which had
noiselessly foiled Napoleon's plans.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Thus Hermocrates of Syracuse, advocating the policy of thwarting
the Athenian expedition against his city (B.C. 413) by going boldly to
meet it, and keeping on the flank of its line of advance, said: "As
their advance must be slow, we shall have a thousand opportunities to
attack them; but if they clear their ships for action and in a body
bear down expeditiously upon us, they must ply hard at their oars, and
_when spent with toil_ we can fall upon them."

[2] The writer must guard himself from appearing to advocate elaborate
tactical movements issuing in barren demonstrations. He believes that
a fleet seeking a decisive result must close with its enemy, but not
until some advantage has been obtained for the collision, which will
usually be gained by manoeuvring, and will fall to the best drilled
and managed fleet. In truth, barren results have as often followed
upon headlong, close encounters as upon the most timid tactical
trifling.

[3] A ship was said to have the weather-gage, or "the advantage of the
wind," or "to be to windward," when the wind allowed her to steer for
her opponent, and did not let the latter head straight for her. The
extreme case was when the wind blew direct from one to the other; but
there was a large space on either side of this line to which the term
"weather-gage" applied. If the lee ship be taken as the centre of a
circle, there were nearly three eighths of its area in which the other
might be and still keep the advantage of the wind to a greater or less
degree. Lee is the opposite of weather.

[4] See note at end of Introductory Chapter, page 23.

[5] The battle of Navarino (1827) between Turkey and the Western
Powers was fought in this neighborhood.

[6] A "containing" force is one to which, in a military combination,
is assigned the duty of stopping, or delaying the advance of a portion
of the enemy, while the main effort of the army or armies is being
exerted in a different quarter.

CHAPTER I.

DISCUSSION OF THE ELEMENTS OF SEA POWER.

The first and most obvious light in which the sea presents itself from
the political and social point of view is that of a great highway; or
better, perhaps, of a wide common, over which men may pass in all
directions, but on which some well-worn paths show that controlling
reasons have led them to choose certain lines of travel rather than
others. These lines of tr