ivision of ships of the _Oregon_ class would be upon him;
and within the limits named are found the major external commercial
interests of the country as well as the ocean approaches along which
they travel. But had the monitors been substituted for battleships,
not to speak of their greater slowness, their inferiority as steady
gun-platforms would have placed them at a serious disadvantage if the
enemy were met outside, as he perfectly well might be.

It was probably such considerations as these, though the writer was
not privy to them, that determined the division of the battle fleet,
and the confiding to the section styled the Flying Squadron the
defence of the Atlantic coast for the time being. The monitors were
all sent to Key West, where they would be at hand to act against
Havana; the narrowness of the field in which that city, Key West, and
Matanzas are comprised making their slowness less of a drawback, while
the moderate weather which might be expected to prevail would permit
their shooting to be less inaccurate. The station of the Flying
Squadron in Hampton Roads, though not so central as New York
relatively to the more important commercial interests, upon which, if
upon any, the Spanish attack might fall, was more central as regards
the whole coast; and, above all, was nearer than New York to Havana
and to Puerto Rico. The time element also entered the calculations in
another way, for a fleet of heavy ships is more certainly able to put
to sea at a moment's notice, in all conditions of tide and weather,
from the Chesapeake than from New York Bay. In short, the position
chosen may be taken to indicate that, in the opinion of the Navy
Department and its advisers, Cervera was not likely to attempt a dash
at an Atlantic port, and that it was more important to be able to
reach the West Indies speedily than to protect New York or Boston,--a
conclusion which the writer entirely shared.

The country, however, should not fail to note that the division of the
armored fleet into two sections, nearly a thousand miles apart, though
probably the best that could be done under all the circumstances of
the moment, was contrary to sound practice; and that the conditions
which made it necessary should not have existed. Thus, deficient coast
protection reacts unfavorably upon the war fleet, which in all its
movements should be free from any responsibility for the mere safety
of the ports it quits. Under such conditions as then