The old plan of posting British squadrons all over the
world takes us back to the Conquest of Canada; for it was the work of
St. Vincent, to whom Wolfe handed his will the night before the Battle
of the Plains (1759). St. Vincent's plan of 1803 was so good that it
worked well, with a few changes, down to Fisher's anti-German plan of
1904, about which time the French and British Navies began talking over
the best ways of acting together when the Germans made their spring.
In 1905--the centenary of Trafalgar--a British fleet visited France and
a French fleet visited England. It was a thrilling sight to see that
noble Frenchman, Admiral Caillard, whose example was followed by all
his officers, stand up in his carriage to salute the Nelson statue in
Trafalgar Square.
In 1908, when Canada was celebrating the Tercentenary of a life that
could never have begun without Drake or been saved without Nelson, the
French and British Prime Ministers (Clemenceau and Campbell-Bannerman)
were talking things over in Paris. The result was that the British
left the Mediterranean mainly in charge of the French Navy, while the
French left the Channel mostly and the North Sea entirely in charge of
the British.
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