Besides these recognized advantages of position, there was also a
question upon what part of the enemy the fire should be directed. In
this there were two principal schools of tactics, one of which aimed at
the hull, to break down the fire of the hostile ship and destroy her
fighting men, while the other sought, by pointing higher, to cut away
the sails, rigging, and masts, rendering the foe helpless. The latter,
in general, was the policy of the French; the former, and, it may be
affirmed, the more surely successful, was the practice of the British.
The two schools find their counterpart in the tactical considerations
which now affect the question of rapid-fire and of heavy guns, each
of which has its appropriate target, covering in the latter case the
motive power, in the former the personnel.
These three leading classes of vessels, with their functions,
armaments, and tactics of the single ship, as described, performed in
their day and during the great maritime contests of two centuries all
the duties that at any time can be required of a maritime fighting
organization. By them the control of the sea in the largest sense was
disputed and was determined; by them commerce was attacked, and by them
it was protected. They themselves have passed away, but the military
factors remain the same. The mastery of the sea and the control of its
commerce—of which blockade is but a special case—are now and must
remain always the chief ends of maritime war. The ends continuing the
same, the grand disposition of navies—their strategy—reposes upon the
same principles that it ever did. Similarly, while the changes in the
characteristics of ships will cause the individual vessel to be fought
in manners different from its predecessors, the handling of masses
of ships in battle—fleet tactics—must proceed on the same general
principles as of old. The centre and the two extremities of all orders
are always the points of danger; concentration upon one or two of the
three, however effected, must be always the principle of action. These
things, which cannot vary, form, therefore, no part of a paper which
deals with changes.