needed permits, unless they were employees of the British Crown. In addition to the 14,244 Gibraltarians, there were also 711 British people, 695 Maltese and 960 from other British dominions. There were 1,869 Spaniards (of whom 1,341 were female) with smaller numbers of Portuguese, Italians, French and Moroccans. Gibraltar at war and peace By the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, Gibraltar's future as a British colony was in serious doubt. Its economic value was diminishing, as a new generation of steamships with a much longer range no longer needed to stop there to refuel en route to more distant ports. Its military value was also increasingly in question due to advances in military technology. New long-range guns firing high-explosive shells could easily reach Gibraltar from across the bay or in the Spanish hinterland, while the development of torpedoes meant that ships at anchor in the bay were also vulnerable. The garrison could hold out for a long time, but if the Spanish coast was held by an enemy, Gibraltar could not be resupplied in the fashion that had saved it in the Great Siege 120 years earlier. A Spanish proposal to swap Gibraltar for Ceuta on the other side of the Strait was considered but was eventually rejected. It was ultimately decided that Gibraltar's strategic position as a naval base outweighed its potential vulnerability from the landward side. From 1889, the Royal Navy was greatly expanded and both Gibraltar and Malta were equipped with new, torpedo-proof harbours and expanded, modernised dockyards. The works at Gibraltar were carried out by some 2,200 men at the huge cost of £5 million (£ billion in 2013 prices). Under the reforming leadership of First Sea Lord Admiral John "Jacky" Fisher, Gibraltar became the base for the Atlantic Fleet. In the British public's imagination, Gibraltar was seen as "a symbol of British naval power [and] a symbol of the empire that has been built and, more than the British lion or even John Bull himself, has come to represent Britain's power and prestige across the world." The value of the naval base was soon apparent when the First World War broke out in August 1914. Only a few minutes after the declaration of war went into effect at midnight on 3/4 August, a German liner was captured by a torpedo boat from Gibraltar, followed by three more enemy ships the