be doubtful, if the enemy's coast and islands were so protected
by guns and mines and submarines that we could not get a base near
the scene of operations. It is true that the British were able to
maintain blockades of the French coast during many weary months
without any base nearer than England--a place far away to ships
whose only motive power was sails; but destroyers and submarines
and mines did not then exist, and these agencies are much more
valuable to the defender than to the blockader who has no base at
hand.

Our operations without a base on a distant enemy coast would be
apt to degenerate into warding off a continual series of more or
less minor attacks by the minor craft of the defender. The commander
of our fleet would be constrained to keep his fighting force pretty
close together, thus restricting his initiative; lest the entire
enemy fleet catch a detached part out of supporting distance of
the main body, and annihilate it with little loss to themselves.
We could probably shut off most of the enemy's sea-borne commerce;
and the war would become one of endurance between our fleet, on
the one hand, and the economic forces and the morale of the enemy
country on the other hand.

In the case of operations carried on far away from the bases of both
fleets, operations like those that the French and British carried on
in the West Indies, the commanders-in-chief will naturally be much
less directed by the admiralties at home than will a commander-in-chief
operating near home; and the strategical advantage, as affected
by the proximity of bases, and by the possession of the better
chance for the initiative, will be reduced to its minimum.

Of course, the victory will go to the more powerful force; but
so many factors go to make up power, that it may be difficult to
determine which is the more powerful, until after victory itself
shall have decided it. Supposing the skill to be equal on both
sides, the victory will go to the side that possesses the most
numerous and powerful vessels of all kinds. But unless there is a
very great disproportion, it may be difficult to determine which
side has the more powerful ships, even though we may know which
side has the more numerous. It is extremely difficult to compare
even two single war-ships because we do not know the relative values
of their factors. Suppose two ships, for instance, to be equal
in all ways, except that one ship has ten 14-inch guns, and the
other h