THE OCEAN AS A BATTLE-FIELD 293 



foes, and then, when his great deed was done, it veered 

 in the opposite direction, driving him out to sea again 

 with an amazingly small casualty list for so great an 

 exploit. He did not know that such a wondrous com- 

 plaisance on the part of the elements would be shown 

 towards him, but was ready to take all risks in the 

 pursuance of what he deemed to be his duty. There 

 was, moreover, another item of development in the 

 great matter of naval warfare which Eobert Blake 

 made peculiarly his own. It is recorded of him that 

 he first taught ships to contemn castles on shore, 

 proving that, given a resolute captain, a ship was not 

 only at a less disadvantage in the fight against a fort 

 than had been supposed, but that she might even 

 prove that a floating battery was superior to a fixed 

 one. It was a momentous advance in naval warfare, 

 of which the results were tremendously far-reaching, 

 although, of course, its importance was hardly realized 

 at the time. 



But the next step taken by Blake was indeed a 

 marvellous one, such as the world had never before 

 seen. It was that of using the British fleet under his 

 command for the purpose of policing the Mediter- 

 ranean. The great inland sea, the scene of so much 

 barbarity, was, although no longer terrorized by the 

 Turkish armaments bent upon the conquest of Europe, 

 still the chosen hunting-ground of hordes of Mussul- 

 man pirates, whose lairs were to be found all along 

 the shores of Northern Africa, and whose strong- 

 holds had long bidden defiance to all forces brought 

 against them. To cleanse these waters of this uni- 

 versal scourge, and to set free the wretched Chris- 

 tian prisoners, who, taken out of the ships of every 



