Epilogue — Mount Pisgah
It is stated that the historian, Lecky, O.M. (I assisted at the operation of his receiving the Order of Merit) gave more thought and time to the book of his last years, “The Map of Life,” than to any other of all his works, and it is said that for three years he kept on revising the last of its chapters.
The book was derided to me by a literary friend of great eminence as being “The Pap of Life!” I read its last chapters with great avidity. If for nothing else, the book is worthy of immortality for the reason that it so emphasises those great words of Dryden as being appropriate to the close of a busied life—
“Not Heaven itself upon the past has Power,
What has been has been, and I have had my hour.”
Whenever (as I often do) I pass Dryden’s bust in Westminster Abbey I invariably thank him for those lines.
Mr. Lecky urges his readers to leave the active scenes of life in good time and not to “Lag superfluous on the Stage” (I believe Mr. Gladstone recommended this also, but didn’t do it!).
To illustrate Mr. Lecky we have that great and splendid Trio of Translation to Heaven at the very zenith of their powers. Elijah was hurrying along (that great, hairy, weird old man) so that Elisha could hardly keep pace with him, and he is suddenly caught up in a Chariot of Fire to Heaven! I ask, “Was not Nelson’s leaving this earth quite a similar glorious departure?”
“Partial firing continued until 4.30 p.m. when a victory having been reported to Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B., and Commander-in-Chief, he THEN died of his Wound.”
Moses (with whom I am now more particularly concerned) also left this life in a similar glorious way, for God was his companion when his Spirit left this Earth, and it markedly is recorded of Moses that—
“His eye was not dim,
Nor his natural force abated!”
Mr. Lecky doesn’t quote my three men above. I consider them superior to Noah, Daniel and Job, who are the three named in Scripture as being so dear to the pious man. Ezekiel, chapter xiv., verse 14.
I reiterate that the advice of the derided Lecky seems to me excellent, to leave active life at one’s zenith, and thus anticipate senility.
The Archbishop of Seville is a lovely story by Cervantes. All Spain came to hear him preach. Indeed he had to preach every day, the crowds were so great, and he said to his faithful Secretary: “Tell me when you notice me waning, for a man never knows it himself.” The Secretary did so, and the Archbishop gave him the sack! Yes! The Archbishop had passed the Rubicon, and this dismissal was the proof. Having this fear, I left Office on my birthday in 1910, though for a few short months in 1914 I enjoyed the “dusky hues of glorious war,” and exceedingly delighted myself in those seven months in arranging a new Armada against Germany of 612 vessels, and in sending Admiral von Spee and all his ships to the bottom of the sea.
The following much-prized lines were sent me on the Annihilation of Admiral von Spee’s Squadron off the Falkland Islands on December 8th, 1914. He had sunk Admiral Cradock’s Squadron five weeks before. The “Dreadnought” Battle Cruisers, “Inflexible” and “Invincible,” sent to sink von Spee, made a passage of 14,000 miles without a hitch and arrived just a few hours before von Spee. It was a timely arrangement:—
From the President of Magdalen College, Oxford, Sir Herbert Warren (Professor of Poetry).
Merserat Ex-spe Spem, rediit spes, mergitur Ex-spes.
“Von Spee sent the ‘Good Hope’ to the bottom: hope revived; he is sunk himself, without hope.”
From Mr. Godley, the Public Orator at Oxford University.
Hoc tibi Piscator Patria debet opus.
“Your country owes this exploit to you, O Fisher!”
But that Great Providence, that shapes our course, rough hew it how we will, ordained my departure from the conduct of the War. Amongst the masses of regretful letters at my departure I choose one from an Admiral then 88 years old, who satisfies the great Dr. Weir Mitchell’s dictum of the clear brain becoming clearer with age. This Admiral annexed a Continent for England, abounding in riches in New Guinea; but he got no thanks; and England gave away his gift. But his name lives there. I conclude with his letter:—
Dear Old Fisher,
It is marvellous how all variations of our lives are unravelled by Divine Inspiration that cannot err.
“No one can ‘hustle’ Providence.”
(That’s one of your sayings!)
Think of Moses!
“He was the truest warrior that ever buckled sword.
He the most gifted Poet that ever breathed a word:
And never Earth’s Philosopher traced with his golden pen,
On the Deathless Page, truths half so sage as he wrote down for men;
Yet no man knows his sepulchre, and no man saw it e’er,
For the Angels of God up-turned the sod and laid the Dead Man there.”
Moses saved his people. He prepared them for the conquest in which he was to take no part. He was the meekest man on earth, yet he could be the most ruthless!
Doubtless you saved England at the Falkland Islands.
Doubtless you prepared our Fleet for this war! (Nothing to boast of! You the clay in the hands of the Potter!) And it seems likely that some Joshua will reap what you have sown! Yet history will put it right.
“O lonely grave in Moab’s land! O dark Beth-Peor’s hill!
Speak to these curious hearts of ours and teach them to be still!”
Ever faithfully yours,
(Signed) J. Moresby.
Footnotes
1 “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark.”—Phil. iii. 13, 14.
2 Sir Julian Corbett, the author of the wonderful “Seven Years’ War,” wrote to me in past vituperative years as follows:
“Yesterday I was asked if it were really true that you (Sir John Fisher) had sold the country to Germany! I was able to assure the questioner that the report was at least exaggerated. It is often my fortune to be able to quiet minds that have been seriously disturbed by the unprecedented slanders that have been the reward of your unprecedented work.”
3 See letters at end of this chapter.
4 On hearing of von Tirpitz’s dismissal I perpetrated the following letter, which a newspaper contrived to print in one of its editions. I can’t say why, but it didn’t appear any more, nor was it copied by any other paper!
Dear Old Tirps,
We are both in the same boat! What a time we’ve been colleagues, old boy! However, we did you in the eye over the Battle Cruisers and I know you’ve said you’ll never forgive me for it when bang went the “Blucher” and von Spee and all his host!
Cheer up, old chap! Say “Resurgam”! You’re the one German sailor who understands War! Kill your enemy without being killed yourself. I don’t blame you for the submarine business. I’d have done the same myself, only our idiots in England wouldn’t believe it when I told ’em!
Well! So long!
Yours till hell freezes,
Fisher.
29/3/16.
I say! Are you sure if you had tripped out with your whole High Sea Fleet before the Russian ice thawed and brought over those half-a-million soldiers from Hamburg to frighten our old women that you could have got back un-Jellicoed?
R.S.V.P.
5 “A Naval Lieutenant, 1914–1918,” by Etienne, 1919, pp. 48 et seq.
6 Note.—These are the names of the three first great Battle Cruisers of the Dreadnought type.
7 On January 2, 1915, Russia asked for a demonstration against the Turks in order to relieve the pressure they were putting on the Russian forces in the Caucasus. Next day the War Office cabled a promise, through the Foreign Office, that this should be done. Before he sent the cable Lord Kitchener wrote to Mr. Churchill: “The only place that a demonstration might have some effect in stopping reinforcements going East would be the Dardanelles.”
8 “The dramatic scene which followed may one day furnish material for the greatest historical picture of the war. Lord Fisher sat and listened to the men who knew nothing about it and heard one after another pass opinion in favour of a venture to which he was opposed. He rose abruptly from the table and made as if to leave the room.
“The tall figure of Lord Kitchener rose and followed him. The two stood by the window for some time in conversation and then both took their seats again. In Lord Fisher’s own words: ‘I reluctantly gave in to Lord Kitchener and resumed my seat.’
“Mr. Asquith saw that drama enacted, and Mr. Asquith knew that it arose out of Lord Fisher’s opposition to the scheme under discussion. But he allowed his colleagues on the Council to reach their conclusions without drawing from the expert his opinion for their guidance. The monstrous decision was therefore taken without it. But they all knew it—such a scene could not occur without everyone knowing the cause.”
9 It must be emphasised here, as well as in regard to Lord Kitchener’s statement to the War Council dated May 14th, 1915, that Lord Fisher considered that it would be both improper and unseemly for him to enter into an altercation either at the War Council or elsewhere with his chief Mr. Churchill, the First Lord. Silence or resignation was the right course.
10 This was the Armada of 612 vessels authorised by Mr. Lloyd George as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
11 At my entreaty a far better man went, Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, G.C.B. He is a splendid seaman and he devised a splendid scheme.
12 This was written in December, 1908, and our Fleet and ships were always dogged in the war by them.
13 There are statues of Franklin and of Robert Falconer Scott in Waterloo Place; but neither of these displayed his heroism in naval action. They were each peaceable seekers—but what on earth good accrues from going to the North and South Poles I never could understand—no one is going there when they can go to Monte Carlo!
14 In the following selections, words between square brackets are not part of the original letters.
15 N.B.—These very motor boats here described sank two battleships of the Bolshevists only the other day. See Chapter IV.—F. 21/9/19.
16 Then after this came the 15-inch gun; then the 18-inch gun, actually used at sea in the War; and then the 20-inch gun, ready to be built and go into the “Incomparable” of 40,000 tons and 40 knots speed, on May 22nd, 1915—F. 21/9/19.
17 “The New Teaching,” edited by John Adams. Hodder and Stoughton.
18 This shows how badly advised the Navy was by the India Office, as under 3 feet was vital, and the order was given accordingly.
19 Eighteen days going through Departments.
20 Mr. Yarrow had technical charge of the whole business and was the sole designer—and there was no paper work whatever.
21 All this action on the same day.
22 All the rest of the required action taken in 4 days.