Produced by Robert J. Hall
The essays collected in this volume are republished in the hopethat they may be of some use to those who are interested in navalhistory. The aim has been to direct attention to certain historicaloccurrences and conditions which the author ventures to thinkhave been often misunderstood. An endeavour has been made toshow the continuity of the operation of sea-power throughouthistory, and the importance of recognising this at the presentday.
In some cases specially relating to our navy at different periodsa revision of the more commonly accepted conclusions—formed,it is believed, on imperfect knowledge—is asked for.
It is also hoped that the intimate connection between naval historyin the strict sense and military history in the strict sense hasbeen made apparent, and likewise the fact that both are in realitybranches of the general history of a nation and not somethingaltogether distinct from and outside it.
In a collection of essays on kindred subjects some repetitionsare inevitable, but it is believed that they will be found presentonly to a moderate extent in the following pages.
My nephew, Mr. J. S. C. Bridge, has very kindly seen the bookthrough the press.
June 1910.
Ten of the essays included in this volume first appeared in the_Encyclopoedia_Britannica_, the Times, the _Morning_Post_, the_National_Review_, the _Nineteenth_Century_and_After_, the_Cornhill_Magazine_, and the _Naval_Annual_. The proprietors ofthose publications have courteously given me permission torepublish them here.
Special mention must be made of my obligation to the proprietorsof the _Encyclopoedia_Britannica_ for allowing me to reproducethe essays on 'Sea-Power' and 'The Command of the Sea.' They arethe owners of the copyright of both essays, and their courtesyto me is the more marked because they are about to republish themthemselves in the forthcoming edition of the Encyclopoedia.
The paper on 'Naval Strategy and Tactics at the Time of Trafalgar'
was read at the Institute of Naval Architects, and that on 'The
Supply and Communications of a Fleet' at the Hong-Kong United
Service Institution.
[Footnote 1: Written in 1899. (_Encyclopoedia_Britannica_.)]
Sea-power is a term used to indicate two distinct, though cognatethings. The affinity of these two and the indiscriminate mannerin which the term has been applied to each have tended to obscureits real significance. The obscurity has been deepened by thefrequency with which the term has been confounded with the oldphrase, 'Sovereignty of the sea,' and the still current expression,'Command of the sea.' A discussion—etymological, or evenarchæological in character