In each case victory went to the
ships of high speed and long-range guns, and these two are the
determining characteristics of the battle cruiser. In the action of
January 25, 1915, in the North Sea, the same characteristics won
again. Battle cruisers were engaged on both sides, but the side
which had the advantage in speed and range won the fight.

Thus the battle cruiser had justified itself, and its justification
is one of the striking lessons of the war. We may believe that the
lesson will be emphasized if the time ever comes when this type
finds the opportunity to display its adaptability for work in
certain other fields for which it was originally designed--in
scouting operations, for example, and in flanking movements in
connection with a fleet engagement.

It does not appear that aeroplanes were used for scouting in any of
the operations in the open sea--either as preliminary to the battle
off Coronel and the Falklands, or in the search for raiders like the
_Emden_ and the _Karlsruhe_. They have been used, however, in the
waters about the British Islands, and with such marked success as to
leave no doubt that they would have been of great value in search
operations on a larger scale. They were used also for directing the
fire of ships on the fortifications at the Dardanelles, and the
results indicate that they have an important field of usefulness for
directing the fire of one ship or fleet against another. It is to be
expected that from this time forward, vessels fitted for carrying
and launching both air and water planes will accompany fleets, and
it is impossible to think of a scout to be designed after the
lessons of this war, which will not carry several of them. As the
scouts are the eyes of the fleet, so the aeroplanes will be the eyes
of the scouts, extending the scouting range by several hundred miles
and making secrecy of operations at sea almost as impossible as they
have already made it on land.

Allusion has already been made to the use of aeroplanes--flying not
more than a few hundred feet above the water--for locating
submarines; and it is not difficult to understand how effective a
waterplane would be for destroying a periscope, or even a submarine
itself--this last, perhaps, by dropping a bomb.

The lesson of the torpedo is connected with that of the submarine,
but has many features which are individual to itself. It is known
that within a very few years past the range and accuracy of the