In none of these features is either of the other weapons likely to
overtake the gun. The torpedo relies mainly upon stealth, the ram
mainly upon a happy chance for effective use. Both stealth and chance
have their place in war; stratagem and readiness, each in place,
may contribute much. But the decisive issues of war depend upon the
handling of masses with celerity and precision, according to certain
general principles of recognized universality. Afloat, such massed
force, to be wielded accurately and rapidly, must consist of units not
too numerous because of their smallness—as torpedo craft would be—nor
too unwieldy because of their size. We may not be able to determine
yet, in advance of prolonged experience of war, just what the happy
mean may be corresponding in principle to the old seventy-four, but
we may be reasonably sure that it will be somewhere in the ranks of
the present battle-ships; and that in the range, accuracy and rapidity
of their gun-fire—especially when acting in fleets—will be found a
protection which the small vessels that rely upon the torpedo or ram
alone will not be able to overcome, though they may in rare instances
elude.
Concerning the frigates and sloops of our predecessors, their place
is now taken, and their duties will be done, by the classes of
vessel known generically as cruisers, protected or unprotected. The
protection, the defensive element of strength, has reference mainly to
the engines, to the motive power. The battery, the offensive factor,
tends upon the whole to revert more and more to the development of
fire, to utilizing the length of the vessel by multiplying the number
of guns and diminishing their individual size; and the tendency is
increased by the fact that, as such ships are expected to fight only
vessels of their own kind, their probable target is penetrable by light
guns. Speed is the great element in the efficiency of cruisers, and
whatever the speed in smooth water, a great advantage inures to larger
ships in heavy winds and seas. As for “armored” cruisers, of which
there are many, they belong rather to the class of battle-ships than
of cruisers. Whatever the advantages of the particular ships, the name
suggests a regrettable confusion of purpose, and, in practice, a still
more regrettable departure from homogeneity.