German Submarine Warfare 1914-1918 in the Eyes - British Naval ...

imports to smaller harbours or concentrating the exports in bigger ones. Sailing
vessels still made up twenty percent of ship total and around 10% of the tonnage.
The worldwide ship building capacity in 1914 was over 3.3M BRT: 1.9M BRT
on British yards, and 0.38M BRT on German yards. 23 11M BRT of merchant
vessels were build in the Allied and neutral countries from 1915 to 1918, and 0.6M
BRT in Germany. 24
Blockade perceptions
For her survival as an island nation, Britain was wholly dependent on overseas
trade in raw materials and foodstuffs, along with industrial products exports. Lord
Fisher did not mince words when he warned in 1903 that: “In the month of May
England has three days food in the country – in the month of September (on account of the ingathering
of the English harvest) there is three weeks food. Stop the incoming food for a week or
two: what can the Army do? The country must capitulate!” 25 Germany produced between
seventy and eighty percent of needs domestically. In coal she was self-sufficient;
supplemental iron ore came from Scandinavia via the Baltic. German industry was
fully employed throughout the war, only restricted by a severe shortage of labour
and also by shortages in certain rare raw materials. Britain’s hunger blockade
created a slow strangulation that struck at the weak first, mostly the elderly and
children. Several hundred thousands civilians died as a consequence of the
blockade.
America protested strongly against the blockade but was unable to break its
force. Industrial profits made a stronger claim. When British orders for arms and
ammunition began to pour in, protest waned and died. Even inside the Admiralty
there were contrasting views about the blockade. In the official history, a chapter
had to be discarded and rewritten due to continuing legal scruples concerning the
blockade. 26
23 Nauticus, 1914.
24 Salter, Allied Shipping Control, p. 361.
25 Lambert, Fisher’s Revolution, p. 88.
26 NA, ADM 116/3424, p. 214.
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U-boats
The surface force, the High Seas Fleet, held sway. Submarines were almost an
afterthought until after the war had started. Even spectacular successes by
submarines early on did not have the force to reallocate resources (or alter the
mentality) that gave the High Seas Fleet supremacy in naval planning. The mindset
scarcely changed throughout the conflict: the surface fleet was kept battle ready
until the very last days of October, 1918.