interest in the navy waned; and if it had not been for the enormous
tribute demanded by the pirates of the Barbary coast from our
government, and a realization of the fact that not only was it
cheaper to build ships and fight the pirates than to pay the tribute,
but paying the tribute was a disgraceful act, our navy would have
run down even more than it did. Yet even with this warning, 1812
found our navy in a desperate condition. Rallying to the emergency,
though too late to accomplish much practical result, we built a number
of excellent ships, against the votes of many highly influential
men in Congress. These ships did gallant service, and redeemed
the reputation of Americans from the oft-repeated charge of being
cowards and merely commercial men, though they were too few to
prevent the blockade which British squadrons maintained on our
Atlantic coast. After the war, the navy was again allowed to
deteriorate; and although our ships were excellent, and the officers
and men were excellent, and although the war with Mexico supplied
some stimulation, the War of the Rebellion caught us in a very
bad predicament. The country rose to this emergency too slowly,
as before; but the enemy were even less prepared than we, so that
during the four years of the Civil War we were able to construct,
man, and buy several hundred ships of various kinds; with the result
that, at the end of the war, our navy, if not quite so powerful as
Great Britain's, was at least very close to it, and with a recent
experience in actual war which the British navy did not possess.

After that war, the same story was repeated. The people convinced
themselves that they would never again be forced to go to war; that
they had seen the folly of it, and the misery of it, and would
devote themselves thereafter to the delightful pursuits of peace.
Gradually the fighting ships of the ironclad class were allowed
to go to pieces; gradually even the larger ships of the wooden
sailing class fell into disrepair; gradually the idea of war faded
from the minds even of naval officers; gradually squadrons and
fleets, as such, were broken up, and our ships were to be found
scattered singly over all the seas, and swinging idly at their
anchors in pleasant ports.

Fortunately, Admiral Luce and a very few other officers had learned
the salient lessons of war during the Rebellion, and sturdily stood up
against the decadent tendency of the times. Against much opposition,