itled _The Gulf and Inland Waters_; my first
appearance as an author. Herein also I had recognized that the same
class of military ideas took possession of my mind. I felt, therefore,
that I should bring interest and understanding to my task, and hoped
that the defects of knowledge, which I clearly realized, would be
overcome. I recalled also that at the Military Academy my father,
though professor only of engineering, military and civil, had of his
own motion introduced a course of strategy and grand tactics, which
had commended itself to observers. I trusted, therefore, that
heredity, too, might come to my aid.

As acceptance placed me on the road which led directly to all the
success I have had in life, I feel impelled to acknowledge my
indebtedness to Admiral Luce. With little constitutional initiative,
and having grown up in the atmosphere of the single cruiser, of
commerce-destroying, defensive warfare, and indifference to
battle-ships; an anti-imperialist, who for that reason looked upon Mr.
Blaine as a dangerous man; at forty-five I was drifting on the lines
of simple respectability as aimlessly as one very well could. My
environment had been too much for me; my present call changed it.
Meantime, however, there was delay. A relief would not be sent,
because the ship was to go home; and the ship did not go home because
there was, first, a revolution in Panama, and then a war between the
Central American states, both which required the _Wachusett's_
presence. Mr. Cleveland was elected at this time; there was a change
of administration, and with a new Secretary a lapse of Departmental
interest. The ship did not go to San Francisco till September, 1885,
nearly a year after the admiral's proposition reached me.

The year had not been unfruitful, however. Naturally predisposed, as I
have said, my mind ran continually on my subject. I imagined various
formations for developing to the best effect the powers of steamships,
and sudden changes to be instituted as the moment of collision
approached, calculated to disconcert the opponent, or to surprise an
advantage before he could parry. Spinning cobwebs out of one's
unassisted brain, without any previous absorption from external
sources, was doubtless a somewhat crude process; yet it had
advantages. One of my manoeuvres was to pass a column of ships by an
unexpected flank movement across the head of an enemy's column. This I
have since heard called "capping;" if, at leas