Coastal defense

“ We need always to remember that in time of war the Navy is not to be used to defend harbors and sea-coast cities; we should perfect our system of coast fortifications. The only efficient use for the Navy is for offense. The only way in which it can efficiently protect our own coast against the possible action of a foreign navy is by destroying that foreign navy. For defense against a hostile fleet which actually attacks them, the coast cities must depend upon their forts, mines, torpedoes, submarines, and torpedo boats and destroyers. ”

“ The first plans for coast-defense relied largely on vessels of great gun-power and lying very low in the water, so as to offer a small target. These ships were expected to remain in the harbor to supplement the forts. But this type of harbor-defense is abandoned. The coast-defense forts are to all appearance nothing but grassy mounds of earth. The guns for the most part are of the disappearing type, presenting a target to the enemy only at the moment of firing. The latest form of coast-defense is the submarine ship of which we already have a few excellent examples. ”

“ Today, Coast Guard contributions to our Nation in the areas of national defense, maritime law enforcement, search and rescue, aids to navigation, merchant marine safety, environmental protection, ports and waterway safety, and boating safety have become a benchmark by which professional maritime excellence is judged. ”

“ In another "scrap" he urged, for the defense of the Great Lakes, the establishment of forts, arsenals, and a ship canal from the Illinois River to Lake Michigan, to connect with the Memphis navy yard (which had by this time become a fixed fact) , and transport ships to and fro in time of war:—
"Millions have been expended for the defence of the Atlantic seaboard. A million is due for the protection of Southern harbours and the Gulf States, and if we leave the Lake States exposed, it is like locking fast the doors of an edifice and leaving the windows open. ”

“ We should always keep in mind that of all forms of military preparation coast defense alone is essentially pacific in its nature. While it gives the sense of security due to a consciousness of strength, it is neither the purpose nor the effect of such permanent fortifications to involve us in foreign complications, but rather to guarantee us against them. They are not temptation to war, but security against it. ”

“ The defense by fortified harbors cannot be relied on, for when one place is defended another may be attacked, and the coast-line is so great that an unguarded spot may be found. But our glorious navy will seek the foe at any and every point. ”

“ Perhaps no country ever experienced more sudden and remarkable advantages from any measure of policy than we have derived from the arming for our maritime protection and defense.
We ought without loss of time to lay the foundation for an increase of our Navy to a size sufficient to guard our coast and protect our trade. Such a naval force as it is doubtless in the power of the United States to create and maintain would also afford to them the best means of general defense by facilitating the safe transportation of troops and stores to every part of our extensive coast. ”

“ Having considered some of the means of defense that will not answer the purpose, we may inquire what means will be effective. And here it should be noted that our defenses should be so effective as not only to be reasonably safe, but to be so recognized by all nations, and thus discourage, if not actually prevent, an attack upon our coast. ”

“ It is rarely that so important a factor in the attack or defence of a coast-line—of a sea frontier—is concentrated in a single position; and the circumstance renders doubly imperative upon us to secure it, if we righteously can. ”

“ Indeed, undertaking to combat at once the sinuosities of a shoreline lending itself better to defense against blockade than any other of equal length in the world and the greatest navy civilization has ever seen, it is difficult to imagine how success could even be hoped for by those putting the plan into execution. ”

“ It shall be prohibited to use uninhabited offshore islands used for national defense for purposes other than national defense. Upon the termination of national defense use, and upon approval of military authorities, offshore islands, together with relevant ecological protection materials, shall be handed over to people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government where the offshore islands are located. ”

“ Among all those who have occupied positions of trust and power, and whose business it has been to recognize and provide for our naval and military needs, it is remarkable how few have had the necessary breadth of view to grasp the strategic situation, and perceive its requirements without making silly and costly mistakes, like that of the construction of our first three battleships, the Oregon, the Massachusetts, and the Indiana, merely for coast-defense purposes. ”

“ Thereby is minimized the injury caused to a coast-line by the dispersion of the enemy's force along it in security, such as was subsequently acquired by the British in 1813-14, and by the United States Navy during the Civil War. The enemy's fears defend the coast, and protect the nation, by securing the principal benefit of the coast-line—coastwise and maritime trade, and the revenue thence proceeding. ”

“ For the defense of our extended maritime coast our chief reliance should be placed on our Navy, aided by those inventions which are destined to recommend themselves to public adoption, but no time should be lost in placing our principal cities on the seaboard and the Lakes in a state of entire security from foreign assault. Separated as we are from the countries of the Old World, and in much unaffected by their policy, we are happily relieved from the necessity of maintaining large standing armies in times of peace. ”

“ The term coast defence is perhaps, in a certain sense, a misnomer. The defence of the most important of our commercial harbours against an attack from the sea could not be effectually conducted by a force composed exclusively of men trained for the land service alone. The approach to all the great ports of the United 5Kingdom from the sea involves the navigation of extensive estuaries, where floating batteries, and armed rafts, and the use of torpedoes, are essential to a complete defence, and would in point of fact effectually prevent the nearer approach of a hostile fleet. ”

“ COAST DEFENCE, a general term for the military and naval protection and defence of a coast-line, harbours, dockyards, coaling-stations, &c., against serious attack by a strong naval force of the enemy, bombardment, torpedo boat or destroyer raids, hostile landing parties, or invasion by a large or small army. ”

“ How can it have a sheet of water, just deep enough but not too deep to anchor a large fleet in, with all of its auxiliaries extensive enough to accommodate all the vessels and far enough from the sea to be safe from gun-fire, and yet be on an island so small and so rugged, that an enemy could not land troops near the base and capture it from the land side, as the Japanese captured Port Arthur? The natural strategic advantages of a large and sheltered sheet of water seem to entail the disadvantages of a large island, or a continent. ”

“ But from the Norman Conquest downward England has always been strong enough to protect herself from enemies who have attempted to make a permanent settlement. This is due to the fact that whilst we have not neglected our coast defences, we have not relied on castles, forts, and other forms of land defence. We have maintained a powerful fleet of war vessels as our first line of defence. Experience has made it abundantly clear that coast defence without the aid of a powerful navy would be inadequate to protect our shores. ”

“ The cold gray dawn comes at last, only to shew us a widespread army of fighting waves dashing wildly on to the shore, and making a clean breach over the protection breakwater of the little harbour; plainly shewing the impossibility of any of the boats taking that harbour, even should they make shoreward. The safety of the boats inside the very harbour even has to be looked after, for when the tide makes, the run will be likely to snap everything. ”

“ Without going into the question of the necessity for sea coast defenses, we may assume that an enemy is likely to come into one of our harbors and that it is desirable to keep him out. What provisions must be made to accomplish this, i.e., to secure the safety of the harbors and the millions of dollars' worth of destructible property concentrated at the great trade centers that are usually located upon those harbors? ”

“ Nature has already fortified the ports along this coast, for the estuaries on which they stand consist of a network of mazy channels winding amidst deadly sandbanks, which can only be threaded safely by pilots who spend their lives in the work. The Germans have, however, not trusted solely to this natural protection, but have set up very strong forts at all points where there is danger of attack. ”

“ In a few years however, the usual annual appropriations for our coast defenses, both on the mainland and in the dependencies, will make them sufficient to resist all direct attack, and by that time we may hope that the men to man them will be provided as a necessary adjunct. ”

“ If the damage caused to one's own sea-trade (including that of the Colonies) becomes intolerable, as in our own case, means of coast-defence provide no adequate protection.
If it comes to the point that one must decide antagonisms by arms, the foremost consideration is no longer "how can I defend myself?" but "how can I hit the enemy most severely?" Attack, not defence, leads most quickly to the goal. ”

“ Behind it, in the territory of which it guards the shores, there must be a land-force adjusted in organisation, equipment, and numbers to the circumstances of the country. The possession of a navy does not permit a sea-surrounded state to dispense with all fixed defences or fortification; but it does render it unnecessary and indeed absurd that they should be abundant or gigantic. The danger which always impends over the sea-power of any country is that, after being long unused, it may lose touch of the sea. ”

“ Casualties that call for their service are rarely located in safe and protected waters; open coast and main channels are the marches of the Salvage Section, where the enemy has a keen and ready eye for a 'potting' shot by which he may prevent succour of a previous victim. The menace of sea-mines is particularly theirs; the run and swirl of Channel tides has strength to weigh a stealthy mooring and carry a power of destruction up stream and down. They have a new and deadly danger to be guarded against in the ammunition and armament of their stricken wards. ”

“ If the enemy succeeds in destroying our fleet and landing with strong detachments on the North Sea coast, large forces of the land army would be required to repel them, a circumstance widely affecting the progress of the war on the land frontiers. It is therefore vitally necessary to prepare the defence of our own coasts so well that every attack, even by superior numbers, may be victoriously repelled. ”

“ To-day, however, it is believed that our principal ports and harbors are safe from any attack from the sea, even if our navy were driven from the ocean. The defences on the great lakes are comparatively weak, as our treaties with Great Britain prevent either country from maintaining more than a few small vessels upon these waters. ”

“ No system of coast defence is of any value which does not take full account of the general distribution of sea-power and the resultant strength of the possible hostile forces. By resultant strength is meant the balance of one side over the other, for it is now generally regarded as an axiom that two opposing fleets must make their main effort in seeking one another, and that the force available for attack on coast defences will be either composed of such ships as can be spared from the main engagement, or the remnant of the hostile fleet after it has been victorious in a general action. ”

“ But such influence, to work without jar and friction, requires underlying military readiness, like the proverbial iron hand under the velvet glove. To provide this, three things are needful: First, protection of the chief harbors, by fortifications and coast-defence ships, which gives defensive strength, provides security to the community within, and supplies the bases necessary to all military operations. ”

“ These violent gales are sudden and terrific in their rise and action at Vera Cruz, and the dreadful havoc they made among the American shipping on the coast during the war, attests the value of a military defence whose protective duties are seconded by the very spirit of the storm. The introduction of steam power into the national marine must of course greatly modify the character of coast defences; but we would deem it not only unwise but imbecile to abandon altogether a work which at least makes, if it does not perfectly protect, an important harbor. ”

“ And they are being pursued indeed;—for the sea is devouring the land. Many and many a mile of ground has yielded to the tireless charging of Ocean's cavalry; far out you can see, through a good glass, the porpoises at play where of old the sugarcane shook out its million bannerets; and shark-fins now seam deep water above a site where pigeons used to coo. Men build dikes ”

“ If an enemy well provided with aërial force possesses such power of offence an equal power of defence is given to the nation at all well provided with flying craft. In imitation, or perhaps rather in modification, of the English plan for guarding the coasts of Great Britain, a well matured system of defending the American coasts has been worked out and submitted to the national authorities. It involves the division of the coasts of the United States into thirteen aeronautical districts, each with aeronautical stations established at suitable points and all in communication with each other. ”