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Blog number 251 **** 02 December 2008

Today we will engage in an exercise in palliation. Look it up. I did.

I am at the present time - time being expressed as in the general area of "now", reading. "The Steel Castles" - a book about the world's large warships since their inception.

Before and during the First World War, there were two great British Admirals. There was Admiral Beatty, a fast burner, not too keen on military life, but a very brave and resourceful and lucky and politically social go-getter.

Then there was Admiral Jellicoe - an extremely brilliant military man, well versed in all aspects of ships of the line, a critical observer of the shortcomings of the British navy as opposed to the more well-built German navy.

"He [Beatty] lacked Jellicoe's knowledge of the vulnerability of British ships to enemy weapons; indeed, this information burst on Beatty suddenly at Jutland when two of his six giant battle cruisers blew up under German shellfire, each explosion killing a thousand men. Beatty's response was, 'There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.' "