a mighty ship but it would not come off well in a fight with an iceberg!

King: Precisely! The news of it would give everyone the horrors and it would certainly capture the attention of the American press, which is the main point of the idea. The reason I think we can do it is that unlike the old wooden ships, steam power allows us to go in any direction we want whenever we want so in theory we can simply steer out of the way of any icebergs we encounter.

Jackie: Visibility

King: Yes. That is the whole of the problem. But I think we might be able to get around it. Even during the day, the fog can be terrible there but I am told that our searchlights can be equipped to penetrate fog to some extent. And, again thanks to steam power, we mount some very powerful searchlights on our ships these days.

Additionally, once we got into the ice danger zone, we could run the fleet at half speed during the day and even slower at night. Nobody would object to that precaution and if we do bump into anything, the bump should not be too destructive. With nearly a foot-thick belt of Krupp-type cemented steel armour around the midriff of Dreadnought, any collision should just bounce the ship, not hole it. And with Dreadnought leading a file in close formation, whatever happens to Dreadnought should be a good warning to the following ships

And on that route in winter we would not have any other ships to contend with -- just icebergs. It is amazing how ships sailing in fog repeatedly manage to collide with one-another. It is almost as if they have a magnetic attraction to one another once fog descends. Quite weird. But we would have the sea to ourselves at that time so no risk from other ships.

Jackie: You are beginning to make a case. But what if we do lose one of our ships to the ice? Won't that be a publicity disaster?

King: Maybe not. We could compare the crossing of our fleet as equivalent to the dangers of wartime. So, if most of our fleet survive, it shows how well we can survive a war.

Jackie: You think of everything.

King: Yes. I have been making propaganda for Britain for the whole of my adult life and I think I have had some success at it.

Jackie: Yes. Your first visit to America when you were still Prince of Wales is a legend.

King: Yes. Even the Foreign office have had to admit that. So they use me for diplomatic missions a lot these days. Not that I mind. I have always enjoyed travel.

Jackie: I hear that your visit to Ceylon was a great success.

King: Yes. I managed to persuade all sides that Britain was secretly on their side so everybody is reasonably happy now.

Jackie: Well, sir. The New York trip is your idea. So you will have to lead off on it. I count myself as having considerable powers of persuasion but I bow to you in that regard every time.

King: The important thing at this point is what you think of the idea. Am I out of my mind?

Jackie: Getting close to it, I think Sir, but I will support you. I think it is feasible. We could even both ship aboard the Dreadnought to give Americans the benefit of our collective goodwill! And when we got into port we would be very glad to feel land under our feet and to drink some good American coffee

King: Ah! That eases my mind. I need to have you behind me on this. I am seeing the PM soon so I will put it to him

Narrator: Fortunately for all concerned, the PM vetoed the idea. But to placate the King, he did send the fleet requested, but in summer and by a safer route. To the king's considerable annoyance, however, that winter had an unusually small number of iceberg sightings -- so the contemplated crossing would probably have gone off without incident.


@Copyright. Author email: jonjayray@hotmail.com




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