is re-named Atlantic Fleet 1909-1914 Vice Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly (August, 1914- 17 January 1915) Vice Admiral The Hon. Sir. Alexander E. Bethell (17 January 1915) Second-in-Command Channel Fleet Post holders included: Rear-Admiral the Hon. Assheton G. Curzon-Howe: September 1901, - 5 June 1903 Rear-Admiral the Hon. Hedworth Lambton: 5 June 1903 - 25 June 1904 Rear-Admiral Francis C. B. Bridgeman: 25 June 1904 - May, 1905 Rear-Admiral Charles J. Barlow: May, 1905 - December, 1905 Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur W. Moore: December, 1905 - 5 December 1906 Vice-Admiral the Hon. Assheton G. Curzon-Howe: 5 December 1906 - 23 February 1907 Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald N. Custance: 23 February 1907 - 12 June 1908 Vice-Admiral Sir A. Berkeley Milne: 12 June 1908 Rear-Admirals in the Channel Fleet Post holders included: Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Poore, : February, 1905 - 16 November 1905 Rear-Admiral Robert L. Groome: 16 November 1905 - 16 November 1906 Rear-Admiral George A. Callaghan: 16 November 1906 - 5, April 1907 Rear-Admiral Robert S. Lowry: 5, April, 1907 - 1 October 1907 Rear-Admiral Francis J. Foley: 1 October 1907 - 1 October 1908 Rear-Admiral James Startin: 1 October 1908 - 9 October 1909 Components 1895 Distribution of the Fleet first included: 1901 to 1904 Distribution of the Fleet first included: Of note:As the Channel Squadron - renamed The Channel Fleet, September, 1901. 1905 to 1907 Distribution of the Fleet first included: 1907 to 1909 Distribution of the Fleet first included: 1914 to 1915 Of note: On 8 August 1914, ships from the pre-war Second and Third Fleets were organised into the Channel Fleet. Distribution of the Fleet first included: In literature The Channel Fleet features in several historical novels about the Royal Navy, notably Hornblower and the Hotspur by C. S. Forester, in which Forester's fictional hero becomes a favourite of the real Channel Fleet commander, Admiral William Cornwallis. The fleet also features in several of the Aubrey–Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian. The novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville is set on board ships of the Channel Fleet, in the immediate aftermath of the Spithead and Nore mutinies of 1797. In the novel The War of the Worlds, the Channel Fleet protects the huge mass of refugee shipping escaping from the Essex coast in the face of the Martian onslaught. The initial heroic fight of and the subsequent general engagement, is detailed in the chapter entitled "The Thunderchild". References Footnotes