Beatty, Jellicoe, Sims and Rodman; Yankee Gobs and British Tars as Seen by an Anglomanic, (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTEH II AT HOME WITH ADMIRAL BEATTY (A LETTER TO THE ATTTHOR's FATHER) To tread the paths of death he stood prepared, And what he greatly thought he nobly dared. U. S. S. New York, Flagship European Waters, 25th May, '18. SUPPOSING that on one of our talks in your office a little more than a year ago I had said something of this sort: "Well, Dad, whatever I decide won't be very permanent. A year from now it will be all changed. I shall be distant hah the globe, commissioned in the navy by the President and detailed on the American flagship with the Grand Fleet. Six months at war, I will have dodged torpedoes off The Naze of Norway; chased the flying German High Seas Fleet into the Kiel Canal; flown over the battlefields of France; and witnessed air raids on Boulogne and London. I shall have met the flower of England's rule in visiting many castles in the north; have held most interesting chats with such men as Sir William Robertson, General Montgomery, LordCurzon, Col. the Marquis of Linlithgow, Sir Percy Girouard, and a score of lords and ladies and peers- to-be. Further, I shall count among my friends (because of the peculiar interest he has shown me) the greatest of them all, our smashing young Com- mander-in-Chief, Grand Admiral Sir David Beatty." What would you have said to that? Sometimes I like to think that Richard Carvel would have been no more fortunate, had his fictitious career been staged in this war instead of Revolutionary times. But that is neither here nor there. What I want to talk about is the personality and character of our truly great commander, as he has impressed me. Yes, the impression is very deep. The more so when you realize that in his position, at this critical time and with his peerless command, the Grand Fleet, he requires ...