Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/190

 no doubt, however, that we are in a better condition for protecting our vast commerce at the present time than we have been during any portion of the last half-century, independent of the aid we should receive from the conversion of some of the fastest merchant steamers into auxiliary cruisers. That other countries contemplate, in the event of war, an attack on our sea-borne trade has been clearly foreshadowed in the writings which have been published abroad, and received with favour by the nations to whom they were addressed. They will not be deterred from this action by the knowledge that the issue of a war cannot depend upon any success obtained in this way unless accompanied by a mastery, more or less complete, over the sea forces of the enemy. We may be harassed but not subdued in this fashion. Knowing the danger, it behoves us, however, to take adequate steps to guard against it, and this we are doing by at last adding to our fleet cruisers from which the modern 'Alabama' will find it difficult to escape. The career of this vessel has often been cited to show the damage that could be inflicted by a single vessel. But considering she was practically unmolested for eighteen months, it is no matter for surprise that the commerce under the stars and stripes, then carried chiefly in sailing ships, should suffer. The number of her captures during this period was under sixty, and only one was a steamer. Semmes was astonished at the absence of method displayed by the North in his pursuit. In his account of the cruise of the 'Alabama,' Semmes, referring to the Secretary of the Navy, said: 'The old