sibilities of a landing, and
Admiral de Robeck, who was in command of the naval forces there,
telegraphed to the War Office and the Admiralty that a man-lifting kite
or a captive balloon would be of great use to the navy for spotting
long-range fire and detecting concealed batteries. The Admiralty at once
appropriated a tramp steamer, S.S. _Manica_, which was lying at
Manchester, fitted her with a rough and ready apparatus, and on the 27th
of March dispatched her with a kite-balloon section under Flight
Commander J. D. Mackworth to the Dardanelles. This was the first kite
balloon used by us in the war, and, it is believed, the first
kite-balloon ship fitted out by any navy. The observation work done from
the _Manica_ was good and useful, especially during the earlier phase of
the operations, and the difficulties encountered suggested many
improvements in the balloon and in the ship. Orders were given for six
balloon ships to be fitted out.

Admiral Beatty, in August 1915, recommended that the work of aerial
observation for the fleet should be done by kite balloons, towed by
vessels accompanying the Battle Cruiser Squadron, and some trials were
made which demonstrated the value of this suggestion. But here again
very elaborate experiments were necessary before authorizing any large
programme of construction, and in the meantime production on a
considerable scale had become difficult, for the kite balloon, which was
first manufactured in this country to the order of the navy, was already
in great demand by the army for use on the western front. As early as
April 1915 the Army Council had asked the Admiralty to supply kite
balloons for aerial observation with the expeditionary force in France,
and by August of that year five kite-balloon sections had gone overseas
and were doing invaluable work on the western front. At this point the
kite-balloon sections working with the army were taken over by the War
Office, but the Admiralty continued to provide the necessary material
and equipment. Great Britain was involved in the greatest land war she
had ever known, and the navy, with all the wealth of its inventive
resources, stood by to help the army.

The two other forms of aircraft which were invented or adapted by the
navy for the needs of the war, that is to say, the submarine scout
airship and the flying boat, must here be mentioned and their origin
described; but their great achievement belongs to the later period of
the