After many years of neglect, the people of this country have awakened to the necessity of creating a modern fleet. Proud as they were of the Navy’s achievements in the past, they failed for a long time to exhibit any interest in its present or future, and met all claims for its re-establishment by a denial of its usefulness, or by a lazy optimism of indifference which smilingly put the question by. Indeed, at one time, the popular solicitude disappeared completely, and outside of the service there was manifested neither an alarm at its degeneracy nor an appreciation of the dangers this made possible. With an apathy inexplicable upon any rational grounds, the notes of warning sounded by experts were unheeded, and the law-makers contented themselves by pinning their faith to what they called “the creative possibilities of American genius.” They accepted this fallacy as a fact, they made this phrase a fetich, and with a fatuous hope believed it could, by some occult inspiration, in the event of sudden, sharp, and short war, save them from the fighting-machines which twenty years of tireless experiment had perfected abroad. In the end, by a neatly balanced policy of pride and folly, the Navy was exhausted almost to dissolution. Then Congress lazily bestirred itself to action, and prescribed as a remedy three unarmored cruisers and a despatch-boat.
Heroic treatment, not homœopathy, was needed; but, thanks to a naturally vigorous constitution, the bolus sufficed to lift the patient out of the throes, and to encourage him into a languid convalescence. Luckily, the vessels became a party question, and their historic tribulations did so much towards educating the nation that a public sentiment was aroused which made a modern navy possible. It must be confessed, however, that the demand even yet is not so vociferous as to dominate all other issues, though there is apparent everywhere a quickening desire for the country to take, if not the first, at least a respectable, place among the great maritime powers.
With these new ideas came a desire for information which could not be satisfied, because, curiously enough, the popular literature of the subject is meagre, or rather it is unavailable. There are treatises in plenty which soar beyond the skies of any but experts; there are handy manuals wherein the Navy, like the banjo, is made easy in ten lessons; but between these extremes nothing exists which is accurate, and at the same time free from those dismal figures and dry-as-dust facts that are so apt to discourage a reader at the outset.
To meet this want, which was one by no means “long felt,” these articles were originally published inHarper’s Magazine, and with a success that seemed to justify their collection in a more available, if not a more permanent, form. It may be said now that no changes of any moment have been made in the text, that the notes attempt only to bring down the data to the latest date, and that the appendices are needful additions which the limited space of a monthly publication necessarily forbade. The reader who has not followed the progress of naval war construction will undoubtedly find many surprises, both in achievement and promise, which may be difficult to understand, yet it is hoped that the non-technical manner in which Sir Edward Reed and Rear-admiral Simpson have written will do much to make plain this important National question. Both these gentlemen are authorities of the first rank, both are luminous writers, and each in his own country and own sphere has had an important influence upon war-ship design and armament. To those who read within the lines there awaits a mortifying realization of our inferiority; for during all the years that this country—masterful beyond compare in other material struggles—was so successfully neglecting its navy, foreign designers were achieving triumphs which are marvellous. With this knowledge there is sure to come a high appreciation of the intelligence exercised; for the evolution of the battle-ship has been so rapid, and the resultant type has so little in common with the wooden vessel of our war, that those who have solved the problems have practically created a new science.