THE OCEAN AS A BATTLE-FIELD 299 



pretext whatever, prevent merchant seamen from ply- 

 ing upon the high seas for their honestly earned 

 bread. Thanks to our efforts, the day of the pirate, 

 whether national or private, was over. Of course, it 

 will be said that in this keeping of the peace of the 

 sea we were merely consulting our own interests. Be 

 it so, a fair field for commerce, an open road for ships 

 engaged in honest trade, and let the best, the most 

 energetic, men win. If we were the most energetic 

 we should win, but there should be an open free field 

 anyhow. And there has been for the last hundred 

 years, thanks to Great Britain alone. 



Then came war again, a senseless, profitless war, 

 bat one in which the value of the new motive -power 

 was put to a practical test ; not that it was at all a 

 fair test, since all the warships employed in the Black 

 and Baltic Seas were of the old and ungainly type in 

 use at Trafalgar, but with the addition of steam-power. 

 Nevertheless, unhandy as they were, it was at once 

 seen how immense was the advantage gained in being 

 able to handle your ship without sails, not independ- 

 ently of the wind as yet, because an ordinarily strong 

 breeze ahead would effectually stop one of those 

 vessels despite the utmost power of her engines. But 

 despite all the drawbacks, every man recognized the 

 dawn of a new era in naval warfare, and saw dimly the 

 immense possibilities thereof. Such warfare as took 

 place under these early steam conditions was of so 

 unimportant and one-sided a character that practical 

 lessons were few ; and although invention followed 

 invention, improvement improvement, with almost 

 startling rapidity, no opportunity occurred to test 

 the new engines of war with that thoroughness which 

 was necessary. 



