OCEAN, THE UNIVERSAL HIGHWAY 237 



hand, and even the almost incessant warfare in which 

 we were engaged at sea, as well as on land, only 

 seemed to have the effect of increasing our oversea 

 trade and of fixing our maritime supremacy. When at 

 last, from the growth of right-mindedness among 

 civilized peoples, over-sea trade came under the opera- 

 tion of law, piracy was crushed and peaceful merchant 

 mariners were free to devote all their energies to com- 

 bating the inevitable perils of the sea, the only serious 

 competitor we found was the young giant of our own 

 breeding, driven by acts of superlative stupidity to 

 turn against us and become almost implacably in- 

 imical. Within the memory of men still living, the 

 oversea trade of the United States of America was 

 almost equal to that of Great Britain, and any observer 

 of the trend of maritime affairs might have been for- 

 given for prophesying that by the present day the 

 great Kepublic would have been the chief maritime 

 power in the world. 



That, however, was not to be. Various causes, 

 with which we have nothing to do, put an effectual 

 stop to the growing sea-power of the United States, 

 and not only restored Britain to her proud pre-emi- 

 nence among maritime powers, but made that pre- 

 eminence far greater than ever. Chief among these 

 was the advent of steam and the utilization of steel 

 for shipbuilding. Since these two great factors in 

 maritime intercourse have made their appearance, 

 navigational science has kept pace with their develop- 

 ment, until to-day the ocean has become so universal 

 a highway that the average man thinks less of a 

 journey to the Antipodes than his grandfather did of 

 a stage-coach trip from London to Edinburgh, and 



