Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/465

NAVY the surrender of the Mexican forces on the coast of what is now California and hoisted the United States flag over the whole of that territory. On the E. coast, a close blockade of Mexican ports was maintained; and when it was decided to make Vera Cruz a base for General Scott's advance on Mexico City, the fleet under Commodore M. C. Ferry reduced the forts commanding the approaches to Vera Cruz and took possession of the harbor.

The Civil War (1861) found the navy small in numbers as regards both ships and personnel, but efficient in discipline and spirit. It was rapidly expanded, and within a few months established a blockade of the southern coasts under which the ports from the Capes of the Chesapeake to the mouth of the Rio Grande were held in a grip which never relaxed until, at the end of four years of this pressure, combined with that of the Northern armies on the land side, the Confederacy was half-starved, half-crushed, into submission. The victories of Farragut at Mobile and New Orleans may be classed among the most brilliant achievements of naval history and easily take rank with Trafalgar and the Nile.

The engagement between the "Monitor" and "Merrimac" forecast the development of modern armor-clad navies; and the sinking of the Union frigate "Hoosatonic" by a Confederate submarine was the first practical achievement in the development of submarine warfare.

From 1865 to 1882 the navy was neglected and forgotten. But by some miracle of morale, it maintained its spirit and its discipline to such a degree that when, in 1882, a small appropriation was made for the building of four ships of modern construction and armament, the officers of the navy were prepared to furnish designs for ships and guns and to take up all the problems involved, at a point fully as advanced as that of constructing and ordnance engineers abroad. These, the first ships of what is called the modern navy, were the "Chicago," "Boston," "Atlanta," and "Dolphin"—cruisers of only moderate size and power, but essentially modern in that ships and guns alike were of up-to-date construction and built throughout of steel.

In 1888 and 1889 two armored ships were built, the "Texas" and the "Maine," and these were followed in 1890-1892 by three battleships, the "Massachusetts," "Indiana," and "Oregon." Other ships followed, of various types, among them several battleships; and by 1898 the United States was easily fifth among the naval powers of the world.

On Feb. 15, 1898, the "Maine" was blown up in Havana harbor through causes which have never been explained; and out of this incident, coupled with a long train of circumstances connected with conditions of Spanish rule in Cuba, war was declared between the United States and Spain on April 25, 1898. The war was brief and decisive. On May 1st, within a month after the beginning of hostilities, Commodore Dewey steamed into Manila Bay at the head of a squadron of cruisers and gunboats, and in a few hours destroyed the Spanish squadron which he found at anchor off Cavite. Two months later, July 4th, Admiral Sampson, in command of a fleet of battleships and cruisers off Santiago de Cuba destroyed a Spanish squadron of armored cruisers which, under command of Admiral Cervera, attempted to escape from the harbor. In both of these engagements the American forces were greatly superior to those of their opponents, and victory was a matter of course; but the swift and sweeping nature of the victory in each case, and the practically complete annihilation of the enemy, showed evidence of a superiority in "morale" far exceeding the superiority in material power. At Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, and Mobile Bay, as at Manila and Santiago, every ship of the enemy was either captured or destroyed.

The prestige won at Manila and Santiago carried the navy forward from 1898 to 1917 without the period of depression which had followed all earlier wars. The building of battleships continued, and other ships—cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and auxiliaries—were added in considerable numbers.

On April 6, 1917, the United States entered the World War, at a moment when the prospects of the Allies were at the lowest ebb, owing to German victories on land and still more to the ever-increasing efficiency of the submarine warfare at sea. The naval force which the United States threw into the balance—counting only ships of modern design available for foreign service—consisted of 12 dreadnought battleships, some 25 destroyers, and 10 submarines. Back of this force and available for the defense of the Atlantic coast, were a large number of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines of old, nearly obsolete, design, all of which were utilized to the fullest extent, Congress and the Navy Department, awakened at last to the fact that the United States was not immune from war, making haste to supply the deficiencies in the naval