them.

A significant fact in this connection is that, regardless of what
others may say on the subject, the officers and men of the British
navy are convinced that the victory was with them, and are eager for
another chance at the enemy, which they fully believe they would have
destroyed if night and fog had not intervened to stay their hand.

The net result of the battle as seen by the world, after careful
appraisement of the claims and counterclaims on both sides, is that
England retains the full command of the sea, with every prospect of
retaining it indefinitely, but that the British navy has, for the
moment, lost something of the prestige which it has enjoyed since the
days of Nelson and Jervis. There is nothing to support the belief that
the control of the North Sea or of any other sea has passed, or by any
conceivable combination of circumstances can pass, into the hands of
Germany during the present war, or as a result of the war.

All accounts of the battle by those who participated in it represent
the weather as capricious. The afternoon came in with a smooth sea, a
light wind, and a clear, though somewhat hazy, atmosphere. The smoke
of the German ships was made out at a distance which must have been
close to twenty miles, and the range-finding as Beatty and Von Hipper
closed must have been almost perfect, as is proved by the promptness
with which the Germans began making hits on the _Queen Mary_ and the
_Indefatigable_. But this did not continue long. Little wisps of fog
began to gather here and there, drifting about, rising from time to
time and then settling down and gathering in clouds that at times cut
off the view even close at hand.

As the sun dropped toward the horizon it lighted up the western sky
with a glow against which the British ships were clearly outlined,
forming a perfect target, while the dark-colored German ships to the
eastward were projected against a background of fog as gray as
themselves. It is interesting to recall the fact that these are
exactly the conditions which existed when the British and German
squadrons in the Pacific met off Coronel. In that case, as in the
present one, the British fleet was to the westward, clearly
silhouetted against the twilight sky. And the fate of the
_Indefatigable_ and the _Queen Mary_ was not more sudden or more
tragic than that of the _Good Hope_ and the _Monmouth_. It may be that
the unfavorable conditions were a matter of luck in both cases.