In the night, the ships under way, calm, or light breezes of not more
than four knots an hour. Ships of the line, that are under way, seldom
approach nearer each other than a cable's length; this precaution, is
to prevent their running foul and causing confusion; when expecting an
enemy of equal force, the custom is to form one line; admitting, that
to oppose the Torpedo boats, they preserved this usual order of battle,
close hauled and under easy sail, to let the boats come up, here, as in
the case of being at anchor, each ship must apply her whole fire against
the division of boats which attack her; she cannot aid the ship next to
her. As the boats, advancing under cover of the night, each division
will, in three minutes from the time they arrive within danger of cannon
shot, be in with the bow of the destined ship, and fire their harpoons
into her. Therefore it appears, that her chance while under way is very
little better than when at anchor. If, as the boats advance, a ship turns
her bow to meet them, she facilitates their harpooning her. Will any
other order of battle than one right line, give more security? Would two,
three, or four parallel lines, give better protection? In such case, the
line nearest the boats would be attacked first, and the other lines taken
in succession. Were the ships to form a crescent, the headmost vessels
would be first attacked, in this form, they might surround a number of
boats and get them between two fires; but whatever situation the boats
may be in, after they arrive within the range of grape-shot they can, in
a few minutes, be under the bow of the ship, where they will be safe from
all fire except small arms; but to arrive under her bow, amounts to a
moral certainty of effecting her destruction. Therefore, with the immense
advantage which Torpedoes give to an attack with boats, it is of little
consequence whether it be made in the night or day, in a calm or a breeze
of from four to six knots. If the ships engage with the boats, their case
will be desperate. In all my reflections on this kind of war, I see no
chance for their escape other than by retreat; and the moment English
ships of war retreat before Torpedo boats, that moment the power of the
British marine is for ever lost, and with it the political influence of
the nation.
In this view of chances, I have calculated the number of men in the boats
equal to the number in the ships, and estimated five thousand boats to be
brought into action; but in all cases when there are sufficient Torpedo
boats to drive in the boats of the ships, there will be sufficient to
attack the fleet; the one hundred ships could not put six hundred good
boats in motion, therefore, one thousand Torpedo boats would suffice for
the attack; they could be formed into fifty divisions of twenty boats
each; they would have every advantage, in a calm, of directing fifty or
one hundred boats against one vessel, while the ships would not have the
power to concentrate their fire on the boats; the ships could not be
defended, unless there were transports or ordinance vessels expressly
for carrying good row-boats, the number of which should be sufficient to
repel the Torpedo boats; but if ships can only be protected by boats,
it follows, that they will cease to be of use, and the contest for the
command of the channel must be decided by boat fighting. In such case,
the nation which could put in action the greatest number of boats, and
was least dependent on commerce, would have a decided advantage. England
is more dependent on commerce than France; her merchant vessels could be
attacked, destroyed, and her trade ruined; yet the commerce of France
could not be more, nor so much, injured as it is at present. In such an
event, England, who has usurped the dominion of the ocean and laid all
nations under contribution, would be the most humble supplicant for the
liberty of the seas. And then the Emperor of France would have a noble
opportunity to display a magnanimity of soul, a goodness of heart, which
would add lustre to his great actions, and secure to him the admiration
of the civilized world, by granting to so ingenious, industrious,
enterprising, and estimable a people, a perfect liberty of commerce.[M]
[Footnote M: A government, and particularly a monarchy or aristocracy,
may be in the habitual practice of vice, while the people are in the
habitual practice of virtue. In an aristocracy, where the army, navy,
places, and pensions, are in the power of the few, the voice of the
people has little or no influence. The genius, industry, and enterprise
of the English, have converted a barren island into the most fruitful and
beautiful spot on earth; their improvements in the useful arts, have made
them the greatest and most useful manufacturing people that ever existed.
In proportion as the people, by their industry, increased the riches of
the nation, the government found a facility in raising revenue, and have
loaded the virtuous people with taxes to the amount of twenty-five or
more millions a year, to pay for ruinous wars, the conquest of America,
the establishment of the Bourbons, and the balance of Europe.]
I have now run this subject to a conclusion, in which I do not hesitate
to say, that two thousand Torpedo boats and twenty-four thousand men,
would take the command of the British channel from Boulogne to Romney,
from Calais, Gravelines, Dunkirk and Ostend, to the mouth of the Thames,
and that the command of the commerce of those narrow seas, would command
the British nation; but there the power of Torpedo boats must cease--a
nation cannot send such boats to sea to depredate on commerce, nor to
foreign countries on expeditions of conquest, and therefore the seas must
be free.