532 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



genuity are fixed. Yet all the while, under all customs of conflict, all 

 political administrations, in every age, certain changeless principles 

 underlie and determine changing methods of action. These things can 

 never become obsolete; the ingenuity by which Eome taught herself 

 to emulate and at last excel in the first Punic war, and that victory 

 comes not so much by the possession of big forces as by having Drakes 

 and Frobishers pitted against a Medina Sidonia. 



In every condition of battle, and especially having reference to our 

 own defense on the Atlantic coast from a powerful adversary on the 

 sea, two great principles assert themselves as essential; first is the 

 establishment of defensive relations, by both fortifications and squad- 

 rons, and second, the ability to concentrate swiftly and effectively at 

 any threatened point the full measure of naval effectiveness at our 

 command. 



A hostile fleet coming upon our coast for purposes of offense would 

 have the advantage of being able to concentrate at any desired point, 

 to select the city that it sought to doom to destruction or spoliation. 

 The timid citizens of New York, who a few years ago had their fears 

 so excited, may take contort in knowing that of all our great sea-board 

 cities, theirs is probably in least danger of bombardment. Gruesome 

 tales were told of the ease with which foreign war ships could float broad- 

 side off Coney Island, to send round shot and shell into Broadway and 

 Fifth Avenue. Calm your fears or assuage them ; no doubt a hostile fleet 

 can select and concentrate; but of all exposed points it is least likely to 

 choose New York. The reason for this comparative immunity lies in 

 the fact that the Hudson Eiver empties into the ocean at the apex of a 

 reentrant sea-angle, the base of which is found on a line drawn from the 

 end of Long Island at the east to either the Capes of the Delaware or 

 those of the Chesapeake at the south. At Philadelphia and in Hamp- 

 ton Eoads are naval stations, and also at Newport and New London. 

 It is reasonable to assume that at all these would be war vessels, which 

 concentrating would be likely to furnish a force to assail an enemy upon 

 the sea in the rear located off Sandy Hook. Formidable or fortunate 

 would an attacking force be to avoid or avert some form of disaster, if 

 not complete destruction. In war, as in the lightning stroke, energy is 

 apt to take the line of least resistance, and it may, I think, be quite con- 

 fidently asserted that some other city, not possessed of this advantage, 

 would be the one most exposed to attack; Boston and Portland in the 

 north, and on the south Charleston or Savannah. 



We shall not enter into any details concerning movements of land 

 forces, nor do more than call attention to the strength of our present 

 sea-coast batteries. I would not lull you to a too great confidence that 

 that strength is sufficient, nor that even torpedoes, fixed or floating, are 

 certainly effective; nor is it necessary to excite further alarm by sug- 



