INTRODUCTION 



THE idea of writing a book, which within the narrow 

 limits demanded by the hard-pressed reader of to-day 

 should give a comprehensive view of the various 

 aspects of our heritage the sea, has been present to 

 my mind ever since I first dared to address the public 

 on sea matters. I do not believe that it can be pos- 

 sible for any one to feel more deeply than I do the 

 urgent necessity of awakening our people generally to 

 the importance of the ocean to them, and certainly no 

 one can more sadly realize the difficulty of the task. 

 For not only is the subject an enormous one, embracing 

 as it does every department of science and political 

 economy, but in its exposition a writer must calculate 

 upon meeting with that terrible dead weight of apathy, 

 of taking things for granted, which is characteristic of 

 the British people generally. There is only one advan- 

 tage obvious in the treatment of this great subject 

 its freedom from controversial topics, the discussion 

 of which is so often attended with a bitterness that 

 obscures the vital points at issue. On the other hand 

 the general reader is very prone to fight shy of books 

 upon the sea which are not avowedly fiction, fearing 

 the introduction of technicalities which he cannot 

 understand, and of which he will not take the trouble 

 to ascertain the meaning. This consideration was 



