As no

followed Bouët? The history of the Mediterranean fleet is interesting from the strategical point of view. During the first few days after the declaration of war, the French troops in Algeria were being busily conveyed to Toulon and Marseilles. The whereabouts of the Prussian squadron, whose presence at Plymouth has been noticed, was unknown. It was possible that it might be steaming south to intercept the line of communication between Toulon and Algiers, and, therefore, it was judged expedient to detain the Mediterranean fleet at Oran, watching the Straits of Gibraltar. Germans appeared, and it became certain that Prince Adalbert was at Wilhelmshaven, Admiral Fourichon, with his ships, was ordered round to Brest, which place he reached at the end of July. A suspected alliance between Spain and Germany may have contributed to his delay. On August 8th he left for the North Sea with the ironclads, Magnanime, Provence, Heroine, Couronne, Valeureuse, Revanche, Invincible, and Atalante, besides four smaller vessels.* In the Mediterranean, to protect the line of communication, Toulon-Algiers, two ironclad frigates, and the Belliqueuse remained. A third squadron was collected at Cherbourg to protect that port, but the expeditionary force was now wanted in other directions. quick succession the defeats of Weissembourg, Wörth, and Forbach, early in August, opened France to the German advance, and the marine infantry divisions could no longer be spared for the Baltic.

Fourichon was off Heligoland on August 11th. He found himself upon a sandy and difficult coast, without pilots and without light-draught vessels. Beyond blockading he could do nothing, and to maintain the blockade was difficult enough. England would not permit him to use Heligoland as a coaling station, and the fuel had to be transferred to his ironclads on the open sea. This is a difficult operation in smooth and Sheltered water: it is not only difficult but dangerous upon a

• Decres, Cosmao, Chateau-Renaud, Renard,

stormy sea, such as that on which he was cruising.

That

he accomplished it with success is no small tribute to the French officers and sailors. He had no friendly port at hand. into which to convey disabled vessels. The western coast of Denmark does not possess a single harbour, and at Heligoland there is only a measure of shelter to leeward of the island. Towards the end of August there was a strong west wind which rendered coaling more difficult than ever. Early in September the weather became worse. A succession of gales from the south-west and north-west obliged the ships to steam out to sea. When the wind fell, some of the ironclads were exceedingly short of coal, and it became absolutely necessary to return to France. Her fuel would only carry the Invincible as far as Dunkirk, and thither she had to run. Had the wind continued longer the supply of coal would have failed, and the position of the French fleet, upon a dangerous and hostile coast, would have become extremely critical. Proceeding to Cherbourg, Fourichon received the intelligence that the Empire had fallen, and that he had been appointed minister of marine. His ships landed a large portion of their skilled gunners to defend Paris, which was threatened by the Germans after Sedan. Henceforward they cruised with diminished crews in two squadrons, one off Dunkirk and the other off the Jahde, relieving each other in turn.

Meantime Bouët's squadron in the Baltic had received no reinforcements. It could do little or nothing against Kiel, which was far too strongly defended to be assailed by any but a very powerful fleet. After the French reverses, instructions were sent to the admiral to bombard open towns, which he had been at first instructed to spare. But of open towns there was only one, Kolberg, at which the French could get. Thither he proceeded to execute what he, for he was a humane man, considered a detestable mission. Kolberg was a watering-place, defenceless and exposed to any attack; it was crowded with inoffensive non-combatants, whose only sin was that they were of German nationality. Happily, he

was saved by chance from the perpetration of an act which should be repudiated by all civilised nations, since the news reached him that the three Prussian ironclads had left the Jahde, and were threatening his communication. In consequence he steamed to the Great Belt and awaited their arrival. As they were in fact closely blockaded by Admiral Fourichon they never came.

Reinforced by the Rochambeau and the Armide,* he prepared once more to attack Kolberg, and again, not perhaps altogether unwillingly, was prevented from executing his orders, by a violent storm. Earlier in the war, on July 27th, the monitor Arminius, had succeeded in stealing round by the Sound from Kiel to the Elbe, in spite of the careful watch maintained. Her light draught enabled her to hug the Swedish coast, and rendered it impossible for the French to attack her in territorial waters, even had they discovered her. The Elizabeth, which had also attempted to pass from the Baltic to the North Sea, was compelled to return to Kiel.

Till September 29th, when Bouët returned to France, this desultory blockade continued. There was throughout no incident of importance, except, on August 22nd, for an attempt made by the German corvette Nymphe to surprise the ironclads off Dantzic. This attempt was easily defeated by the French corvette Thétis. The Germans, on their part, as Kiel, Lubeck, Neustadt, Stettin, Stralsund, and Rügen were declared to be blockaded, retaliated by offering 50,000 thalers for the destruction of a French frigate, and 30,000 for the destruction of a corvette. The blockade prevented regular trade, but it did not hinder German ships from stealing along the coast. The German warships in the Baltic took good care not to expose themselves to defeat.

The blockade of the North Sea coast, was conducted in turn by Admirals de Gueydon and Penhoat, till, the Surveillante having lost her rudder and all but gone ashore, the ironclads were withdrawn. The stormy winter tried the

• The Océan and Flandre were, however, withdrawn.

heavy ships, and on each cruise minor misadventures befell them. From December to the close of the war the blockade was left to the lighter and faster unarmoured ships, whilst the two ironclad squadrons cruised, the one off Dunkirk, the other in the Channel to the South of Ireland. The Germans, advancing steadily on land, had occupied Havre, Dieppe, and Rouen, and to prevent them from using these places as bases, and from importing stores through them, these French towns were blockaded by the French ironclads, which, on a friendly coast with bases near at hand, found the task an easier one than on the North Sea. Nevertheless, it was a singular position. The Germans troubled the light French ships as little as they had troubled the ironclads.

The disposition of the German fleet during the blockade was as follows: in the Jahde were the ironclads König Wilhelm, Kronprinz, and Friedrich Karl, which were usually stationed near the island of Wangeroog at the mouth of the channel. Three gunboats were retained at Wilhelmshaven. In the Elbe were the turret-ships Adalbert and Arminius with three gunboats. At Büsum was one gunboat. Moving between the Elbe and Kiel by the Eider canal were seven gunboats. At Kiel was the corvette Elizabeth, the despatch-boat Adler, and three gunboats. At Stralsund was the Grille and three gunboats, whilst the corvette Nymphe lay at Dantzic. Outside European waters the Hertha and Medusa were blockaded on the Japanese coast, whilst the Arcona was held under observation by the French at the Azores. One ship, the Augusta, escaped from the Elbe during the blockade of the North Sea coast, and appearing in the Bay of Biscay, captured three French vessels, the Max, off Brest, the St. Marc and Réné Adolphe, off the Gironde. She ended by being blockaded at Vigo by two French ships, one of which lay in the harbour alongside her, whilst the other cruised off the port. The twenty-four hours law rendered the presence of two ships necessary to hold her fast.

One encounter only took place between ships. In the West Indies was, as has been said, the German gun-boat Meteor, armed with one 15-centimètre and two 12-centimètre guns, and manned by sixty-four officers and sailors. The French gunboat Bouvet, carrying one 16-centimètre and four 12-centimètre guns, with a crew of eighty-five men, was lying in the harbour of Havana, when on November 7th, the Meteor steamed in and anchored. Having conveyed to the German captain the intelligence that he was ready to fight him, the French commander, Franquet, put out to sea at eight o'clock on November 8th. Exactly twenty-four hours later, to comply with the requirements of the twenty-four hours rule, the German ship followed. She was slower and more feebly armed than her enemy, but had, according to the French, a stouter hull. Outside territorial waters, the Bouvet was waiting for her. The weather was cloudy, and there was a rising wind from the north-east. At about 2.30 p.m., the Meteor opened fire at a range of 1200 yards, and then for two hours the ships. fought continuously, circling round and round, but doing each other uncommonly little injury. At last, the French captain decided to ram, and charged the Meteor at his highest speed. Though running ten or eleven knots, he struck his blow at an angle of forty-five degrees, and consequently produced little impression. The shock brought down the Meteor's main and mizzenmast, and a portion of the rigging fouled her screw; the Germans had intended to board the Bouvet, but the two vessels were only in contact for a second. The Bouvet was preparing to ram a second time, when a shot perforated her boiler. On this, she hoisted sail and retired, says the German account, whilst the Meteor endeavoured to pursue her. The Spanish captain, however, who had come out with his ship to see that there was no violation of neutral waters, stopped all further attempts to engage, by informing the combatants that they were now in Spanish waters. The loss of the Bouvet was ten men killed or wounded, whilst the Meteor had two killed.