where he was able to superintend the birth and early growth of the college at Osborne. Before the end of the year, while still at Portsmouth, he was appointed by Mr. Arnold Forster, the secretary of state for war, to be a member of a committee, with Viscount Esher and Sir George Clarke (afterwards Baron Sydenham), which was instructed to recommend reforms in the organization of the War Office. Sir George Clarke was thousands of miles away when the committee was appointed, and Fisher, with characteristic energy, had written out the first draft of the report before the three members could meet. The chief points of Fisher’s draft were adopted by the committee, and, as a result, the organization of the Army Council on the lines of the Admiralty Board, in place of the former dual control of secretary of state and commander-in-chief, was approved by the government. Fisher knew that Lord Selborne and the prime minister (Mr. Balfour) intended him to return to the Admiralty on the retirement of Lord Walter Kerr in the following October (1904), and he devoted part of his untiring energy during his remaining months at Portsmouth to working out in draft the second part of his great scheme of reforms: the redistribution of the fleet on the new alignment required by the substitution of Germany for France as England’s leading naval rival, and a reconstruction of the matériel of the navy itself to meet the most modern fighting conditions.
Fisher took a pride in the selection of Trafalgar day, 21 October, for his entry upon the office of first sea lord, though in fact he joined the board a day earlier. Throughout his life Nelson was his hero and model. Reference to the great sailor’s sayings and actions was never long absent from his conversation and writings. By the end of 1904 Lord Selborne published his memorandum on the redistribution of the fleet. Fisher had realized that the country was growing restless under increased expenditure on armaments, and that severe economies in all non-essentials would be required if the construction of new fighting weapons, the necessity for which he foresaw, was not to be hindered. During the long peace since the Crimean War the types of ships of the royal navy had completely changed; but the naval stations and dockyards throughout the world had been little altered, and many of the ships, particularly on foreign stations, would have been of little fighting value against a well-equipped and determined foe. The principles of the redistribution of the fleet were the concentration of the main fighting strength of the navy in the North Sea, the ruthless abolition of small ships of little fighting value, and the closing down of various small foreign dockyards. Halifax, Jamaica, Esquimalt, and Trincomalee were closed down; Ascension and Bermuda were reduced; and 150 of the older ships were, as Mr. Balfour said, with one stroke of the pen struck off the list of the navy. The personnel set free from these ships enabled Fisher to carry out another cherished scheme which enormously increased the efficiency of the war fleet without increasing the number of men voted by parliament. Hitherto ships not in commission had been paid off and lay in the dockyards and harbours with small care and maintenance parties. Fisher devised and carried out a nucleus crew system under which the more important ships in reserve that would be required to join the fleet on the outbreak of war had the active service part of their crews permanently on board, the balance being provided from the naval reserves when these were called up. By these measures the strength, both actual and potential, of the navy in home waters vis à vis the growing menace from Germany was vastly enhanced.
Fisher had long been meditating the creation of an ‘all big gun’ fast battleship and the use of the turbine engine, and early in 1905, at his request, Lord Selborne appointed a new designs committee to advise the board on new types of ships of war. The result was the production of the design of the famous Dreadnought type of battleship and battle cruiser, which, by combining great speed, produced by powerful turbine engines, with immensely increased gun power, made a revolution in warship construction throughout the world. Fisher at the same time encouraged the building of destroyers of greatly increased speed and power as well as the development of the submarine, with its torpedo weapon, particularly for coast defence purposes. At the same time a committee was appointed to examine the organization of the dockyards and the reserve of stores of all kinds kept in them, in order that all non-essentials. many of which had accumulated on principles unrevised for many years, might be got rid of.
In April 1905, when Lord Selborne left the Admiralty to become governor-general of South Africa, Fisher found in Earl Cawdor a new chief no less enthusiastic in support of his reforms. These changes had proceeded with great rapidity for such
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