Never in the whole world's history had such a
surrender taken place. But never in the whole world's history had any
navy broken the laws of war so shamefully as the German Navy had. And
never in the whole world's history had any navy been more truly great
or so gloriously strong as the British Navy had become.
On Friday the 15th of November the German cruiser _Koenigsberg_ steamed
into the Firth of Forth and anchored near Inchcape, which, aptly
enough, is famous in Scottish song as the death-place of a murderer and
pirate. "Beatty's destroyer," H.M.S. _Oak_, unlike all other craft in
her gala coat of gleaming white, then took Admiral von Meurer aboard
the British flagship, _Queen Elizabeth_, where Beatty sat waiting, with
the model of a British lion on the table in front of him (as a souvenir
of his former flagship, _Lion_) and a portrait of Nelson hanging on the
wall behind.
The hundred and fifty surrendered submarines went slinking into
Harwich, the great British North Sea base for submarines. But the
seventy-four surface craft came into the Firth of Forth on the 21st of
November: sixteen dreadnoughts, eight light cruisers, and fifty
destroyers.
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