Page 213 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

194 Preparedness for Naval War.

protection of the national interests or for its
own resources. In naval war, coast defence
is the defensive factor, the navy the offensive.
Coast defence, when adequate, assures the
naval commander-in-chief that his base of
—
operations — the dock-yards and coal depots
is secure. It also relieves him and his govern-
ment, by the protection afforded to the chief
commercial centres, from the necessity of con-
sidering them, and so leaves the offensive arm
perfectly free.
Coast defence implies coast attack. To
what attacks are coasts liable ? Two, princi-
pally, — blockade and bombardment. The lat-

ter, being the more difficult, includes the
former, as the greater does the lesser. A fleet
that can bombard can still more easily block-
ade. Against bombardment the necessary pre-
caution is gun-fire, of such power and range
that a fleet cannot lie within bombarding dis-
tance. This condition is obtained, where sur-
roundings permit, by advancing the line of
guns so far from the city involved that bom-
barding distance can be reached only by
coming under their fire. But it has been
demonstrated, and is accepted, that, owing to