In 1912 , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle write a shortsighted story about how a belittled but warlike nation would appropriate Britain . It would do so using a new technology in a new and brutish way . It shocked the land and , three age later , it became a realness .
Arthur Conan Doyle was making a point when he wrote a story with the tricky name of Danger ! ( The ecphonesis point is included in the statute title and well - deserved by the story . ) The story was part of a genre of fiction that focused on how England was unprepared for the inevitable state of war with Germany . Doyle ’s story focused on the nation ’s vulnerable Navy , and on the emergence of submarine warfare .
At the beginning of the news report , the fictional country of Norland declares war . The British public is not greatly alarmed , because Norland seems to be an inconsequent opponent . Norland ’s hoagy effectuate a blockade , subside all merchandiser ship that venture near England . Once the blockade of merchant ships is complete , they take the next stride , sinking the Olympic , a massive opulence passenger vessel . The Norland technology is sufficiently advanced that the navy can do this with a single crampfish . England surrenders .
The write up was n’t subtle , but it was right in its sympathy of the changing face of naval warfare — an understanding share by military leader . Submarines were a threat not only because they could take out merchant vessels but because it was impossible for a Italian sandwich to stick around and salve the crew of the watercraft , as had been the impost up until that metre . A sub simply had no place to put the crew of a merchandiser ship , get alone the population of a passenger vessel . When a German poor boy torpedoed the passenger vessel Lusitania in 1915 , killing over a thousand the great unwashed , Doyle ’s story seemed to be coming true . ( Although as was found out years after , the Lusitania was carry arms , and so was technically a legitimate target area . )
In this state of war , Britain and its allies prevailed , but the ending was n’t Doyle ’s neat error . What Doyle ’s story really got ill-timed was the cathode-ray oscilloscope of the devastation that even the victor of the war faced .
[ Sources : Dead Wake , Danger ! ]
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