lO 
LAM) & \V A T E R 
June 29, njig 
fought for his o\vn hand, but oxily for liis country. When 
his mind was made up, when his decision was taken, 
we can iniagiiri lum crving, " a peerage or Westminster 
Abbey. " But one cannot imagine the dazzUng alter- 
native deciding him in his action. Thus the key of all 
his conduct is to be found in the signal that he made just 
as he began the last and greatest of his battles. 
Moral of Nelson's Life 
The moral of Nelson's life then, seems to be something 
like this. Given a commander gifted with all the 
qualities of mind and soul that constitute genius, and 
under his orders a force the personnel of which exemplifies 
the liighest attainable point of seamanship, discipline and 
skill in the use of weapons, and, in the conditions of sea 
war of a century ago, there would be hardly anj' dis- 
parity in merely material forces that he could not engage 
with success, if only he coiild count upon the leading, 
the seamanship, the discipline and.; the gun skill of his 
opponents being of a greatly inferior>>rder. It is not only 
Nelson's career that illustrates this truth. When we 
are asked : Could a frigate engage a ship of the Une or a 
64 ? the answer is that it was constantly done and with 
success. Is it possible, in modern conditions, for such 
things to_ occur again ? I propose to offer some reflections 
on this subject on a future occasion. It would take too 
long here to state and classify the changes that make an 
off-hand answer impossible. 
But before leaving Nelson, there is one outstanding truth 
that must never be forgotten. The main fighting units 
of a hundred years ago were ships of the line and frigates. 
Ships of the line ran from 64's to first rates of a hundred 
or more guns. A frigate carried from thirty to forty guns. 
But the guns were not of very unequal power, so that a 
frigate could administer roughly half the punish- 
ment that could a 74. But her" timbers were lighter 
and she could stand far less punishment. Against this 
she was generally faster and always much ' handier. 
In the ships of those days it was practically impossible 
to aim the gun's. Their arc of training, where it existed, 
was exceedingly small. Consequently a ship could onlv 
attack another if she was, so to speak, immediately oppo- 
site the side along which the guns were ranged. Straight 
ahead or straight astern no guns could be brought to 
bear. Again, the guns could not be raised or lowered to 
counteract the movements of the firing ship and keep them 
constantly pointing at the enemy, and they were not 
fitted with graduated sights which were altered for 
different ranges. Guns were aimed by the bearing of the 
ship, and hit only if they were fi red at the right part of 
the roll. Everything then turned upon drill, on which 
the quick service of the guns depended, and finally 
upon the seamanship that would bring the firing ship 
within a useful range of the target, for beyond a ,few 
hundred yards, gunnery could in no circumstances be 
effective. It is obvious tnen that a captain with a well- 
trained, well disciplined crew, who was himself a master 
of seamanship, and with a quick eye for the movements 
of his opponents, could sometimes so manoeuvre as to 
keep a less skilful enemy under fire while he himself re- 
mained wathin the dead angle on which the enemy's guns 
would not bear. This was only one of the ways in which 
superior seamanship could not only equahse forces, but 
give a crushing superiority to the one that was on (paper 
the weaker. 
' Present Conditions 
Now in applying the lessons of the past to the present, 
it seems to me the most important thing to bear in mind 
is this. In Nelson's time, the development of this kind 
of superiority depended hardly at all on arrangements 
and provisions external to the ship. The whole thing 
turned upon the zeal, ability and devotion of the admirals, 
captains, officers and men. It had httle or nothing to 
do with the Admiralty, and was almost unaffected by 
decisions of policy and preparation made at Whitehall. 
The implements of war were, for the most, rudely simple 
and of a type common to all ships and both sides. 
When we speak of Nelson having a splendid instru- 
ment at his disposal — a better instrument than the 
French possessed — we must remember that this per- 
fection ^vas a product of himself and of the fleet at sea, 
and not a product of the governing body. To-day 
things are totally different. If, then, we are to approach 
the questions of how and in what conditions a force 
inferior materially can engage one that is, in respect of 
greater range, or power, or speed, or protection, its 
superior, we must remember that only those tactics are 
open to the Commander of the weaker force which the 
methods of using his weapon prescribed by his equipment 
make possible. 
And as in choosing this equipment he has no voice 
at all, we may find that if we have a difficulty in finding 
modern parallels to Nelson's achievements, the explanation 
may lie, not in the lack of Nelsons afloat in rime 
of war, but to the reign of a very un-Nelsonian spirit 
on land, both in peace and in war. 
Arthur Pollen 
GREENMANTLE 
By John Buchan 
A Sequel to " The Thirty-Nine Steps " 
We have pleasure in announcing that with the next issue of Land & Water (Thursday, 
July 6th) will begin a new serial story by John Buchan, the author of "The Thirty-Nine 
Steps," one of the most successful books published since the outbreak of the war. 
All those— and there are many thousands— who followed the strange adventures of Richard 
Hannay in "The Thirty-Nine Steps" will be enthralled by his still stranger experiences in 
" Greenmantle "—where he plays the principal part in a mysterious mission to Berlin, 
Constantinople and the East. Those who do not as yet know Richard Hannay will be glad 
of this opportunity to make his acquaintance. / 
No character has so captured the imagination since the advent of Sherlock Holmes. 
It frequently happens that the demand for Land & Water is greater than the supply, owing to the necessity 
for economy in the use of paper. In order to avoid any difficulty in obtaining a weekly copy our readers are re- 
quested to place an order in advance loilh their newsagent or bookseller, or to post a subscriUion {£1 10s. per annum) 
direct to the Manager, Land & W.\tek, Emt)irc House. Kingsway, W.C, 
