NAVY 



NAVY 



lAVY, navi. In the days of Queen 

 Elizabeth Sir Walter Raleigh said: 



Whosoever commands the sea commands the 

 trade, and whosoever commands the trade of the 

 world commands the riches of the world and, con- 

 sequently, the world itself. 



The importance of a navy to a nation having 

 an extensive seacoast and the great advantage 

 of being able to control navigation upon the 

 high seas have been forcefully illustrated in the 

 War of the Nations, and it is well at the out- 

 set to know of just what a navy consists. We 

 usually think of it in terms of 30,000-ton bat- 

 tleships, but it includes far more. In the words 

 of one of our best authorities, "The sea power 

 of a nation may be said to include all its means 

 for contesting tlje control of the sea. It in- 

 cludes the battle fleets and their auxiliaries, 

 cruisers, destroyers, submarines, aircraft, also 

 naval bases and stations, fortified and naturally 

 protected harbors, coast defenses, the merchant 

 marine (embracing armed and unarmed vessels 

 engaged in commerce and passenger traffic) in 

 short everything the country possesses that may 

 be useful, directly or indirectly, for naval war- 

 fare." We notice that this is a statement of 

 what sea power includes, and so much of it as 

 pertains to ships and their equipment and sup- 

 plies and men to operate them constitutes in 

 its broadest sense the navy of a nation. In its 

 narrowest sense, the one in which the term is 

 generally used, the navy includes the warships 

 and their auxiliary ships, with the necessary 

 personnel of officers and men. 



What a Navy Does. In every war between 



nations having navies there arc sea fights, but 



usually their number is small compared to the 



l>cr of engagement* between the armies. 



work of the navy may 1> 



more influential in bringing a war to a close 



i all the engagements of the hostile or 



lur. Of course, when nations scpm 



by the sea engage in war, the navy constitutes 

 the first line of defense for each belligerent, 

 and it becomes the first line of offense when an 

 invasion is attempted. 



The second duty of the navy in war is to 

 blockade the ports of the enemy so as to pre- 

 vent it from trading with other nations (see 

 BLOCKADE). In the War of the Nations the na- 

 vies of the allies practically gave them control 

 of the Atlantic, and they were able to blockade 

 the ports of the central (Germanic) powers to 

 such an extent as to prevent these powers from 

 securing much-needed supplies. In the War of 

 Secession (which see) the blockade maintained 

 by the Federal government was effective in 

 bringing the conflict to a close because it pre- 

 vented trade between the Confederate states 

 and foreign nations. In time of war it is the 

 duty of the navy to protect such means of com- 

 munication as submarine cables, and wireless 

 stations located on islands and along the coasts 

 and under the jurisdiction of its own govern- 

 ment. It is also its duty to destroy or damage 

 these means of communication belonging to the 

 enemy. Valuable service is therefore often per- 

 formed by single ships or by small squadrons 

 of three or four ships in patrolling the waters 

 near these -tut ions and near the landing places 

 of submarine cables. 



In times of peace continuous training is given 

 the personnel to increase the efficiency of both 

 officers and men. Old ships arc repaired and 

 usually a number of new ones are built each 

 year. The equipment also is constantly being 

 improved and new inventions are adopted 

 ever their addition will make the work of the 

 navy more effective. Powers having colonial 

 possessions make use of their navies for trans- 

 porting officers and men in the colonial service, 

 for protecting the colonies against aggressions 

 of unfriendly powers and for quelling insurrec- 

 tions. 



