Before it had gone eight bells at four o'clock that morning, the
_Revenge_, flagship of Sir Charles Madden, Second-in-Command of the
Grand Fleet, led the way out to the appointed rendezvous: "X position,
latitude 56, 11 North, longitude 1, 20 West." The present _Revenge_, a
magnificent super-dreadnought, is the ninth of her name in the Navy;
and, besides her name, has three curious links to recall the gallant
days of Drake. In her cabin is a copy of the griffin which, being
Grenville's crest, the first _Revenge_ so proudly bore in the immortal
fight of "The One and the Fifty-Three." Then, had the German Fleet
come out again, Madden and this ninth _Revenge_ would have taken
exactly the same place in action as Drake and the First _Revenge_ took
just three hundred and thirty years before against the Great Armada.
Thirdly (but this, alas, was too good to come true!) Sir Charles told
his Canadian guest one day in Scapa Flow that he and Sir David Beatty
had agreed to be caught playing a little game of bowls on the Grand
Fleet clubhouse green the next time the German Fleet appeared.
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