TACTICAL WORK 67

to my great sorrow, in 1897 J had no opportunity of effectively combatting these growing dangers, although my own earlier work convinced me that I saw quite plainly the results of these methods. This weakness for the decorative side, and the drilling and polishing that it entails, tend to quench the living spirit by mere routine.

Our work with the torpedo boats had helped considerably, even in Caprivi's time, to determine the development of the navy from the coastal-defence idea to the High Sea Fleet.

A special arm like torpedo boats must be allowed, if it is to produce its best, a special status and comparative independence in the main body of the fleet. Later on, the torpedo boats were included in the fleet in somewhat too arbitrary a fashion, and a cruiser was put in command of them; and this had more drawbacks than advantages, at least as regards the use of torpedo boats at night.

I spent the eleven best years of my life in the torpedo section among " our black comrades, of the wild and daring chase." We were bound to our incomparable crews by ardour and mutual comradeship in storm and danger. We officers of the torpedo section constituted a corps within a corps, the united spirit of which was everywhere recognized, but also envied and opposed. When I became Chief of Staff I took over the whole of the " torpedo crowd " with me, and so I had a trained body of workmen at my immediate disposal. I tried to do the same later at the Admiralty,