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Why has this book been written?

In October 1902, my friend Carruthers came to my office, and told me the story of the yachting trip that he and his friend Mr Davies had recently taken in the Baltic and the North Sea.

The account of his adventures both astonished and alarmed me, and when he asked for my help in preparing this book for publication, I agreed readily. It is well known that Britain’s coastal defences are dangerously weak, so the secret information discovered by Carruthers and Davies is of great importance, and I fully support their wish to make this information public.

The difficulty they had was that an Englishman, from an old and famous family, would be shown in their story to be a traitor, and this would cause pain and misery to an innocent young lady, whom they are anxious to protect. The names Carruthers and Davies, therefore, are not their real ones, and the names of all other persons in this account have also been changed.

But why publish secret information of national importance? Should it not be kept secret, known only to the government, whose job is to make good use of such information?

Indeed, that would normally be the best thing to do, but not in this case. The government, although informed of the great danger facing this country, has chosen to do nothing – and that is the reason why this book has been written.

London, 1903