ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the Admiralty's mobilisation of merchant cruisers, and their use in northern waters, the 'Northern Patrol' in the context of the wider economic blockade, and Julian S. Corbett's strategic concepts. The 10th Cruiser Squadron (CS) formed part of the Grand Fleet, and, as envisaged in pre-war planning, de Chair's command comprised the obsolescent Edgar-class cruisers, dating from the early 1890s. De Chair was something of a 'naval courtier': he was a Britannia classmate of Harry Jones. De Chair suggested that only after Edgar and Crescent were badly damaged in the Fair Island Channel, during a storm on 11 November 1914, did the Admiralty decide to replace the 10th CS cruisers with 'a large squadron of more suitable ships'. Admiralty plans never envisaged that armed merchant cruisers (AMCs) would or could enter naval service in less than three to six weeks following the outbreak of war.