hould exist between them is more difficult to assume, especially
if they have been trained in different schools and have not known
each other until late in life. In the latter case, misunderstandings
are apt to arise, as time goes on; and if they do, the most cordial
good feeling may change into mutual distrust and suspicion, and
even hatred. To see that such things have happened in the past,
we do not have to look further back in history than the records of
our own Civil War, especially the records of the mutual relations
of the head of the War Department and some generals. That a situation
equally grave did not exist between the head of the Navy Department
and any of the admirals may be attributed to the fact that the
number of naval defeats was less than the number of defeats on land,
to the lesser number of persons in the navy, and to the smaller
number of operations. Perhaps a still greater reason was the greater
confidence shown by civilians in their ability to handle troops,
compared with their confidence in their ability to handle fleets.

Even between the Navy Department and the officers, however, mutual
respect and understanding can hardly be said to have existed. This
did not prevent the ultimate triumph of the Union navy; but that
could hardly have been prevented by any means, since the Union
navy was so much superior to the Confederate.

_Co-operation between the Navy Department and the Fleet_.--In any
war with a powerful navy, into which the U. S. navy may enter,
the question of co-operation between the department and the fleet
will be the most important factor in the portentous situation that
will face us. We shall be confronted with the necessity of handling
the most complex and powerful machine known to man with the utmost
possible skill; and any lack of understanding between the fleet
and the department, and any slowness of apprehension or of action
by the department, may cause a national disaster. One of the most
important dangers to be guarded against will be loss of time. In
naval operations the speed of movement of the forces is so great
that crises develop and pass with a rapidity unexampled formerly;
so that delays of any kind, or due to any causes, must be prevented
if that be possible. If a swordsman directs a thrust at the heart,
the thrust must be parried--_in time_.

[Illustration: STRATEGIC MAP OF THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS.]

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NAVY AS A