mpletely
invested by naval force alone. In the one case, even if no assault is
attempted, starvation must sooner or later bring about the surrender of
the fortress together with any military force it contains, whereas in
the other the blockaded port being, as a rule, in open communication
with its own national territory, cannot be reduced by starvation.
Moreover, for reasons already explained, a maritime fortress cannot
nowadays be so closely blockaded as to prevent the exit of small craft
almost at all times or even to prevent the exit of squadrons of
battleships in circumstances favourable to the enterprise. Now the exit
of small craft equipped for torpedo attack is a much more serious threat
to the blockader than the exit of small craft, not so equipped, was in
the old days of close blockade. In those days small craft could do no
harm to ships of the line or even to frigates, whereas a torpedo craft
is nowadays in certain circumstances the equal and more than the equal
of a battleship. For these reasons the escape from a blockaded port of a
squadron of battleships might easily be regarded by the blockading enemy
as a less serious and even much more welcome incident of the campaign
than the frequent issue of swarms of torpedo craft skilfully handled,
daringly navigated, and sternly resolved to do or die in the attempt to
reduce the battle superiority of the enemy.

It follows from these premisses that a naval blockade--or a connected
series of blockades--can never be regarded as equivalent to an
established command of the sea. At its best it can only achieve a
temporary command of the sea in a state of unstable and easily disturbed
equilibrium. At its worst, that is when it is least close and least
effective, and when the _animus pugnandi_ of the enemy is unimpaired and
not to be intimidated, and is therefore ready at all times to take
advantage of "an opportunity too tempting to be resisted," it amounts to
a state of things in which the "fleet in being" becomes the dominant
factor of the situation. It is mainly a psychological problem and
scarcely a strategic problem at all to determine when the actual
situation approximates to either of these extremes, and the principle
embodied in the words _bene ausus vana contemnere_ is the key to the
solution of this problem. If the blockaded fleet is merely a fortress
fleet, or not even that, as was the Russian fleet at Port Arthur for
some time after the first night of the war