Page 214 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Preparedness for Naval War. 195

their rapidity of movement, — like a flock of
birds on the wing, — a fleet of ships can,
without disabling loss, pass by guns before
which they could not lie. Hence arises the
necessity of arresting or delaying their prog-
ress by blocking channels, which in modern
practice is done by lines of torpedoes. The
mere moral effect of the latter is a deterrent
past, —
to a dash by which, if successful, a
fleet reaches the rear of the defences, and
appears immediately before the city, which
then lies at its mercy.
Coast defence, then, implies gun-power and
torpedo lines placed as described. Be it said
in passing that only places of decisive import-
ance, commercially or militarily, need such
defences. Modern fleets cannot afford to
waste ammunition in bombarding unimportant
towns, — at least when so far from their own
base as they would be on our coast. It is
not so much a question of money as of frit-
tering their fighting strength. It would not
pay.
Even coast defence, however, although es-
sentially passive, should have an element of
offensive force, local in character, distinct from