The Riddle of the Sands was a call to arms and a wake up call for England as a country and its impact is immeasurable as it brought attention to a major hole in British defence that many deemed unimportant. The book inspired two men to sail the Frisian Coast and gather information regarding German naval presence just as the characters in the book did, these two men at the outbreak of WWI joined ‘Room 40’ an intelligence branch of the British Admiralty.
Not only did the novel influence senior English officials such as Churchill, it also manufactured them. The predictions in the book are both chilling and accurate and caused Winston Churchill, who at the time was the First Lord of the Admiralty, to order the construction of multiple northern naval defence bases. The author has been quoted saying that it was “a story with a purpose” as the book challenged the British Admiralty’s preparedness for an invasion by Germany, which happened in the years following. Published in 1903, The Riddle of the Sands was not written to represent the social values and attitudes of society at the time but to challenge them and to command greater awareness to what the author felt was a major issue, the lack of naval presence on the northern English coast. Winter Snowstorm over Whitby, Paul Berriff
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