The Great War at Sea: 1914-1918

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Following the publication of his third volume of ‘Jacky’ Fisher’s letters in 1959, Professor Arthur Marder suggested that I should write a biography of his hero, and gave me much assistance and advice when I agreed to do so. Then, sometime before his untimely death on Christmas Day 1980, he and the Oxford University Press approached me with the suggestion that I should embark on a one-volume history of the Royal Navy 1914-18. In this proposed new work I was to have additionally the bonus of access to all Marder’s papers and, of special value, the papers he had accumulated since the publication of the five volumes of From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow. On his death this material was all in characteristic Marder order in preparation for further revised and expanded editions of his own work.

Arthur Marder and I had been friends and mutual critical admirers since the late 1950s. I was never so professionally stimulated as when with him, either in England or southern California. In Marder’s company, ‘shop’ ruled everything, and I can recall with some embarrassment a private dinner at the Garrick Club during which, at opposite ends of the table, we found ourselves overwhelming all other conversation and rearranging the cutlery in a prolonged Jutland debate. We did not agree on all matters, nor all judgements, but that only added a spice to our relationship.

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