With the Battle Cruisers

Serving with the battle cruisers, Filson Young was placed at the tip of the spear as the war in the North Sea unfolded over the course of 1914-15.

In the years before the First World War, Filson Young had become friends with several notable Royal Navy leaders, including Lord Fisher and Admiral Beatty.

Following the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, Young began to miss his friends and resolved to join them and share in their experiences.

Even though volunteer officers were ridiculed, Young wrote to his friends and managed to engineer a Lieutenant’s gazette in the R.N.V.R.

Buoyed by the success of the Scarborough raid, Admiral Hipper of the Imperial German Navy sought a repeat of the exercise, this time against the fishing fleet on the Dogger Bank.

Young was there to witness it.

First published in 1921, With the Battle Cruisers is a very personal, focused study of naval life during wartime as it unfolded for Young.

Filson Young (1876-1938) was an Irish writer, journalist, war correspondent and essayist. He was noted for publishing a book about the sinking of the Titanic little over a month after the tragedy in 1912. Between November 1914 and May 1915 he served as a Lieutenant R.N.V.R.; With the Battle Cruisers was one of two books he wrote about his naval service.