Naval

“ A glance at a globe turned so as to bring the British Isles directly under the eye will at once reveal the most effective of all the material causes which have made them the seat of the great naval power among nations. ”

“ There are no books published which will tell you more of the new navy,—of the men, the ships, the huge guns, the submarine auxiliaries and all the hundred and one things that go to make up the fascination of the naval seaman's life, than these volumes. ”

“ Thus they were able to make a substantial and distinctive contribution to the art of naval warfare, and that on its highest side. For the artist is greater than his materials, the warrior than his arms; and it was in the man rather than in his weapons that the navy of the eighteenth century wrought its final conspicuous triumph. ”

“ Every class of ship and almost every kind of vessel employed in naval warfare has been used in one or other of these operations—the battleship, cruiser, destroyer, torpedo-boat, submarine, mother ship, aeroplane, aircraft-carrier, mining vessel, river gunboat, motor launch, mine-trawler, armed auxiliary, special service vessel, transport, store ship, collier, oiler, tank, distilling ship, ordnance vessel, hospital ship, tug, lighter, and a crowd of other craft. ”

“ The old naval tactics, such as that of ships gaining what is termed the weather gage of each other, or any thing of that kind, in going into action, must be wholely abandoned whenever a steamer heaves in sight; for the sailing vessel is at once supposed to be, in a great measure, at her mercy. ”

“ Most of the books on naval strategy go into the subject historically, and analyze naval campaigns, and also describe those measures of foresight whereby nations, notably Great Britain, have established bases all over the world and built up great naval establishments. ”

“ The change from a sort of floating army to a really naval fleet, from galleys moved by oars and depending on boarders who were soldiers, to ships moved by sails and depending on their broadside guns—this change was quite as important as the change in the nineteenth century from sails and smooth-bores to steam and rifled ordnance. ”

“ Warships on the high seas have complete immunity from the jurisdiction of any State other than the flag State.
2. For the purposes of these articles, the term "warship" means a ship belonging to the naval forces of a State and bearing the external marks distinguishing warships of its nationality, under the command of an officer duly commissioned by the government and whose name appears in the Navy List, and manned by a crew who are under regular naval discipline. ”

“ Naval warfare in the past, in its origin and through long ages, had been waged with vessels moved by oars, which consequently, when conditions permitted engaging at all, could be handled with a scope and freedom not securable with the uncertain factor of the wind. The motive power of the sea, therefore, then resembled essentially that of the land,—being human muscle and staying power, in the legs on shore and in the arms at sea. ”

“ The placid bay, the luxuriant shores, the ocean showing across the low-lying ridge of white sand, the forts frowning from the steep headland, the fleet of majestic frigates mustered for the attack, and in the distance the flotilla of defenceless (p. 801) transports, safely out of range, their decks and rigging crowded with fifteen thousand men—all this presented a panorama of life and beauty which few eyes have ever beheld. ”

“ The naval force of the United States consists at this time of five hundred and eighty-eight vessels completed and in the course of completion, and of these seventy-five are ironclad or armored steamers. The events of the war give an increased interest and importance to the Navy which will probably extend beyond the war itself. ”

“ When the gallantry of the action with such a force, under numerous galling batteries, and the intricacy of the navigation amidst dangerous rocks, at the very mouth of the enemy’s harbour, are taken into consideration, the performance of so important a service, while it reflects the highest honor upon the courage, skill, and extraordinary management of all concerned, must be acknowledged to have added fresh lustre to the naval annals of Great Britain. ”

“ There are seamanship and naval construction, naval tactics, practical exercises, signals, swimming, gymnastics, etc., ordnance and gunnery, including infantry tactics, field-artillery and boat-howitzer exercise, great guns, mortar practice, and fencing; mathematics up to the calculus; steam engineering, with practical exercise, and the theory, fabrication, and designing of [II-360] steam engines; astronomy, navigation, and surveying; physics and chemistry; mechanics, and applied mathematics, and theoretical naval architecture; English studies, and history and law; French and Spanish ”

“ Hundreds of ships, drawn from the mercantile marine and the fisheries, steam yachts, motor boats, armed launches, and vessels of other classes, are employed in such dangerous work. They share the trials of war, wind, and weather with the regular naval patrols. ”

“ Satisfactory and important as have been the performances of the heroic men of the Navy at this interesting period, they are scarcely more wonderful than the success of our mechanics and artisans in the production of war vessels, which has created a new form of naval power. ”

“ The very heart of British sea power, the epitome of modern naval war, is to be found in a little port somewhere on the —— Coast. Here cluster just ordinary little one-funnelled trawlers, grimy little every-day vessels. These are the real thing. They come and go, these trawlers, in and out, back and forth, up and down, round and round ”

“ The change that has taken place in naval vessels and naval warfare since the introduction of steam as a motive power for ships of war demands either a corresponding change in some of our existing navy-yards or the establishment of new ones for the construction and necessary repair of modern naval vessels. ”

“ Here again we may discern some of the larger implications of that potent and far-reaching agency of naval warfare, the command of the sea. If a belligerent not aiming at the command of the sea, and having no sufficient naval force wherewithal to secure it, thinks to crush his enemy by directing sporadic attacks on his commerce, he will, if history is any guide, soon find out his mistake. His naval forces available for this purpose, are, by the hypothesis, inferior to those of the enemy. ”

“ The effect was greatly to increase skill in navigation, to build up a merchant marine, and—it being an age of universal freebooting—to cultivate an experience in naval warfare which was a preparation for the great sea-fights of the eighteenth century. ”

“ YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND:
A NAVAL ODE.
I.
Ye Mariners of England!
That guard our native seas;
Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,
The battle and the breeze! ”

“ A detailed account of the naval enterprises of the Middle Ages would go altogether beyond the scale of this work. Nor is the story one which can be told without monotony. In spite of the many improvements in the construction of ships and the advance of seamanship, the means of conducting a regular naval campaign were wanting. ”

“ A modern fleet is no longer able to maintain itself with fighting ships alone. Supply ships, hospital ships, airplane carriers, colliers, gunboats, fleet submarines, ordinary submarines, destroyers, scout cruisers, battle cruisers, dreadnaughts, super-dreadnaughts—these are some of the types that only an encyclopædia of naval information could adequately describe. ”

“ It is impossible for any single spectator to describe a naval action as a whole from his own personal observations and experiences, particularly a battle which divides itself into many different phases, lasts intermittently from about three-thirty in the afternoon until the same time next morning, and is fought over many miles of sea. ”

“ What type of ship may chance to be prevalent when the great naval war comes is hard guessing, but I incline to think that the naval architects of the ablest peoples will concentrate more and more upon speed and upon range and penetration, and, above all, upon precision of fire. ”

“ Great Britain, on the other hand, has always regarded the navy question as one of the most difficult and important before the country, and has adopted, and for centuries has maintained, a definite naval policy. ”

“ Every material resource which the brain and wealth of man can compass is enlisted in her naval defense; and in order to take advantage of the rapidity and certainty of movement they afford for operating fleets and ships, there has been a great advance in methods of operation, or, in military parlance, "staff work." ”

“ The truth is, that in all the larger achievements of sea power—those, that is, to which a combination of naval and military force is indispensable—it is impossible to disengage the influence of one of these factors on the final issue from that of the other, and perhaps idle to attempt do to so. ”

“ In war time, this is a moment when hundreds of eyes are engaged in peering [Pg 227] all round into the twilight; and happy is the sharp-sighted person who first calls out, with a voice of exultation—
“A sail, sir—a sail!”
“Whereabouts?” is the eager reply.
“Three or four points on the lee-bow, sir.”
“Up with the helm!” cries the officer. “Set the top-gallant and royal studding-sails—rig out the fore-top-mast studding-sail boom! Youngster, run down and tell the captain there is a stranger on the lee-bow—and say that we are making all sail. She looks very roguish.” ”

“ The offensive in naval war, as has been said, is the function of the sea-going navy—of the battle-ships, and of the cruisers of various sizes and purposes, including sea-going torpedo-vessels capable of accompanying a fleet, without impeding its movements by their loss of speed or unseaworthiness. Seaworthiness, and reasonable speed under all weather conditions, are qualities necessary to every constituent of a fleet ”

“ Many books have been written on strategy, meaning strategy as applied to armies, but very few books have been written on naval strategy. The obvious reasons are that armies in the past have been much larger and more important than navies; that naval men have only recently had the appliances on board ship for writing on an extensive scale ”

“ The Fleet was animated by one sole idea - we must and will succeed. Every single vessel, battleship, torpedo-boat, minesweeper, cruiser and airship, with their crews- all were permeated with the gravity and importance of this task which I impressed on officers and men on every occasion. New forces must be found which would undertake to complete the work, which threatened to be a failure when handled as hitherto by the Naval Staff and the Naval Cabinet. ”

“ The navy was left entirely to the tarpaulin who had been bred to the sea, and could endure its hardships.
The final victory of the tarpaulin element in the corps of naval officers brought with it both good and evil. The good lay in their seamanship. Even a bad seaman is better than an ignorant or careless landsman in command of a ship. ”

“ To these evolutions there is needed a base, a point from which they depart and to which they return. A fleet of warships must always be ready to meet an enemy; logically, therefore, this point of departure for naval evolutions must be the order of battle. ”

“ The navy of any county is its fighting force on the sea, and bears the same relation thereto as does the army as a land-force. The ancient method of naval warfare was in great part the practice of driving a beaked vessel against another with great force. ”

“ They sent parties in boats to survey the bay. All along the shores were villages full of people, and fishing boats and trading vessels were on the waters by hundreds. There were forts on shore, but they were poor affairs, with a few little cannon, and soldiers carrying spears. And canvas was stretched from tree to tree as if it would keep back cannon-balls. The sailors laughed when they saw this. ”

“ This is particularly to be expected in a naval tactical engagement of considerable scope. While the enemy fleet, as a whole, may properly be considered in such a case to be the physical objective, the component parts of each fleet, the types of vessels and their combinations, may, from time to time, find in their opponents a variety of physical objectives, the particular identity of which can scarcely be predicted with assurance. It is here that the importance of the correct selection of physical objectives stands out in bold relief. ”

“ How the Navy Has Grown.—The Cost and Character of Our New White Ships of War.—Our Period of Naval Weakness and our Advance to a Place among the Great Naval Powers.—The New Devices of Naval Warfare.—The Torpedo, the Dynamite Gun, and the Modern Rifle.—Armor and its Possibilities. ”

“ A mass of transports and warships is the most cumbrous and vulnerable [pg 240] engine of war ever known. The weaker the naval defence of the threatened country, the more devoutly will it pray the invader may use this device. ”

“ Each boy remains aboard a year, only half of the crew being changed at a time. Practice aloft and the life in general aboard a sailing vessel give him a broad general foundation of knowledge of the sea and ships, upon which he can build the special training and instruction he afterward gets upon a regular man-of-war. When he is transferred, upon the expiration of his year on the training-ship, he begins the task of mastering the intricacies of a modern ship-of-war. ”

“ And you must recollect that circumstance, Sir, which happened towards the end of the action, when the United States was observed making sail to get from under our lee; and as we had not a yard standing except the foreyard, with a small piece of the foresail, the helm was put a weather as a last resource, to try and lay her on board on the weather quarter, when the fore brace was shot away, and the sail fell aback and prevented us. At that moment every man was on deck, several, who had lost an arm, and the universal cheer was, ‘Let us conquer or die’. ”