Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/535

Rh day by day huge monsters of the deep, each succeeding one an improvement in strength and fury upon its predecessor, and all vastly the superiors of those famous ships—the Iowa, the Oregon, the Brooklyn and the rest, that so quickly sent the steel-clad hulls of Spain upon the shoals of the Caribbean Sea.

In the state of high efficiency of modern ordnance, while floating guns are able to throw enormously destructive projectiles to such great distances, it is not beyond the range of reason to declare positively that not a single city upon the Atlantic coast is entirely safe from bombardment by a foreign fleet. The extraordinary contingencies of the Spanish war will not, it may be believed, ever return. The next time (which, with our expanding relations, more and more world-wide continually, may come at any moment) that we are called upon to match strengths with an enemy, we may be quite sure it will be with a foe of different caliber than poor, enervated Spain. Her valor, her deep sense of honor, her devotion, fanatical as that of any follower of Mahomet, all were vain and valueless because of—in one phrase—lack of adequate preparation. The next time the American people are called upon to face an enemy upon the high seas, it will not be, we may be sure, to find his nominal fighting power or the speed of his war ships diminished by so large a percentage; nor, to be frank, that our own ordnance, horse-power of engines, general efficiency, shall again surprise ourselves with performances so much better than was expected or claimed.

Do not let us delude ourselves with the undue confidence that all has been done, or is in process of being done, in the way of adequate preparation. For many years to come, though we construct men-ofwar in increasing numbers and with increased power, it will still remain that other nations are also increasing their armaments. That 'next time' it may not be one nation, but a coalition of nations. Besides, in these days of swift changes and sudden inventions, the best efforts of designers of floating fortresses may become obsolete almost overnight.

There are some things, however, that by their very nature can not become obsolete; a single nation may for a time, by reason of greater energy, wealth or genius, so dominate in the game of warfare as to checkmate adversaries right and left. America, with her Ericsson and the Monitor, was for a few years as a queen among pawns. But we could not rely, as no nation can rely, upon such marvels. Little more than forty years have passed and the accepted type of battle-ship is the same all over the world; that has replaced the Miantonoma, as that replaced the Monitor, as that displaced the Congress and the Powhatan. Between the banks of oars of the Carthagenian triremes and the sails of Philip II. and Effingham; between the Seventy-four of 1812 and the 'cheese-box on a raft,' great gulfs of mechanical in