XX INTRODUCTION 



suggested naval warfare on an ever-increasing scale, 

 until it became the chosen and most effective means of 

 preying upon their neighbours, of nations with a sea- 

 coast ; of its development from the hand-to-hand 

 warfare, differing only from land fighting in that it 

 took place on board of vessels, to the invention first 

 of the ram, and then of gunpowder and cannon. Also, 

 how, for many centuries, it was combined with sea- 

 traffic, only occasionally being separated from it by 

 the fitting out of some piratical expedition on a grand 

 scale excepting, of course, the raids of the terrible 

 Vikings, which seem to have been conceived entirely 

 for rapine and murder, and never for the purpose of 

 peaceful trading, yet how from these bloody sea- 

 wolves sprang the English, the greatest nation of 

 peaceful traders that the world has ever seen. Then 

 the gradual differentiation between merchant-man and 

 sea-warrior, and the establishment of navies for the 

 protection of commerce, and not for aggression, until 

 finally there emerges the British Navy, the peace- 

 keeper of the seas as far as unwarranted attacks are 

 concerned. It is a thrilling story, however baldly 

 told, and one which gives every Briton legitimate 

 ground for patriotic pride, albeit the burden which it 

 now imposes upon us of some forty millions sterling 

 per annum is a gigantic one for any nation to bear. 

 Unfortunately, experience teaches us that we need not 

 look for any lightening of that burden, but rather an 

 increase of it, for many years to come, the paramount 

 necessity of protecting our commerce being absolutely 

 vital. 



Of the last chapter I need not speak, having in the 

 opening part of this Introduction dwelt with all the 



