"
Few people seem to realise that Bermuda is a first-class fortress, a
dockyard, and an important naval coaling-station. A glance at the map
will show its strategic importance. Nature has made it almost
inaccessible with barrier-reefs, and there is but one narrow and
difficult entrance off St. George's. This entrance is jealously
guarded by a heavy battery of 12 in. and 6 in. guns, and the ten-mile
long ship-channel inside the reefs from St. George's to the Dockyard
is very difficult and complicated, though I imagine that, with modern
guns, a ship could lie outside the reefs and shell the islands to
pieces.
The first time that I was in Bermuda, a German Training Squadron
arrived, with a number of naval cadets on board, and announced their
intention of remaining ten days. The German officers at once exhibited
a most un-Teutonic keenness about sea-fishing. The Governor, fully
alive to the advantage a possibly hostile power might reap from an
independent survey and charting of the tortuous and difficult
ship-channel between St. George's and the Dockyard, at once held a
consultation with the Senior Naval Officer, in the Admiral's absence,
and, as a result of this consultation, three naval petty officers were
detailed to show the Germans the best fishing-grounds.
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