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THE LIFE OF 
 
 ADMIRAL MAHAN 
 
 NAVAL PHILOSOPHER 
 
 Rear- Admiral United Htates Navv; D.C.L. Oxford; LL.D. Cambridge; 
 
 LL.D. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Magill and Dartmouth; President of 
 
 THE United States Naval War College ; President of the American 
 
 Historical Association ; etc., etc. 
 
 BY CHARLES CARLISLE TAYLOR 
 
 LATE BRITISH VICE-CONSUL AT NEW YORK 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 1920 
 

TO 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 THE LAND 
 
 OF 
 
 BOUNDLESS OPPORTUNITY 
 
 THIS WORK 
 
 IS 
 
 GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 
 
" I will, therefore, in conclusion only say to any of 
 you who may not yet have read Captain Mahan's 
 books, read them ; to those who have read them, 
 read them again ; read them a third time ; for in 
 them you will find the best exposition of the blun- 
 ders and the glories of our forefathers, the best 
 explanation of the influence of Sea Power." 
 
 Professor J. K. Latjghton. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 This work is the overflow of an English Iieart full of 
 admiration for an American who by force of character 
 overcame well-nigh insuperable obstacles and, as the 
 result of years of strenuous work and skilful applica- 
 tion of his superb mental powers, earned for himself 
 in the eyes of the world the highest distinction yet 
 accorded a naval philosopher. 
 
 My primary motive in undertaking so serious a respon- 
 sibility is threefold. I am eager to perpetuate the 
 memory of a great American ; and in so doing to bring 
 one step nearer together the people of his country and 
 of mine ; and at the same time repay, even if in limited 
 measure, the debt of gratitude I owe to America for 
 priceless opportunities in days gone by. Le temps 
 passe, Vamitii reste. I also must pass on, but I should 
 like this work to carry a message of lasting friendship 
 to the earnest and hospitable people of the great Republic 
 of the West. 
 
 Haply, moreover, a word here or there may, like a 
 good deed in a naughty world, shine through impending 
 gloom and carry a message of hope or comfort, of 
 encouragement, inspiration, or good cheer to some soul 
 distraught. As a shameless optimist in the throes 
 of his first literary effort, the author craves the indul- 
 gence of his readers. 
 
 Without the friendly co-operation of the Admiral's 
 family, who placed unreservedly at my disposal all the 
 correspondence and other available material in their 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 possession, this review of the life of Alfred Thayer 
 Mahan could not have been written. 
 
 I have striven to make it " a faithful portrait of a 
 soul in its adventures through life," resisting the 
 while a very natural temptation to mix the colours 
 with an over-abundance of rose-water. As research 
 and analysis gradually revealed the true character of 
 the man, the task became a labour of love. Rarely 
 perhaps have been found such commanding gifts of 
 intellect allied with so genuine a modesty. 
 
 Mahan has been described as "the greatest writer 
 America has yet produced." What is greatness ? 
 Webster says that he is great who is " extraordinary in 
 genius or accomplishments." Of the vast number who 
 aspire to literary fame, few, alas ! become known 
 outside the limits of the^little circle in which they move. 
 Seldom does an echo of their earnest voices reach 'the 
 ears of the listening world. Mahan' s masterpieces not 
 only won instant recognition in the navies and among 
 the statesmen of all lands, but have for years successfully 
 withstood the matured judgment of the most eminent 
 authorities in the intellectual hierarchy of the twentieth 
 century. In truth a supreme test of " extraordinary 
 accomplishment.' ' 
 
 In contradistinction to the lives of many famous 
 literary men — such, for instance, as Longfellow or Sir 
 Walter Scott — Mahan' s career does not lend itself to 
 voluminous biographical treatment. Owing to his 
 exceptionally reserved and retiring nature he did not 
 seek the personal acquaintance of the interesting and 
 distinguished personalities of his day, nor did he cor- 
 respond, except to a very limited extent, with leaders 
 of thought or makers of history either at home or abroad. 
 Among his papers are but few letters suitable for pub- 
 lication, other than those which have been herein 
 reproduced or referred to. Apart from his writings 
 and lectures and a few religious addresses and news- 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 paper interviews, he made no public pronouncements 
 of significance. For so notable a man his circle of 
 associates was remarkably small, even among naval 
 officers, and the number of his intimate friends was 
 even more limited. With the exception of Admiral 
 Sir Bouverie Clark there seems to have been no one 
 to whom he freely disclosed his views on matters of 
 public moment, and even in his correspondence with 
 him Mahan seldom departed from chatty discussion of 
 current political events and references to family affairs 
 and his own state of health. Few words of serious 
 self-revelation seem to have escaped him. 
 
 On account of his innate and intense dislike of pub- 
 licity, the incidents of his daily life were not such as 
 to furnish material for graphic description ; neither 
 did he disclose himself in memorable utterances to 
 friend or foe. So far as can be ascertained, he kept no 
 diary after the age of twenty-eight, and apparently 
 did not to any appreciable extent read current literature 
 or comment upon it publicly. Such characteristics do 
 not make for that kind of personal popularity which is 
 apt to invite the confidences of men of note and bring 
 about occurrences worthy of record. Except for a 
 brief period in England, his association with men and 
 women of distinction was extremely limited ; and even 
 there the intercourse was entirely unsought and seem- 
 ingly was dropped after his return to America. 
 
 Mahan won the respect of all who knew him well. 
 The religious side of his nature was the most pro- 
 nounced, and towards the latter part of his life may be 
 said to have been an open book from which all might 
 read ; but even in this regard he was habitually reti- 
 cent. Apart from this religious aspect, the chief interest 
 of Mahan' s life for the great mass of humanity centres 
 round his three great masterpieces, in which he reveals 
 the historic secrets of naval power — a revelation which 
 the dramatic incidents of the world-wide conflict, now 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 happily brought to a victorious close, stamp as one 
 of the most momentous in the annals of warfare. 
 
 I gladly avail myself of this welcome opportunity 
 to express my sincere and grateful thanks to Mrs. 
 Mahan and the members of her family for their invaluable 
 and sympathetic assistance, as well as to the Hon. 
 Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy ; the Hon. 
 William Redfield, late Secretary of Commerce ; the 
 Hon. Franklin Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the 
 Navy ; Dr. Edwin Wiley, Librarian of the Naval War 
 College, Newport ; Admiral Sims ; the late Mr. Theodore 
 Roosevelt ; Admiral Bradley Fiske ; Dr. F. G. Brath- 
 waite ; Admiral Count Togo ; Miss Mahan ; Admiral 
 EarlBeatty; Mrs. Vernon-Mann; the Right Hon. Arthur 
 Balfour ; Mr. Clive Bayley ; Admiral Sir Bouverie 
 Clark ; Admiral Oman ; Commodore Parker ; Senator 
 Lodge ; Mr. J. Herbert Johnston and Mr. George G. 
 Hall, executors of Mr. Loyall Farragut ; Mr. Samuel 
 Ashe ; Admiral Eberle ; Commander Ravenscroft ; 
 Mr. Charles Stewart Davison ; the Editor of the Daily 
 Mail ; Lieutenant Lemuel Hillman ; Mr. James Barnes ; 
 Admiral Goodrich ; Mr. William Alexander ; Mr. 
 Robert Bridges ; the members of the House and Library 
 Committees of the University Club, New York ; the 
 ladies who have deciphered and transcribed my manu- 
 scripts ; and all others who have so kindly helped me 
 and contributed towards the successful launching of 
 the ship " Life of Admiral Mahan." 
 
 Given that Marcus Aurelius rightly claims that a 
 man is worth just so much as the things are worth 
 about which he busies himself^ then indeed is Alfred 
 Thayer Mahan worth, not only to his own country 
 but to the world at large, more than readily lies within 
 the compass of mere words to convey. 
 
 Charles Carlisle Taylor. 
 
 London, 
 May 1920. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. Heredity and Environment 
 i/II. Early Naval Career 
 ■'/hi. The Inspiration . 
 ^^IV. Naval War College 
 • V. Sea Power . 
 VI. Farragut 
 VII. England 
 VIII- The Life of Nelson 
 IX. Naval War Board. 
 X. The First Hague Conference 
 XI. The Chesney Gold Medal. . 
 XII. Other Public Services 
 XIII. Later Publications 
 XIV. The Margin of Naval Strength 
 
 PAGE 
 
 vii 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 
 28 
 
 40 
 
 53 
 
 57 
 
 78 
 
 88 
 
 94 
 
 102 
 
 107 
 
 112 
 
 130 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 •^ XV. " Freedom of the Seas " 
 
 XVI. Then and Now 
 
 XVII. Peace Views . 
 
 XVIII. Two Admirals . 
 
 XIX. As Statesman . 
 
 XX. As Prophet 
 
 XXI. Anglo-American Relations 
 
 '- XXII. Mahan's Message to his Countrymen 
 
 XXIII. Literary Traits 
 
 XXIV. Religious Convictions 
 XXV. The Autumn of Life 
 
 XXVI. The Peaceful End . 
 XXVII. Summary . 
 Appendix .... 
 
 Bibliography .... 
 Chronology .... 
 Index ..... 
 
 PAGE 
 
 144 
 161 
 172 
 178 
 190 
 208 
 215 
 228 
 245 
 257 
 272 
 284 
 296 
 308 
 
 342 
 345 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Alfred Thayer Mahan 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Alfred Thayer Mahan, Age 17 . 
 
 Mahan Hall, Naval Academy, Annapolis . 
 
 United States Frigate " Congress " . 
 
 Admiral Stephen B. Luce, U.S.N. 
 
 United States Naval War College, Newport 
 
 Rhode Island ..... 
 Admiral Farragut's Letter to his Wife . 
 United States Cruiser " Chicago " . 
 The Naval Board of Strategy, 1898 . 
 
 American Delegates to the Hague Conference 
 
 1899 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt ..... 
 Ex-Kaiser's Telegram to Mr. Poultney Bigelow 
 U.S.S. " Pennsylvania " and U.S.S. " Chicago " 
 Rear-Admiral William Sowden Sims, U.S.N. 
 Vice- Admiral Sir Bouverie Clark, K.C.B. 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 2 
 
 Map of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico 192 
 
 Mahan's First Letter, Age 7 . . . 
 
 Memorial Tablet in the Church of the Atone 
 ment, quogue, long island . 
 
 The Chesney Gold Medal .... 
 
 Admiral Mahan's Home, "Marshmere," Quogue 
 Long Island ...... 
 
 Admiral Mahan and his Grandson 
 
 8 
 14 
 
 28 
 
 36 
 54 
 70 
 
 88 
 
 96 
 110 
 130 
 164 
 170 
 182 
 
 252 
 
 260 
 260 
 
 274 
 302 
 
THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL 
 MAHAN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 
 
 All men are born equal in the sight of God and before the law ; 
 but as touching this earthly pilgrimage, from the moment they first 
 see the light of day, inherited predisposition toward mental, moral, 
 and physical excellences and imperfections, mightily influenced by 
 environment, separates, classifies, and brands them, elevating one and 
 debasing another, until each year of their lives but widens the gulf 
 which inexorably divides them. 
 
 Alfred Thayer Mahan was born on September 27 
 in the year 1840, at West Point on the Hudson.^ His 
 father, Dennis Hart Mahan, who was Professor of 
 Civil and Mihtary Engineering at the West Point 
 Mihtary Academy, was born of Irish parentage in New 
 York in 1802, shortly after the arrival of his father 
 and mother from Ireland, and was baptized in the 
 Roman Catholic Church in the parish of St. Peter's 
 in Barclay Street. At an early age his parents moved 
 to Norfolk, Virginia, and he became a Virginian at 
 heart, remaining, however, a staunch supporter of 
 the Union in the stormy days which were to come. 
 In a memoir read before the National Academy of 
 
 1 Mahan's birthplace, West Point on the Hudson, while within the 
 boundaries of the State of New York, is not upon its territory, having 
 been ceded to the Federal Government for the purposes of the United 
 States Military Academy. 
 
 1 
 
2 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT [chap, i 
 
 Sciences, General Henry L. Abbott records that Professor 
 Mahan was one of the most kind and affectionate of men, 
 distinguished for his old-fashioned politeness and high 
 sense of duty, and that he taught his children to observe 
 scrupulous courtesy toward others and to avoid the 
 use of any language approaching slang in his presence. 
 He was a man of highly nervous disposition, had little 
 sympathy with idleness and stupidity, but was withal 
 of a kindly nature and genial humour. His letters 
 to his son are full of sound advice and lofty ideals. 
 He ends one dated in 1858 with these words : " Stand 
 up to your work bravely, My Dear Boy, and always 
 in the tone of a high-minded honourable Christian 
 gentleman, and then let the consequences take care 
 of themselves. Your own reputation will be un- 
 sullied." 
 
 His son recounts that on one occasion his father 
 warned a friend not to persist with a proposal which, 
 in his opinion, would make a lifelong and powerful 
 enemy of one of the members of a board on which 
 they were both sitting. Subsequently, however, his 
 father voluntarily assumed the disagreeable duty he 
 had advised him to shun, and thereby brought upon 
 himself a lifelong hostility from which he protected 
 his friend. There is little doubt from whom his son 
 Alfred acquired, in part at least, his courteous and 
 genial manner and his profound sense of duty. 
 
 The development of Alfred Thayer Mahan * presents 
 a curious illustration of the eccentricities of hereditary 
 influence and of early environment. He was the son 
 of a man who was born of Irish Catholic parents and 
 christened a member of the Roman Catholic Church ; 
 a man, moreover, whose earliest associations, especially 
 those in connection with the war of 1812, influenced 
 him strongly against England. This prejudice was 
 
 1 Mahan pronounced his name Ma-han' : both a's as in " fan," and 
 the accent on the last syllable. 
 
ALFKED THAYER MAHAN, AGE 17. 
 
1840] PROTESTANT INFLUENCES , 3 
 
 probably enhanced by his preference for the French, 
 and because of a cordial friendship with Lafayette 
 and his family, by whom he was hospitably entertained 
 in Paris. 
 
 In this anti-English atmosphere was young Mahan 
 brought up, but several circumstances arose which 
 contributed to offset these early influences. His grand- 
 mother Mahan died when his father was but a few years 
 old. His grandfather then married a Protestant, and 
 his father grew up in that faith and subsequently 
 married Mary Helena Okill, daughter of an Englishman 
 and of Mary Jay, a descendant of the great Huguenot 
 family of that name which had fled from persecution 
 in France under Louis XIV. Thus it was that Alfred 
 Thayer Mahan first became a member of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church. It may be said that he was one- 
 half Irish and one-quarter English, the remaining quarter 
 coming of French- American stock. Here is an opinion 
 of himself as expressed in his own words : "As far as 
 I understand my personality, I think to see in the 
 result the predominance which the English strain has 
 usually asserted for itself over others." 
 
 He has also left on record that the experiences of 
 life and subsequent reading and reflection modified, 
 and in the end entirely overcame, his early anti-English 
 prepossessions.^ In a letter to his sister written from 
 Yokohama in 1868, when he was twenty-eight years 
 old, he recounts in these words his first practical experi- 
 ence of British folk : " Are not the English a wonderful 
 people ? They alone of all civilised people keep 
 troops here, and their transports, not only here, but all 
 
 1 A generation earlier, Audubon, the renowned American naturalist, 
 who, coming of French stock, was similarly prepossessed against the 
 English of his day, also married the daughter of an Englishman, and 
 Lucy Bakewell's warm-hearted and gentle disposition descended to 
 her granddavighters, the Misses Eliza, Lucy, and Annie Audubon, 
 whose unfailing kindness and generous hospitahty the author ever 
 holds in grateful and affectionate memory. 
 2 
 
4 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT [chap, i 
 
 over the world are going and coming. Capetown, 
 Aden, Bombay, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Yokohama, 
 everywhere is to be seen their red-coated soldiery — 
 and to them not only their own merchants but those 
 of all other nations owe safety at times. Truly they 
 may boast that the sun never sets upon their flag," 
 recalling Daniel Webster's : " Whose morning drum- 
 beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the 
 hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken 
 strain of the martial airs of England." 
 
 Mahan's father, Dennis Hart Mahan, graduated 
 head of his class at West Point in 1824 and practically 
 spent his life there. He was the author of a number 
 of text-books on Military Engineering, and died in 1871 
 after a distinguished career. His son records the fact 
 that the spirit of the profession was strong in him and 
 that he never knew a man of more strict and lofty 
 military ideas. The elder Mahan knew, personally, 
 nearly all the distinguished generals, both Confederate 
 and Northern, in the Civil War, for most of them had 
 been his pupils. 
 
 Young Mahan spent his boyhood at West Point, ^ 
 where amongst his earliest personal recollections were 
 the great Southern General Robert E. Lee, then Superin- 
 tendent of the Academy, and McClellan, at that time 
 a junior engineer officer. When he was twelve years 
 old his father sent him to a boarding-school at Hagers- 
 town, Maryland. At fourteen he entered Columbia 
 College, making his home with his uncle, the Rev. Milo 
 Mahan, who was then Professor of Ecclesiastical History 
 at the General Theological Seminary in New York, 
 and who strongly influenced his religious life. 
 
 He received his second name from General Sylvanus 
 Thayer of distinguished memory, whose monument 
 
 1 Lord Kitchener recommended the West Point MiUtary Academy 
 to the AustraUan authorities as a model for their new military college, 
 as ho considered it the best in the world. 
 
1856] CHOICE OF CAREER 5 
 
 at West- Point bears the inscription : " Father of the 
 United States Mihtary Academy." 
 
 As a boy he had revelled in stories of naval life, 
 including the reminiscences of naval officers, particularly 
 those which abounded in Colbourn's United Service 
 Magazine. This probably influenced him in choosing 
 a naval career, despite the disapproval of his father, 
 who felt that his son would succeed better in civil life. 
 With this Mahan himself agreed in after-life.^ His 
 father, however, did not wish to oppose his son arbitrarily 
 in his choice of a career, so he sent him to Washington 
 with letters of introduction to Jefferson Davis, then 
 Secretary of War, and other personal friends, with the 
 result that within a few months he was nominated 
 for an appointment at the Naval Academy at Annapolis 
 by Ambrose S. Murray, who represented in Congress 
 the West Point District. 
 
 On the way home from Washington Mahan visited 
 an old friend of the family in Philadelphia, who threw 
 cold water on his project, which he said he hoped would 
 fail, because he considered the Navy a profession with 
 little prospect, and proceeded to quote Dr. Johnson's 
 " No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough 
 to get himself into jail ; for being in a ship is being 
 in jail with the chance of being drowned." To this the 
 old gentleman added on his own account that in a ship- 
 of-war you ran the additional risk of being killed. 
 Somewhat disconcerting for the young Admiral-to-be ; 
 notwithstanding which on September 30, 1856, Alfred 
 Thayer Mahan was launched on his naval career as 
 acting midshipman a few days after his sixteenth 
 
 1 " My entrance into the Navy was greatly against my father's wish. 
 I do not remember all his argtmients, but he told me he thought me 
 much less fit for a military than for a civil profession, having watched 
 me carefully. I think myself now that he was right ; for, though I 
 have no cause to complain of unsuccess, I believe I should have done 
 better elsewhere." — From Sail to Steam. 
 
6 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT [chap, i 
 
 birthday, in accordance with the provisions of the 
 following letter of appointment : 
 
 " Navy Department, 
 
 " October 2, 1856. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " You are hereby appointed an Acting Midship- 
 man in the Navy of the United States from the 30th 
 September, 1856, to join the 3rd class. 
 
 " If, after the course of attendance at the Naval 
 Academy prescribed by the Revised Regulations 
 approved January 25th, 1855, you shall satisfactorily 
 pass the graduating examination, you will receive from 
 the Academic Board the ' Certificate of Graduation ' 
 referred to in the 5th section of the 6th Chapter of 
 the above Regulations, which shall entitle you to a 
 warrant as a Midshipman in the U.S. Navy, bearing the 
 date of the certificate. If, however, you shall fail to 
 obtain such certificate, you will be dropped from the 
 list. 
 
 " Enclosed is a copy of the requisite oath, which, 
 having taken and subscribed, you will transmit to the 
 Department with your letter of acceptance, in which 
 you will state your age. 
 
 " I am, respectfully, etc., 
 
 " Chas. Welsh, 
 " Acting Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 " Acting Midshipman Alfred Thayer Mahan, 
 of the 10th Congressional 
 District of New York, 
 " U.S. Naval Academy, AnnapoUs." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 EARLY NAVAL CAREER 
 
 Naval ScHool 
 F<randed October lOfb. 1845 
 
 JAMES K. POLK. 
 
 President of tHe U. States 
 
 GEO. BANCROFT. 
 
 Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 The original tablet commemorating 
 the founding of the Naval Academy. 
 
 The boy Mahan had not only absorbed the fascinating 
 sea-stories of Marryat and Fenimore Cooper, but had 
 studied them, moreover, with such appreciative intelli- 
 gence that on his arrival at the Naval Academy at An- 
 napolis he found himself in congenial surroundings and 
 a familiar atmosphere in the charming spot that a couple 
 of centuries ago was named in memory of good Queen 
 Anne, and which has since witnessed the sturdy develop- 
 ment of countless budding naval commanders destined 
 to handle the fighting ships of Uncle Sam's mighty fleet 
 now in process of rapid evolution.^ 
 
 Of the many fine buildings which add to the charm of 
 
 ^ The author has the very pleasantest recollections of the Naval 
 Academy, of its courteous Superintendent, Admiral Eberle, of Com- 
 mander Ravenscroft of the Naval Institute, the smart military bearing 
 of the cadets, and the beautiful grounds and noble buildings. Above 
 all, the Naval Academy impresses a visitor as an institution worthy in 
 spirit and proportion of the powerful Navy of which it is at once the 
 portent and the embryo. 
 
 7 
 
8 EARLY NAVAL CAREER [chap, ii 
 
 the Naval Academy, perhaps the most notable, with 
 the possible exception of the giant Bancroft Hall of 
 granite, capable of housing three thousand midshipmen, 
 is Mahan Hall, a picture of which is reproduced in this 
 chapter. It is dedicated to the memory of Admiral 
 Mahan, and in addition to an immense lecture-hall, 
 the ceilings and walls of which are adorned by trophies 
 captured at sea by the American Navy in bygone days, 
 it boasts on the upper floor a splendid naval library. 
 It is crowned by a clock tower in which the hours are 
 struck in " bells " as at sea. 
 
 Dr. Allan Westcott, of the United States Naval Aca- 
 demy, tells us in his admirable Mahan on Naval Warfare 
 that, in his last year at the Naval Academy, in a class 
 of twenty, Mahan stood first in seamanship, physics, 
 political science, and moral science, third in naval tactics 
 and gunnery, fourth in " steam engine," and fifth in 
 astronomy and navigation, and that the year before he 
 had excelled in physics, rhetoric, and Spanish. He was 
 then in his twentieth year. On this solid foundation, 
 aided by industry and natural gifts, he developed those 
 rare analytical powers which were to become so con- 
 spicuous a feature of his mental equipment in later years. 
 One of his class-mates became a lifelong friend. This 
 was the Hon. Samuel Ashe, LL.D., who is now Clerk 
 of the United States District Court at Raleigh, North 
 Carolina. In a description of early days at the Naval 
 Academy, contributed to the South Atlantic Quarterly^ 
 July 1919, under the title of Memories of Annapolis, 
 Mr. Ashe tells us : 
 
 " In 1856 Alfred Mahan entered my class — a year 
 advanced — and at once began to share its highest 
 honors. He was the most intellectual man I have ever 
 known. He had not only a remarkable memory but 
 also capacity to comprehend, and a clarity of perception 
 that rendered him distinguished among men of in- 
 telligence. He and I became affectionate friends, and 
 
.fMf! :aM. ■ 
 
1859] INTELLECTUAL AMBITIONS 9 
 
 our friendship lasted through hfe. We were corre- 
 spondents until his death — although in these later years 
 our letters were desultory. In the rotunda at Washing- 
 ton is a painting, the Landing of the Pilgrims. Miles 
 Standish's wife, Rose, is represented leaning over his 
 shoulder. Her face was painted from that of Admiral 
 Mahan when a boy, and it is a remarkable presentation 
 of his lineaments as he was when he entered the Academy. 
 " When we were starting on our cruise in the summer 
 of 1858 the subject of naval heroes came up ; and Mahan 
 mentioned to me that the day for gaining distinction 
 through feats of personal daring, as in the case of Decatur, 
 was passed, but that he proposed to win renown in his 
 profession through intellectual performance. He was 
 not apt as a sailor-man, for we boys were taught the 
 handiwork of seamen ; but he had another vision ; 
 and his subsequent career is a remarkable illustration 
 of the realisation of young dreams." 
 
 About this time Mahan was described as " very 
 good-looking and the smartest man in his class." 
 
 He spent three years at the Naval Academy, graduat- 
 ing second in his class in the summer of 1859. The 
 usual course was four years, but owing to his father's 
 skilful training he was able to jump the lowest class 
 and gain admittance to a class already a year in existence, 
 a feat which later on made for promotion, and was said 
 at the time to have been the only case of the kind on 
 record. He ascribed it partly to a morbid fondness 
 for registers and time-tables, which in this instance led 
 to the discovery that an appointee might enter any 
 class for which he could pass the examinations. Of 
 forty-nine in Class " 55 Date " but twenty graduated. 
 To the man who beat him for first place, William 
 Briggs Hall, was publicly presented a sword of honour 
 inscribed, " For the highest academic merit." This 
 doughty opponent, after resigning from the Navy and 
 fighting with the Confederate forces in the Civil War, 
 eventually became a Major of Engineers and Adjutant- 
 
10 EARLY NAVAL CAREER [chap, ii 
 
 General of the Egyptian forces, rendering conspicuous 
 service to the Khedive of Egypt, to whom he was 
 recommended by General Sherman. 
 
 Among those of Class " 55 Date " who survived the 
 hostilities of 1861 to 1865 may be found the names of 
 Admiral George Collier Remey, Admiral Norman 
 Farquhar, Commander Roderick McCook, and Com- 
 mander Samuel Dana Greene, the hero of the iron-clad 
 Monitor. 
 
 In his recollections of naval life, published in 1907 
 under the title of From Sail to Steam, Mahan lingers 
 with engaging touch on conditions of life at the Naval 
 Academy in those young days, and quaintly describes 
 his early experiences at sea, all of which were with 
 sailing-vessels. The practical knowledge thus gained 
 was of priceless value to him twenty years later in 
 analysing the details of the strategy and tactics employed 
 by Nelson and other famous commanders in the great 
 naval battles of the world. 
 
 He tells us, among other recollections, that hazing 
 was unknown in his day at the Naval Academy, being 
 looked down upon by the members of his class as 
 beneath the dignity of young naval gentlemen ; although, 
 after the war had removed the restraining influence 
 of the senior midshipmen, it became as unhappily 
 notorious as it was at the Military Academy. He 
 recounts, too, the transformation that has, since his 
 early days, taken place for the better in respect of 
 drinking habits in the Navy, due partly, among the 
 lower ranks at any rate, to the abolition of flogging 
 which occurred about 1849 ; and he picturesquely 
 describes the distinctive character of the snowy cotton 
 sails of American sailing-ships which, prior to the 
 Civil War, " literally whitened every sea." Mahan 
 deplored the possession of clumsy fingers. Beyond 
 a few elementary " bends," he never fathomed the 
 mysteries of knotting and splicing, and admitted that 
 
1860] REMINISCENCES 11 
 
 before such a masterpiece as a " turk's-head " he merely 
 bowed in reverence. 
 
 Among other comments of interest in his reminiscences 
 he states that, in his opinion, the critics who of late 
 years have called in question the accuracy of the usual 
 version of the attack at Trafalgar are mistaken, but 
 admits that their arguments may deserve some justifi- 
 cation by reason of the inexact nautical phraseology 
 of that day.' He gives a glowing description of the 
 magnificent comet of 1858, the hke of which astronomers 
 assert no human eye will behold for two thousand years 
 to come. Mahan confirms the impression that at the 
 opening of hostihties in 1861 the preservation of the 
 Union was the impelling motive of those who fought 
 for the North, the abolition of slavery being a secondary 
 issue, although the existence of slavery was no doubt 
 the primary cause of the war. Throughout his writings 
 he referred to the war between the North and South 
 as the War of Secession and not as the Civil War. 
 In the following words he affords us a glimpse of his 
 boyhood's home training on the slavery question : 
 
 " As my boyhood advanced the abolition movement 
 was gaining strength, to the great disapprobation and 
 dismay of my father, with his strong Southern and Union 
 sympathies. I remember that when Uncle Torri's 
 Cabin came out, in my twelfth year, the master of the 
 school I attended gave me a copy ; being himself, 
 I presume, one of the rising party adverse to slavery. 
 My father took it out of my hands, and I came to regard 
 it much as I would a bottle labelled ' Poison.' In 
 consequence I never read it in the days of its vogue, 
 and I have to admit that since then, in mature years, 
 I have not been able to continue it after beginning. 
 The same motives, in great part, led to my being sent 
 to a boarding-school in Maryland, near Hagerstown, 
 
 1 A comparatively modern topic for discussion in the light of the 
 divergence of opinion still existing between adherents of ^schylus 
 and Herodotus as to the details of the battle of Salamis, 480 B.C. 
 
12 EARLY NAVAL CAREER [chap, ii 
 
 which drew its pupils very largely, though not exclusively, 
 from the South. The environment would be upon the 
 whole Southern." 
 
 He throws a little sidelight into one aspect of his 
 mental personality by admitting that he agreed with 
 the wisdom of the adage, Never contrive an opportunity ; 
 his experience of life having justified him in awaiting 
 rather than contriving occasions. He also confesses to 
 a lifelong horror of keeping servants waiting, the outcome 
 of a realisation of the truth of the maxim that " punctu- 
 ality is the politeness of kings." He calls to mind the 
 curious fact that during his first year at the Academy 
 the United States Government began to coquette with 
 the title " Admiral," which at that time was supposed 
 to have some insidious connection with monarchical 
 institutions, as illustrated by the remonstrance of 
 a worthy member of his crew, who exclaimed : " Call 
 them Admirals ! Never ! They will be wanting to 
 be dukes next." Subsequently the Government com- 
 promised on " Flag-officer," an obvious misnomer. 
 Since that day, however, broadminded counsels have 
 prevailed, and to-day an Admiral is an Admiral in the 
 American Navy. 
 
 Mahan records his preference for Marryat as a naval 
 story-writer. He explains that Marryat had lived the 
 naval life as no other sea-author had, and consequently 
 his characters were true to life, whereas he found that 
 Fenimore Cooper caricatured rather than reproduced 
 Hfe. 
 
 In From Sail to Steam occurs one of the isolated 
 instances in which Mahan makes any reference to his 
 religious beliefs. In a description of the Jewish popula- 
 tion of Aden, he says : " I am without anti-Semitic 
 feeling. That Jesus Christ was a Jew covers His race 
 for me." Discussing the effects of climate and environ- 
 ment, he asks the debatable question : " Does beer 
 
1860] REMINISCENCES 13 
 
 taste as good in America as in England ? " and in reply 
 expresses the opinion, " I think not, unless perhaps in 
 Newport, Rhode Island." ^ 
 
 Referring to a native ceremony in Muscat and his 
 expected attendance with his Captain, there is a char- 
 acteristic touch of the real Mahan in his concluding 
 remark : " As it called for full uniform, I begged off." 
 Commenting upon his experiences in the East, he pays 
 this tribute to the beneficent influence of Great Britain 
 upon the destinies of mankind : 
 
 " An impression which accumulates upon the atten- 
 tive traveller following the main roads of maritime 
 commerce is the continual outcropping of the British 
 soldier. It is not that there is so much of him, but that 
 he is so manywhere : in our single voyage, at places 
 so apart as Cape Town, Aden, Bombay, Singapore, 
 Hong Kong. Although not on our route (nevertheless 
 linked to the four last named by the great ocean highway 
 between East and West, consecutive even in those 
 distant days before the Suez Canal), he was already in 
 force in Gibraltar and Malta ; since which he is to be 
 found in Cyprus also and in Egypt. He is no chance 
 phenomenon, but an obvious effect of a noteworthy 
 cause ; an incident of current history, the exponent, 
 unconsciously to himself, of many great events." 
 
 A significant prediction in the light of the glorious 
 part since played by British soldiers scattered throughout 
 the Eastern theatres of the Great War ! 
 
 Mahan described blockading in the Civil War as 
 desperately tedious work ; even the notorious tellers 
 of stories among the ship's company becoming ultimately 
 reduced to exhaustion and silence. In his reminiscences 
 he recounts a number of quaintly humorous nautical 
 
 "^ It is a somewhat curious coincidence that in letters to friends in 
 New York and elsewhere the author has often described Newport 
 as being more like England than any other place visited by him in 
 America. 
 
14 EARLY NAVAL CAREER [chap, ti 
 
 anecdotes, the following breezy ditty being a fairly 
 characteristic example of the type : 
 
 " One night came on a hurricane, 
 
 The sea was mountains roUing, 
 When Barney BuntUne turned his quid 
 
 And said to Billy Bowhne, 
 ' A strong nor'wester's blowing. Bill : 
 
 Hark ! don't you hear it roar now ? 
 Lord help them ! how I pities all 
 
 Unlucky folks on shore now. 
 
 " ' Foolliardy chaps, that live in towns. 
 
 What dangers they are all in ! 
 And now lie shaking in their beds. 
 
 For fear the roof should fall in ! 
 Poor creatures, how they envies us. 
 
 And wishes, I've a notion. 
 For our good luck, in such a storm. 
 
 To be upon the ocean. 
 
 " ' And often. Bill, I have been told 
 
 How folks are killed, and undone, 
 By overturns of carriages, 
 
 By fogs and fires in London. 
 We know what risks all landsmen run. 
 
 From noblemen to tailors ; 
 Then, Bill, let us thank Providence 
 
 That you and me are sailors.' " 
 
 Mahan and two of his intimate friends were fortunate 
 in having their applications for the sloop-of-war Levant 
 refused, as she never reached her destination, having 
 disappeared in the Pacific without leaving a trace — 
 one of the many mysteries of the deep. The three 
 chums were appointed to the frigate Congress, and in 
 the cruise which followed Mahan made his first personal 
 acquaintance with the coasts and waters of South 
 America and Africa. A few years later the Congress, 
 though a magnificent ship of her period, carrying 
 fifty guns and five hundred men, fell an easy victim 
 to the Confederate ironclad Merrimac. 
 
 Circumstances connected with the Civil War brought 
 rapid promotion, and in 1861, at twenty-one years of 
 
1861] "MYSTERY SHIP" PROPOSAL 15 
 
 age, Mahan was appointed lieutenant. The third 
 lieutenant of the Congress, expecting a command, 
 expressed a wish to have him as his first lieutenant, and 
 after a brief term of service on the James Adger, Mahan 
 found himself on board the Pocahontas of the South 
 Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and enjoyed his first 
 experience of active service in the expedition against 
 Port Royal, there receiving his baptism of fire from the 
 Confederate forts. Luckily the enemy's fire was high, 
 and although the Pocahontas did not escape damage, 
 none of her crew were injured. 
 
 While on board the James Adger Mahan seems to 
 have given the first official indication of the existence 
 of that characteristic of ingenuity which was the key 
 to the success of his treatment of naval history in days 
 to come. He was then twenty-one years old. The 
 dramatic part played by the mystery ships of the 
 British Navy in the recent hostilities adds peculiar 
 interest to the contents of the following letter, which 
 tells its own story and which the author is enabled to 
 reproduce through the courtesy of Mr. Franklin 
 Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy : ^ 
 
 " U.S. Steamer ' James Adger,' 
 " September 9, 1861, 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I hope you will overlook what may appear 
 like youthful presumption in addressing you on the 
 subject I wish to. 
 
 " The ravages of the pirate Sumter have reached 
 a pitch that, if long continued, will cast an undeserved 
 stigma upon the Navy. Her speed on the cruising- 
 ground she has chosen will always enable her to obtain 
 the twenty-four hours shelter granted by neutral powers, 
 and thus a chance of escape by night, which can only 
 be prevented by surrounding her with a chain of vessels 
 more numerous than our small Navy and extended 
 
 ^ From Officers^ Letters, September 1861, vol. i, p. 222. Printed in 
 3er. i, vol. i, p. 87, Official Records, Union and Confederate Navies. 
 
16 EARLY NAVAL CAREER [chap, ii 
 
 blockaded coast can at present allow us to devote to 
 this object. 
 
 " Can she not be decoyed under fire, or even boarded ? 
 A steamer cannot do this, for the smallness of the steam 
 mercantile marine would of itself render her liable to 
 suspicion. I have thought that a sailing vessel, such 
 as one of the lately confiscated rebel vessels, might be 
 equipped with a heavy pivot gun, and a light house 
 built over it, such as are often seen in merchant ships, 
 and which could not excite suspicion. Broadside guns 
 requiring ports would be incompatible with the end in 
 view. Man the ship with a hundred men — more if 
 necessary. Will there not be a probability of the 
 steamer approaching confidently, if to leeward, within 
 a distance to render boarding practicable ; if to 
 windward, so as possibly to be disabled or sunk with 
 your heavy gun ? 
 
 " Elaboration of detail would be misplaced here, 
 and I shall not attempt it. I am aware that the 
 disadvantages a sailing vessel labours under are great, 
 and my idea may appear rash or even hare-brained. 
 But suppose it fail, what is lost ? A useless ship, 
 a midshipman and a hundred men. If it succeed, 
 apart from the importance of the capture, look at the 
 prestige such an affair would give the service. 
 
 " Finally, if this is so fortunate as to meet your 
 approval and that of the Honourable Secretary, and 
 you should not wish to risk a better man, I beg to offer 
 myself to lead the enterprise. 
 
 " I am. Sir, very respectfully, 
 " Your obdt. Servant, 
 " Alfred T. Mahan, 
 
 " Midshipman, U.S.N. 
 " Capt. G. V. Fox, 
 
 " Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 
 " Washington, D.C." 
 
 There appears to be no record of the fate of this 
 creditable proposal, but its motive was evidently 
 a zealous regard for the prestige of his Navy, and its 
 merit is enhanced by the pluck and modesty of the 
 
1863] ACTIVE SERVICE 17 
 
 closing words, " and you should not wish to risk a 
 better man, I beg to offer myself to lead the enterprise." 
 
 When the Pocahontas came rjorth for repairs, Mahan, 
 after eight months at the Naval Academy, which had then 
 been temporarily transferred to Newport, was appointed 
 first lieutenant of the Macedonian, which was just 
 leaving for a summer practice cruise in Europe, number- 
 ing among her lieutenants a young man who, as Admiral 
 Sampson, later achieved national fame in the Spanish- 
 American war, and of whom Mahan in 1902 wrote a 
 biographical sketch which appears in the collection of 
 magazine articles published under the title of Retrospect 
 and Prospect. She also carried as a lieutenant a scion 
 of the royal house of Orleans, whose English was more 
 or less indifferent, Mahan' s inspection of the log one day 
 disclosing, as the young duke's first effort, the entry : 
 " The weather was a dirty one." 
 
 On the return from this cruise Mahan was ordered to 
 the Seminole, which joined the West Gulf Blockading 
 Squadron at Sabine Pass, application for service aboard 
 the Monongahela having been refused in favour of 
 a class-mate who was killed a few months later in the 
 passage of the Mobile forts. Of this incident Mahan 
 has said : "I can scarcely claim a miraculous escape, 
 but for him, poor fellow ! the commander's refusal was 
 a sentence of death." Mahan was on the staff of the 
 Commander-in-Chief of the South Atlantic Blockading 
 Squadron, Admiral Dahlgren, on the James Adger, when 
 the Admiral at last entered Charleston Harbour, which 
 had so long resisted capture. He was also present at 
 the meeting of all the general officers who had shared 
 in Sherman's March to the Sea. 
 
 When the war ended, Mahan found that he had 
 saved five hundred dollars of his pay, and hearing 
 that many naval officers in the South were in need, 
 the outcome of hostilities, he sent the money to a 
 friend to be used for their benefit, a supremely 
 
18 EARLY NAVAL CAREER [chap, ii 
 
 generous impulse the nobility of which no words 
 can enhance, for it was his all. It recalls Rocham- 
 beau's friendly loan to Cornwallis after Yorktown, 
 when de Grasse's effective blockade had not only 
 deprived the British Commander of the all-essential 
 men and supplies, but had left him without personal 
 resources. 
 
 During his next term of service, which was on board 
 the Muscoota, Mahan contracted a severe attack of 
 tropical fever from the effects of which he suffered for 
 many a long day. In 1865 he was promoted lieutenant- 
 commander, and after a year's ordnance duty in Wash- 
 ington Navy Yard, left for the Asiatic Station on the 
 steam-sloop Iroquois and enjoyed his first acquaintance 
 with China, Japan, and the Far East. He was present 
 at the opening of the new treaty ports, Kobe and Osaka, 
 and records that even at this late date, 1868, the decree 
 against the practice of Christianity by the natives was 
 reissued : " Hitherto the Christian religion has been 
 forbidden, and the order must be strictly kept. The 
 corrupt religion is strictly forbidden." This visit to 
 Japan was as an unknown naval officer twenty-seven 
 years of age. Twenty-five years later the skilful and 
 intrepid mariners of the Flowery Kingdom were 
 imbibing principles of naval strategy from his works 
 which had been studiously translated into the Japanese 
 language, and a picturesque part of the hills near Kobe 
 was known as " Mahan' s Valley." 
 
 After another unfortunate illness at Nagasaki, probably 
 a return of the fever contracted in Haiti, Mahan com- 
 manded the gunboat Aroostook, which was eventually 
 sold. Being thus relieved of his command, he returned 
 to the United States by way of Suez, crossing India 
 from Calcutta to Bombay and visiting, among many other 
 interesting spots, the historic ruins of Lucknow. Next 
 followed six months' enjoyable leave in Europe, and as 
 this period embraces one of the critical turning-points 
 
1870] THE AWAKENING 19 
 
 in his career, its recital shall be given in his own 
 words : 
 
 " The year 1870, in which I returned home, was one 
 of marked and decisive influence upon history, and 
 in a way a turning-point in my own obscure career. 
 As in February I witnessed the splendors of the papal 
 city under its old regime, so in April and May I saw 
 imperial Paris brilliant under the Emperor. In the 
 one case as in the other, I was unconscious of the 
 approaching debacle ; a blindness, I presume, shared 
 by most contemporaries. 
 
 " Whatever the wiser and more far-seeing might have 
 prophesied as to the general ultimate issues, few or none 
 could have foretold the particular occasion which so 
 soon afterwards opened the flood-gates. As the old 
 passed, with the downfall of the French Empire and of 
 the temporal kingdom,* there arose a new ; not merely 
 the German Empire and the unity of Italy, crowned 
 by the possession of its historic capital, but, unrecognised 
 for the moment, then came in that reign of organised 
 and disciplined force, the full effect and function of 
 which in the future men still only dimly discern. 
 
 " The successive rapid overthrows of the Austrian 
 
 1 " Landing at Marseilles, I found that intimate friends were then 
 at Nice. I accordingly went there, instead of to Paris, as I had 
 intended ; and, like thoughtless young men everywhere, abandoned 
 myself to pleasant society instead of to self-improvement by travel. 
 My purpose, however, continually was to go directly to Paris when 
 I did leave Nice, for my time was limited ; but a middle-aged friend 
 strongly dissuaded me. ' You should by no means fail to visit Rome 
 now,' he said, ' for, independently of the immortal interest of the 
 pla<;e, of the treasures of association and of art which are its imperish- 
 able birthright, there is the more transient spectacle of the Papacy, 
 in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of the temporal power. This 
 may at any moment pass away, and you therefore may never have 
 another opportunity to witness it in its glory. There is a vague 
 traditional prophecy that, as St. Peter held the bishopric of Rome 
 twenty-five years, any pope whose tenure exceeds his will see the 
 downfall of the papal sovereignty over Rome. Such prophecies often 
 insiu-e their own fulfilment, and Pius IX is now closely approaching 
 his twenty-fifth year. Go while you can.' So I went, in February, 
 1870 ; and before the next winter's snow the temporal power was a 
 thing of the past." — From Sail to Steam. 
 3 
 
20 EARLY NAVAL CAREER [chap, ii 
 
 and French Empires by military efficiency and skill; 
 the beating in detail two separate foes who, united, 
 might have been too strong for the victor ; the con- 
 sequent crumbling of the papal monarchy when French 
 support was withdrawn, following closely on the Vatican 
 Decree of Infallibility ; these things produced an 
 impression which was transmitted rapidly throughout 
 the world of European civilisation, till in the Farther 
 East it reached Japan. 
 
 " Into the current thus established the petty stream 
 of my own fortunes was drawn, little anticipated by 
 myself. To it was due my special call ; for by it was 
 created the predisposition to recognise the momentous 
 bearing of maritime force upon the course of history, 
 which insured me a hearing when the fulness of my 
 time was come." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE INSPIRATION 
 
 " Into each one of us who are born into this world, God has put 
 something of Himself, and by reason of this Divine part all things are 
 possible. Men do not realise the power within them, for man is a 
 selfish creature, and self is always grossly blind. But let a man look 
 within himself, let him but become convinced of this Divine power, 
 and the sure and certain knowledge of ultimate success will be his. 
 So, striving diligently, this power shall grow within him, and bye-and- 
 bye he shall achieve great things, and the world proclaim him a genius." 
 — Jeffery Faenol. 
 
 The apathy with which the Navy was regarded by the 
 people of the United States after the cessation of 
 hostihties in 1865 and the consequent inaction in naval 
 affairs had, like so many other evils, at least one influence 
 for good. It gave Mahan, after his return from sea in 
 1870, several years of comparative leisure, the most 
 priceless advantage that can fall to the lot of a man of 
 letters — leisure to read, leisure to think, leisure to 
 write. Multi-blessed, heaven-sent gift of leisure ! 
 
 From 1870 to 1872, in which year he was promoted 
 Commander, he was employed from time to time at the 
 Navy Yard in New York and elsewhere, and after 
 commanding the Wasp in the River Plate he had 
 intervals of shore duty in the Naval Academy and in 
 the Navy Yards at Boston and New York, until 1883, 
 bringing this period of his career to a close two years 
 later in commanding the steam-sloop Wachusett of the 
 South Pacific Squadron. 
 
 On June 11, 1872, Mahan married Miss Ellen Lyle 
 Evans, eldest daughter of Mr. Manlius Glendower 
 
 21 
 
22 THE INSPIRATION [chap, hi 
 
 Evans of Philadelphia. Admiral Stockton, in a tribute 
 to his old friend, says that only the members of Mahan's 
 family and those who were admitted to his intimate 
 friendship knew how rich, close, and interdependent 
 this joint life became and continued to the end. 
 
 It is with profound diffidence that the pen is dipped 
 into the current of a man's private life. In the case 
 of Mahan, however, it is not a difficult task, for his 
 career was, both at home and abroad, an open book, 
 and there is not lacking ample evidence that in his 
 personal relations he at all times fulfilled the highest 
 ideals of American family life. 
 
 Whatever may have been the material source of 
 inspiration which ultimately evolved the Sea Power 
 masterpieces, there is good reason to believe that the 
 world owes much to Mrs. Mahan's encouragement of 
 her husband's efforts, her invaluable assistance in 
 transcribing his MSS. into typewritten sheets, and her 
 persistent advocacy of the publication of his lectures 
 in book form. 
 
 Two daughters and one son were born to them, 
 Ellen Evans Mahan in 1873 at Montevideo, Helen 
 Kuhn Mahan in 1877, and Lyle Evans Mahan, 1881, 
 who married Miss Madeleine Johnson. Their son 
 Alfred Thayer Mahan perpetuates the great name 
 his grandfather bore, and his father, Mr. Lyle 
 Evans Mahan, recounts that as a child he was 
 the only member of the family who presumed to take 
 liberties with the Admiral, who was devoted to his 
 grandson and spent much of his time amusing him. 
 A photograph of the two Alfred Thayer Mahans enjoying 
 themselves together is reproduced in Chapter XXV. 
 
 Mahan had three sisters and two brothers, both of 
 the latter of whom entered the service of the United 
 States, Commodore Dennis Hart Mahan in the Navy 
 and Major Frederick Mahan in the U.S. Corps of 
 Engineers. His sister Mary died in 1891. During 
 
1883] HIS HAPPY FAMILY LIFE 23 
 
 his early years at sea he was wont ta write his sister 
 Miss Jane Leigh Mahan, who now Hves in New York, 
 long and interesting letters descriptive of the foreign 
 ports at which he was stationed or which he visited 
 on his way from one country to another. 
 
 It is characteristic of his strong natural inclination 
 towards reticence about himself and his personal affairs 
 that none of his books, not even the biographical sketch 
 From Sail to Steam, contain any references to his family. 
 In his private correspondence with his friend Sir Bouverie 
 Clark, however, he often referred to his happy life, and 
 in one letter he says : " No man can have had a much 
 happier life than I." 
 
 The first book to have a decided influence on his 
 future career was Napier's Peninsular War, which he 
 studied while on shore duty in the early eighties, and 
 he has left on record this description of the event : 
 
 " During my last tour of shore duty I had read 
 carefully Napier's Peninsular War, and had found myself 
 in a new world of thought, keenly interested and 
 appreciative, less of the brilliant ? narrative — though 
 that few can fail to enjoy — than of the military sequences 
 of cause and effect. The influence of Sir John Moore's 
 famous march to Sahagun — less famous than it deserves 
 to be — upon Napoleon's campaign in Spain, revealed 
 to me by Napier like the sun breaking through a cloud, 
 aroused an emotion as joyful as the luminary himself 
 to a navigator doubtful of his position." 
 
 I'rom this time onward, military ideas seem to have 
 taken possession of his mind. In 1883 he wrote, by 
 request, a short history of the naval operations in the 
 Civil War. This was published under the title of The 
 Gulf and Inland Waters, and as a first attempt at author- 
 ship 1 was regarded by the Navy and by the literary 
 critics as a very creditable performance, though unavoid- 
 
 1 With the exception of a prize essay written for the Naval Insti- 
 tute in 1878. 
 
24 THE INSPIRATION [chap, hi 
 
 ably limited in scope as compared with his subsequent 
 masterpieces. 
 
 Loyall Farragut, son of the distinguished Admiral, 
 wrote to Mahan on July 6, 1883 : "I have read your 
 book with much pleasure and consider that you have 
 been fair with all hands." And the following letter 
 came from Samuel Dana Greene, a member of Class 
 " 55 Date " : 
 
 " Washington, D.C, 
 
 " June 23, 1883. 
 
 " My dear Mahan, 
 
 " I have read your book carefully, with great 
 interest, and I trust with profit. 
 
 " You have told your story wonderfully well, and I 
 believe that its success is assured, and that such will 
 be the verdict of all fair-minded men. 
 
 " As my classmate, I congratulate you most sincerely 
 upon your good work. You are most fortunate, in 
 condensing so big a story into such a small space and 
 yet in having said all that was necessary, to give a clear 
 and distinct idea of the work that your book covers. 
 
 " Again I congratulate you most cordially. 
 
 " S. D. Greene." 
 
 The Army and Navy Journal of July 1883 had this 
 to say of it : 
 
 " In conscientious industry of preparation, in grasp 
 of his subject and general coup d'ceil, in careful finish 
 of details, and in frankness and general fairness of 
 criticism, the author leaves nothing to be desired. He 
 follows the approved methods of students and historians, 
 and his narrative is throughout picturesque and instruc- 
 tive." 
 
 A change in naval policy came in President Arthur's 
 administration while Mr. Chandler was Secretary of 
 the Navy, and among other activities to their credit 
 was the establishment of the Naval War College at 
 Newport, the first President of which, Admiral Luce, 
 
1884] ADMIRAL LUCE'S INVITATION 25 
 
 wrote to Mahan, who was then in command of the 
 Wachusett, inviting him to become one of the staff 
 of instructors and undertake the subjects of naval 
 history and naval tactics. 
 
 Mahan received the letter far away in tropical South 
 America, thousands of miles from Newport. In Lima, 
 Peru, in the library of the little English Club which 
 extended its hospitalities to visiting American naval 
 officers, he found Mommsen's History of Rome, intelligent 
 examination of which opened his eyes to the advantages 
 lost by Hannibal through his inability to use the sea 
 effectively in his great campaigns against the Romans. 
 This clue he followed up vigorously, and in his own 
 words tells us : 
 
 " While my problem was still wrestling with my 
 brain there dawned upon me one of those concrete 
 perceptions which turn inward darkness into light — 
 give substance to shadow. He who seeks finds, 
 if he does not lose heart ; and to me, continuously 
 seeking, came from within the suggestion that control 
 of the sea was an historic factor which had never been 
 systematically appreciated and expounded. Once 
 formulated consciously, this thought became the nucleus 
 of all my writing for twenty years then to come." 
 
 Admiral Luce's invitation was accepted with avidity, 
 not only because Mahan was glad to get away from the 
 Pacific station, but because the work strongly appealed 
 to his imagination, and whilst he felt he was not qualified 
 to undertake it without abundant research and earnest 
 preparation, he took courage from the recollection that 
 at the Military Academy his father had successfully 
 overcome similar obstacles. He has recorded his 
 gratitude to the " Father of the Naval War College," 
 Admiral Luce, for having placed him on the road which 
 led directly to his later successes, which may be 
 considered the more remarkable in view of the fact 
 that at forty-five years of age not only was his knowledge 
 
26 THE INSPIRATION [chap, hi 
 
 of military and naval history decidedly limited, but he 
 was, strange to say, one of those who held the erroneous 
 impression that the naval history of bygone days was 
 of little or no value for the study of naval strategy 
 in the present era of long-range guns and speedy iron- 
 clad ships — an impression shared by most of his naval 
 friends. A notable exception to the contrary, however, 
 was Admiral Sir Geoffrey Hornby, of the British Navy, 
 who vigorously counselled exhaustive study of the 
 naval history of the past. 
 
 Mahan thus quaintly describes his own state of 
 mind at this period of his career : 
 
 " With little constitutional initiative, and having 
 grown up in an atmosphere of the simple cruiser, of 
 commerce-destroying, defensive warfare and indiffer- 
 ence to battleships ; an anti-imperialist, who for that 
 reason looked upon Mr. Blaine as a dangerous man; 
 at forty-five I was drifting on the lines of simple 
 respectability as aimlessly as one well could — my 
 environment had been too much for me ; my present 
 call changed it." 
 
 By the time Mahan reached home the plan he had 
 formed was this : he would estabhsh the hitherto 
 little realised influence of the sea on the destinies of 
 nations, and base his demonstrations on the facts of 
 history, both general and naval, covering the period 
 of the preceding two hundred years. 
 
 An exhaustive course of naval and historical research 
 followed. Masters of strategy were explored, among 
 others Napoleon, Jomini,i and Hamley. There is 
 apparently no record that he studied Clausewitz, that 
 prolific exponent of the science of war, to whom the 
 Germans owe so much of their strength and their 
 weaknesses. Unfortunately the immense advantage 
 of such modern works as those of Laughton and Colomb 
 
 1 Mahan named hia favourite dog Jomini. 
 
1884] THE INFLUENCE OF JOMINI 27 
 
 was denied him, and he had to rely at first on old writers, 
 such as Campbell, James, La Perouse-Bonfils, Chevalier, 
 and innumerable others. Henri Martin's History of 
 France was invaluable in awakening in him a realisation 
 of the momentous national import of a sound commercial 
 and maritime policy, especially under the skilful guid- 
 ance of such a master as Colbert, France's famous 
 minister who has been aptly described as " possessed 
 of a matchless faculty for work, neither shrinking from 
 the vastest undertakings nor scorning the most trivial 
 details." 
 
 The evolution of Mahan's wonderful command of 
 the subject he has made essentially his own, "Sea Power," 
 owed much to the researches he made at this time 
 in the almost inexhaustible mass of trade statistics of 
 days gone by, his object being to master the intricacies 
 of the relations between the navy and commerce, and 
 between land power and sea power. To this he was 
 instigated in the first instance by Henri Martin's inter- 
 esting account of the manipulation of trade by Colbert. 
 
 Mommsen's History of Rome had set Mahan thinking 
 about the historical influence of sea power, but it was 
 by Jomini that he was encouraged to make a critical 
 analysis of the great naval campaigns and conclusive 
 battles of the world. From Napoleon and from Jomini 
 he learned the living principles of strategy and the close 
 relation in warfare between the Statesman and the 
 General ; and upon these foundations he set himself 
 to prove to the world how stupendous an influence 
 upon the destinies of nations had been, for centuries, 
 the military and commercial control of the sea. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE 
 
 " If with the study of military science the naval student carries on 
 a parallel coiirse of naval history, he will be enabled to group together 
 in an intelligent manner certain classes of facts, by the generalisation 
 of which he may formulate for himself principles for his guidance as 
 the commander of a sea-army preparatory to and during war. Thus 
 he will have raised naval warfare under steam from the empirical stage 
 to the dignity of a science. To conduct the study of naval warfare 
 by this method will be the work of the War College." — Admibal 
 Stephen B. Luce, U.S. Navy. 
 
 One lesson learned from the Civil War was the imperative 
 need of a Naval College capable of training staff officers 
 to become so highly proficient in every phase and detail 
 of the science of war as to be qualified to furnish instantly 
 to the Navy Department the requisite technical informa- 
 tion, and to carry out effectively the strategy determined 
 by the civilian head of the department under their 
 advice. 
 
 To the foresight and indefatigable energies of Admiral 
 Luce ^ are due the inception of the plan, the initial 
 foundation of the United States Naval War College, 
 and much of its success for the first twenty-five years 
 of its existence. He was indeed a tower of strength 
 and justly entitled to be known to future generations 
 as the Father of the Naval War College, the original 
 idea of which came to him as the result of a conversa- 
 tion with General Sherman during the Civil War. 
 
 ^ The eventful career of this strenuous veteran, to whom the officers 
 of the United States Navy owe so much, came to a close at Newport 
 in 1917 in his ninety-first year, 
 
 28 
 
ADMIRAL STEPHEN B. LUCE, UNITEB STATES NAVY. 
 
 28] 
 
1884] MAHAN ACCEPTS 29 
 
 Owing to almost incredible opposition on the part, 
 strange to say, of naval officers of influence in the service, 
 twenty years were consumed in bringing his idea to 
 fruition. 
 
 The Navy Department appointed as the first Board 
 of Control, Commodore Stephen B. Luce, Commander 
 William T. Sampson, and Lieutenant- Commander Caspar 
 F. Goodrich, who as Admiral Goodrich was in later years 
 President of the College. Admiral Porter and Admiral 
 Walker, among others, proved themselves strong friends 
 in the early struggles for existence, which opened in a 
 building, once an almshouse, in the grounds of the United 
 States Naval Training Station, on Coaster's Harbour 
 Island in Narragansett Bay. 
 
 The following extracts from the History of the United 
 States Naval War College describe Mahan's acceptance 
 of Admiral Luce's invitation and his arrival at the War 
 College : 
 
 " Among the first selected was Captain Mahan, 
 already recognised as a scholarly officer, and the author 
 of a volume on the Navy in the Civil War entitled 
 2%e Gulf and Inland Waters, but whose genius was not 
 then suspected by anyone, and least of all, we may 
 suppose, by himself. Mahan was in command of the 
 U.S.S. Wachusett on the Pacific Station, and replied 
 as follows : 
 
 " ' U.S.S. " Wachusett," Guayaquil, 
 " 'September 4, 1884. 
 
 " ' I should like the position — like it probably very 
 much. I believe I have the capacity and perhaps some 
 inherited aptitude for the particular study ; but I do 
 not, on questioning myself, find that now I have the 
 special accurate knowledge that I should think necessary. 
 I fear you give me credit for knowing more than I do, 
 and having given a special attention to the subject 
 which I have not. 
 
 " ' I take it the subject proposed to me involves an 
 amount of historical narrative, especially directed 
 
30 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE [chap, iv 
 
 toward showing the causes of failure and success, and 
 thus enforcing certain general principles. Whether 
 to this is to be added any attempt at evolving systems 
 of tactics applicable to modern naval warfare, I don't 
 understand ; but I suppose by naval tactics you 
 scarcely mean a reproduction of Parker. Taking 
 simply the first subject, as I turn over in my mind 
 the naval battles, and naval and mixed expeditions, 
 scattered through history, and think how little I know 
 about them in detail, the work assumes very great 
 proportions. To look up the authorities, master them, 
 and digest and arrange the material thus acquired, 
 bring together examples illustrating the same lessons, 
 above all the criticism, every one of these steps is big. 
 Yet, if I rightly understand the subject, no less could 
 be considered adequate treatment. And then how 
 large a mass must be gone through and in the end 
 found useless. ... As to preparation here on board 
 ship it is impossible. I have looked through the 
 [ship's] library and find little material and less that 
 is first-rate. I can go through it all in a few weeks. 
 Besides, I should have to give my whole mind to the 
 matter, which in command [of a ship] is impossible. 
 No man is less able to serve two masters. . . . My 
 reply to you then is " yes " — I should like to come, if, 
 after reading my letter, you still wish it. Indeed 
 I don't think I would be right in refusing to help in 
 a new, difficult, and most needful work, if, in the judgment 
 of others, I can be useful. Meantime, ... I will work 
 up what is at hand as though the matter were settled.' 
 
 " The Advent of Captain Mahan 
 
 " This modest but carefully self-appraising letter from 
 Captain Mahan is the first link between the College 
 and the man, later to be so closely identified. The 
 College gave Captain Mahan his opportunity, and the 
 genius of Captain Mahan reflected honor on the 
 College. The needs of the College for text-books 
 produced Captain Mahan' s Influence of Sea Power on 
 History , which brought fame to him, and by | some 
 was credited with saving the College. However this 
 
1885] ARRIVAL AT WAR COLLEGE 31 
 
 may be, it is certain that Captain Mahan's Sea Power y 
 produced by the necessities of the College, gained 
 earlier and more extensive recognition than the College. 
 Captain Mahan has generously recorded his debt to 
 the College for furnishing him the opportunity, and his 
 personal appreciation of Admiral Luce, through whose 
 efforts the great opportunity came." 
 
 Mahan was assigned to the Naval War College in 1885, 
 and a recital of the acts of petty ofiicial opposition from 
 which it suffered for some years thereafter would be 
 humorous were it not pathetic. It is hardly possible 
 after examining the archives to escape the conviction 
 that, at this particular period, jealousy was one of the 
 besetting sins of some of the higher officers of the 
 American Navy, and undoubtedly Mahan suffered 
 in no small measure from the effects of that malign 
 influence which blindfolds the intellect and closes 
 the door of the heart. At the present day, when 
 hundreds of millions of dollars are cheerfully voted by 
 Congress for naval requirements, it is difficult if not 
 impossible to realise the pitiful expedients to which 
 Mahan was driven, to keep the War College alive in 
 the absence of Admiral Luce, who was at this time 
 appointed to the command of the North Atlantic Fleet. 
 In 1887 a miserable appropriation of $8,000 was refused, 
 and, in their extremity, he and his friends resorted 
 to the sale of odd bits of material left over from some 
 previous repairs to the building. These they collected 
 and disposed of for about a hundred dollars, which they 
 expended in maintenance from day to day. It was 
 only by an oversight in the Department which gave 
 the requisite authority that some coal for heating 
 the building in the winter was put in the cellars before 
 it was discovered that there was no appropriation for 
 it! 
 
 There was but one lamp 1 Picture to yourself, therefore, 
 the spectacle of the coming international naval authority 
 
32 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE [chap, iv 
 
 groping his way from room to room by the aid of this 
 soHtary Hght in company with his colleague Captain 
 Tasker Bhss, since Chief of the Staff of the armies of 
 the United States and representative of America on 
 the Allied War Council in Paris. 
 
 With the assistance of an enthusiastic friend, Captain 
 McCarty Little, who subsequently devoted over a 
 quarter of a century to the College and whose skill 
 and enthusiasm contributed in great measure to the 
 success of the famous war games, the necessary maps 
 for the lectures were devised, the lonely lamp again 
 fitfully shedding its sympathetic rays on their evening 
 handiwork. Battle plans, too, with ships-of-war cut 
 out of cardboard appropriately coloured to represent 
 the opposing fleets and ready for instant manoeuvring, 
 were specially evolved by Mahan for the purpose of 
 demonstration. Among others who contributed to the 
 excellent series of lectures which distinguished the 
 second season of the College were Professor Soley, 
 afterwards Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and 
 Captain Tasker Bliss. 
 
 The United States Naval Training Station considered 
 the College an intruder on its grounds and hotly resented 
 its presence there. In From Sail to Steam Mahan has 
 in these words perpetuated the memory of Captain 
 Arthur Yates, who, as aide to Admiral Farragut, had 
 taken part in the battle of Mobile Bay : 
 
 " One most alleviating circumstance was the 
 commandant of the training station, the local enemy, 
 one of the born saints of the earth, Arthur Yates. 
 Officially, of course he disapproved of us ; professional 
 self-respect and precedent, bureau allegiance, and all 
 the rest of it, were outraged ; but when it came to 
 deeds, Yates could not have imagined an unkind act, 
 much less done it. Nor did he stop there ; good-will 
 with him was not a negative but an active quality. 
 What we wanted he would always do, and then go 
 
1888] SECRETARY WHITNEY'S ORDER 33 
 
 one better, if he could find a way to add to our conveni- 
 ence ; and when we ultimately came to grief, after his 
 departure, he wrote me a letter of condolence." 
 
 The prevailing trend of opinion as to the value of 
 the past as a guide for present and future naval strategy 
 is aptly reflected in this recollection of Mahan's in 
 From Sail to Steam : 
 
 " I well recall, during my first term at the College, 
 a visit from a reporter of one of the principal New 
 York journals. He was a man of rotund presence, 
 florid face, thrown-back head, and flowing hair, with 
 all that magisterial condescension which the environ- 
 ment of the Fourth Estate nourishes in its fortunate 
 members ; the Roman citizen was ' not in it ' for 
 birthright. To my bad luck a plan of Trafalgar hung 
 in evidence, as he stalked from room to room. ' Ah,' 
 he said, with superb up-to-date pity, ' you are still 
 talking about Trafalgar ' ; and I could see that Trafalgar 
 and I were thenceforth on the top shelf of fossils in 
 the collections of his memory." 
 
 The short-sighted opposition to the College at that 
 time doubtless had its origin in politics, and it is now 
 hard to realise that it emanated from such men as 
 Mr. Whitney, then Secretary of the Navy, and Mr. 
 Herbert, Chairman of the House Naval Committee ; 
 but it is only fair to record that Mr. Herbert, as Secretary 
 of the Navy, in later years learned to recognise the 
 importance of the College. 
 
 The climax of their difficulties came in 1888, when, 
 after successfully obtaining from Congress an appropria- 
 tion of ten thousand dollars, against strong official 
 opposition, they received their knockout blow through 
 an order from Secretary Whitney depriving the 
 College of its building and placing it under the 
 Commander of the Torpedo Station on another island, 
 thus practically destroying for the time being its 
 independent existence, to which, however, it was for- 
 
34 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE [chap, iv 
 
 tunately restored in the next administration by Secretary 
 Tracy, whose sagacity saved the situation. An appro- 
 priation of one hundred thousand dollars for a building 
 sealed its destiny as a permanent institution, for the 
 ultimate establishment of which the nation owes a debt 
 of gratitude to the efforts of Alfred Thayer Mahan, 
 whose pluck and perseverance saved it from extinction 
 in the early days of its spasmodic career. 
 
 Mahan was again to save the College in a still more 
 dramatic manner some five years later. In August 
 1893 Secretary Herbert left Washington on board the 
 Dolphin to visit Newport with the intention of abolishing 
 the War College. Through the instrumentality of 
 Captain McCalla, a good friend of the College, Mr. 
 Herbert's attention was adroitly drawn by the Com- 
 mander of the Dolphin, Lieutenant Buckingham, to 
 Mahan' s recently published Influence of Sea Power 
 upon the French Revolution and Empire, with the result 
 that Mr. Herbert, on the return voyage to Washington, 
 told Lieutenant Buckingham that although he had 
 meant to break up the War College, he considered 
 Mahan' s book alone worth all the money that was being 
 spent on it, and that he intended to do all he could to 
 assist it. Thus did Mahan for the second time save the 
 College from extinction, and he had the gratification of 
 receiving the following letter from Mr. Herbert : 
 
 Captain A. T. Mahan, 
 
 "U.S.S. Chicaao. 
 
 " Navy Depaetment, Washington, 
 " October 4, 1893. 
 
 " My dear Captain, 
 
 " Permit me to thank you for your kind letter, 
 and to tell you of my change of opinion as to the War 
 College, after inspecting the War College building 
 personally, and carefully reading the two articles by 
 you upon the subject, and also your two volumes upon 
 The Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolution. 
 
1888] OFFICIAL RECOGNITION 35 
 
 " In my opinion, you deserve all the encomiums of 
 the British and American Press for this great work. 
 Aside from your masterly illustration- of the influence 
 of England's sea power in bringing about the defeat 
 of Napoleon and his schemes, I look upon your work 
 as by far the ablest history I have ever read of the 
 epoch from 1792 to 1812. 
 
 " Your vindication of the wisdom of Mr. Pitt's policy 
 is complete, and although I have not read even a 
 modicum of what has been written upon the subject, 
 yet I make no doubt you present the most comprehen- 
 sive view possible to be taken of the era within the 
 limits you have allowed yourself in your work. 
 
 " You have conferred great honor, not only upon 
 the American Navy, but also upon your country. 
 I have also run over your first volume, and am particu- 
 larly struck with your citations from history of the 
 comparatively little effect of commerce destroyers in 
 bringing the war to a successful conclusion, and expect 
 to use in my forthcoming report the information you 
 have therein set forth in my arguments for the building 
 of battleships. 
 
 "So far I have been so very much occupied with 
 other matters that I have not been able to bestow 
 much attention upon the reorganisation of the War 
 College. I shall take this matter in hand soon, and bear 
 in mind your commendation of Commander Taylor. 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " Hilary A. Herbert." 
 
 Commander H. C. Taylor was duly appointed President 
 and became a stalwart champion of the College, the 
 recognised importance of which at the present day is 
 such that aspirants for high command in the great 
 American fleet of the future will find themselves seriously 
 handicapped unless they have availed themselves of the 
 priceless and indispensable advantages it offers.^ 
 
 1 The writer takes this opportunity of expressing his warm thanks 
 to Admiral Oman, Commandant of the District, to Commodore Parker, 
 President of the War College, and to Dr. Edwin Wiley, the Librarian, 
 for their many courtesies, and for extending to him the privileges of 
 
 4, 
 
36 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE [chap, iv 
 
 As those whose hostihty nearly wrecked the Naval 
 War College have gone to their long rest, it may be 
 permissible to record that its history from 1884 to 1896 
 was a series of conflicts between two bodies of officers, 
 one intent on establishing the College and the other 
 determined upon its destruction. Three times these 
 marplots nearly succeeded. Twice it was saved by 
 Mahan and once by the patience and diplomacy of 
 Commander Taylor. The Navy as a whole in those 
 days was cold and indifferent towards it and sceptical 
 as to its value, owing partly to ignorance and partly 
 to prejudice. Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, who, as Assistant 
 Secretary of the Navy, did so much towards preparing 
 the Navy for its good work in the Spanish- American 
 war and whose history of the war of 1812 is highly 
 thought of, was always a stalwart friend to the College. 
 
 Under the enthusiastic support and encouragement 
 of Secretary Daniels the College has grown and prospered, 
 until at the time of the declaration of war in 1917 it 
 was a mighty influence for good. Some fifty student- 
 officers of the higher grades were pursuing a twelve- 
 months' course and four hundred and fifty naval officers 
 of various grades were enjoying the immense advantage 
 of a correspondence course. No one perhaps of recent 
 years has contributed more than Admiral Knight to the 
 success of these studies, the object of which is not, as 
 is sometimes erroneously assumed, to provide a post- 
 graduate course of technical naval instruction. The 
 College exists for the definite and specific purpose of 
 qualifying higher-grade officers of the United States 
 Navy in the science of strategy and the art of conducting 
 war, in order to render them fit to advise upon national 
 naval policy, and at a moment's notice to take effectual 
 
 the Library, which proved invaluable in the pleasant task of writing 
 part of this book. The author also records his grateful appreciation 
 of the welcome assistance of the chief clerk and members of the War 
 College staS. 
 
1888] WAR COLLEGE BUILDING 37 
 
 command of important units of the fleet in the myriad 
 contingencies of actual warfare. 
 
 The accompanying reproduction of tlie War College 
 building, which is of grey granite, mellowed by thick 
 patches of Virginia creeper, gives a fair idea of its 
 impressive character, but gives no conception of 
 its incomparable site, nor does it show the beauty 
 of its sloping lawns approached by a driveway banked 
 on either side with immense clusters of hydrangeas, their 
 daintily coloured blossoms in such luxuriance as the 
 soil of Rhode Island exults to produce. It was built 
 in 1891-2, in the days when Admiral, then Captain, 
 Bunce was Commandant of the District ; and the plans, 
 which had been approved by Mahan before he left for 
 Puget Sound, were carried out under the supervision of 
 Captain, now Admiral, Stockton, then President of 
 the College.! 
 
 ^ As I write, the naval clock outside strikes eight bells. May I 
 digress for a moment to describe the fascinating sights and sounds 
 which greet me on my daily walk from " Faisneau," the attractive house 
 of Mrs. Rogers in Washington Street, to the library of the War College, 
 so considerately placed at my disposal by the courteous naval authori- 
 ties ? 
 
 Imagine an immense panorama of rippling blue water aglow in the 
 sunshine and reflecting a cloudless azure sky, the calm broken from 
 time to time by the quick-step strains of one of the naval bands. 
 Picture to yourself a plateau, rising to an eminence on the very summit 
 of which, surrounded by stretches of well-kept turf, stands the Naval 
 War College. Ever and anon the exhilarating call of a bugle clarions 
 through the perfect Newport atmosphere, and in the foreground that 
 old warrior, the Constellation, her stormy, century-old career ended, 
 rides majestically at anchor in the placid waters of Coasters Harbour, 
 with sail-less yards proudly squared as if to say to her gallant 
 French adversaries, " All old scores are forgotten. J'y suis 
 et i'y reste " ; while from the drill grounds on the adjacent land re- 
 echoes that most heart-stirring of all sounds, the tramp of marching 
 men, their dark blue sweaters contrasting vividly with their white 
 breeches and gaiters and swinging in faultless rhythm to the stimu- 
 lating tattoo of the naval drums. Who could fail to be impressed by 
 the influence of such surroundings enhanced a hundredfold by the 
 presence of those twelve thousand jolly, sturdy, sun-tanned boys, 
 bulwarks of Uncle Sam's ever-growing fleet. — C. C. T. 
 
38 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE [chap, iv 
 
 When Admiral Luce was appointed to the command 
 of the North Atlantic Fleet in 1886, Mahan, who had 
 now been promoted to Captain, succeeded him as 
 President of the College, in which capacity he acted 
 with distinction for three years. His first incumbency 
 of this honourable post was, however, abruptly cut 
 short by Secretary Whitney,^ who named him President 
 of a Committee to choose a site for a navy yard in 
 Puget Sound, three thousand miles away ! ^ 
 
 During this visit to the West a new administration 
 came in with President Plarrison, under whom the War 
 College once more came into favour. A course of 
 instruction was held at the Torpedo Station, and the 
 series of lectures prepared under these difficult conditions 
 and delivered by Mahan in four disjointed sessions of 
 the War College from 1886 to 1889, formed the nucleus 
 
 ^ " I never knew, nor cared, just why Whitney took this course, 
 but I afterwards had an amusing experience with him showing how 
 men forget. In later years he and I were members of a dining-club 
 in New York. I then had had my success and recognition. One 
 evening I chanced to say to him, apropos of what I do not now recall 
 ' It was at the time, you know, that you sent Sampson to the Naval 
 Academy and Goodi-ich to the Torpedo Station.' ' Yes,' he rejoined 
 complacently ; ' and I sent you to the War College.' It was literally 
 true, doubtless ; his act, though not his selection ; but in view of the 
 cold comfort and the petard with which he there favored me, for 
 Whitney to fancy himself a patron to me, except on a Johnsonian 
 definition of the word, was as humorous a performance as I have 
 known." — From Sail to Steam. 
 
 2 " So I went to Puget Sound, a very pleasant as well as interesting 
 experience ; for, having a government tender at our disposal, we 
 penetrated by daylight to every corner of that beautiful sheet of 
 water, the intricate windings of which prepare a continual series of 
 surprises ; each scene like the last, yet different ; the successive 
 resemblances of a family wherein aU the members are lovely, yet 
 individual. 
 
 '* We selected the site where the yard now stands, in a singularly 
 well-protected inlet on the western side of the main arm, with an 
 anchorage of very moderate depth and easy current for Puget Sound. 
 Our judgment was challenged and another commission sent out. 
 This confirmed our choice, but very much less land was secured than 
 we had advised." — From Sail to Steam, 
 
1889] GENESIS OF SEA POWER BOOKS 39 
 
 of the immortal work which, under the title of The 
 Influence of Sea Power upon History, was eventually 
 to wield so unprecedented an authority in the world, 
 and to become a mighty lever in determining the naval 
 policies of the Great Powers, thereby shaping the very 
 destines of the leading nations of the earth. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 SEA POWER 
 
 " Mahan has made it impossible for anyone to treat of Sea Power 
 without frequent references to his writings and conclusions. 
 
 " Mahan's opinions govern the naval thought of the world." — 
 Admiral Sir Cyprjan Bridge, R.N. 
 
 These are the words of the eminent naval authority 
 who was Chief InteUigence Officer at the British 
 Admiralty, and was chosen to bear the responsibility 
 for the articles on Sea Power and Command of the Sea 
 in the Encycloycedia Britannica, 
 
 Some twenty centuries ago that remarkable Greek 
 historian Thucydides recognised the significance of Sea 
 Power, and urged upon his countrymen the importance 
 of obtaining command of the sea. In this he was the 
 forerunner of Mahan, and none more worthy. Old 
 Thucydides had one paramount ambition. He wanted 
 his work to endure, not as the " rhetorical triumph 
 of an hour, but as a possession for ever." It has. 
 It is nearly two thousand years since Plutarch visited 
 his tomb in Athens, in which he had already lain some 
 four hundred years, and it is pleasant to hark back 
 to those far-distant days of the vanished past, and to 
 realise the remarkable fact that the twentieth century 
 is still talking about him and has recorded in the words 
 of Freeman that " there is hardly a problem in the 
 science of government which the statesman will not find, 
 if not solved, at any rate handled, in the pages of this 
 universal master." 
 
 40 
 
1890] EARLY ADVOCATES OF SEA POWER 41 
 
 Since early days in Britain, which, according to 
 an " antient document," was first known as Clas 
 Merdin, " the sea-defended green spot," ^ sea power 
 has been extolled by far-sighted patriots, among others 
 King Offa of Mercia, who in the eighth century is said 
 to have declared that " he who would be secure at home 
 must be supreme at sea" ; and a fifteenth-century bard, 
 memorialising the sea as the safeguard of England and 
 her commerce, wrote : 
 
 " For foure things our Noble sheweth to me. 
 King, Ship and Swerd and power of the sea. 
 Keep then the sea that is the wall of England, 
 And then is England kept by Goddes own hande." 
 
 Raleigh and Bacon's historic advocacy of sea power 
 was echoed by their great rival Sir Edward Coke,^ 
 and found its most eloquent exponent in Shakespeare,' 
 who spoke of England as " bound in with the triumphant 
 sea." 
 
 These intellectual giants were in turn succeeded by 
 a brilliant array of lesser lights, from Halifax and St. 
 Loe and Campbell in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries down to more recent times, in which, as 
 exponents of the power of the sea, the names of 
 Tennyson and Kipling, Colomb and Laughton, among 
 many others, shine resplendent. 
 
 Other writers, too, have since used the term " sea 
 
 ^ Cambro-Briton, vol. i. 
 
 * " The King's Navy exceeds aU others in the world for three things, 
 viz., beauty, strength, and safety. For beauty, they are so many 
 palaces ; for strength so many moving castles and barbicans ; and 
 for safety, they are the most defensive walls of the realm. Among 
 the ships of other nations, they are like lions among silly beasts, or 
 falcons amongst fearful fowle." 
 
 3 " This fortress built by Nature for herself 
 Against infection and the hand of war ; 
 This happy breed of men, this little world, 
 This precious stone set in the silver sea. 
 Which serves it in the office of a wall. 
 Or as a moat defensive to a house. 
 Against the envy of less happier lands." 
 
42 SEA POWER [chap, v 
 
 power," but to Mahan is due the modern conception 
 of sea power and all that those two fateful (and some- 
 times significantly hyphenated) words imply, and, 
 incredible as it may appear, he was in the first instance 
 impelled to adopt his unique treatment of the subject 
 by a realisation of the astonishing fact that the world's 
 historians had failed to recognise and record the mighty 
 influence which maritime affairs had for centuries 
 exerted upon the fate of nations. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. R. B. Marston, his London publisher, 
 in 1897, he said : 
 
 " I may say that the term ' sea power,' which now 
 has such vogue, was deliberately adopted by me to 
 compel attention, and, I hoped, to receive currency. 
 I deliberately discarded the adjective ' maritime,' 
 being too smooth to arrest men's attention or stick 
 in their minds. 
 
 " ' Sea power,' in English at least, seems to have 
 come to stay in the sense I used it. ' The sea Powers ' 
 were often spoken of before, but in an entirely different 
 manner — not to express, as I meant, at once an abstract 
 conception and a concrete fact." 
 
 The following letter shows the original conception 
 of The Influence of Sea Power upon History : 
 
 " 2 East 15th Stkeet, 
 
 " January 22, 1886. 
 
 " My dear Admiral, 
 
 " With regard to my course of lectures my ideas 
 have not yet attained the precision which I would like 
 to throw into my reply to you. In a general way they 
 are these : I think to begin with a general consideration 
 of the sea, its uses to mankind and to nations, the effect 
 which the control of it or the reverse has upon their 
 peaceful development and upon their military strength. 
 This will naturally lead to, and probably embrace in 
 the same lecture, a consideration of the sources of 
 Sea Power, whether commercial or military ; depending 
 upon the position of the particular country, the character 
 
1890] THE ORIGINAL LECTURES 43 
 
 of its coast, its harbors, the character and pursuits 
 of its people, its possession of miHtary ports in various 
 parts of the world, its colonies, etc., its resources in 
 the length and breadth of the word. After such a 
 general statement of the various elements of the problem, 
 illustrated of course by specific examples, the path 
 would be cleared for naval history. There are a good 
 many phases of naval history. I have been led, and 
 I think, on the whole, happily led, to take up that period 
 succeeding the Peace of Westphalia, 1648, when the 
 nations of Europe began clearly to enter on and occupy 
 their modern position, struggling for existence and 
 preponderance. I have carefully followed up this 
 period both in respect of naval history and the general 
 struggles of Europe ; for it has seemed to me, with 
 reference to my subject, that the attempt to violently 
 separate the naval history from that context will be 
 something — to capsize a proverb — like Hamlet with 
 all but the part of Hamlet left out. 
 
 " I have nearly finished, within a week's work, this 
 general consideration down to 1783. With the purely 
 naval history of the great wars of the Republic and the 
 Empire I believe myself already sufficiently familiar ; 
 with the general history less so ; but I think I can 
 ' get it up ' in comparatively short time. Now I believe 
 myself to have a good working knowledge of most of 
 all the important naval campaigns of the years 1660- 
 1815 and the tactics of the various battles. 
 
 " Of course the question thrusts itself forward : 
 under all the changed conditions of naval warfare 
 of what use is the knowledge of these bygone days ? 
 Here I am, frankly, a little at sea how to point my 
 moral. I have stuff enough to work up several popular 
 lectures, but how to turn this into instructive material 
 for the future ? I have not really had time to settle 
 this, and I have steadily refused to consider more than 
 the one thing at a time. There are here and there, 
 however, glimmers of light. 
 
 For instance, strategy, as distinguished from tactics, 
 will have plenty of illustration ; the advantages and 
 disadvantages of the possession of Sea Power and its 
 effects upon specific campaigns must always possess 
 
44 SEA POWER [chap, v 
 
 useful lessons. Ships will no longer tack nor wear ; 
 but they must turn round sometimes ; and I fancy that 
 some thought expended upon the difficulties and 
 confusion that may be thrown into an enemy's line, 
 or other order, by forcing them to a change of order 
 in action will have some fruit in the consideration of 
 naval tactics in action ; and I believe that knowledge 
 of the great battles between sailing fleets will help 
 in the solution of the problem. There will, too, always 
 remain the great moral lessons, the most important 
 lessons to my mind and amply illustrated, of the 
 preponderance gained by activity, promptness, watch- 
 fulness, care, foresight, and attention to details. More 
 and more it has forced itself upon my mind that the 
 reason one fleet is better than another has been, and 
 probably always will be, because its components, 
 ship for ship, captain for captain, crew for crew, were 
 better. Without pressing this view unguardedly or 
 to extreme, I think it is most true relatively to an army, 
 a land force. The admiral will not, nearly so far, make 
 or mar as the general. 
 
 " By Feb. 1st I expect to begin with Jomini, etc., 
 and having naval conditions constantly before my mind, 
 I shall hope to detect analogies ; and with an admirable 
 system of one kind of war before me to contribute 
 something to the development of a systematic study 
 of war in another field. 
 
 " Whether I can accomplish anything more in the 
 matter of naval history of other epochs this year I 
 cannot say ; it is scarcely worth considering at present. 
 I am working to my full capacity, and have to feel that 
 that is less than it was, so I don't look far ahead. 
 
 " As I said in my last letter, don't be withheld by 
 any thought of my course from getting any useful help 
 for the College that you can. I would like this letter, 
 however, to be confidential, in case any of my thunder 
 should turn out to be real thunder. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " A. T. Mahan. 
 " Rear- Admiral S. B. Luce, 
 " Naval War College, 
 
 "Newport, R.I." 
 
1890] THE FIRST MASTERPIECE 45 
 
 The above letter was written over four months before 
 Mahan put pen to paper on the lectures which resulted 
 in the books. 
 
 The Influence of Sea Power' upon History 1660-1783 
 was published in May 1890. Its success was immediate, 
 and increased as time went on. It was translated 
 into the languages of many countries. Mahan was 
 deluged with congratulatory letters from leading 
 authorities on both sides of the Atlantic, and eulogistic 
 reviews of the book appeared by the score in the columns 
 of the most prominent and influential papers and 
 periodicals of the day, one historical treatise, by Professor 
 Laughton, in the Edinburgh Review ^ extending to thirty- 
 two pages. With characteristic alertness Mr. Theodore 
 Roosevelt, then a Civil Service Commissioner in Washing- 
 ton, wrote Mahan a few days after the book made its 
 appearance : 
 
 " During the last two days I have spent half my 
 time, busy as I am, in reading your book. That I found 
 it interesting is shown by the fact that having taken 
 it up, I have gone straight through and finished it. 
 
 " I can say with perfect sincerity that I think it 
 very much the clearest and most instructive general 
 work of the kind with which I am acquainted. It is 
 a very good book — admirable ; and I am greatly in 
 error if it does not become a classic." 
 
 Among others, too numerous to mention, who wrote 
 personal notes were Admiral Walker, Admiral Goodrich, 
 Admiral Sampson, Admiral Luce, Admiral Schley, and 
 Captain Barnes, all of the United States Navy ; Admiral 
 of the Fleet Sir Gerard Noel, Admiral of the Fleet Sir 
 Geoffrey Phipps Hornby, Admiral Lord Charles Beres- 
 ford. Admiral Sir Augustus Phillimore, Admiral Sir 
 Cyprian Bridge, and Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle, 
 
 1 The late Sir John Laughton was Professor of Modern History at 
 King's College, University of London, and Lecturer on Naval History 
 at the Royal Naval College. 
 
46 SEA POWER [chap, v 
 
 of the British Navy ; Edward Everett Hale, Sir WiUiam 
 Laird Clowes (then Naval Editor of the London Times), 
 Senator Lodge, Mr. Thomas Gibson Bowles, and Sir 
 George Clarke (now Lord Sydenham). 
 
 Admiral Luce, President of the Naval War College, 
 had this to say of it : 
 
 " This is an altogether exceptional work ; there is 
 nothing like it in the whole range of naval literature. 
 No other author with whom we are acquainted has 
 ever undertaken to treat the subject in such a liberal, 
 not to say philosophical spirit, or to weave the story 
 of the Navy and its achievements into the affairs of 
 State so as to bring out its value as a factor of national 
 life. The work is entirely original in conception, 
 masterful in construction, and scholarly in execution." 
 
 Lord Roberts, beloved soldier of imperishable memory, 
 publicly announced that The Influence of Sea Power 
 upon History had given him more pleasure than any 
 book he had read for many years. 
 
 Gladstone is said to have regarded it as one of the 
 greatest of modern books ; and the London Times in 
 a lengthy review said of it : 
 
 " The really great book which is the subject of this 
 notice altogether carries away the palm in clearness 
 and depth of thought, in breadth of view, and in purity 
 of style. The book is by no means addressed to the 
 naval officer only, though for him it is as a gleam of 
 light from a dull sky. But it is the public man, above 
 all the public man who is directly or indirectly concerned 
 in the defences of the Empire, who should read and 
 ponder over this fine work." 
 
 The distinguished Admiral of the Fleet Sir Geoffrey 
 Phipps Hornby wrote : 
 
 " Your book on Naval History in the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries will be specially valuable, as 
 tending to reduce a dearth which I, in common I 
 
1890] RECOGNITION 47 
 
 suppose with all naval students, have ever felt for 
 authoritative works that will elucidate questions of 
 naval strategy and tactics. It is only by the industry 
 and talent of experts, who will collate and reason 
 on past events, that we can hope to possess such a 
 literature as our military brethren enjoy on kindred 
 topics." 
 
 Eight years after its publication the President of 
 the Liverpool Philomathic Society, at the opening of 
 its seventy-fourth annual session in 1898, chose it as 
 the subject of his inaugural address and referred to it 
 in these words : 
 
 " The shifting of the mental balance in some millions 
 of human beings by a single book is so rare a phenomenon 
 that when we come across such a portent in everyday 
 life it behoves us to regard it curiously. 
 
 "It is the peculiar merit of Captain Mahan that 
 in analysing the effect of Sea Power upon the 
 development of nations, he has also lifted the 
 curtain upon other important factors. The principal 
 object of his books has been to disseminate the idea 
 and demonstrate the potency of Sea Power. This he 
 has done in so effective a manner that Sea Power is 
 now a household word. A new phraseology has grown 
 up in connection with this subject. The language 
 has been enriched by various phrases which express 
 the novel aspects of this new line of thought. He has 
 revealed, with a suddenness which is quite startling, 
 that the growth and prosperity of nations depends 
 largely upon Sea Power and its concomitants — ships, 
 colonies, and commerce. National destiny, as we study 
 Captain Mahan' s volumes, appears to take for us more 
 tangible proportions." 
 
 There has been a certain amount of contention as to 
 whether originality could be claimed for Mahan' s works. 
 Originality in the bulk of the matter presented there 
 is not, but in the manner in which it is presented 
 there assuredly is. How great a difference is represented 
 
48 SEA POWER [chap, v 
 
 by those two little letters. The argument for orginality 
 lies in the answer to these questions : By whom had 
 there been previously given to the world such an analysis 
 of the historical influence of the mastery of the sea ? 
 Can anyone be named before Mahan's day who may 
 be said to have comprehensively dealt with the subject 
 of Naval Strategy ? 
 
 Personally Mahan made no public claim to originality, 
 but he was of a surprisingly modest and diffident nature, 
 as an instance of which, in a letter to his London 
 pubhsher, Mr. Marston, in 1897, he says : 
 
 " It may seem odd to you, but I do not to this day 
 understand my success. I had done what I intended ; 
 I recognise that people have attributed to me a great 
 success, and have given to me abundant recognition. 
 I enjoy it and am grateful, but for the most part, I do 
 not myself appreciate the work up to the measure 
 expressed by others." 
 
 He claimed, however, originality for the inspiration 
 of his method of interpreting Sea Power. He has left 
 this on record : 
 
 " Not to mention other predecessors with a full roll 
 of whose names I am even now unacquainted. Bacon 
 and Raleigh three centuries before had epitomised in 
 a few words the theme on which I was to write volumes. 
 That they had done so was indeed then unknown to 
 me. For me as for them the light dawned first on my 
 inner consciousness ; I owed it to no other man." 
 
 In Mahan's case the process of evolution was : (1) the 
 trend of thought, (2) the opportunity, (3) the inspira- 
 tion, (4) the hard work, (5) the lectures, (6) the master- 
 piece. Mr. Edison is credited with a definition of 
 genius as being one-tenth inspiration and nine-tenths 
 perspiration, in other words, hard work ; and Mahan's 
 well-merited success teaches the same lesson : labor 
 omnia vincit. 
 
1892] THE SECOND MASTERPIECE 49 
 
 The recognition afforded his first Sea Power volume 
 encouraged him to renewed efforts. He began with 
 wide study of the general history of the period ; of 
 Jomini's Wars of the French Republic, Napoleon's Corre- 
 spondence and Commentaries, Thiers' s History of the 
 Consulate and Empire, and the speeches of Pitt and 
 Fox. He studied too the effects of sea power in the 
 Peloponnesian War, and collected from Livy and others 
 details of naval occurrences while Hannibal was in 
 Italy. In his own words : 
 
 " My outlook was thus enlarged, not upon military 
 matters only, but by an appreciation of the strength 
 of Athens, broad based upon an extensive system of 
 maritime commerce. This prepared me to see in the 
 continental system of Napoleon the direct outcome of 
 Great Britain's maritime supremacy, and the ultimate 
 cause of his own ruin. Thus, while gathering matter, 
 a conception was forming which became the dominant 
 feature in my scheme by the time I began to write in 
 earnest." 
 
 As a result of two years' steady application he gave 
 to the world The Influence of Sea Power upon the French 
 Revolution and Empire, which carried the story up to 
 1812, and by some has been considered a greater work 
 than The Influence of Sea Power upon History, because, 
 as that noted naval critic Sir John Laughton has 
 explained, the — 
 
 " latter was addressed mainly to professional readers, 
 and appealed only incidentally to the general public; 
 the former, important as it is to naval officers, is 
 still more so to the statesman, the administrator, the 
 shipowner, the merchant, and the tradesman." 
 
 He sagely adds : 
 
 " In fact the only man, or type of man in England, 
 to whom it will not prove of the deepest interest, is 
 
50 SEA POWER [chap, v 
 
 the pseudo-politician whose theory of public affairs is 
 summed up in the maxim that whatever is English is 
 wrong. To such a man — and, unfortunately, we have 
 too many among us — we can conceive the book acting 
 rather as an irritant, a blister — wholesome it may be, 
 but painful ; for, though written by one whom untoward 
 circumstances have constituted a foreigner, and whom 
 education has taught to regard English affairs with an 
 impartial eye, the book is throughout a splendid apothe- 
 osis of English courage and English endurance, of English 
 skill and of English power, the more splendid, the more 
 glorious, as these are put forward not as a matter of 
 boasting or of laudation, but philosophically, scientifi- 
 cally, as illustrating propositions in naval strategy or 
 in commercial war." 
 
 That picturesque Irishman Judge William O'Connor 
 Morris, critic and historian, who was a happy mixture 
 of many of the most attractive Irish and English 
 qualities, wrote Mahan from Gartnamona, TuUamore, 
 that he had read The Influence of Sea Power upon the 
 French Revolution and Empire with the deepest interest 
 and the greatest admiration ; that in his opinion nothing 
 equal to it in naval history had ever been written, and 
 that Captain Mahan was the only writer who had 
 brought out one feature of great importance, namely 
 Napoleon's flanking operations to withdraw the British 
 Fleet from their central position. This he considered an 
 excellent point and in conformity with Napoleon's 
 strategy. 
 
 The naval critic of the London Times fitly expressed 
 the popular verdict in these words : 
 
 " Captain Mahan has now continued his studies and 
 his expositions of the same theme in the present work, 
 which deals with the Revolutionary and Napoleonic 
 wars, with the history of that great school of naval 
 strategy and warfare which was founded by Lord St. 
 Vincent and brought to its highest pitch of glory by 
 the consummate genius of Nelson. Of the way in which 
 
1892] APPROVAL OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT 51 
 
 this great theme is treated by the author of The Influ- 
 ence of Sea Power upon History we need say Httle, no 
 living writer is so well qualified to do- it justice as Cap- 
 tain Mahan, and certainly the true significance of the 
 tremendous events of those momentous years has never 
 been more luminously or more instructively displayed." 
 
 The practical utility of the Sea Power books was 
 immensely enhanced by the fact that they contained 
 priceless lessons, not only for statesmen and naval 
 commanders, but also for military authorities. The 
 following memorandum submitted by the Aide-de-Camp 
 to the General Officer commanding at the time, Decem- 
 ber 8, 1892, reflects the opinion of the United States 
 War Department as to the special value of Mahan' s 
 doctrines as demonstrating the influence of sea power 
 upon, and in conjunction with, military operations on 
 land : 
 
 " About two years ago Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S. 
 Navy, President of the Naval War College, published a 
 work entitled The Influence of Sea Power upon History. 
 He, at that time, wrote me a letter in similar terms 
 with the one attached to this memorandum, and which 
 I, as in the present case, submitted to the Major-General 
 Commanding for such action as he should choose to 
 recommend to the W^ar Department. Upon the recom- 
 mendation of the Major-General Commanding, the War 
 Department subscribed for 100 copies of the work. 
 The Department received the full money value of its 
 subscription. The book was universally admitted to be 
 one of singular merit. In foreign service journals and 
 high-class non-professional periodicals it was reviewed 
 in the highest terms. It was supplied by the British 
 Government to the libraries of cruising ships. It was 
 well worthy the study of the land officers of our own 
 service as showing the inseparable connection of mutual 
 dependence between land and sea armies during the 
 great military operations of the last two hundred years. 
 
 " Captain Mahan is now about to publish a second 
 volume in the series tracing the influence of sea power 
 
 5 
 
52 SEA POWER [chap, v 
 
 upon the French Revolution, the series to be concluded 
 at some future time with a volume treating the war of 
 1812 in a similar manner. 
 
 " In view of the great success of the former volume, 
 due to its recognised merits, I would respectfully 
 suggest the propriety of the Department's giving its 
 subscription for a hundred or more copies of Captain 
 Mahan's second volume entitled The Influence of Sea 
 Power upon the French Revolution. The publishers are 
 Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. of Boston." 
 
 The more closely Mahan's masterpieces are examined, 
 the deeper becomes the feeling of admiration. The 
 almost incredible amount of reading and research, and 
 the accuracy and tenacity of the memory which retained 
 so stupendous a store of information, transcend the 
 imagination. 
 
 The lessons they taught were new. 
 
 The lessons they taught were of world-wide applica- 
 tion. 
 
 The lessons they taught appealed to the greatest 
 minds in all countries. 
 
 For the first time the rulers of the earth learned 
 actively to realise and appreciate the true significance 
 of the control of the highways of the sea. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 FARRAGUT 
 
 " He stands eminent among the naval men of his time for skill, 
 heroism, and grand force of character." — William O'Connor Morris. 
 
 Both the Life of Farragut and The Influence of Sea 
 Power upon the French Revolution and Empire were 
 written between 1890 and 1892 during a fortunate 
 period of freedom from official duties, the sessions at 
 the Naval War College, of which Mahan was again 
 appointed President in 1892, being temporarily sus- 
 pended. In his own words, " The College slumbered 
 and I worked." 
 
 From time immemorial the patrician mothers of 
 Britain have been wont to consecrate to the naval 
 service of the State their little male offspring at the 
 tender age of thirteen ; but never surely was there so 
 infantile a naval officer as David Farragut, who, Mahan 
 records, was a midshipman at nine, and was actually 
 at sea on active service when he was ten years old. It 
 was hardly surprising that on his first voyage, overcome 
 with fatigue, he was found asleep on watch. This 
 dereliction of duty, however, which in time of war 
 carries with it condign punishment, was compassion- 
 ately regarded by the humane lieutenant of the watch, 
 afterwards Commodore Bolton, who covered the child 
 with his own jacket to protect him from the night air. 
 As midshipman of the commander's gig, he was at ten 
 years of age the tiny hero of a lively scuffle on shore, 
 and as " officer in charge " was bound over to keep the 
 peace ; when twelve years old he was sent in charge of 
 
 53 
 
54 FARRAGUT [chap, vi 
 
 a prize, doubtless with an old seaman as nurse, but still 
 in full command. 
 
 In character Farragut had much in common with 
 Mahan, being of a deeply religious nature, modest and 
 unassuming. Similarly he was a restless seeker after 
 knowledge, and being blest with a good memory, he 
 was successful in his lifelong efforts to achieve self- 
 improvement. He also resembled Mahan in his unusual 
 physical activity at an advanced age. 
 
 The Life of Admiral Farragut was contributed to the 
 " Great Commander " series edited by General James 
 Grant Wilson, who was responsible for the Life of General 
 Grant. The book was well received. With skill and 
 accuracy Mahan gave to posterity the dramatic story 
 of the heroic doings of a fearless American sailor, who 
 was, moreover, a ijian of unimpeachable character, and 
 who, impelled by his devotion to the Union, and over- 
 coming the opposition and scepticism levelled against 
 him by reason of his being a Southerner by birth and 
 association, became the hero of Mobile Bay, and the 
 greatest of the naval commanders who won renown 
 under the masterful administration of Lincoln. 
 
 Among a number of letters of appreciation, Mahan 
 received one from Mr. Loyall Farragut, who had pre- 
 viously written a biography of his father ; and the 
 following extracts from a review in the New York Times 
 give an idea of the impression the book made at the 
 time it was published : 
 
 " The author of The Influence of Sea Power upon 
 History has found in Admiral Farragut a congenial 
 subject, and has worked up his material in a masterful 
 manner in the volume which forms part of the new 
 series of the Messrs. Appleton, entitled Great Com- 
 manders. 
 
 " The author has at his fingers' ends conditions past 
 and present. The man who broke through the batteries 
 on the Mississippi and fought his way to Mobile was the 
 

 .^: 
 
 
 (N,- 
 
 
 
 
 vl 
 
 
 
 S,^- t^l <^^ 
 
 
 v1 ■ 
 
 
 
 ■^■"i-^'||-3HiHf#^^v<% 
 
 \1 
 
 
 l4i^' 
 
 1^ 
 
 U 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 
1892] FARRAGUT'S LETTER 55 
 
 connecting link between the older sea-heroes of 1812 and 
 those of 1862. In Farragut's case, the boy who had 
 passed powder on the Essex, in her fight with the Phoebe 
 and Cherub off Valparaiso, was the man who stood on 
 the shrouds of the Hartford, lashed there or not, and 
 with shell and shot tearing around him, coolly surveyed 
 the enemy's batteries, made up his mind exactly what 
 had to be done, and did it. 
 
 " In naval warfare there is nothing finer than, 
 when at Mobile, with the Tecumseh having ' her screw 
 revolving wildly in the air,' and disappearing with her 
 bottom stove in by a torpedo, Farragut dared to follow 
 her. There might be another torpedo or many of 
 them. That w^as Farragut's moment of inspiration. 
 He would not turn tail, although one ship or two ships 
 might be lost. It was ' the supreme moment of his 
 life, in which the scales of his fortunes wavered in the 
 balance.' ' Go on,' was what the hero said, and go 
 on he did. ' Damn the torpedoes ! ' shouted the 
 Admiral, and then : ' Four bells. Captain Dayton, go 
 ahead. Jouett, full speed,' and the dread line of 
 buoys was passed. 
 
 " We cannot say too much in praise of the manner 
 in which Captain Mahan has brought home to us the 
 finer traits of Farragut." 
 
 Farragut's letter to his wife, written on the flagship 
 Hartford, off Mobile, July 31, 1864, a fac-simile of 
 which is reproduced in this chapter by the kind 
 permission of the executors of the Admiral's son, Mr. 
 Loyall Farragut, is eloquent of the man and is in 
 itself a condensed biography. It reads as follows : 
 
 " U.S. Flagship ' Hartford,' West Gulf 
 *' Squadron, off Mobile, 
 
 " Jidy 31, 1864. 
 
 " My dearest Wife, — 
 
 " My Monitors are all here now, so that I begin 
 to feel that I am the one to attack, and no longer expect 
 to be attacked by Buchanan, although I really wish 
 he had made the effort to test the question. When I 
 shall attack I know not, as I am waiting on the Army 
 
56 FARRAGUT [chap, vi 
 
 as they say. I hope for the best results as I am always 
 hopeful, put my shoulder to the wheel with my best 
 judgement and trust to God for the rest, he has thus far 
 been gracious beyond my deserts, but should he think 
 proper to withdraw that protection and decide that 
 I had done enough mischief in the world and cut me off 
 in the midst of my sins, I have nothing to say, but that 
 I am ready to submit to his will. My dear sister sent 
 me a Holy Virgin like the one Rose gave. She said it 
 was Blessed by the Archbishop, that he said I was good 
 to all the Priests. I only tell you this to show you that 
 they did not succeed in impressing the Bishop that 
 I had Robbed the Church at Point Coupee. 
 
 " Give my love to your dear mother and sisters and 
 Robert and Newton and Ashe. 
 
 " May God Bless and protect you all, ever prays 
 your devoted husband, 
 
 " D. G. Farragut. 
 
 "To 
 
 "Mrs. D. G. Farragut, 
 
 " Hastings on the Hudson, 
 " N.Y." 
 
 In later years, when Farragut was urged to allow 
 his name to be placed before the Democratic Convention 
 as a nominee for the Presidency — which honour, by the 
 way, he declined — it was said of him that he was a man 
 " whose public career had been at once loyal and heroic, 
 and whose name is the signal for unbounded respect 
 and acclaim." 
 
 In a letter to Mahan under date of May 23, 1897, 
 Admiral Goodrich expressed this opinion : "I note 
 that you went on the grand stand to see the Grant 
 procession. I do not begrudge Grant his honors, but 
 upon my soul I think it is a disgrace to the American 
 people that Farragut' s memory should be so little 
 regarded. He was greater than Grant." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 " I can imagine that when the God of Nations calls the roll of those 
 who have been faithful, England will say, ' I am here with my ships 
 and my men. My losses are grievous, but my spirit is unbroken.' " — 
 Newton D. Bakeb, Secretary of War. 
 
 The time had now come for Mahan to take his turn 
 at sea, and he presented to the Navy Department an 
 earnest request to be allowed further extension of time 
 on shore, so that he might continue his Sea Power 
 series, the next step in which he intended to be The 
 War of 1812. His application was supported by 
 influential friends, both naval and civil, and was fortified 
 by his offer to retire in four years' time, in 1896, at the 
 completion of forty years' service ; but fate in the 
 person of the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation decided 
 otherwise. This official, apparently oblivious of the 
 national importance of holding out every possible 
 encouragement to a man who was capable of giving 
 to the nation such remarkable creations as the first 
 two Sea Power books, ^ both of which had then been 
 published, denied Mahan' s request with the insensate 
 remark, It is not the business of a naval officer to write 
 books. 
 
 ^ " At the Union League Club in New York they call him the Jomini 
 of the Water. The Times speaks of the term Sea Power and again ^ 
 speaks of him as having done for the Ocean what Adam Smith had |i 
 done for the Land, and compai'es Sea Power with the Wealth of Nations, jt 
 WTiat next will they say ? And yet the man who wrote that book 
 and who thought those thoughts into it is in danger of being taken 
 from the War CoUege and sent to sea ! " — McCabty Little. 
 
 57 
 
58 ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 In the last analysis, what is efficiency ? ^ Is it not 
 the ability to discriminate between things which differ, 
 however minutely — although to the unthinking they 
 may appear alike — and with unerring skill to distinguish 
 essential from non-essential, and act accordingly ? 
 And does not a similar principle apply to the faculty 
 of recognising and accurately measuring the capacities 
 of individuals, of whom no two are alike ? The 
 efficient chief, ever minutely observant and free from 
 prejudice, gauges to a nicety by intelligent discrimina- 
 tion the special qualifications of each, and is thus 
 enabled to utilise to the best possible advantage the 
 services of those with whom he is associated. 
 
 On this occasion the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation 
 failed to use his powers of discrimination, but in so doing 
 he unwittingly did Mahan a great service. 
 
 There is a touch of pathos in Mahan' s appeal for his 
 literary life. Here is his letter to the Chief of the 
 Bureau of Navigation : 
 
 " U.S. Naval War College and Torpedo School, 
 " Newport, R.I. 
 
 "March 17, 1893. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I wish to make the following request to the 
 Navy Department. 
 
 " For seven years I have been engaged in a close 
 study of Naval History and Naval Warfare. Of the 
 results of this study much has not been published ; 
 but the greater part has been and is now before the 
 Department and the Navy. It is my desire to devote 
 myself henceforth to the development of the same 
 line of thought ; and in that view it is my purpose to 
 retire in 1896, after forty years of service, as now allowed 
 by law. 
 
 " Meanwhile I become liable to sea service for a 
 
 ^' 
 
 1 A woman is said to have nonplussed an assemblage of distin- 
 guished political scientists by remarking, " I have heard all my life 
 of German efficiency. If Germany loses the war, after forty years 
 of preparation, what is efficiency ? " 
 
1893] APPEAL FOR SHORE DUTY 59 
 
 period of at least two years. I apprehend that at my 
 age — 53 — such a diversion is not merely a loss of two 
 years of fruitful effort, invaluable at any age and 
 especially in the later prime ,of life, but that also the 
 consequent entire interruption of my line of thought 
 may prove to be final. The complicated administration 
 of a large modern ship-of-war is a task too absorbing 
 to admit of sustained mental effort in another direction. 
 " As far as I know, there is no other officer who 
 proposes to do that which I here propose. I therefore 
 ask that, upon the understanding that I will retire 
 as above, within the term of the present Administration, 
 the Department will rule that the contribution I may 
 be expected to make to professional thought, by such 
 studies as the above, outweighs the advantage that can 
 result from the experience of two years of command, 
 when these so shortly precede my final retirement from 
 active service ; and that the Department will for these 
 reasons excuse me from such sea service. 
 " I have the honor to be, 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 " A. T. Mahan, 
 
 " Captain, U.S. Navy, 
 President, U.S. Naval War College and Torpedo School. 
 
 " To the 
 
 " Chief of Bureau of Navigation, 
 " Navy Department, 
 
 " Washington, D.C." 
 
 Following up his application to the Navy Department, 
 Mahan stated his case in a letter to Mr. Roosevelt, 
 from whom he received this reply : 
 
 " Washington, D.C, 
 
 ''May 1, 1893. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, — 
 
 " Last evening Lodge, Harry Davis, Admiral 
 Luce and I held a solemn council of war with your 
 last letter to me as the text. I fear all hope for the 
 War College (which is nothing without you) has gone ; 
 our prize idiots here have thrown away a chance to 
 
60 ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 give us an absolutely unique position in Naval affairs, 
 but I made a very strong bid to give you at least the 
 Miantonomah. The obstacle is of course Ramsay, who 
 is bitterly opposing it or anything else that may help 
 you. Lodge will see Herbert about the Miantonomah 
 business. 
 
 " Oh, what idiots we have to deal with ! And those 
 ' Century Geese ! ' Well meaning, good people the 
 Century folk, but their writing that there were not 
 three men in the Navy who could do your work was 
 as if some one had said there were not ten men who 
 could do Farragut's. 
 
 " Faithfully yours, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 The following message came from his brother Major 
 Frederick Mahan : 
 
 " Treasury Department, Office of the Lighthouse Board, 
 
 " Washington, D.C, 
 
 " May 3, 1893. 
 
 " My dear Alf, — 
 
 "■ There was a reporter in here yesterday who 
 told me that he had learned at the Navy Department 
 that your orders for sea would not go into effect for 
 a year yet. I told him of your possible assignment 
 to the Miantonomah, and he answered that he had 
 heard of that but that the report which he gave me 
 yesterday was of later date. 
 
 " I met Dewey this morning and he tells me that there 
 has been a tremendous pressure brought to bear from 
 naval officers themselves to keep you on shore, giving 
 as an example of it a remark made by McNair that 
 although he likes exceedingly his work at the Observa- 
 tory, he considers that what you are doing is of so 
 much more importance, that he would be willing to 
 volunteer to go to sea to have you left on shore. 
 
 " I tell you these things for what they are worth. 
 Of course I cannot say anything about them as to their 
 accuracy, or their reliability, but still they may be looked 
 on as indicating straws. 
 
 " Very affectionately, 
 
 " F. A. Mahan." 
 
1893] GREAT RECEPTION IN ENGLAND 61 
 
 Despite the efforts of his friends, Mahan had to go 
 to sea and was appointed to the command of the Chicago, 
 flagship of Admiral Erben on the European station. 
 Uhomme propose mais Dieu dispose, and in this case 
 nothing could have been more fortunate for that 
 deeply disappointed philosopher. When the Chicago 
 reached England, the most eminent and distinguished 
 personages in the land sought to do him honour and to 
 express their recognition of his genius. No sooner 
 had the flagship touched at Queenstown, her first port 
 of call in Ireland, than the avalanche of hospitable 
 invitations began to descend upon his unprotected head. 
 
 This created unexpected complications, for Admirals 
 after all are but human, and some embarrassment 
 was created at Queenstown by the arrival of a telegram 
 addressed to Mahan from the American Embassy in 
 London stating that Earl Spencer, First Lord of the 
 Admiralty, wished to give him a dinner and asking 
 him to name a convenient date. When Lord Spencer's 
 dinner eventually took place on the arrival of the 
 Chicago in England, it was given in honour of Admiral 
 Erben and Captain Mahan. It included the Viceroy 
 of Ireland, several Cabinet ministers, and a number of 
 the most distinguished admirals and military com- 
 manders in the country. Prior to this. Admiral Erben 
 and Captain Mahan had dined with the Viceroy of 
 Ireland on the yacht Enchantress in Queenstown 
 Harbour. 
 
 The First Lord of the Admiralty entertained Mahan 
 on other occasions, and told him one night at dinner 
 that Mr. John Morley, a member of the Cabinet and 
 one of the most distinguished literary men in England 
 (now Viscount Morley of Blackburn), wished to meet him. 
 This, Mahan recorded in a private letter to his family, 
 " he found it hard to believe." 
 
 On the arrival of the Chicago at the Isle of Wight 
 for the Cowes Regatta, a large envelope with the seal 
 
62 ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 of the " Board of Green Cloth " aroused Mahan's curi- 
 osity. It contained information that the Lord Steward 
 of the Royal Household had received the Queen's 
 command to invite Captain Mahan to dinner on July 
 31, at 8.45 of the clock. Full naval dress was the order 
 of the day. In a letter to his daughter, Mahan records 
 that for the first time in his life he sat down to dinner 
 with his sword on, and was much impressed by the 
 magnificent uniforms and orders worn by many of 
 the other guests. Among those at the dinner were the 
 Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII), the 
 Duke of York (now King George V of England), Lord 
 Roberts, Sir Henry Keppel, Admiral of the Fleet, 
 and a number of foreign naval officers. After dinner 
 Captain Mahan was presented to the Prince of Wales 
 and other distinguished guests. Lord Roberts told him 
 that some one had sent him The Influence of Sea Power 
 upon History, and after reading it he had bought the 
 second book himself. In reply to his complimentary 
 remarks, Mahan said that he thought it better to have 
 done something, as Lord Roberts had, than to have 
 only written something. 
 
 The following day the Duke of Connaught arrived 
 on board the Chicago unannounced. This nearly led 
 to a mild tragedy, because, not having given his name, 
 he was informed that both the Admiral and the Captain 
 were dressing for dinner. As it was about five in the 
 afternoon, he naturally remarked that it seemed a 
 long time to dinner and suggested that perhaps the 
 Admiral would see the Duke of Connaught ! My friend 
 Dr. Brathwaite, who was surgeon on the Chicago 
 during this European cruise and who has been invaluable 
 in helping me to form a just estimate of Mahan's 
 temperament, tells me that during Cowes week it was 
 not unusual for the young English Princesses to visit 
 the flagship in the same unceremonious way. 
 
 Shortly after this the flagship left for the Channel 
 
1894] PUBLICLY ENTERTAINED 63 
 
 and Mediterranean ports of France and Spain. Admiral 
 Erben, Captain Mahan, and the officers of the Chicago 
 were entertained by the Prefect, the Mayor, and other 
 notabihties of Havre ; and nothing could exceed the 
 kindness of the members of an English family by the 
 name of Schiff towards the officers of the ship when they 
 touched at Villefranche. On the return of the Chicago 
 to England in the spring of 1894 a veritable deluge 
 of honours and entertainments awaited Mahan. 
 
 His English publishers, Messrs. Sampson Low & 
 Marston, were first in the field, and gave a dinner in 
 his honour at that famous rendezvous of Americans, 
 the Langham Hotel. Then, on May 24, a public banquet 
 was given at St. James's Hall in honour of Admiral 
 Erben, Captain Mahan, and the officers of the Chicago. 
 The company numbered about four hundred, and among 
 the Committee of Welcome were the Lord Mayor of 
 London and a number of the most distinguished English 
 admirals and generals, including Admiral of the 
 Fleet Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby and Lord Roberts ; 
 while the list of stewards comprised many of the most 
 eminent names in Britain. Among the guests of note 
 were Mr. John Hay and Mr. William C. Whitney. 
 Following the toasts of the Queen and the President 
 of the United States, the toast of the United States 
 was responded to by the United States Ambassador, 
 Mr. Bayard. The United States Navy was honoured 
 by Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby and Admiral Erben. 
 In felicitous vein Lord Roberts proposed the health 
 of Mahan and the officers of the Chicago, and expressed 
 a wish that Captain Mahan should do for military 
 history what he had done for the naval service. 
 
 In replying, Mahan said in part : 
 
 " It is indeed to us a special occasion, the memory 
 of which will remain throughout our lives. But it is 
 satisfactory to know and to feel that this pre-eminently 
 distinguished assemblage is by no means alone or 
 
64 ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 peculiar in its manifestations of the kindly feeling and 
 cordial sentiments which more and more, as time goes 
 by, are coming to mark the relations between the 
 citizens of Great Britain and the citizens of the United 
 States. 
 
 " Certainly it is so between the naval officers of the 
 two nations, as I myself am able to affirm from an 
 experience of more than a quarter of a century, and 
 I am happy to number personally among my friends 
 many members of the British Navy, who have not 
 only rendered me great and substantial service at various 
 times, but have shown very great kindness in so doing. 
 
 " And indeed naval officers of the United States 
 should feel a peculiar sympathy with Englishmen, 
 over and above that which is felt by the mass of our 
 fellow citizens, because by our education and our habits 
 of thought we are brought into close sympathy and 
 contact with one of the greatest of British interests, 
 and we, as naval officers, are in keen sympathy with the 
 greatest of all, that is, the British Navy. 
 
 " The Navy is the first line of defence in Great Britain, 
 and although I fear I shall have to decline Lord Roberts's 
 very flattering offer to undertake the subject of military 
 warfare, I can quite understand that although you have 
 a first line of defence, you ought also to have a second. 
 Separated as we are by the broad expanse of the Atlantic, 
 we are able to look upon many European questions with 
 a certain amount of calmness and indifference. But 
 when the question of the Navy is reached, feelings df 
 indifference give way to feelings of admiration and 
 enthusiasm for what is a record of glory unsurpassed 
 in the annals of time." 
 
 On June 2, the Royal Navy Club of 1765 and 1785 
 invited Admiral Erben and Captain Mahan as guests 
 to a dinner to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of 
 Lord Howe's victory on June 1, 1794. Unfortunately 
 Admiral Erben was unable to attend ; so Mahan was 
 the sole guest. He occupied the seat of honour at the 
 right hand of the President, Admiral Sir Vesey Hamilton, 
 and it was the first time anyone other than a British 
 
1894] ROYAL NAVY CLUB 65 
 
 subject had enjoyed the privilege of dining with this 
 ancient institution, whose fame is enhanced by the fact 
 that among other celebrated names in its Hst of members 
 is that of Nelson. On his right was Admiral Sir Wilham 
 Houston Stewart, who told him he had never thoroughly 
 understood Howe's great victory of June 1 until he, 
 Mahan, had explained it. He considered the description 
 magnificent.^ Sir William Houston Stewart made an 
 eloquent and enthusiastic speech on Anglo-American 
 relations and Mahan's writings, and his call for three 
 cheers for his guest was vigorously taken up by the 
 admirals and captains present, of whom there were 
 about a hundred. 
 
 Writing to Mrs. Mahan a description of it, he said : 
 " You may imagine I was somewhat overwhelmed 
 at being thus greeted by a hundred British admirals 
 and captains. I think it was perhaps the most spon- 
 taneous and affecting testimonial I received while in 
 England." In after-years he sought the opinion of 
 Admiral Sir Bouverie Clark in these words : 
 
 " Would you kindly glance your eye over the enclosed, 
 and let me know if it accords with truth ? You can 
 understand that in my recollections, and particularly 
 of my stay in England in 1894, I am divided between 
 
 1 " I extended my reading by Jomini's Wars of the French Republic, 
 a work instructive from the political as well as military point of view ; 
 concurrently testing Howe's naval campaign of 1794 by the principles 
 advanced by the military author, which commended themselves to 
 my judgment. In connection with this study of naval strategy I 
 reconstructed independently Howe's three engagements of May 28 
 and 29 and June 1, from the details given by James, Troude, and 
 Chevalier, analysing and discussing the successive tactical measures 
 of the opposing admirals ; in the battle of June 1 going so far as to 
 trace even the tracks of the fifty-odd individual ships throughout the 
 action. This, the most complicated presentation I ever attempted, 
 was a needless elaboration, though of absorbing interest to nae when 
 once begun. A comparison between it and the bare conventional 
 diagram of Trafalgar in the same volumes, which has been criticised 
 as not reproducing the facts, may serve to show how far multiplicity 
 of minutiae conduces to clearness of perception." — From Sail to Steam. 
 
66 . ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 the wish not to seem to make too much of the attentions 
 showed me, and the equal desire to recognise all that 
 they were in themselves. Of these, among the most 
 valued by me was the Royal Navy Club, because of the 
 closeness with which it has guarded guestship. The 
 compliment of being the first foreigner to be entertained 
 by it was very great." 
 
 At dinner, one night later in the season, Captain 
 Prince Louis of Battenberg (now Admiral the 
 Marquess of Milford Haven) told him that he was the 
 first man not a British subject that had ever dined 
 with the Club, and added : "I hope we shall hereafter 
 stick to the rule, so that you may remain the only one." 
 
 One of the admirals at the dinner said to Mahan : 
 " There is only one fault I find in you American officers, 
 and that is there are not nearly enough of you." 
 
 A week before the Royal Navy Club dinner he received 
 the following letter, which very naturally gave him 
 profound satisfaction : 
 
 " 9, NoEHAM Gaedens, Oxfoed, 
 " May 22, 1894. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — 
 
 " At my suggestion the University of Oxford 
 considered in Council yesterday the question of whether 
 you should be asked to do us the honour of receiving 
 the Honorary Degree of D.C.L. at our ' Commemoration ' 
 on June 20. I am happy to say that the suggestion 
 was most favourably entertained, and I was com- 
 missioned to inquire whether you are likely to be 
 on our shores at that time. I cannot help the expression 
 of my hope that you may find it possible to be present. 
 
 " I do not think that any one of the recipients of our 
 Degree would be considered more worthy of such honour 
 as our ancient University can bestow, or would be more 
 popular with our people. One of our Heads of Houses, 
 the President of Trinity, will do himself the honour of 
 entertaining you in my place, as Mrs. Burrows is not 
 strong enough to undertake it, but I shall claim you as 
 
1894] OXFORD UNIVERSITY 67 
 
 my guest at the All Souls lunch, which is a sort of 
 University function. 
 
 " Yours faithfully, . 
 
 " Montagu Burrows, 
 " Capt. B.N. 
 " {Professor of History). 
 
 " Until we know of your acceptance, this invitation, 
 if you please, is to be kept entirely confidential as 
 regards the public." 
 
 Captain Burrows was probably the first naval officer 
 in the annals of Oxford to occupy a professor's chair 
 in the University. 
 
 Upon his acceptance of the honour, Mahan received 
 this letter from Dr. Woods, the President of Trinity 
 College : 
 
 " Trinity College, Oxfobd, 
 " May 24, 1894. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — 
 
 " Professor Burrows tells me that you are willing 
 to accept the Honorary Degree of D.C.L., which the 
 University of Oxford proposes to confer on you, and 
 upon me falls (as having been the proposer of the 
 Degree at the meeting of the Council of the University) 
 the pleasant duty of asking you to be my guest while 
 you are at Oxford for the purpose. It will give Mrs. 
 Woods and myself much pleasure, if you will come to us 
 on Tuesday the 19th of June, at any time which is 
 convenient to you. The Degree will be conferred in 
 the Theatre on the morning of the 20th, and Professor 
 Burrows has asked us to bring you on that day to 
 luncheon at All Souls College, where the guests of the 
 University are generally entertained after the ceremony. 
 I may add that both Mrs. Woods and I are warm 
 admirers of your books, and that it will give us real 
 satisfaction to have this pleasant opportunity of making 
 your acquaintance. 
 
 " Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " H. G. Woods." 
 " To Captain Mahan." 
 
 6 
 
68 ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 The conferring of the degree took place in the ancient 
 building known as the Sheldonian Theatre, which was 
 given to the University in 1669 by Gilbert Sheldon, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the 
 University. It is a fine example of Sir Christopher 
 Wren's genius, and enjoyed the distinction of being 
 the early home of the University Printing Press. 
 Writing to his son at this time, Mahan said : 
 
 " What a charming, fascinating place Oxford is ! I wish 
 it were possible to describe to you the ancient gray 
 buildings, the beautiful green turf and trees, and the 
 historical associations with which Dr. Woods made my 
 visit so interesting, but it would be impossible. English 
 people are right to love their country, for a lovelier 
 one would be hard to find." 
 
 No doubt Mahan was familiar with Matthew Arnold's : 
 
 *' Steeped in sentiment as she lies, spreading her gardens 
 to the moonlight, and whispering from her towers the 
 last enchantments of the Middle Age. Who will deny 
 that Oxford, by her ineffable charm, keeps ever calling 
 us nearer to the true goal of all of us, to the ideal, to 
 perfection, to beauty, which, in a word, is only truth 
 seen from another side ? " 
 
 Among others upon whom were conferred degrees 
 were the Earl of Kimberley, Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs, and the Bishop of Peterborough, Dr. 
 Mandell Creighton. In From Sail to Steam Mahan 
 gives this amusing description of the ceremony : 
 
 " The great occasion at Oxford presents a curious 
 combination of im.pressiveness and horse-play, such 
 as is associated with the Abbot of Misrule in the stories 
 of the Middle Ages. It is this smack and suggestion 
 of antiquity, of unnumbered such occasions in the 
 misty past, when the student was half-scholar and half- 
 ruffian, which makes the permitted license of to-day 
 not only tolerable, but in a sense even venerable. 
 The good-humor and general acceptance on both sides, 
 
1894] D.C.L., OXFORD 69 
 
 by chaffers and chaffed, testified to recognised conditions; 
 and there is about a hoary institution a saving grace 
 which cannot be transferred to parvenus. Practised 
 in a modern Cis- Atlantic seat of learning, as I have 
 seen it done, without the historical background, the 
 same disregard of normal decorum becomes undraped 
 rowdyism — boxing without gloves. The scene and its 
 concurrences at Oxford have been witnessed by too 
 many, and too often described, for me to attempt them. 
 I shall narrate only my particular experiences. I had 
 been desired to appear in full uniform — epaulettes, 
 cocked hat, sword, and what is suggestively called 
 ' brass-bound ' coat ; swallow-tailed, with a high 
 collar stiffened with lining and gold lace, set off by 
 trousers with a like broad stripe of lace, not inaptly 
 characterised by some humorist as ' railroad ' trousers. 
 The theory of these last, I believe, is that so much 
 decoration on hat and collar, if not balanced by an 
 equivalent amount below, is top-heavy in visual effect, 
 if not on personal stability. Whatever the reason, 
 it is all there, and I had it all at Oxford ; all on my 
 head and back, I mean, except the epaulettes. For 
 to my concern I found that over all this paraphernalia 
 I must also wear the red silk gown of a D.C.L. It 
 became evident, immediately upon trial, that the 
 silk and the epaulettes were agreeing like the Kilkenny 
 cats, so it was conceded that these naval ornaments 
 should be dispensed with ; the more readily as they 
 could not have been seen. In the blend, and for the 
 occasion, my legal laurels prevailed over my professional 
 exterior. 
 
 " In the matter of dress my life certainly culminated 
 when I walked up — or down — High Street in Oxford 
 with cocked hat, red silk gown, and sword, the railroad 
 trousers modestly peeping beneath. It must be admitted 
 that the townsmen either had more than French 
 politeness, or else were used to incongruities. I did 
 not see one crack a smile ; whether any turned to 
 look or not, I did not turn to see. My hospitable escort 
 and myself joined the other expectants before the 
 Sheldonian Theatre, where the ceremonies are held. 
 The audience, of both sexes, visitors and students, had 
 
70 ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 already crammed the benches and galleries of the 
 great circular interior when we marched to our seats, 
 in single file, down a narrow aisle. The fun, doubtless, 
 had been going on already some time ; but for us it 
 was non-existent till we entered, when the hose was 
 turned full upon us and our several peculiarities. I am 
 bound to say that to encourage us we got quite as many 
 cheers as chaff, and the personalities which flew about 
 like grape-shot were pretty much hit or miss. I noticed 
 that some one from aloft called out, ' Why don't you 
 have your hair cut ? ' which I afterwards understood 
 was a delicate allusion to my somewhat unparalleled 
 baldness ; but it happened that two behind me in the 
 procession was a very distinguished Russian scientist, 
 like myself a D.C.L., in ovo, whose long locks fell over 
 his collar, and I innocently supposed that so pertinent 
 a remark was addressed to him on an occasion when 
 *mpertinence was lord of the ascendant. Thus the 
 shaft passed me harmless, or fell back blunted from my 
 triple armor of dulness." 
 
 The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University was 
 the next to be heard from. Here is his letter : 
 
 " The Lodge, King's College, Cambridge, 
 "June 11, 1894. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — 
 
 " I am desired by the Council of this University 
 to ask you if it would be possible for you to come to 
 Cambridge and receive the Honorary Degree of LL.D., 
 and if such a compliment would be acceptable to you. 
 
 " The days of Congregation on which the Degree 
 would be conferred are Monday June 18, Tuesday 
 June 19, and Wednesday June 27. 
 
 " I shall be very glad if it would suit you to come 
 to Cambridge on one of those days. 
 
 " Yours very faithfully 
 
 " A. Austen Leigh, 
 
 " Vice-Chancellor." 
 
 This was one of the unfortunate occasions on which 
 the flagship was inconveniently absent from British 
 
1894] LL.D., CAMBRIDGE 71 
 
 waters. She was at Antwerp when the time came 
 for conferring the degrees, and as Mahan could be spared 
 for but one week, he had to forgo the pleasure and 
 distinction of being present at both Universities upon 
 the days appointed. As Oxford was first in the field, 
 he decided to go there on their Commemoration Day 
 and receive his Cambridge degree on a day convenient 
 to the authorities in the same week.^ This he did, and 
 Dr. Sandys, the Public Orator, commemorated the event 
 in Latin, of which this is a translation : 
 
 " We greet to-day with fraternal love a guest who has 
 come across the Atlantic to England. We greet not only 
 a citizen of a very great republic, but also the most eminent 
 authority on naval science and naval history, one who 
 has pointed out in his works the transcendent importance 
 of sea power in the history of great nations. When we 
 read his remarkable books we behold the image of our 
 maritime empire rise from the waves made luminous by 
 his pen. We behold the cause of, and the beginnings of 
 our widely scattered commerce ; and the need for protecting 
 our far-off colonies. And finally we are strengthened 
 in the determination that for the welfare of the world 
 and for the cause of universal peace we shall never permit 
 that glory to be snatched from us. Moreover, we prophesy 
 that in the future our brothers across the sea will be sharers 
 of that glory ; meanwhile, thoroughly appreciating that 
 we are of the same blood, the same language, and the same 
 glorious history, we gladly stretch forth across the sea 
 which happily separates us no longer our right hands in 
 a bond of friendship which we hope is destined to be for 
 all time. 
 
 1 " Oxford had been first to tender me her distinction, and I accord- 
 ingly arranged my journey with a view to her celebration ; two days 
 before which I went down to Cambridge, and was there received and 
 enrolled at a private audience, before the accustomed officials and 
 some few visitors from outside. What the circvmistances lacked in 
 the pomp of numbers and observance, and in the consequent stimulus 
 to interest which a very novel experience arouses, was compensated 
 to me by the few hours of easy social intercourse with a few eminent 
 persons, whom I had the pleasure of then meeting very informally." 
 — From Sail to Steam. 
 
72 ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 " Whom love unites, in vain the ocean sunders ; 
 with one accord we clasp our hands across the friendly 
 main. 
 
 " / present to you a man who is very closely united to 
 the British by the ties of friendship, and one who is 
 numbered among the highest in American naval affairs, 
 Alfred Thayer Mahan.'' 
 
 Later in the day, as LL.D. of Cambridge University, 
 Mahan revelled among the portraits in the house of 
 Dr. Butler, Master of Trinity College, from the walls 
 of which looked down upon him the faces of numbers 
 of famous men of whom he had so often read. Lord 
 Rosebery, the Prime Minister, said to him at one of 
 these functions : " I think you have broken the record 
 in taking a degree from both Universities in the same 
 week." 
 
 Four hundred years ago, in the reign of Bluff King 
 Hal, a charter was granted to an association of English 
 mariners, under the title of the Corporation of Trinity 
 House, the management of which was in 1609 conferred 
 upon the Elder Brethren thereof. In 1894 the Master 
 and Elder Brethren invited Mahan to dinner to meet 
 the Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII). 
 The guests of honour included a number of the most 
 prominent men in England, the Duke of York (now 
 King George V, then Master of Trinity House) being 
 in the chair ; and among the Elder Brethren entertaining 
 were the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Teck, Lord 
 Rosebery (then Prime Minister), and the Marquess of 
 Salisbury. 
 
 A more distinguished body of men it would have been 
 hardly possible to assemble together, including, as it 
 did, nine members of the Royal family and seven Cabinet 
 ministers. 
 
 Of all those who did honour to Mahan, no one was 
 more courteous than the Prime Minister, who entertained 
 him several times. This letter from him, among a 
 
1894] BUCKINGHAM PALACE 73 
 
 number, shows a personal interest which Mahan much 
 appreciated : 
 
 First Lord of the Treasury. 
 
 " 10, Downing Street, WhitbhaTiIj, 
 " May 29, 1894. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, — 
 
 " I write in the forlorn hope of being able to 
 persuade you to dine with me quietly on Thursday or 
 Friday next, when we might have conversation less 
 interrupted than was possible the other night, but I 
 know it is a forlorn hope ! 
 
 " Sincerely, 
 
 " ROSEBERY." 
 
 Following these functions, he was again invited to 
 dine with Her Majesty the Queen, and to a ball at 
 Buckingham Palace. In a private letter to his family, 
 after describing the guests, the scarlet liveries of the 
 footmen and the uniforms of the Highlanders and 
 Indian attendants, he said that the Queen spoke kindly 
 of his books. He adds with characteristic modesty : 
 " I think that Royal people are always coached for 
 such occasions." 
 
 Invitations too numerous to mention poured in 
 upon him. Among these he much enjoyed a visit to 
 Lord and Lady Salisbury at Hatfield House, one of 
 the most interesting country places in England, brimming 
 over with associations of old days and of the doings of 
 the great house of Cecil from the days of Queen 
 Elizabeth's Lord Burghley. To mention but one 
 possession of transcendent interest, Hatfield contains 
 the originals of thousands of the most important State 
 papers of Elizabeth's days. 
 
 Mahan was entertained by the American Ambassador, 
 by Lord Rothschild, Lord Nelson, Sir Francis Jeune, 
 Lord Radstock, Lord Stanley of Alderley, and many 
 other prominent and distinguished personages. The 
 
74 ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 Prince of Wales expressed a wish that he should attend 
 one of his levees at St. James's Palace, an introduction 
 which culminated in a private audience a few years 
 later when the Prince had become King Edward VII. 
 The privileges of a number of the most prominent clubs 
 were extended to him, and the Athenseum Club, which 
 in those days opened its doors to " a distinctly limited 
 number of distinguished visitors," invited Mahan to 
 become an honorary member and entertained him at 
 dinner. 
 
 He recounts that everywhere he experienced the same 
 cordiality, and among his correspondence are a number 
 of letters testifying to the warmth of his reception at 
 the hands of the great men of the day in England. 
 Poor Mahan ! He did not realise it at the time, but 
 he was virtually one of the lions of the London season, 
 than which there is possibly no more exhausting an 
 experience. All of this was very flattering, even if 
 ephemeral, but among his many experiences there is 
 one which he especially prized and treasured. It was 
 the receipt of a letter from the American Ambassador. 
 
 The opinion of such a man, highly distinguished in 
 diplomatic life, and universally esteemed for his personal 
 character and attainments, may be considered a fair 
 criterion of the estimate it is justifiable to place upon 
 the value of the services rendered to the State by a fellow 
 citizen. Mr. Bayard, United States Ambassador to the 
 Court of St. James, wrote him this charming letter : 
 
 " Embassy of the United States, London, 
 ''June 22, 1894. 
 
 " Deau Captain Mahan, — 
 
 " As the envoy here of our Government, and with 
 genuine personal satisfaction, I wish to congratulate 
 you upon the well-deserved degrees — honoris causa — 
 conferred upon you by ' those twins of learning ' — 
 Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 " I hold it to be the highest good fortune that in the 
 
1894] AMERICAN AMBASSADOR 75 
 
 prosecution of your professional duties you have been 
 enabled to render such eminent service to the truth 
 of history, the world of letters, and the good relations 
 of two nations of kindred speech and morals. 
 
 " In these days, when irritating aspersions and 
 ungenerous recriminations are only too frequent, the 
 magnanimity and perfect temper with which as an 
 American citizen and sailor you have accorded praise 
 and admiration to the memories of heroic men and 
 deeds of the British Navy are most welcome and 
 refreshing. 
 
 "It is honorable to you and to your country and 
 is potential in arousing a responsive feeling in the 
 hearts of the people to whom you have dealt their 
 just mede. 
 
 " Wishing you increased fame and the full enjoyment 
 of all that should accompany it, 
 
 " Believe me to be 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " T. F. Bayard . 
 " Captain Alfred T. Mahan, 
 " U.S.S. Chicago:' 
 
 In the following January the death of Sir John 
 Seeley, the historian, left vacant the chair of Modern 
 History at Cambridge University, and, much to the 
 delight of Captain McCarty Little and other intimate 
 friends, the suggestion was seriously made in the London 
 Press that Mahan should be invited to become his 
 successor as Professor of Modern History. 
 
 Here is McCarty Little's letter on the subject : 
 
 " University Club. 
 
 " compliment to captain mahan. 
 
 " hint that he be called to professorship of 
 
 " modern history 
 
 " London, Jan. 28. — The Daily Graphic will print 
 to-morrow a leader on the suggestion made by a corre- 
 spondent of St. James's Gazette that Captain Mahan, 
 United States Navy, be called to Cambridge to take the 
 
76 ^ ENGLAND [chap, vii 
 
 Professorship of Modern History, which was left vacant 
 by the death of Sir John Seeley two weeks ago. The 
 writer says : 
 
 " ' Captain Mahan's contribution to history is not easily 
 measured by academic standards, for it rises into the 
 higher plane of statesmanship. The weakest point 
 of the suggestion is that Captain Mahan possibly will 
 prefer active life in the United States Navy, but there 
 is no reason why the offer should not be made. A 
 refusal would be our loss, but we should have had the 
 pleasure of expressing appropriately our gratitude 
 for the national service he has done us.' 
 
 " Rira bien qui rira le dernier," and after all said 
 and done, I rather think, my dear Mrs. Mahan, that 
 we have already enough to justify our starting the 
 commencement of a good big enduring smile ! ! ! 
 
 " I could not imagine a case of such a glorious victory. 
 It is seldom that merit receives such an overwhelming 
 acknowledgment, and especially when it is in the case 
 of one who keeps himself so thoroughly in the back- 
 ground as Captain Mahan ; and all the more bitter must 
 be the pill for those who have sought to pooh-pooh his 
 work. 
 
 " Hoping to see you very soon, 
 
 " Believe me, very sincerely, 
 
 " W. McCarty Little." 
 
 In a letter to his family about this time, Mahan 
 said : 
 
 " The books are booming. The English publisher 
 writes me he had an order in Boston for 500 of the 
 first and 250 of the second, which Little & Brown 
 could not fill till new copies were printed. They had 
 sold in six weeks more than in six months previous. 
 This did England for us." 
 
 In The Navy as a Fighting Machine Admiral Bradley 
 Fiske endorses Mahan in some notable tributes to naval 
 power. Among other things he says : 
 
 " No other nation has ever dominated so large a part 
 of the surface of the globe as has Great Britain during 
 
1894] HOMEWARD BOUND 77 
 
 the last two centuries ; and she has done it by means 
 of her naval power. It is certain that that ' tight 
 little island ' has attained a world-wide power, and 
 a wealth per capita greater than those of any other 
 country ; that her power and wealth, as compared 
 with her home area, are so much greater than those of 
 any other country as to stagger the understanding ; 
 that she could not have done what she has done without 
 her Navy. The British Navy, even more than the 
 British Army, brought Great Britain safe out of the 
 Napoleonic danger, and made the British the paramount 
 nation of the world." 
 
 On the return voyage to the United States the 
 Governor of Gibraltar and the Commander-in-Chief 
 of the Channel Squadron gave receptions " to meet 
 Captain Mahan," and he ends his last home letter 
 from that side of the ocean with these words : " So you 
 see that our hospitable English friends were good to 
 me to the end." 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 Mother of a dauntless race, just, considerate, gentle, kind. 
 True and honest as the day, none more sturdy in the fight ; 
 
 Garden of surpassing grace, where peace and rest and calm delights, 
 Midst lovesome, matchless beauty dwell, fair guerdon of a thousand years ; 
 
 Where lavender and rosemary, phlox, bluebell, crocus, jasmine, thyme. 
 Rose, violet, poppy, briarsweet, lark, linnet, thrush and nightingale. 
 
 From dawn past twilights lingering kiss, in colour, fragrance, melody. 
 Pour out their loveliness to Him, of all the giver and the source ; 
 
 Land of kindly gentle folk, 
 
 Yet mistress of the all-puissant seas, 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LIFE OF NELSON 
 
 " We have all simply devoured your Nelson, and there is but one 
 verdict : that the Life of Nelson will never again be written." — 
 Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich, United States Navy. 
 
 After the completion of The Life of Farragut and 
 The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution 
 and Empire, Mahan turned his thoughts towards the 
 task of writing The War 0/ 1812, but as he was ordered 
 to sea in command of the Chicago just at this time, 
 the work was unfortunately postponed and the book 
 was not written until several years later. 
 
 This postponement, coupled with the fact that The 
 Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and 
 Empire of necessity dealt with Nelson's campaigns, 
 the details of which were then fresh in his memory, 
 led to his carrying out his intended project of writing 
 a biography of the greatest seaman of all time. 
 
 Before he sailed from America on the Chicago he had 
 received this note from Mr. Roosevelt ; 
 
 " Oyster Bay, Long Island, N.Y., 
 " June 13, '93. 
 
 " Dear Captain Mahan, — 
 
 " I greatly enjoyed the clipping from the Tribune. 
 What a real donkey the Evening Post is ! and what 
 fearful mental degeneracy results from reading it, or 
 the Nation as a steady thing. ^ 
 
 1 When the question of the inclusion of thi3 letter in the volume 
 was discussed, Mr. Roosevelt said to the author in his boyishly impetu- 
 ous way, " Put it in ; put it in : the Evening Post is just as big a 
 donkey as ever." Since these words were spoken, however, the Even- 
 ing Post and the Nation are said to have passed into other and, it is 
 claimed, in the interests of sound Americanism, more acceptable hands. 
 
 78 
 
1895-97] FIRST-HAND INFORMATION 79 
 
 " Well, I hate to have you abandon our own war 
 history, even temporarily, but you are the one man 
 to write a history of Nelson and such a history we 
 ought to have. 
 
 " Good luck go with you ! 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 One of the immediate results of the departmental 
 order requiring him to go to sea was the priceless 
 opportunity of coming into immediate contact in 
 England with a number of persons closely related to 
 Nelson and his family, and to the great commanders 
 who fought with him. From these he was enabled 
 to acquire an immense amount of first-hand information 
 that would otherwise have been inaccessible.^ Skilful 
 employment of this valuable material added much to 
 the interest and accuracy of the biography, which is 
 considered by many of the highest authorities as 
 pre-eminently the best biography of Nelson so far 
 published. 
 
 He found it impossible to do any serious literary 
 work while on sea duty,' so the actual writing of The 
 Life of Nelson was done from 1895 to 1897, within the 
 two years following the termination of the cruise of 
 the Chicago, and the book was given to the world in 1897. 
 
 Mahan's formula was to realise his personality by 
 ( mentally " living with Nelson" in as close familiarity 
 
 1 Among others, the Earl of Ducie assisted by lending him his copy 
 of Drinkwater's account of the battle of St. Vincent. 
 
 * " Although in itself in most ways enjoyable, the cruise of the 
 Chicago, while it lasted, necessarily suspended authorship. I heard 
 intimations of the common opinion that the leisure of a naval officer's 
 life would afford abundant opportunity. Even I myself for a moment 
 imagined that time in some measure might be found for accumulating 
 material, for which purpose I took along several books ; but it was in 
 vain. Neither a ship nor a book is patient of a rival, and I soon ceased 
 the effort to serve both. Night work was tried, contrary to my habit ; 
 but after a few weeks I had to recognise that the evening's exertion 
 had dulled my head for the next morning's duties." — A. T. M. 
 
80 THE LIFE OF NELSON [chap, viii 
 
 as was consistent with the fact of his being dead. This 
 resulted in a profound admiration for the man, Httle 
 short indeed of deep affection, and he admits that he 
 grieved while he condemned the shortcomings of that 
 remarkable character whom he sums up in these words : 
 " Sharer of our mortal weakness, he has bequeathed 
 to us a type of single-minded self-devotion that can 
 never perish. Wherever danger has to be faced or 
 duty to be done, at cost to self, men will draw inspiration 
 from the name and deeds of Nelson." 
 
 On the hundredth anniversary of the battle of 
 Trafalgar, October 21, 1905, Mahan was invited to 
 address the Victoria Club of Boston, and he defined the 
 subject of his discourse as The Strength of Nelson. 
 
 In the course of this he dissected Nelson's character 
 in a manner so profoundly interesting as more than to 
 repay examination. It concluded with this eloquent 
 summary : 
 
 " In a celebrated funeral oration, which we all know, 
 the speaker says : ' I come to bury Caesar, not to praise 
 him.' It is for no such purpose that men observe this 
 day ; for the man, the memory of whom now moves 
 his people, is not one to be buried, but to be praised 
 and kept in everlasting remembrance. True, he needs 
 not our praises, but we need to praise him for our own 
 sakes. The Majesty on High is exalted far above all 
 praise, yet it is good to praise Him ; for the essence of 
 praise is not the homage of the lips, but the recognition 
 of excellence ; and recognition, when real, elevates, 
 ennobles. It fosters an ideal which tends to induce 
 imitation, and to uplift by sheer force of appreciation 
 and association. And as with the Creator, so with the 
 excellent among his creatures. We need not ignore 
 their failings, or their sins, although an occasion like the 
 present is not one for dwelling upon these ; but as we 
 recognise in them men of like frailties with ourselves, 
 we yet perceive that, despite all, they have not only 
 done the great works, but have been the great men 
 whom we justly reverence. That they in their weakness 
 
1895-97] VOLUMINOUS REVIEWS 81 
 
 have had so much in common with us gives hope that 
 we may yet have something in common with them in 
 their strength. It is the high grace .and privilege of 
 a man hke Nelson that he provokes emulation rather 
 than rivalry, imitation rather than competition. To 
 extol him uplifts ourselves. As it was when he lived 
 on earth, so it is now. His life is an inheritance to 
 children's children ; of his own people first, but after 
 them, of all the nations of the earth." 
 
 The literary critic of the London Times prophesied 
 that The Life of Nelson would become one of the greatest 
 of naval classics. 
 
 Of the countless reviews which appeared at the time, 
 but one extract will here be quoted, being temperate 
 in language but characteristic of most of them [see 
 Bibliography) : 
 
 " Captain Mahan had already, by his previous 
 works — The Influence of Sea Power upon History, and 
 The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution 
 and Empire — placed himself in the front rank of naval 
 historians, winning distinction by his perfect mastery 
 of strategy, his philosophic insight and perspicacity, 
 his power of exposition and analysis, and his well- 
 reasoned and clearly balanced judgments. 
 
 " It was to be expected that The Life of Nelson would 
 be characterised by the same qualities — that for exhaus- 
 tive professional knowledge, for adequate treatment of 
 Nelson's career, his relation to the Admiralty and to 
 questions of State policy, for appreciation of his military 
 genius, and for dispassionate judicial temper in handling 
 the character of his hero. Captain Mahan' s book would 
 satisfy the demands of criticism. 
 
 " But, even from a writer of Captain Mahan' s 
 acknowledged ability, few persons were prepared for 
 a life like that which is here presented to us. Here 
 ' the mightiest seaman that ever trod the deck of 
 a ship ' is faithfully and reverently drawn in all his 
 consummate strength, in all his deplorable weakness, 
 and he stands out alive from the page. There is 
 
82 THE LIFE OF NELSON [chap, viii 
 
 unstinted admiration of his martial genius ; of his 
 alertness of mind, swift as the lightning in its movement, 
 overleaping the ordinary processes of reasoning, seldom 
 mistaken in its intuitive conclusions ; of his long 
 patience to wait and wear out his foes, and his dash, 
 like the tiger's spring, when the opportunity arrived ; 
 of his high courage ; of his unfailing magnanimity and 
 generosity towards his officers and men ; above all, 
 his sacred regard for duty, and, as he conceived it, for 
 honour — the lode-stars of his career. Many memoirs 
 of our great admiral have been written, but Captain 
 Mahan's Life of Nelson has no important rival. For 
 the future, this is the book to which all students of 
 the hero of the Nile, of Copenhagen, and Trafalgar 
 will turn, as his one authoritative, accurate, and adequate 
 biography and psychology." — J. R. Thursfield, Quar- 
 terly Review. 
 
 Among the more interesting and curious of Mahan's 
 documents is a characteristic letter of Nelson's, and 
 a communication written on paper of which the water- 
 mark is Nelson's famous Trafalgar signal represented 
 by the actual flags used and having on either side 
 the dates 1805 and 1905. It is from a German naval 
 officer, and is addressed from Kiel ! 
 
 When Nelson died, his services were partly recognised 
 
 by the conferring of an Earldom and a pension of five 
 
 thousand pounds a year on his next-of-kin, his brother 
 
 William, to whom was also made a grant of one hundred 
 
 thousand pounds for the purchase of a suitable estate 
 
 to commemorate Nelson's memory. This is the estate 
 
 now known as " Trafalgar." The late Lord Nelson 
 
 expressed his approval of the book in this letter to 
 
 Mahan : 
 
 " Trafalgar, 
 
 " April 26, 1897. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, — 
 
 " I acknowledged at once to the publisher your 
 kind present of the two handsome volumes of your 
 Life of Nelson. But I refrained from writing to you 
 
1897] LORD NELSON'S TRIBUTE 83 
 
 until I had read the book. I congratulate you on the 
 deserved and universal praise with which it has been 
 received. This is indeed a triumph when we remember 
 that it is the fourth of the new lives which have been 
 given to the public during the last three years. 
 
 " Of course it was impossible for a Biographer to 
 ignore the sad facts, so patent in the Alfred Morrison 
 correspondence. But yet, while exposing to the full 
 the heinousness of his fault and all its deteriorating 
 consequences, you have so justly portrayed his other- 
 wise noble character that this sad cloud is unable to 
 obscure the grandeur and power which outshone human 
 weakness. 
 
 " The true character of the man with all its littleness 
 and all its greatness is fully maintained through the 
 whole Biography, which shows that it was only want of 
 opportunity which delayed an earlier display of his 
 great power and determination against the enemy. 
 We feel that if he had been in Hotham's place as glorious 
 a battle would have forestalled the Nile, if in Parker's 
 a more complete breaking up of the Northern Confedera- 
 tion would have forestalled Copenhagen, if in Calder's 
 place as glorious a victory might have forestalled 
 Trafalgar. 
 
 " We shall never forget your kindness in visiting us 
 here, and as the living representative of that great 
 name I thank you for setting so nobly before the world 
 all the power and achievements of England's Admiral. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " Nelson." 
 
 One other letter from the many received will be given. 
 It is from Mahan's London publisher : 
 
 ^ " St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, 
 
 " London, E.G., 
 
 " March 8, 1897. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, — 
 
 " Messrs. Little, Brown «& Co. sent me one copy 
 in slips of your ' Nelson.' I began reading it at 5 p.m. 
 on Saturday and read it till past 12. Began again 
 yesterday 10 a.m. and finished it about 10 p.m. I could 
 
 7 
 
84 THE LIFE OF NELSON [chap, viii 
 
 not do anything but read it, and it took me nearly 20 
 hours. 
 
 " As the only Englishman who (so far as I know) 
 has read it, I can with the utmost confidence assure you 
 that it is certain to have a splendid reception here. 
 
 " I confess when I saw the size of it I felt a little fear 
 on the point of interest being sustained, but the first 
 chapter banished that fear. It begins admirably and 
 the interest goes on increasing from page to page. It is 
 a glorious book, is much greater than all others on the 
 subject as Nelson was greater than all his competitors 
 for fame. 
 
 " You have brought Nelson to life again. As an 
 Englishman and the first to read your book, I can 
 perfectly safely thank you for it in the name of our 
 whole nation, but all I will do is to announce to you that 
 the nation's thanks are coming, just as soon as Messrs. 
 Little, Brown & Co. will send the copies. 
 
 " With my warmest and most sincere congratula- 
 tions, I am, 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " R. B. Marston." 
 
 In his autobiography. After Work, Mr. Edward 
 Marston, of Sampson Low, Marston & Company, records 
 that The Life of Nelson was published by his firm in 
 April 1897, and was accorded a magnificent reception, 
 over 6,000 copies of the 365. edition being quickly 
 disposed of ; and that although the sale of naval war 
 books usually languishes in time of peace, there was 
 a continuous, steady demand for those of Captain 
 Mahan. The excitement in the literary and naval 
 world must have been intense, judging from a state- 
 ment in the New York Times to the effect that when 
 The Life of Nelson appeared, Harold Frederic cabled 
 to that paper from London that the reviewers of the 
 London dailies sat up all night with the advance copies, 
 in order to rush long reviews into print the next morning. 
 
 Of all the stories told of Nelson, is not one of the 
 most touching that which recounts how on the day 
 
1897] NELSON THE INCOMPARABLE 85 
 
 before the battle of Trafalgar, while they were trying 
 to close with the enemy's fleet, Nelson said to some of 
 the officers at his table at dinner : " To-morrow I shall 
 do that which will give you young gentlemen something 
 to think about and talk about for the rest of your lives, 
 but I shall not live to talk of it myself." It would seem 
 that England's Admiral had a real presentiment of his 
 coming end. 
 
 Never was there perhaps a finer illustration of the 
 lesson which life is constantly teaching us that we are 
 all human and that transcendent strength and petty 
 weaknesses are found together in the same nature. 
 The light of publicity which inevitably shines upon the 
 one eventually discloses the other. Despite deplorable 
 shortcomings, the calibre of Nelson's courage and sense 
 of duty was such as to have inevitably brought him 
 distinction, apart altogether from the spark of genius 
 which displayed itself in his remarkable military insight 
 and stamped him as a born commander and a potential 
 winner of battles. Whatever may have been the 
 actual date and incidents of their original adoption, 
 the three rows of braid on seamen's collars and their 
 black kerchiefs for ever commemorate Nelson's great 
 victories of the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar, and 
 his glorious death. 
 
 Mahan closes his memorable review of that wondrous 
 figure with these words : 
 
 " Happy he who lives to finish all his task. The 
 words ' I have done my duty ' sealed the closed book 
 of Nelson's story with a truth broader and deeper than 
 he himself could suspect. His duty was done and its 
 fruit perfected. Other men have died in the hour of 
 victory, but for no other has victory so singular and 
 so signal graced the fulfilment and ending of a great 
 life's work. Finis coronal opus has of no man been 
 more true than of Nelson. There were, indeed, conse- 
 quences momentous and stupendous yet to flow from 
 the decisive supremacy of Great Britain's sea power, 
 
86 
 
 ^HE LIFE OF NELSON [chap, viii 
 
 the establishment of which, beyond all question or 
 competition, was Nelson's great achievement ; but 
 his part was done when Trafalgar was fought. The 
 coincidence of his death with the moment of complete 
 success has impressed upon that superb battle a stamp 
 of finality, an immortality of fame, which even its own 
 grandeur scarcely could have insured. He needed, 
 and he left, no successor. To use again St. Vincent's 
 words, ' There is but one Nelson.' " 
 
 Writing to Admiral Sir Bouverie Clark, Mahan 
 said : 
 
 " I intend to retire when my time for voluntary 
 retirement comes. This summer I have to give a few 
 luncheons at our cottage in Newport, but I hope now 
 within a month to begin serious and consecutive work 
 on my ' Life of Nelson.' During the cruise I got him 
 down as far as the siege of Bastia in 1794, but then had 
 to stop. I find the great want now is not Nelson's own 
 letters — there are quite enough of them — but letters 
 from persons serving with him, or associated with him 
 in daily life, who may incidentally mention him. If 
 Captain Hammond is still with you — I understand he 
 is an East of England man — won't you ask him if he 
 knows of any descendants of Sir Edward Berry, who 
 was Flag Captain at the Nile ? Like Nelson he was 
 a Norfolk man, and I am pretty sure married in the 
 county. His home letters might have allusions, incidents 
 of daily life, etc., which is the great desideratum now. 
 I have received a few — but very few — new anecdotes 
 of such character. If at any time you get track of 
 anything of the sort, or can suggest where I might 
 turn up something, be sure and let me know. I want 
 very much to write a life that will be the standard, 
 if I can." 
 
 From his friend the Hon. Henry White, of the United 
 States Embassy, came this appreciative note : 
 
 " 9, Grosvenob Crescent, S.W., 
 
 " April 27, 1897. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, — 
 
 " I cannot say how much gratified I was by the 
 
1897] HIGH PRAISE FROM HENRY WHITE 87 
 
 receipt of your very kind letter announcing the approach- 
 ing arrival of your ' Life of Nelson,' which has since duly 
 reached me. 
 
 " I am very proud to be the possessor of a copy, 
 given me by the author, of that remarkable work, 
 and I shall always value it very highly. I have already 
 read the greater part of the first volume with the 
 deepest interest, and can only say that, besides being, 
 if possible, more interesting than its predecessors, it 
 contains to a marked degree all the features which 
 make your works so remarkable. No one ever made 
 technical and strategical details so lucid to the unpro- 
 fessional intellect as you do. 
 
 " You have doubtless seen the innumerable criticisms 
 — each more favourable than the other — which have 
 appeared in this country about the work. 
 
 " It will always be to me one of the most pleasant 
 incidents of my first period of official service in this 
 country to have been here at the time of your first 
 visit after your books had been published and to have 
 realised the appreciation in which you were— and are — 
 held ; and I don't believe you have a fellow countryman 
 who is prouder of you than I am. 
 
 " My wife is absent in Dresden or would doubtless 
 ask to be remembered. I trust we may soon meet 
 again, and meanwhile I am, 
 
 " Yours most sincerely and gratefully, 
 
 " Henry White." 
 
 In a letter to his daughter, Mahan wrote : "I intend 
 to make the Life of Nelson the great work of my own 
 life." 
 
 Whatever may be its exact place in the immortal 
 trilogy of sea-power books, it is a fascinating work. 
 Without it no man's library is complete. Those who 
 fail to read it, rob themselves of a rare intellectual 
 treat. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 NAVAL WAR BOARD 
 " They rule thebalanced world who rule the main." — James Thomson. 
 
 One of Mahan's most important appointments came 
 in 1898 on the breaking out of the Spanish- American 
 War, when he was recalled by cable ^ from Italy 
 and joined two other distinguished officers, Admiral 
 Montgomery Sicard and Admiral (then Captain) 
 Crowninshield, on the Naval War Board, which was 
 speedily established for the purpose of furnishing the 
 Secretary of the Navy with technical information 
 and advice on questions of strategy. Three of the 
 original members of this Board, Captain A. S. Barker 
 and Commander Richardson Clover — both of whom 
 became Rear-Admirals— and Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, 
 were all called to active service within a few days 
 of its formation ; the last-named to take a command 
 in the " Roosevelt Rough-Riders," which he himself 
 recruited. Mahan sent the Department the following 
 cable through the United States Embassy and imme- 
 diately started for Washington : 
 
 " Captain Mahan offers following suggestions : 
 " First. If two or three enemy's battleships enter 
 Porto Rico, or elsewhere, they should at once be blocked 
 
 1 Copy of cable : 
 " Captain Mahan, Hotel d'Italie, Rome. 
 
 " Long Washington twenty -fifth cables proceed to United States 
 immediately and report to Secretary Navy. 
 
 " Stevens. 
 " (Received in Rome April 25, 1898.) " 
 
 88 
 
1898] RECALLED TO WASHINGTON 89 
 
 by a force superior to any combination possible by the 
 enemy at the moment. Second. In such case and in 
 existing conditions it seems probable that Havana 
 could be left to light vessels, swift enough to escape 
 if unfortunately surprised by superior force. Third. 
 It is improbable enemy fleet would seek to enter Havana, 
 adding to the burden of food subsistence, unless meaning 
 to fight, which of course we wish. Fourth. M. does 
 not think any enemy large ship would venture to enter 
 any of our Atlantic ports. Torpedo vessels might, but 
 they can be handled. Fifth. M. heartily approves 
 naval strategy up to date, especially refusing to oppose 
 ships to the Havana forts. He would not favor any 
 dispersal of battleships as he is reported to have done 
 to guard ports against attack. Sixth. M. requests 
 secrecy as to his movements till his return." 
 
 Travelling incognito under the name of "A. T. 
 Maitland," Mahan arrived in Washington a few days 
 after the receipt of the news of Admiral Dewey's success- 
 ful engagement at Manila. The attention of the Board 
 was consequently centred upon operations around 
 Cuba. Secretary Long, in The New American Navy, 
 describes the Board as having been eminently fitted 
 to co-ordinate the work of the Department and the 
 fleet, and to keep a general surveillance over the large 
 strategical and technical questions which could not be 
 dealt with by the Commanders-in-Chief of the several 
 squadrons. In Mr. Long's opinion " the Board 
 possessed high intelligence and excellent judgment, 
 and its service was invaluable in connection with the 
 successful conduct of the war." 
 
 Immediately after reporting in Washington, Mahan, 
 being strongly of opinion that official responsibility 
 should be individual, addressed a letter to the Secretary 
 of the Navy, recommending that he, the Secretary, 
 should have but one responsible adviser, who would 
 of course in turn consult^ with any number of officers 
 and by any methods the Department might desire. 
 
90 NAVAL WAR BOARD [chap, ix 
 
 Mahan held the conviction that the ultimate conclu- 
 sion tendered to the Secretary as professional advice 
 should be the undivided responsibility of one man, 
 and one only. His letter was forwarded to the Secretary 
 of the Navy through the President of the Board, but 
 no action was taken on it. In 1903 he contributed to 
 Scrihnefs Magazine a comprehensive article on the 
 subject under the title of " The United States Navy 
 \\ Department." This was subsequently embodied in 
 Naval Administration and Warfare. 
 
 Mahan did la valuable public service in August 1898, 
 shortly after the battle of Santiago, by throwing the light 
 of his unrivalled knowledge upon what was known at 
 the time as the Sampson-Schley controversy, which was 
 brought about, not by the naval commanders concerned, 
 but by their ill-advised friends and by a section of 
 the Press. Mahan gave practical and historic proof 
 as to why the credit for the victory must remain with 
 the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sampson, notwith- 
 standing his absence and the fact that Commodore 
 Schley and his fellow- commanders successfully carried 
 out the details of the action as previously planned by 
 the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 In justice to both these brave men, two extracts from 
 Mahan' s letter to the Press on the subject are here 
 quoted. Mahan records that in his official report to 
 the Navy Department the Commander-in-Chief paid 
 this tribute to Commodore Schley and the captains 
 of the ships engaged : 
 
 " The commanding officers merit the greatest praise 
 for the perfect manner in which they entered into this 
 plan and put it into execution. The Massachusetts, 
 which, according to routine, was sent that morning to 
 coal at Guantanamo, like the others had spent weary 
 nights upon this work, and deserved a better fate than 
 to be absent that morning. When all the work was done 
 so well, it is difficult to discriminate. The object of 
 
1898] SAMPSON AND SCHLEY 91 
 
 the blockade of Cervera's squadron was fully accom- 
 plished, and each individual bore well his part in it — 
 the Commodore in command of the Second Division, 
 the captains of ships, their officers and men." 
 
 The second extract from the same letter tells its 
 own tale : 
 
 " It would be improper to conclude without saying 
 that there is not the slightest proof that Commodore 
 Schley is in the least responsible for the malicious 
 attempts made to depress Admiral Sampson with a view 
 to exalt the second in command. On the contrary, 
 when they came to his ears he telegraphed to the Navy 
 Department (on July 10) his ' mortification ' at the fact, 
 handsomely attributing the victory to the force under 
 the command of the Commander-in-Chief of the North 
 Atlantic Station : ' to him the honour is due.' More 
 than this there is no occasion for him to say nor need 
 he have said anything but for the obligation forced 
 upon him by the indiscreet and ungenerous clamor 
 of those posing as his friends, from whom he might 
 well pray to be saved." 
 
 Captain Francis J. Higginson, of the Massachusetts y 
 who shared with Sampson and his flag officers on the 
 New York the cruel disappointment of just missing 
 the actual engagement by a few hours, wrote Mahan 
 on August 27, 1898 : 
 
 " I want to thank you very much for your article 
 about Sampson and Schley and for the very kindly 
 notice of myself contained therein. After working 
 hard night and day for thirty-seven days and then 
 missing the battle of July third by six hours, anything 
 like praise or encomium falls upon a wounded spirit 
 like the blessed dew from Heaven. 
 
 " Makorff says that ' some men have great knowledge 
 and little understanding, and some men have great 
 understanding and little knowledge,' but Sampson had 
 both, and they were both concealed from ostentatious 
 or offensive display by the most charming modesty 
 
92 NAVAL WAR BOARD [chap, ix 
 
 and simplicity of manner and gentleness of personal 
 intercourse which was at the same time my despair and 
 my delight. . . . These attacks have moved Sampson 
 even in his Nirvana-like calm of mind, and he has felt 
 keenly the injustice which has been showered upon him 
 in the public press. I am sure therefore that your 
 championship, crushing in its passionless logic, must 
 have been very welcome to him." 
 
 Captain John S. Barnes, Naval Commander and 
 author, to whose intelligent enterprise is due the 
 formation of the interesting and valuable collection 
 of naval works and naval historical relics which now 
 constitute the Library of the Naval History Society 
 in New York, wrote Mahan on August 9, 1898 : 
 
 " I have read your capital letter in the Sun news- 
 paper. It settles, once and for all, the clamor of the 
 hero makers of the slap-dash newspaper variety. 
 Sampson's and Schley's reports left them agape ; 
 followed by your letter, there was nothing left for them 
 and the newspapers which gave publicity to their 
 mischievous efforts but to crawl into the most convenient 
 holes accessible to them. ... I have had many 
 occasions to write and speak to people about this attempt 
 to sow discord between Sampson and Schley, and it is 
 a matter of profound gratification to me as an ' old 
 Navy man' that my views so frequently expressed 
 have been so completely vindicated, and that the Navy, 
 from top to bottom, has risen superior to all petty 
 jealousies and internal dissensions — and stands to-day 
 in the eyes of our countrymen as ' Sans peur et sans 
 reproche.' 
 
 " I am sure now that the controversy, originating 
 and kept up by penny-a-liners, may be considered at 
 an end. 
 
 " I congratulate you upon the clever way you have 
 treated the subject in your letter." 
 
 Mahan' s views on the naval and military operations 
 of the contending forces in the Spanish- American War 
 are published in Lessons of the War with Spain (1899), 
 
1898] REPORT ON NAVAL WAR BOARD 93 
 
 which Sir John Laughton described as "an admirable 
 and, in the best sense, popular essay on the strategy 
 of naval war." 
 
 Some years afterwards, in 1906, Mahan was requested 
 by the Navy Department to submit to the General Board 
 an account of the work of the Naval War Board. This 
 he did in a highly interesting and instructive report 
 of some thirty pages, which he brought to a close in 
 these words : " I'ortunately the war was short and 
 simple. Had it lasted longer, with a more efficient 
 enemy, there could not but be mistakes which careful 
 previous study would have prevented." 
 
 The brief and one-sided character of this three months' 
 conflict robbed Mahan of an excellent opportunity of 
 serving his country by the exercise of his remarkable 
 gifts in the special sphere of knowledge in which he 
 excelled. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE FIRST HAGUE CONFERENCE 
 
 " The cause of Universal Peace, upon which so much of the world's 
 attention has been fixed this summer by the Hague Conference, can 
 progress surely to success only upon the same conditions by which 
 any other movement for good reaches its goal. It will not be advanced, 
 but retarded by neglecting diligently and calmly to consider facts, to 
 look them straight in the face ; to see things as they are, and not 
 merely as one would wish to see them now, or as it is possible that 
 our descendants may be privileged to see them in a future happier 
 age." — Alfred Thayer Mahan, 1907. 
 
 The first Peace Conference at the Hague met on May 18, 
 1899, and held its historic sessions in the " House in 
 the Wood "^ — the famous summer palace of the Royal 
 House of Holland, built over two hundred and fifty 
 years ago by the grandmother of William of Orange. 
 
 The American Delegation consisted of the Hon. 
 Andrew D. White, President, the Hon. Seth Low, the 
 Hon. Stanford Newel, Captain Alfred T. Mahan, and 
 Captain William Crozier, later Major- General Crozier, 
 Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army. Mr. 
 Fredk. W. Holls was appointed Secretary to the Delega- 
 tion. 
 
 The deliberations of the Conference throw light on 
 Mahan's mental attitude towards some highly important 
 phases of modern warfare. In view of the subsequent 
 introduction of poison gases by the German Army 
 in the late war, perhaps one of the most interesting 
 features was the fact that the proposal forbidding 
 the use of projectiles, the sole purpose of which was 
 to spread asphyxiating gases, received but one negative 
 
 94 
 
1899] POISON GASES 95 
 
 vote, and that was cast by the United States Naval 
 delegate, Captain Mahan. This resulted in the United 
 States Delegation voting "No" in the full Committee 
 on this proposal, and Mr. White; the President of the 
 Delegation, has placed on record his personal disapproval 
 of this result and the feelings of regret he experienced 
 in connection with it. As Mahan has been subjected 
 to a great deal of criticism on this score, it is no more 
 than fair that the exact nature of his contentions should 
 be recognised, and they are therefore set forth verbatim 
 herein. 
 
 Mr. White says in his autobiography : 
 
 "As a certain disposition has been observed to 
 attach odium to the view adopted by this Commission 
 [i.e. the United States Delegation] in this matter, it 
 seems proper to state fully and explicitly, for the 
 information of the Government, that on the first 
 occasion of the subject arising in Sub-committee, and 
 subsequently at various times in full Committee, and 
 before the Conference, the United States Naval delegate 
 did not cast his vote silently, but gave the reasons, 
 which at his demand were inserted in the reports of 
 the day's proceedings. 
 
 " These reasons were briefly : '1. That no shell 
 emitting such gas is as yet in practical use, or has 
 undergone adequate experiment ; consequently, a vote 
 taken now would be in ignorance of the facts as to 
 whether the results would be of a decisive character, 
 or whether injury in excess of that necessary to attain 
 the end of warfare, the immediate disabling of the 
 enemy, would be inflicted. 
 
 " ' 2. That the reproach of cruelty and perfidy 
 addressed against these supposed shells was equally 
 uttered formerly against firearms and torpedoes, both 
 of which are now employed without scruple. Until 
 we knew the effects of such asphyxiating shells there 
 was no saying whether they would be more or less 
 merciful than missiles now permitted. 
 
 " ' 3. That it was illogical, and not demonstrably 
 
96 THE FIRST HAGUE CONFERENCE [chap, x 
 
 humane, to be tender about asphyxiating men with gas, 
 when all were prepared to admit that it was allowable 
 to blow the bottom out of an ironclad at midnight, 
 throwing four or five hundred men into the sea, to be 
 choked by water, with scarcely the remotest chance 
 of escape. If, and when, a shell emitting asphyxiating 
 gases alone has been successfully produced, then, and 
 not before, men will be able to vote intelligently on 
 the subject.' " 
 
 From this it is evident that it was no motive of 
 cruelty, but what might be described as academic 
 caution, which influenced Mahan at that time to record 
 his vote against the proposal to prohibit the use of 
 asphyxiating gases. Anyone who knew him would 
 appreciate, that in the light of the information which has 
 come to us of the inhuman character of these gases 
 and of the horrible sufferings which the use of them 
 entails, he would have been the last man to advocate 
 their employment. 
 
 The correct interpretation of his intentions would 
 seem to be that while he did not advocate their use, 
 he contended that little or nothing was known as to 
 their effects, and his object ostensibly was to preserve 
 for the benefit of the United States any advantages 
 which might accrue to them from the skill of American 
 chemists in the invention and manufacture of this type 
 of destructive force. 
 
 It might further be contended that Mahan' s attitude 
 was in keeping with the Secretary of State's instructions 
 to the Delegation, which were expressed in these prophetic 
 words : 
 
 " It is doubtful if wars will be diminished by rendering 
 them less destructive, for it is the plain lesson of history 
 that the periods of peace have been longer protracted 
 as the cost and destructiveness of war have increased. 
 The expediency of restraining the inventive genius 
 of our people in the direction of devising means of 
 
1S99] THE MOXROE DOCTRINE 97 
 
 defence is by no means clear, and, considering the 
 temptations to which men and nations may be exposed 
 in a time of conflict, it is doubtful if an international 
 agreement of this nature would prove effective." 
 
 Mr. White expressed his sentiments in this wise : 
 
 '' To this [Captain Mahan's argument] it was answered 
 and, as it seemed to me, with force — that asph\"xiatuig 
 bombs might be used against towns for the destruction 
 of vast numbers of non-combatants, including women 
 and children, while torpedoes at sea are used only 
 against the military and naval forces of the enemy. 
 The original proposal was carried by a unanimous 
 vote, save ours. I am not satisfied with our attitude 
 on this question ; but what can a layman do when he 
 has against him the foremost contemporary miHtary 
 and naval experts ? My hope is that the United States 
 will yet stand with the majority on the record."' 
 
 The declaration to " abstain from the use of projec- 
 tiles, the object of which is the use of asph}"xiating or 
 deleterious gases," was ultimately signed by the Delega- 
 tions of all the twenty-six countries represented, with 
 the exception of the United States and of Great Britain. 
 The British delegates voted in favour of the proposal 
 provided it was agreed to unanimously. In the Hague 
 Conference of 1907 the Government of Great Britain 
 instructed its delegates to vote in favour of the declara- 
 tion. This was done, lea%'ing the United States in 
 sole opposition to it. In the first battle of Ypres 
 Germany threw its sacred covenant to the winds, 
 obtaining temporary advantage by the use of deadly 
 gases, which had been specially invented by German 
 chemists for the purpose. 
 
 It was Admiral Mahan who introduced to the attention 
 of the members of the American Delegation the expedi- 
 ency of incorp>orating in the official record of the 
 Proceedings of the First Peace Conference at the Hague 
 the famous reservation touching the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
98 THE FIRST HAGUE CONFERENCE [chap, x 
 
 " For some days," says Mr. Andrew White, " in fact 
 ever since Captain Mahan on the 22nd called attention 
 to Article 27 of the arbitration convention as likely 
 to be considered an infringement of the Monroe Doctrine, 
 our American Delegation has been greatly perplexed." 
 
 According to Mr. Frederick W. Rolls, Secretary to 
 the American Delegation : 
 
 " The declaration was presented in the full session 
 of the Conference on July 25, read by the Secretary of 
 the Conference, and unanimously directed to be spread 
 upon the minutes and added to the convention by a 
 reference opposite the signatures of the American 
 plenipotentiaries. The importance of the proceeding, 
 so far as the United States of America is concerned, will 
 readily be seen. Never before that day had the Monroe 
 Doctrine been officially communicated to the representa- 
 tives of all the Great Powers, and never before was it 
 received with all the consent implied by a cordial 
 acquiescence, and the immediate and unanimous adop- / 
 tion of the treaty upon that condition." / 
 
 The declaration was to this effect : 
 
 " Nothing contained in this convention shall be so 
 construed as to require the United States of America 
 to depart from its traditional policy of not entering 
 upon, interfering with, or entangling itself in the 
 political questions or internal administration of any 
 foreign State, nor shall anything contained in the 
 said convention be so construed as to require the 
 relinquishment, by the United States of America, 
 of its traditional attitude towards purely American 
 questions." 
 
 Mr. Andrew White records that : 
 
 " The Conference was asked whether anyone had any 
 objection, or anything to say regarding it. There was 
 a pause of about a minute which seemed to me about 
 an hour. Not a word was said — in fact there was dead 
 
1899] MAHAN'S DISPASSIONATE LOGIC 99 
 
 silence — and so our declaration embodying a reservation 
 in favor of the Monroe Doctrine was duly recorded 
 and became part of the proceedings." 
 
 At the Conference the impression Mahan made upon 
 the mind of a London editor — probably Mr. Henry 
 Labouchere — is thus described in Truth : 
 
 " No American of distinction used to be more lionised 
 by his compatriots in Paris than Admiral Mahan 
 from the time he published The Influence of Sea Power 
 upon History. At the Hague Conference he played 
 the part of good listener. Of all the delegates there 
 he appeared to me to be the most thoughtful, as Sir 
 John Fisher seemed to me to have the most buoyant 
 and almost boyish freshness. Most of the delegates 
 came with minds, as it were, made up according to 
 briefs they held. Mahan had the deepest seriousness 
 of all. This and his unassuming manner allied with 
 manfulness gave him prominence. He thought before 
 he spoke, and only spoke to convey with discretion 
 just what he thought. No entrance he ever made in 
 a log could be plainer, more truthful, or bear more 
 clearly the impression of the inner man." 
 
 There are few incidents in Mahan' s career more 
 eloquent of the strength of his character than the 
 courage and tenacity with which he clung to his con- 
 victions at this Conference, particularly as neither 
 his Government nor his colleagues were in sympathy 
 with his views in several important particulars, more 
 especially in connection with that vitally material 
 question of the immunity of private property at sea. 
 The measure of his influence on this occasion may be 
 gauged by the difficulties experienced by President 
 Andrew White in reconciling the views of the other 
 American delegates and the instructions of the Govern- 
 ment, on the one hand, with the dispassionate logic of 
 Mahan, on the other. 
 8 
 
100 THE FIRST HAGUE CONFERENCE [chap, x 
 
 Let Mr. White speak in his own words. In his 
 autobiography he says : 
 
 " Then to the hotel and began work on the draft 
 of a report, regarding the whole work of the conference, 
 to the State Department. I was especially embarrassed 
 by the fact that the wording of it must be suited to 
 the scruples of my colleague Captain Mahan. He is 
 a man of the highest character and of great ability, 
 whom I respect and greatly like ; but, as an old naval 
 officer, wedded to the views generally entertained by 
 older members of the naval and military service, he 
 has had very little, if any, sympathy with the main 
 purposes of the Conference, and has not hesitated to 
 declare his disbelief in some of the measures which we 
 were especially instructed to press. In his books 
 he is on record against the immunity of private property 
 at sea, and in drawing up our memorial to the Conference 
 regarding this latter matter, in making my speech with 
 reference to it in the Conference, and in preparing our 
 report to the State Department, I have been embarrassed 
 by this fact. It was important to have unanimity, and 
 it could not be had, so far as he was concerned, without 
 toning down the whole thing, and, indeed, leaving out 
 much that, in my judgment, the documents emanating 
 from us on the subject ought to contain. So now, in 
 regard to arbitration, as well as the other measures 
 finally adopted, his feelings must be considered. Still, 
 his views have been an excellent tonic ; they have 
 effectively prevented any lapse into sentimentality. 
 When he speaks the millennium fades and this stern, 
 severe, actual world appears." 
 
 A tribute from so eminent an American citizen as 
 Mr. Seth Low, one of the most distinguished of Mahan' s 
 colleagues at the Conference, may be fitly here presented : 
 
 " 30, East 64th Stbeet, 
 
 " December 6, 1914. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Mahan, — 
 
 " My acquaintance with Admiral Mahan has 
 always been to me a source of great pleasure and of 
 personal profit, for there was mingled in him so much 
 
1899] TRIBUTE FROM SETH LOW 101 
 
 earnestness as to make him always both a pleasant 
 companion and an inspiring friend. 
 
 " I particularly enjoyed my association with him at 
 the Hague Conference in 1899. I once said of him, 
 when speaking to the American School at Rome, that 
 his achievement in discovering such a book as Sea 
 Power in History in the musty ashes of the Punic 
 Wars, as he himself told me that he did, was an 
 encouragement to every student to study the past with 
 understanding eyes, in the assurance that its lessons 
 have not yet all been learned. 
 
 " The Admiral's place as an historian is assured. 
 I send to you and yours the sympathy of one who feels 
 that in the Admiral's death he has lost a valued friend. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " Seth Low." 
 
 In a special memorial article in The New York Times 
 of December 1, 1914, the day Mahan passed away in 
 Washington, occurs this appreciation of his services 
 at the Hague : 
 
 " There were distinct reasons why the American 
 people congratulated themselves upon the presence of 
 Admiral Mahan (then Captain Mahan) in the first Hague 
 Conference. He was not only a naval strategist and 
 scholar, but was even then regarded as the most eminent 
 living expert in naval strategy. Then he had always 
 consistently advocated strong navies and preparedness 
 for war with special reference to naval influence in . 
 making for peace. Added to his equipment as a diplo- 
 matist in the delicate and complex task before the 
 Hague Conference was his experience as a public man 
 who had been hailed as the first great exponent of the 
 philosophy of sea power." 
 
 These words seem to strike the keynote of Mahan' s 
 attitude towards peace, for he was a humanitarian who 
 believed in the maintenance of such naval strength 
 as might reasonably be deemed sufficient to deter any 
 possible enemy from breaking the peace. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE CHESNEY GOLD MEDAL 
 
 " Admiral Mahan was not only a fine type of naval officer, but 
 possessed a lovable character that endeared him to all with whom 
 he came in contact. His attainments, which gave him a world-wide 
 renown, were of immeasurable value to the country he loved and 
 served, and though he is gone, his works happily remain as a guide 
 and inspiration not only for this generation, but for all that are to 
 come." — JosEPHTjs Daniels, Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 A UNIQUE honour was yet to be added to the sum of 
 Mahan' s triumphs in England. 
 
 In the year 1622 that portion of the new Palace of 
 Whitehall known as the Banqueting House was com- 
 pleted from the original design of Inigo Jones. The 
 ceiling was painted by Rubens, and down its length, 
 under the glorious colouring of those nine magnificent 
 panels which the monarch himself had commissioned 
 the great artist to produce, passed King Charles I 
 through one of its windows ^ facing on Whitehall to 
 his tragic fate on the rude wooden scaffold outside. 
 
 This beautiful building now shelters the Naval and 
 Military Museum of the Royal United Service Institution, 
 which on June 25, 1831, at the Thached House Tavern 
 in St. James's Street, was founded by a number of 
 highly distinguished naval and military officers. Subse- 
 quently it was established in its permanent abode in 
 the fine building erected for the purpose next door to 
 
 1 Or possibly tlirough a part of one of the window spaces which 
 were then solid on the Wliitehall frontage, but from which the bricks 
 had been specially removed for the occasion — one of the many pre- 
 cautions taken by the regicides from fear of a popular demonstration. 
 
 102 
 
1900] THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE 103 
 
 the Banqueting House, which contains, among other 
 exhibits of historic interest, numerous relics of Napoleon, 
 including the skeleton of his famous grey horse, Marengo, 
 and large models of Trafalgar and the Battle of Waterloo.^ 
 
 So it came about that nearly three hundred j'^ears 
 later a nineteenth-century institution of illustrious 
 origin and associations, housing its priceless historic 
 treasures in this famous old landmark of bygone days, 
 elected to confer upon Mahan a conspicuous and 
 unexpected honour. 
 
 The Council of the Institution, under the Presidency 
 of the Duke of Cambridge, a lifelong soldier, cousin 
 of Queen Victoria, and Commander-in-Chief of the British 
 Army, unanimously resolved to invite Mahan to accept 
 the distinction of the first award of the Chesney Gold 
 Medal. 
 
 This honour was enhanced not only by the circum- 
 stances of the award being made before any of the 
 eminent naval writers of the day had been selected, 
 but by the additional fact that writers on military 
 subjects were also eligible for the distinction. Much 
 to his surprise and gratification, Mahan received the 
 following letter from Mr. Long, Secretary of the Navy : 
 
 " Navy Department, Washington, 
 "June 30, 1900. 
 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " I have the honour to transmit herewith a letter 
 addressed by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cam- 
 bridge, President of the United Service Institution, 
 to yourself, conveying to you the award of the Chesney 
 Gold Medal in recognition of your literary works 
 bearing on the welfare of the British Empire, together 
 
 1 The modem exhibits include a fine specimen of that epoch-marking 
 English invention the Whitehead torpedo, which has revolutionised 
 naval warfare. The beauties of the Rubens ceiling are best examined 
 by means of a looking-glass held in the hand, for the proportions of 
 that Inigo Jones masterpiece are such that the painter's brilliant 
 conception is more than fifty feet overhead. 
 
104 THE CHESNEY GOLD MEDAL [chap, xi 
 
 with the gold medal, both having been received from 
 the State Department through the British Ambassador 
 at the Capitol. 
 
 " I take great pleasure in forwarding you the medal 
 and the letter, and in assuring you that I consider it 
 a great honour to the Naval Service of the United 
 States. 
 
 *' Yours very respectfully, 
 " John D. Long, 
 
 " Secretary. 
 " Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S.N. Retired, 
 " 160, West 86th Street, 
 " New York, N.Y." 
 
 The gold medal, of the beauty of which the repro- 
 ductions by Tiffany on another page give some con- 
 ception, was accompanied by this communication 
 from the Duke of Cambridge : 
 
 " Royal United Servick Institution, Whitehall, London, S.W., 
 
 " May 31, 1900. 
 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " The Council of the Royal United Service 
 Institution of Great Britain, of which I am President, 
 have requested me to be the medium of communicating 
 to you a resolution which was carried at a recent meeting 
 of their body. 
 
 " The Gold Medal, founded in memory of the late 
 General Sir George Chesney, a distinguished officer 
 of the Royal Engineers, is to be awarded, from time to 
 time, on the decision of the Council of the Royal United 
 Service Institution, to the author who has produced an 
 original literary work, treating of naval or military 
 science and literature, and which has a bearing on the 
 welfare of the British Empire. 
 
 " The first award of the medal having come under 
 the consideration of the Council, it was resolved that 
 you should be invited to accept the distinction, in con- 
 sideration of the three great works of which you are 
 the author : The Influence of Sea Power upon History , 
 The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution 
 and Empire, and The Life of Nelson. 
 
1900] APPRECIATION 105 
 
 " It is a matter of satisfaction to me to be the means 
 of assuring you that the award has been made at the 
 unanimous wish of the Royal United Service Institution 
 of this country, which was founded, and" is maintained, 
 for the promotion of naval and military art, science, 
 and literature in the British Empire. 
 " I am, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 " George, 
 
 " President. 
 " Captain A. T. Mahan, D.C.L., LL.D., 
 " United States Navy." 
 
 Here is Mahan' s reply : 
 
 " QuoGUE, New Yobk, 
 
 "July 10, 1900. 
 
 " His Royal Highness 
 
 " The Duke of Cambridge. 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt 
 of your letter of the 31st May, transmitting to me 
 the Chesney Gold Medal, with the gratifying notification 
 that the Council of the Royal United Service Institution 
 have awarded it to me in recognition of the bearing of 
 my works — The Influence of Sea Power and The Life 
 of Nelson — upon the welfare of the British Empire. 
 
 " In expressing my thanks it seems scarcely necessary 
 to say how deeply I feel the personal honour of this 
 distinction conferred by the unanimous wish of a 
 professional organisation of the high standing of this, 
 over which Your Royal Highness presides. May 
 I be permitted to add that I value even more highly, 
 if that be possible, the assurance that, in such competent 
 judgment, my works have contributed in some degree 
 to the welfare of the British Empire, the strength of 
 which is so essential to the cause of our English-speaking 
 race and of mankind in general ? 
 " With profoundest respect, 
 
 " Your most obedient servant, 
 " A. T. Mahan, 
 " Captain, U.S. Navy.'' 
 
106 THE CHESNEY GOLD MEDAL [chap, xi 
 
 General Sir George Chesney, although by profession 
 an officer of the Royal Engineers, and eventually 
 a Member of Parliament, was more widely known to 
 fame as the author of The Battle of Dorking, an historical 
 allegory, which so dramatically described the invasion 
 of England and the destruction of the British Fleet 
 by the Germans as to create a nation-wide sensation. 
 
 A couple of years later Mahan received a further 
 announcement from Colonel Holder, Secretary of the 
 Institution, and this is what it contained : 
 
 " Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall, London, S.W., 
 
 " November 10, 1902. 
 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " I have the honour to inform you that, at a 
 meeting of the Council held on the 4th instant, you were, 
 subject to your acceptance, unanimously elected an 
 Honorary Member for Life of the Royal United Service 
 Institution, in consideration of your valuable contri- 
 butions to literature bearing on the Naval History of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 " A. Holder, 
 " Lt. -Colonel, Secretary. 
 " Captain Alfred T. Mahan, D.C.L., LL.D., 
 " United States Navy." 
 
 The award of the Chesney Gold Medal under the 
 circumstances described, although to the man in the 
 street possibly an event of comparatively httle signi- 
 ficance at the time, will now appeal to all advocates 
 of the promotion of cordial Anglo-American relations 
 as a powerful link in the chain which is daily binding 
 the two nations closer together in the cause of human 
 happiness ; for it struck a new and resonant note in 
 American literary achievement, and recorded with no 
 uncertain voice the appreciation and gratitude of a 
 great nation for the voluntary performance of a friendly 
 and invaluable national service on the part of an 
 American naval officer. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 OTHER PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 " Few beyond his family and his intimate friends knew him as he 
 really was. The strength and sympathetic nature of his character 
 were not worn on his sleeve. His mind was in an upper story above 
 us all." — Admiral Charles H. Stockton, U.S. Navy. 
 
 In 1896 Mahan retired as Captain on his own application, 
 after forty years' service in the Navy. He was then 
 fifty-six, but for sixteen years after this he was employed 
 by the Government in various capacities and was 
 retained for special duty in connection with the Naval 
 War College, of which he had twice been President. 
 
 Following the distinguished example of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, Harvard University in 1895, and Yale two 
 years later, conferred upon Mahan the degree of LL.D. 
 
 It was not until the year 1900, ten years after the 
 publication of The Influence of Sea Power upon History , 
 that his own alma mater, Columbia, conferred a similar 
 degree, an honour which he also received some years 
 later from Dartmouth College and, subsequently, 
 in 1909, from McGill University, Montreal. 
 
 When Prince Henry of Prussia visited America, 
 Mahan was appointed a member of the Committee of 
 Reception. At Cowes in 1895 the German Emperor 
 had entertained him on his yacht Hohenzollern, and had 
 presented him with a large framed photograph of 
 himself, bearing his autograph. 
 
 He was President of the American Historical Associa- 
 tion in 1902, and an honorary member of the Society 
 pf American Arts and Letters and of the National 
 
 107 
 
108 OTHER PUBLIC SERVICES [chap, xii 
 
 Institute of Arts and Letters. His scholarly address as 
 President of the American Historical Association can 
 be found in Naval Administration and Warfare, under 
 the title of Subordination in Historical Treatment. 
 In 1894 he had been elected a corresponding member 
 of the Massachusetts Historical Society, being similarly 
 honoured by the Geographical Society of Lisboa, 
 and a few years later the Minnesota Historical Society 
 elected him an honorary member. Had he in any way 
 sought them directly or indirectly, there would have been 
 no limit to the distinctions he could have received from 
 learned societies and eminent personages all over the 
 world. 
 
 Writing to a friend in 1910, he said : 
 
 " You do not seem as impressed as I myself am with the 
 fact that I have attained three score and ten. The term 
 is so significant with me that I look now upon my easing 
 life as a kind of appendix. I was immensely surprised 
 and, I own, pleased, to receive by cable congratulations 
 on the day from a Dutch Admiral in the name of the 
 officers of their Navy, and also from the Dutch Navy 
 League." 
 
 He served on several important committees during 
 President Roosevelt's administration. In 1909 he 
 was appointed by the President a member of a Com- 
 mission to report on the reorganisation of the Navy 
 Department. The results of the deliberations of this 
 body were subsequently made known to Congress 
 by the President. The Commission,^ which included 
 such distinguished men as Admiral Luce and Admiral 
 Robley Evans, substantially endorsed Mahan's views, 
 and among other interesting controversial questions 
 recommended that the officer best fitted to command the 
 
 1 Consisting of the Hon. William H. Moody, Hon. Alston G. 
 Dayton, Hon. Paul Morton, Rear-Admiral S. B. Luce, Rear-Admiral 
 A. T. Mahan, Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans, Rear-Admiral William 
 M. Folger, and Rear-Admiral William S. Cowles. 
 
1909] NAVAL REORGANISATION 109 
 
 great fleet in time of war should be appointed head of 
 a permanent advisory board, and that he alone should 
 be the responsible adviser of the Secretary of the Navy. 
 On the recommendation of this Commission, the 
 President nominated a joint Commission of naval and 
 military men, including Admiral Sperry, General 
 Franldin Bell, and other prominent officers, * to report 
 on matters vital to national defence, more especially 
 in connection with the location of Navy yards and 
 Navy bases. Over this Commission Mahan was chosen 
 to preside. Here is his letter of appointment : 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I desire to appoint you as Chairman of a Com- 
 mission for the purposes indicated in my Message to 
 Congress, of which I send you herewith a copy. 
 
 " I also send you herewith copy of a memorandum 
 prepared for me by a naval officer of high rank, to 
 which I invite your attention in connection with your 
 work. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 It would be difficult to estimate how much of the 
 growth and efficiency of the United States Navy the 
 American people owe to the resourceful brain, untiring 
 energies and foresight of Mr. Roosevelt, among whose 
 innumerable activities for the public welfare was the 
 formation of a Committee on Department Methods, 
 on one of the sub-committees of which Mahan sat 
 and advised on historical records and naval archives. 
 No wonder Mr. Roosevelt appeals to the strenuous 
 section of the community. Throughout the United States 
 the two most popular things would seem to be the 
 strains of " Dixie " and the mention of Theodore 
 
 1 Rear- Admiral A. T. Mahan, Chairman ; Rear-Admiral Richard 
 Wainwright ; Captain C. McR. Winslow ; Brigadier- General W. W. 
 Wetherspoon, General Staff, President Army War College ; Brigadier- 
 General W. L. Marshall, Chief of Engineers. 
 
110 OTHER PUBLIC SERVICES [chap, xii 
 
 Roosevelt's name. Both command instant acclaim.^ 
 Some idea of the fertihty of that restless mind may be 
 had by analysing the far-reaching scope and purport 
 of the directions given to the members of the Commission 
 on Naval Reorganisation. 
 
 This is the text of the letter of appointment written 
 to Mahan and the other members of the Commission : 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " I have appointed you as a member of a 
 Commission to consider certain needs of the Navy. 
 The organisation of the Department is now not such 
 as to bring the best results, and there is a failure to 
 co-ordinate the work of the Bureaus and to make the 
 Department serve the one end for which it was created, 
 that is, the development and handling of a first-class 
 fighting fleet. With this proposition in view I will 
 ask you to consider : 
 
 "1. All defects in the law under which the Navy 
 Department is now organised, including especially 
 the defects by which the authority of Chiefs of Bureaus 
 is made in certain respects practically equal to that 
 of the Secretary or the President. 
 
 " 2. The division of responsibility and consequent 
 lack of co-ordination in the preparations for war and 
 conduct of war. 
 
 " 3. The functions of certain Bureaus, so as to see 
 whether it is not possible to consolidate them. 
 
 " 4. The necessity of providing the Secretary of the 
 Navy with military advisers, who are responsible to 
 him for co-ordinating the work of the Bureaus and for 
 preparation for war. 
 
 " 5. The necessity for economical allotment and 
 disbursement of appropriations and for a system which 
 will secure strict accountability. 
 
 " 6. Finally, I want your views as to how best to 
 recognise and emphasise the strictly military character 
 of the Navy, so that preparations for war shall be 
 controlled under the Secretary by the military branch 
 
 1 Written before Mr. Roosevelt's death. 
 
Copyri(jht, Undericood tt UndernouJ. 
 
 THEODORE EOOSEVELT. 
 
 :iio] 
 
1909-12] DETACHED FROM OFFICIAL DUTY 111 
 
 of the Navy, which bears the responsibiHty for the 
 successful conduct of war operations. 
 
 " I wish to have the above subjects considered under 
 two general heads : 
 
 " First, as to the fundamental principles of an organi- 
 sation that will insure an efficient preparation for war 
 in time of peace, a separate report under this head 
 to be submitted at the earliest practicable date. 
 
 " Second, specific recommendations as to the changes 
 in the present organisation that will accomplish this 
 result, the report under this head to be submitted 
 later. 
 
 " In addition to the above reports I desire your 
 recommendation as to the number, location, and general 
 facilities of the Navy yards which are required by 
 strategic considerations in time of war and for maintain- 
 ing the fleet in constant readiness for war in time of 
 peace. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 Acting under instructions from the Navy Department, 
 Mahan gave lectures at the sessions of the Naval War 
 College held in 1909, 1910, and 1911. About this 
 time he also appeared before the House Naval Committee 
 in connection with matters affecting the Council for the 
 National Defence. He was detached from all official 
 duty on June 6, 1912, three months before his seventy- 
 second birthday, having given fifty-six years of his life 
 to the service of his country. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LATER PUBLICATIONS 
 
 To mortals are the parents of Genius unknown. Chief among 
 her progenitors is Symmetry. Her good fairy is Adversity. Gold 
 impedes her development. Wayward and capricious is she, incom- 
 parably endowed, siorpassing knowledge. To Eccentricity, first cousin. 
 Brothers and sisters has she, most rare and precious ; Charm, Beauty, 
 the Matchless Voice, the Flawless Emerald, the Sinless Soul. One 
 thing it is given to mortals to know ; the foster-mother of Genius is 
 Industry. 
 
 Some of the attributes of genius Mahan possessed : 
 industry, perseverance, vision, and the capacity for 
 taking infinite pains. The fact that he wrote The 
 Life of Nelson when he was fifty-five years of age, and 
 the other works mentioned in this chapter between the 
 fifty-seventh and seventy-second years of his fife, may 
 prove of encouragement to those who have already 
 passed middle age, yet feel that they have a message 
 to deliver. The sixteen years from 1896 to 1912 
 were productive of an immense amount of valuable 
 work, and gave to the world, in addition to the greatest 
 Life of Nelson yet written, a large number of highly 
 interesting articles which were first published in leading 
 periodicals of the day, including, among others, the 
 Atlantic Monthly, North American Review, Scrihnefs, 
 Century, Harper^s New Monthly, Forum, Leslie's, World's 
 Work, McClure's, and the National Review. These 
 were then issued in book form under the titles of 
 The Interest of America in Sea Power Present and Future 
 (1897), Lessons of the War with Spain (1899), The 
 Problem of Asia (1900), Retrospect and Prospect (1902), 
 Some Neglected Aspects of War (1907), Naval Administra- 
 
 112 
 
1890] "THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY" 113 
 
 lion and Warfare (1908), and Armaments and Arbitration 
 
 (1912), referred to elsewhere. 
 
 The idea of enhghtenkig the public mind in the United 
 
 States on questions of politico-naval import through 
 
 the medium of magazine articles probably emanated 
 
 in the first instance from the Editor of the Atlantic 
 
 Monthly, who wrote Mahan the following letter in 
 
 August 1890 : 
 
 " Editorial Office of ' The Atlantic Monthly,' Boston, 
 
 " August 27, 1890. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I have been struck with a passage on p. 42 
 of your admirable work on The Influence of Sea Power, 
 in which you call attention to the defenceless condition 
 of the Pacific coast in the event of the piercing of the 
 Isthmus. It raises the question in my mind whether 
 you may not have material for an interesting paper of 
 say 4,000 words in the Atlantic, expanding the sugges- 
 tion. That is to say, the centre of maritime operations 
 has shifted once from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. 
 It may pass in the distant future to the Pacific. Mean- 
 while, would not the completion of a canal taken with 
 the British movements at the terminus of the Canadian 
 Pacific and occidentalising of Japan and the growth 
 of Australasia immensely quicken the process ? and 
 if this be so, will not the Pacific coast of our country 
 become a far more potent factor in our historical 
 development than it has been, and is not Government 
 bound to take steps for the protection of that frontier ? 
 I believe you once served on a Commission charged 
 with the selection of a site for a Navy yard on the north- 
 west coast, and I fancy these subjects have more or 
 less occupied your mind. 
 
 " Perhaps I am outlining too broad a paper, but 
 I wished to indicate my pleasure in your book, and my 
 hope that you might be induced to give us such an 
 article as the above or one on some kindred topic. 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " Horace E. Scudder, 
 
 " Ed., Atlantic Monthly. 
 " Capt. A. T. Mahan." 
 
114 LATER PUBLICATIONS [chap, xiii 
 
 The outcome of this suggestion was the publication 
 of several articles in the Atlantic Monthly and other 
 periodicals between 1890 and 1897, in which latter 
 year they appeared in book form as The Interest of 
 America in Sea Power, Present and Future. 
 
 Into no other language — with the possible exception 
 of German — have so many of Mahan's books been 
 translated as into Japanese ; and it would be difficult 
 to estimate the extent to which the remarkable growth 
 of the Japanese Navy has been due to his writings. 
 In 1897 the Oriental Association of Tokyo sent Mahan 
 the following communication : 
 
 " 'Tis the greatest honor of mine to inform you that 
 your valuable work on The Influence of Sea Power upon 
 History is lately translated by the Club of Naval Officers 
 into our own language and published from our associa- 
 tion in such a form as you see under separate cover. 
 The association was first organised in 1892, and has at 
 present 1,300 ministers of State, members of the Diet, 
 civil and military officers, editors, bankers, merchants, 
 nay, all sorts of our educational people, as its members. 
 The chief aim of the association is to investigate various 
 questions of policy and diplomacy, both historical and 
 contemporary. To realise the purpose we have been 
 having an occasional public lecture, issuing a monthly 
 report, publishing several books of diplomatical value, 
 dispatching our own correspondents to seats of questions, 
 submitting our proposals to the consideration of our 
 Department of Foreign Affairs, etc., etc. 
 
 " Translation of your valuable book we adopted as 
 one of our honorable transactions. Our purpose was, 
 indeed, to give our countrymen the knowledge of naval 
 affairs, at present the most important knowledge in 
 this part of the world. The facts show that our humble 
 purpose is realised. The Japanese edition of your 
 valuable work attracted the attention of our public, 
 the Naval and Military Colleges have adopted it as their 
 textbook. 
 
 " We presented a volume to each of Their Majesties 
 
1897] 
 
 ADMIRAL TOGO'S TRIBUTE 
 
 115 
 
 the Emperor and Crown Prince of Japan and received 
 an honor of Their Majesties' approval. Subsequently 
 the Imperial Household Department bought from us 
 three hundred volumes in accordance with the royal 
 purpose of subscribing to every middle, higher middle, 
 
 
 
 
 
 TRANSLATION OP ADMIRAL COUNT TOGO'S TRIBUTE TO 
 ADMIRAL MAHAN 
 
 " Naval strategists of all nations are of one opinion that Admiral Mahan's works will for ever 
 occupy the highest position as a world-wide authority in the study of military science. I 
 express my deep and cordial reverence for his far-reaching Imowledge and keen judgement. 
 
 " Admiral Count Hbihaohiro Togo. 
 
 " May 6th, the 7th year of Taisho." 
 
 and normal school in Japan. To tell the truth, several 
 thousand volumes were sold in a day or two. 
 
 " These parts already published correspond to the 
 first volume of your original copy. So for the second 
 9 
 
116 LATER PUBLICATIONS [chap, xiii 
 
 and third volumes, they are now under translation by 
 the same club and will be published soon after. 
 
 " We will be much obliged if you will send us any 
 other work of yours useful to our association and 
 country." 
 
 A notable endorsement of Mahan's world-wide 
 influence will be found in the autograph tribute of that 
 distinguished Japanese veteran Admiral Count Togo 
 which is here reproduced, and which Admiral Togo 
 graciously wrote for this book. 
 
 When The Interest of America in Sea Power ^ Present 
 and Future was translated into the Japanese language, 
 the Hon. Kentaro Kaneko, ex-Minister of Agriculture 
 and Commerce, wrote this preface for it : 
 
 " While on a tour of inspection through Europe and 
 America in 1899, under Japanese Government, I came 
 across for the first time a book entitled The Influence 
 of Sea Power upon History, by Captain Mahan, the 
 author of the present volume. In reading through the 
 book many points of doubt which had for years existed 
 in my mind were all cleared away. After coming 
 home I had a part of the introduction of the book 
 translated and showed it to Count Saigo, then Minister 
 of the Navy, who in turn gave it to Suikosha to be 
 published in its reports. Since then every issue of his 
 work has been carefully read. 
 
 " His work just mentioned caused great awakening 
 in the world. The Influence of Sea Power upon the 
 French Revolution and Empire has put the French 
 people to astonishment. His Life of Nelson, The 
 Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain, opened 
 the eyes of the English people ; and now The Interest 
 of America in Sea Power awakens the Americans from 
 their sleep. These are all standard works and cannot 
 be excelled. 
 
 " My friend, Mr. M. Minakami, has in the intervals 
 of his official duties recently translated Captain Mahan's 
 work on The Interest of America in Sea Power, and 
 
1898-1900] JAPANESE APPRECIATION] 117 
 
 published it under the title of The Sea Power in the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
 " Our Empire, recognised as the foremost of maritime 
 countries in the Pacific, should, in spite of the short 
 time since her awakening, become conscious of this fact, 
 and increase more and more her power as such among 
 the nations of the world. 
 
 " My desire is that my fellow-countrymen should read 
 this book in such a spirit, and put forth an effort to 
 make their country a great sea power in the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
 "Kentaro Kaneko. 
 
 " April 1899." 
 
 Senator Lodge's opinion of Mahan's standing as an 
 authority on naval warfare is reflected in the following 
 letter received about this time : 
 
 " Personal. 
 
 " United States Senate, Washington, D.C, 
 " October 19, 1898. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " Many thanks for your kind note of the 18th, 
 which gives me just the information I wanted. 
 
 " I am very glad to know that you are going to 
 write papers for the Century on the two great battles 
 of Santiago and Manila. Mine will be simply the 
 popular treatment of those actions by the general 
 historian, whereas yours will be a conclusive discussion 
 by the greatest authority living or dead on naval 
 warfare. I do not think that they are likely to clash 
 in any way, although I think it highly probable that 
 my general conception may accord with your views, 
 for I venture to hope that I have not studied your 
 teachings upon this subject wholly in vain. 
 " With kindest regards, 
 
 "■ Very sincerely yours, 
 
 " H. C. Lodge. 
 " Captain A. T. Mahan." 
 
 The year 1900 saw the publication of Types of Naval 
 Officers, one of the most attractive and interesting of 
 
118 LATER PUBLICATIONS [chap, xiii 
 
 all his books. His critical analysis of military opera- 
 tions in The Story of the War in South Africa appeals 
 to students of modern warfare on land. A German 
 General wrote from Gottingen asking permission to 
 translate it for the benefit of his countrymen. Here 
 is his letter : 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Yesterday I read in the Daily News, that there 
 is about to appear in London a history of the war in 
 South Africa by Captain A. Mahan. As I am well 
 acquainted with your excellent work The Influence of 
 Sea Power on History, I take it for granted that your 
 new performance will give a description of the Boer 
 War as clear and impartial as the existing circumstances 
 permit. 
 
 " Nobody is more in want of such a book as my 
 countrymen, where sound judgment is clouded by an 
 Anglophobia that passes all bounds. 
 
 " I take therefore the liberty to ask you, if you will 
 authorise me to translate the history of the war in 
 South Africa into the German language. 
 " Looking forward to a kind answer, 
 " I am, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient servant, 
 *' C. Schwartz, 
 
 " Major-GeneraV^ 
 
 To this Collier's made no objection : 
 
 " ' Collier's Weekly,' Editobial Department, 
 " New York, November 21, 1900. 
 
 " Dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " In reply to yours of November 20. There 
 can be no possible objection on our part to the transla- 
 tion into German of your book on the South African 
 War, nor should I consider such a translation to infringe 
 in any sense upon the English and colonial rights 
 which Mr. Marston secured from me, provided only 
 that the translation shall not be sold in England or 
 the English colonies. You have, therefore, my full 
 
1901] THE "NATIONAL REVIEW" 119 
 
 permission to accede to Major-General Schwartz's 
 request. As a matter of form it might be well for you 
 to advise Mr. Marston of the request and of my consent 
 to the acceptance of it. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " Robert J. Collier." 
 
 Nor was this the only one of these later publications 
 to be translated into a foreign language : 
 
 " St. Dunstan's House, Fettrr Lane, 
 
 " London, E.G., December 14, 1904. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " I have an offer of 500 francs (say £20) for the 
 exclusive rights for the French language for a translation 
 of The Interest of America in Sea Power. I have told 
 the Paris Professor who makes the offer that I doubt 
 if you will think it enough. 
 
 " The difficulty is to get more. I expect there is 
 truth in what he says as to the work addressing itself 
 to a special restricted public. 
 
 " His address is — Professor Izoulet, 2 Boulevard 
 St. Germain, Paris, in case you would like to write 
 to him direct, or perhaps get your brother to call on 
 him. You might ask for £25, but I think you would 
 be wise to take £20, if he will not rise. 
 
 " With all good wishes for you and yours for Christ- 
 mas and the New Year, 
 
 " I am, yours sincerely, 
 
 " R, B. Marston. 
 
 " We have been hoping you would be on that Interntl. 
 Naval Commission." 
 
 Towards the end of 1901 Mahan began contributing 
 articles to the National Review. Five of these appear 
 in the collection of essays published in 1902 under the 
 title Retrospect and Prospect. The association appears 
 to have been mutually beneficial and agreeable, and 
 the interesting letters of the Editor, Mr. Maxse, abound 
 
120 LATER PUBLICATIONS [chap, xiii 
 
 in expressions of appreciation of Mahan's contributions, 
 as the following extracts bear witness : 
 
 " I think you may be interested to receive the first 
 impressions which your article has made on the leading 
 British newspapers. I sent round advance copies 
 yesterday, and all that I have seen refer to it in their 
 first leading article this morning, and I feel pretty 
 sure it is the same in the leading provincial papers. 
 It is certainly a long time since any Review article has 
 received such a reception in the newspapers, and you 
 will see from the tone of the articles how greatly appreci- 
 ated it is. I cannot help being glad that you animadvert, 
 though with much discretion and reserve, upon the 
 conduct of our Government. I could not well exaggerate 
 the enjoyment with which I read it. I earnestly hope 
 that, as I have been so fortunate in inducing you to 
 become a contributor to the National Review, when you 
 may be next disposed to say something to the British 
 public you will make use of the same organ, which 
 will always be at your service." 
 
 These remarks referred to The Influence of the South 
 African War upon the Prestige of the British Empire, 
 and were followed by this invitation to contribute 
 further articles : 
 
 " During the Persian Gulf discussion, which has 
 now gone on for some months, your name has been 
 constantly appealed to, as you may observe from the 
 enclosed letter written in yesterday's Times by Captain 
 Younghusband. Would you not write an article for 
 the National Review on the strategic importance of 
 the Persian Gulf ? We dread the reproduction in the 
 Persian Gulf of a similar situation to that which occurred 
 in the Gulf of Pechili, when Germany went to Kiouchou, 
 thus driving Russia into Port Arthur and ourselves to 
 Wei-hai-wei. Those behind the scenes are convinced 
 that Germany intends to play a similar game in the 
 Persian Gulf. 
 
 I should indeed be a proud Editor if I thought that 
 
1901] EDITORIAL APPROBATION 121 
 
 during the next year I might expect to have such 
 subjects discussed by you in the National Review as 
 (1) the strategic importance of the Persian Gulf; (2) 
 the strategic distribution of British squadrons ; (3) 
 the present position of the Monroe Doctrine ; (4) the 
 problem of the Far East ; and possibly (5) the real 
 objective of the German Navy ? 
 
 " Is there any chance of your being willing to promote 
 the dispassionate discussion of some of these questions 
 from the independent standpoint which you almost 
 alone among living writers seem to be able to adopt ? 
 I need not say how delighted I should be if you were 
 favourably disposed to entertain this suggestion." 
 
 The next article to appear was Motives to Imperial 
 Federation, and this is what Mr. Maxse said of it : 
 
 " Your paper on Imperial Federation has made a 
 great impression on all thoughtful people, and has 
 been very widely read. In spite of the extraordinary 
 amount of topics pressing for notice in the middle of 
 the Session, it had the remarkable reception it deserved. 
 In the most important speech he has made this year 
 Mr. Chamberlain used your comparison of Ireland and 
 South Africa for his peroration, as you have probably 
 seen. Your essay will help very much in forming and 
 guiding sound opinion in what I cannot help thinking 
 may prove to be one of the most pregnant years in our 
 existence as an Empire. The Colonial Premiers will 
 be arriving within a few weeks, anxious to put forward 
 the predominant views of each of their localities, and 
 they will be met by British statesmen, many of whom 
 are only ' imperial ' in name, and taking a purely 
 local British view. Your article will help both parties 
 to see the whole subject in its proper perspective. 
 It is a great honour to the National Review to be the 
 medium for such a pronouncement. 
 
 " We all wish you were going to be over here for 
 the Colonial Conference as amicus curice" 
 
 Next followed Considerations Governing the Disposi- 
 tion of Navies and The Persian Gulf and International 
 
122 LATER PUBLICATIONS [chap, xiii 
 
 Relations, and the Editor of the National Review wrote 
 Mahan, who was then in America : 
 
 " Many thanks for your note of May 23 announcing 
 the approaching departure of your paper on the disposi- 
 tion of Navies, which I look forward to with the greatest 
 pleasure, all the more as it could hardly arrive at a 
 more opportune moment. I shall publish it, of course, 
 in the July number. 
 
 One of the great features, if I may be permitted to 
 say so, of your honoured assistance has been that the 
 National Review has occupied the proud position this 
 year of enjoying a monopoly of your pronouncements 
 on the great questions which you have discussed on this 
 side. This, of course, has immensely added to their 
 value from the editorial point of view. We have been 
 so lucky, if I may use the plural, in the really remark- 
 able timeliness of your papers during the past year ; 
 the one, for example, on the Persian Gulf, following on 
 the visit of the Shah of Persia, making the whole 
 question instinct with actuality, to say nothing of the 
 strategic paper published in the middle of our great 
 naval discussions ; while that on the South African 
 War appeared on the eve of the negotiations which 
 terminated the war. These utterances were recognised 
 on all hands as being the most important on their 
 respective subjects which had yet been made." 
 
 A continuance of these happy relations is reflected 
 in these concluding extracts from Mr. Maxse's letters : 
 
 " I am delighted to hear that you contemplate 
 a further paper discussing the relation of the Monroe 
 Doctrine to World-politics, which undoubtedly excites 
 greater interest on this side of the Atlantic, either in 
 England or on the Continent, than any other inter- 
 national question at the present time, and I need not 
 say that it will be most welcome to the National Review 
 whenever you find yourself at leisure to write it. 
 
 " Your previous contributions to the National Review 
 during the last few months have given it a great lift, 
 and I think it is not my personal bias which makes me 
 
1906] AUTOBIOGRAPHY 123 
 
 say that it is now regarded by people who take a serious 
 interest in the larger political issues as the leading 
 English review. 
 
 "It is clearly understood that I am to take three 
 articles from you during the next year at the rate of 
 500 dollars each, you to have the right of republication 
 in book form within two months of the appearance of 
 the final article." 
 
 On the suggestion of Messrs. Harper & Brothers/ 
 Mahan wrote in 1906, under the title of From Sail to 
 Steam, his recollections of naval life, a type of breezy 
 autobiography which reflects his old-world simplicity 
 and his own particular brand of that " blessed sense 
 of humour which rainbows the tears of the world." 
 Autobiography has its own peculiar limitations, as 
 Frances Ridley Havergal has said : 
 
 " Ah no I We write our lives indeed, but in a cypher 
 none can read except the author, for though he break 
 the seal, no power has he to give the key, no license 
 to reveal. We wait the all-declaring day, when love 
 shall know as it is known ; till then the secrets of our 
 lives are ours and God's alone." 
 
 Here is Harper & Brothers' letter covering the arrange- 
 ment for the publication of From Sail to Steam : 
 
 " Haepeb, & Beothebs, Publishers, New York City, 
 
 " August 30, 1906. 
 
 " Deae, Captain Mahan, 
 
 " We are writing to say that we accept the proposi- 
 tion in regard to the serial and book publication of 
 your Recollections which you were good enough to 
 make yesterday. 
 
 " A copy of your memorandum follows : 
 
 " ' I will agree to concede all serial rights in the 
 Recollections of My Life (or whatever title chosen) to 
 
 ^ " You will be amused to hear that at the request of one of our 
 big publishing houses I am writing my Recollections. At first I 
 laughed, ' Nothing ever happened to me,' but what with old naval yarns, 
 etc., etc., and incidents of one sort or another, I am surprised how 
 many words I have written." — A. T. M. 
 
124 LATER PUBLICATIONS [chap, xiii 
 
 Harper & Brothers for $3,000 (three thousand dollars), 
 with subsequent book publication, subject to a royalty 
 to me of fifteen per cent, of retail price ; with the 
 reservation that after lapse of five years from date of 
 such publication, it will be permissible to include the 
 work in a collected edition of my works by such publisher 
 as I may select. 
 
 " ' A. T. Mahan.' 
 
 " We understand that the total length of the Recol- 
 lections will be about 100,000 words, and the MS. will 
 probably be completed by the end of the year. We 
 should be very glad of any special suggestions which 
 may occur to you regarding the announcements, if you 
 find this convenient. 
 
 " We are writing briefly now that the matter be 
 definitely arranged, but we should like to express our 
 high appreciation of an association which we shall 
 use every means in our power to render perfectly 
 satisfactory to you. We will forward the formal agree- 
 ment shortly, and other details can be readily arranged 
 a little later. 
 
 " We are, with assurances of our regards, 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 
 " Harper & Brothers." 
 
 In a letter to Sir Bouverie Clark, Mahan says of 
 From Sail to Steam : 
 
 " You will find in it little new. My aim was to be 
 readable for the general public, and to a certain extent 
 to contravene erroneous ideas about naval matters, 
 which are more dangerous in our country than in yours ; 
 except when we have a man like Roosevelt, who really 
 has sound military ideas. I have written purposely 
 for the public, not for the profession ; to amuse, and if 
 possible make the book sell. I did not, and do not, 
 fancy greatly writing about myself and hope I have 
 minimised the ego. You will probably find in it simply 
 a phase, in another service, of the experience and 
 anecdotes you have known in your own." 
 
 Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812, issued 
 
1906] PRAISE FROM ADMIRAL GOODRICH 125 
 
 in 1905, he personally considered his most thorough 
 work from the point of view of history, and Admiral 
 Caspar F. Goodrich wrote him this letter about it : 
 
 " My dear Mahan, 
 
 " I have read your last work, a history of the 
 War of 1812, with an interest and a delight which make 
 me your debtor for an intellectual enjoyment quite 
 rare in my experience. In my judgment it is the best 
 of all your writings, if one may be allowed to draw 
 comparison. This is not surprising, for, after all, 
 practice does make perfect. I should be the proudest 
 of men if I had reached so high a plane of scholarship 
 and analysis and could present the sequence of facts 
 in so forceful and yet absorbing a way. As I cannot 
 be proud of myself in this connection, I am immensely 
 proud of you. 
 
 " Mrs. Goodrich, who is here, joins me in love to 
 yourself and Mrs. Mahan, and I am always, 
 " Your sincere friend and admirer, 
 
 " C. F. Goodrich." 
 
 A remarkable feature of the production of this book, 
 and one which may carry a message of reassurance to 
 present-day writers, was the period of nine years which 
 clasped between its conception and completion, and the 
 fact that to a certain extent the subject had in the 
 meantime lost its attractiveness. Mahan says of it : 
 
 " Thus my orders to the Chicago led to dropping 1812, 
 and to this my Life of Nelson was directly due. I had 
 foreseen that the war of 1812, as a whole, must be flat 
 in interest as well as laborious in execution ; and, upon 
 the provocation of other duty, I readily turned from it 
 in distaste. Nine years elapsed before I took it up ; 
 and then rather under the compulsion of completing 
 my Sea Power series, as first designed, than from any 
 inclination to the theme. It occupied three years — 
 usefully, I hope — and was published in 1905. Regarded 
 as history, it is by far the most thorough work I have 
 done. I went largely to original documents in Washing- 
 ton, Ottawa, and London, and I believe I have contri- 
 
126 LATER PUBLICATIONS [chap, xiii 
 
 buted to the particular period something new in both 
 material and interpretation. But, whatever value the 
 book may possess to one already drawn to the subject, 
 it is impossible to infuse charm where from the facts of 
 the case it does not exist. As a Chinese portrait-painter 
 is said to have remonstrated with a discontented 
 patron, ' How can pretty face make, when pretty face 
 no have got ? ' '■ 
 
 Not content with Government work and writing, 
 Mahan devoted a considerable portion of his time to 
 delivering lectures in Boston and elsewhere. In 1909 
 he published The Harvest Within, which is entirely 
 devoted to consideration of the religious life. Without 
 impartial analysis of the contents of this book, no full 
 conception of Mahan' s personality is possible. Just as 
 his historical works and even his autobiography are 
 entirely free from reference to his religious convictions, 
 so The Harvest Within is detached from all incidents 
 of his secular life, and deals solely with the spiritual 
 side. 
 
 At the request of his London publishers, Messrs. 
 Sampson Low, Marston & Co., who were engaged upon 
 a voluminous History of the Royal Navy, then being 
 edited by Sir William Laird Clowes, Mahan had contri- 
 buted in 1898 that portion entitled Major Operations, 
 1762-1783, and in 1913 this was given to the public 
 in book form, under the title Major Operations of the 
 Navies in the War of American Independence, published 
 by Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., of Boston, who enjoy 
 the distinction of having published the majority of 
 Mahan' s works in America and who undertook, on the 
 strong recommendation of Professor Soley, to bring out 
 The Influence of Sea Power upon History, which, in 
 common with the experience of many another epoch- 
 making book, did not, as a commercial venture, appeal 
 to the publishers, and was actually refused by at least 
 one well-known house. 
 
1910-13] FRENCH TRANSLATION 127 
 
 The Interest of America in International Conditions 
 (1910), and a number of important lectures collected 
 under the title of Naval Strategy, complete the number 
 of Mahan's works. In a letter to a friend he admits 
 that the collating and perfecting of the Naval Strategy 
 lectures wearied him. He has this to say of it : 
 
 " I remember that in your letter you spoke hesita- 
 tingly about reading my Naval Strategy. I sincerely 
 trust you have not felt that friendship required it. I will 
 confess to you that the composing of it was the most 
 perfunctory job I have ever done in book writing. 
 There were very compelling reasons for undertaking it, 
 but it alone of all my much writing was felt to be a burden. 
 It was conscientiously done, and I hope is not a bad 
 piece of work, and I feel probably the last professional 
 large work that I shall attempt. Enough commenda- 
 tion has reached me to make me hope that, with whatever 
 faults, my reputation will not suffer seriously from it." 
 
 At any rate the French publishers thought well of it, 
 and Little, Brown & Company, of Boston, wrote Mahan 
 on February 6, 1914 : 
 
 " We have just received a letter from Ensign de 
 Rivoyre, in which he states that the Pajris publisher 
 L. Fournier has decided to publish his translation of 
 Naval Strategy on the terms quoted — $50. Ensign 
 Rivoyre wishes us to forward his thanks to you for 
 the permission accorded him." 
 
 The lectures embodied in this volume formed part 
 of the regular course of instruction at the Naval War 
 College, and Mahan records that they were read either 
 by himself or by another officer every year from 1887 
 to 1911. They enforced the lesson that war is an 
 art, not a science. They expounded the history of naval 
 strategy, the principles of which are unchanging, no 
 matter to what extent tactics may be modified by 
 modern invention, and they encouraged exhaustive 
 
128 LATER PUBLICATIONS [chap, xiii 
 
 study of the past, without which no officer, however 
 
 gifted, could hope to become an able commander. 
 
 Napoleon backs the opinion that war is a business of 
 
 positions. A somewhat humorous illustration of this 
 
 occurs to me as I write. An impoverished and hungry 
 
 bookworm, possessed of more knowledge of old editions 
 
 than of scruples about other people's property, seized 
 
 the psychological moment, when the presiding genius 
 
 in the front of a book-shop was otherwise engaged, 
 
 to take from the front of the shop a second-hand 
 
 volume, of which copies were somewhat rare, sell it 
 
 to its owner in the back of the shop, and get safely 
 
 away with the proceeds. A faultless display of strategy 
 
 and tactics, worthy of a better cause. The plan of 
 
 campaign was carefully pre-arranged. What it of 
 
 necessity lacked in hitting power — being an attack by 
 
 a weak force upon one double its strength — it more 
 
 than compensated for by the elements of surprise and 
 
 cunning. The situation was gauged to a nicety. The 
 
 opportunity was seized with courage and with the utmost 
 
 dispatch. The outer defences were caught off their 
 
 guard, valuable material was placed under contribution, 
 
 and advantage was taken to slip through and attack 
 
 in detail at the critical moment when the enemy forces 
 
 were divided. The result was a conspicuous success. 
 
 The story is told that the naval authorities in Cape 
 Town cabled to the British Admiralty to ascertain 
 what books it would be best to buy for their new naval 
 library. The reply came back, " Buy Mahan " ; and 
 in response to a further inquiry stating that the authorities 
 had already bought a number of Mahan' s books and 
 asking what else to buy, they received a cable saying, 
 " Buy more Mahan ! " 
 
 During his thirty years of active literary work (with 
 several intermissions at sea) Mahan produced twenty 
 publications in book form, in respect of volume alone 
 a monument to his remarkable industry from the forty- 
 
1913] PROFESSOR SLOANE'S TRIBUTE 129 
 
 third to the seventy-second years of his Ufe. Of his 
 contributions to the world's storehouse of knowledge, 
 it was said by Professor William Milligan Sloane in a 
 tribute to the Admiral, published in the Columbia 
 University Quarterly of March 2, 1916 : 
 
 " Unvarnished truth is the characteristic of Mahan's 
 pages, the truth fairly stated and philosophically 
 considered." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE MARGIN OF NAVAL STRENGTH 
 
 " In a few years Mahan gave to the world that epochal book The 
 Influence of Sea Power upon History, which stirred the nations of 
 Europe to such a realisation of the significance of naval history, and 
 such a comprehension of the efficiency of naval power, that they 
 entered upon a determined competition for acquiring naval power, 
 which continues to this day." — Admiral Bbadley A. Fiskb, U.S. 
 Navy, 
 
 In war there is commonly one predominating factor, 
 the existence of which, though possibly intangible and 
 at the time unrecognised, yet controls the situation and 
 ultimately forces a decision. This paramount influence 
 has usually expressed itself in the military genius of 
 one all-commanding mind. 
 
 Mahan has vividly portrayed the dramatic control 
 which sea power exerted in overcoming the world- 
 dominating ambitions of the greatest intellect which 
 in modern times has mastered the secrets of the strategy 
 of war, planned campaigns and led armies in the field. 
 
 Naval and military authorities recognize as the 
 predominating influence in the great conflict of the 
 twentieth century, the margin of strength enjoyed by the 
 British fleet over that of Germany. For the existence 
 of this margin of naval power at the critical stage, 
 when war was forced upon humanity in 1914, Mahan was 
 in no small measure responsible. 
 
 Napoleon said of Jomini : " Here is a young chef de 
 bataillon who teaches us things which my professors 
 never told me and which few generals understand. 
 
 130 
 
■-^■- PO ST "Qgg^C^ TEIiBOKAPHS 
 
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 TO 
 
 
 
 
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 '.y'^-s' ->tu: 
 
 
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 ■./>'.><a'^ 
 
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 EX-KAISER-S TELEGKAM TO ME. POULTNEY BIGELOW. 
 
 1301 
 
1894] THE KAISER'S TELEGRAM 131 
 
 How could Fouche allow such a book to be printed ! 
 This is giving away to the enemy my whole system 
 of war ! " 
 
 In his Sea Power books Mahan gave away to the enemy 
 England's whole system of peace. 
 
 The first volumes of the series reached Germany in 
 1890 and 1892. The lessons they taught gradually 
 influenced the German authorities from the Emperor 
 downwards to concentrate their efforts in the creation 
 of a huge navy. It was shortly after this that the German 
 Emperor sent Mr. Poultney Bigelow the celebrated 
 telegram which is reproduced in this chapter, and made 
 his dramatic pronouncements : " Our future lies upon 
 the water," " the trident must be in our fist." 
 
 Here is Mr. Poultney Bigelow' s letter to Mahan : 
 
 "10, Chelsea Embankment, 
 
 " May 20, 1894. 
 
 " My dear Captain, 
 
 " The quotation on the other side may interest 
 you. It is included in a private telegram to me from 
 the Emperor, in which he asks me to be his guest at 
 the Imperial manoeuvres this autumn. Shall I not 
 see you again ? Could you not come and spend a few 
 days quietly here as my guest ? You need not be 
 rushed ! 
 
 " I am faithfully, 
 
 " Poultney Bigelow." 
 
 Extract from dispatch to Poultney Bigelow : 
 
 " I am just now, not reading but devouring Captain 
 Mahan' s book ; and am trying to learn it by heart. 
 It is a first-class work and classical in all points. It 
 is on board all my ships and constantly quoted by my 
 Captains and officers. 
 
 " William, I. and R. 
 
 " May 26, '94." 
 
 In order to educate the people to the necessity for 
 a powerful navy, the German Government ordered 
 10 
 
132 THE MARGIN OF NAVAL STRENGTH [chap, xiv 
 
 Mahan's books to be translated into German and 
 widely distributed throughout the Empire. Copies 
 were supplied to all public libraries, schools, and Govern- 
 ment institutions, and a complete set was placed on 
 every German warship. 
 
 In Sea Power and Freedom Gerard Fiennes thus 
 describes the effect of Mahan's teachings on the 
 Emperor's mind : 
 
 " But in another direction, and that for the moment 
 the most important of all, his influence was direct. 
 Among the warmest admirers of his writings was the 
 German Emperor, who found his vague aspirations 
 crystallised on his pages. The opportunity to expand 
 his realm on the continent was exhausted. Reflecting 
 on all this, the teaching of Mahan came to him as a 
 gospel newly revealed. Here was the new vision of 
 world power, ever present to the mind of the imperial 
 dreamer." 
 
 To the active promotion of this " trident " ambition 
 the German naval expenditures afford eloquent testimony. 
 These were : 
 
 1885 to 1894 . . $170,000,000 (£34,000,000) 
 1895 to 1904 . . $375,000,000 (£75,000,000) 
 1905 to 1914 . . $920,000,000 (£184,000,000) 
 
 The Naval Defence Act of 1900, championed by the 
 Emperor himself, alone provided for the expenditure of 
 $370,000,000. The sensational development of the 
 German Navy, however, may be attributed in large 
 measure to the energies of Admiral von Tirpitz. 
 
 Admiral Bradley Fiske, one of the chief naval 
 authorities of the United States, says in The Navy as 
 a Fighting Machine : 
 
 " The effect of the acceptance of Mahan's doctrine 
 was felt at once. Realising that the influence of sea 
 power was a fact, and comprehending Great Britain's 
 
1894] MAHAN AROUSES THE NATIONS 133 
 
 secret, after Mahan had disclosed it, certain other great 
 nations of the world, especially Germany, immediately 
 started with confidence and vigor upon the increase 
 of their own sea power, and pushed it to- a degree before 
 unparalleled ; with a result that must have been 
 amazing to the man who, more than any other, was 
 responsible for it." 
 
 Careful examination of the works of distinguished 
 writers on the subject leads irresistibly to the conclusion 
 that Mahan' s teachings were primarily responsible for 
 the transformation which took place in the naval policy 
 of Germany shortly after the publication of the Sea 
 Power series. 
 
 How did the creation of the German Navy affect 
 Great Britain ? Here is Admiral Fiske's opinion : 
 
 " The rapid success of the Germans and Japanese, 
 however, in building up their navies, as instanced by 
 the evident efficiency of the German fleet almost under 
 the nose of England and the triumph of the Japanese 
 fleet in Tsushima Strait, startled the British Navy out of 
 her conservatism, and caused her to proceed at full 
 speed toward the modernisation of her strategy. With 
 the quick decision followed by quick action that 
 characterises the seaman everywhere, the British 
 instituted a series of reforms, and prosecuted their 
 efforts with such wisdom and such vigor, that, in the 
 brief space of ten years, the British Navy had been 
 almost revolutionised." 
 
 In a letter received by the author from Admiral Sims, 
 and reproduced elsewhere, will be found this statement : 
 
 " The value of his studies was very naturally first 
 appreciated in Great Britain, the country of all others 
 most dependent upon maritime commerce ; and all 
 naval critics have testified to the influence of these 
 studies in ensuring a renewal of a strong British naval 
 policy." 
 
 Sir George Sydenham Clarke, now Lord Sydenham, 
 
134 THE MARGIN OF NAVAL STRENGTH [chap, xiv 
 
 a recognised authority, expressed his views in these 
 words : 
 
 " In 1888 it was my privilege to be present at a lecture 
 given to the officers studying at the Naval War College 
 at Newport, R.I. The subject — the Gulf of Mexico 
 and the Caribbean Sea in their strategic relations to 
 the United States — was treated with consummate ability. 
 A new light seemed to be thrown upon the whole question 
 of naval warfare ; confused pages of naval history 
 took form and order ; great principles stood forth clearly 
 revealed. 
 
 " The lecturer was Captain Mahan, who was then 
 preparing to write the books which have brought him 
 well merited and lasting fame. The three volumes 
 dealing with The Influence of Sea Power on History 
 have themselves influenced history. The first appeared 
 at a time when several writers were endeavouring by 
 appeals to the past to awaken the British people to the 
 facts that their ancient kingdom of the sea was in danger 
 of being lost, and that the loss implied national extinc- 
 tion. The importance of the service thus opportunely 
 rendered by the brilliant American writer can hardly 
 be overrated. 
 
 " His book was doubtless intended primarily as an 
 address to his countrymen ; but the history of maritime 
 war in the modern world is in the main the history 
 of the Anglo-Saxon race, and to us in a special sense 
 the Influence of Sea Power appealed. Speaking as an 
 outsider. Captain Mahan wielded a force which could 
 not have been exerted by any British writer, even if his 
 equal had appeared among us, and others besides 
 myself felt a sense of thankfulness that the stirring 
 message had come from across the Atlantic." 
 
 England can boast no more persistent advocate for a 
 strong Navy than was Admiral Lord Beresford, who 
 agitated unceasingly for over thirty years, and who wrote 
 Mahan in 1890 a letter from which the following is an 
 extract : 
 
 " The book you have written has so interested and 
 excited me I cannot resist writing to the author. If 
 
1894] SECRET OF THE SEA REVEALED 135 
 
 I had the power I would order your books to be placed 
 on the table of every house in Britain and her Colonies. 
 " If anything can wake our politicians up it will be 
 a perusal of your book. I have written and begged 
 some of the most prominent among them to read it 
 not for my sake, but for my country's sake." 
 
 Sir John Laughton expressed the opinion that the 
 Sea Power books would open the eyes of a number 
 in England who were obstinately blind to many of the 
 truths Mahan had so clearly demonstrated ; and Sir 
 Francis Jeune, the distinguished Judge, wrote Mahan 
 in 1894 : 
 
 " It does seem a little late for us to realise what 
 command of the sea really means, but it is nevertheless 
 the fact that till you wrote we never did realise it." 
 
 Professor Tyndall said shortly before he died : 
 
 " If I get better I will write an article about this 
 book. Every Englishman ought to read it, and to know 
 how much we are indebted to this admirable American 
 writer." 
 
 Lord de Saumarez, great-grandnephew of the famous 
 Admiral of Nelson's day, recounts in a letter to Mahan 
 in 1897 that a distinguished Admiral had expressed to 
 him the opinion that Englishmen had not to thank 
 either Conservatives or Liberals for the greatly improved 
 position of the Navy. They had to thank Captain 
 Mahan and no one else. 
 
 In an eulogy of Mahan shortlj^^ after his death, the 
 United States Naval Institute, the literary voice of 
 the Navy, recorded in its Proceedings : 
 
 " The regeneration of Great Britain's Navy which 
 began in the nineties and was carried on under the 
 Naval Defence Act of 1889 may be traced directly to 
 Mahan' s works. It has been said that the modern 
 
136 THE MARGIN OF NAVAL STRENGTH [chap, xiv 
 
 British Navy is Mahan's creation, an hyperbole which 
 contains far more than a grain of truth." 
 
 Admiral Higginson, who commanded the Massachusetts 
 during the Spanish-American War, expressed in this 
 letter the feelings of that section of the Navy which 
 recognised Mahan's genius early in the day : 
 
 " Richfield Springs, N.Y., 
 
 ''July 6, 1894. 
 
 " My deau Mahan, 
 
 " Allow me to add my mite to the chorus of 
 praise which now greets you from the greatest men 
 of a great nation. I will not say I ' told you so,' because 
 even in my imagination I did not anticipate either the 
 extent of appreciation or the wild enthusiasm with 
 which England has received your works. But at the 
 time of which I speak you were wearied with repetition 
 and while you knew what you had written was good, 
 and contained your best thought, you doubted that it 
 would be appreciated and that the sale of your book 
 would be confined to libraries and a few professional 
 men. 
 
 " And now behold not only England but France and 
 Germany at your feet and ' devouring ' your words. 
 Surely this ought to make you rejoice as it does your 
 friends, and let me tell you {entre nous) that while 
 professional thorns may annoy they cannot injure you, 
 and I would not worry over them in the least. 
 
 " There is one thing, however, to be said about 
 your works, and that is that they are two-edged, and 
 while they show England what she ought to do they 
 also show France what she ought not to do, and that may 
 make the future contest more interesting. With your 
 University honors you have raised the intellectual 
 standard of our Navy and the service is deeply in your 
 debt. It will probably never pay you, but the indebted- 
 ness will nevertheless remain for ever. 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " Francis J. Higginson. 
 
 " To Capt. Alfred T. Mahan, 
 
 " Commanding U.S.S. Chicago.'* 
 
1894] "A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY" 137 
 
 The justification for the somewhat sombre prognosti- 
 cation in the concluding words of this letter, and the 
 impressionthatMahan's services to his country were but 
 lightly appreciated by the people of his own land,^ 
 is reflected in the contents of the following communica- 
 tion received by Mrs. Mahan from the Navy Department 
 shortly after the Admiral's death : 
 
 " Navy Yard, New York, 
 
 " Paymaster's Office, 
 
 " December 19, 1914. 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Mahan, 
 
 " I am in receipt of a letter from Admiral Good- 
 rich, and as I do not know your address am sending 
 this to him. 
 
 " Replying to some of the Admiral's questions I would 
 advise you to communicate with the Navy Mutual Aid 
 Association, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., and 
 they will give you the necessary blanks with instructions 
 for securing a pension. I would say that if the Admiral 
 died from a cause that was incurred while he was on 
 active duty, you will probably get a pension, whereas 
 if the Admiral's death arose from some other cause not 
 incident to the Service, you would have difficulty in 
 obtaining a pension. 
 
 " If you will send back to me the check for $373.60 
 I will remove the stamp, and you, as executrix, can then 
 sign the check which should be signed A. T. Mahan, 
 U.S.N., by ' your name,' Executrix. The reason for 
 the cheque being $373.60 was that the Admiral was in 
 the hospital at Washington four days in November, so 
 we had to deduct $1.20 for that reason. 
 
 " We have remitted the Admiral's account to the 
 Auditor for the Navy Department, and you should make 
 
 1 " Admiral Mahan said in his book — and he was an American of 
 whose knowledge and wisdom Congress seems to have known nothing 
 and cared less — ' Why do English innate political conceptions of 
 popular representative government, of the balance of law and liberty, 
 prevail in North America from the Arctic Circle to the GuK of Mexico, 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific ? Because the command of the sea 
 at the decisive era belonged to Great Britain.' " — Owen Wister, A 
 Straight Deal or The Ancient Orudge. 
 
138 THE MARGIN OF NAVAL STRENGTH [chap, xiv 
 
 claim on him for the balance that was due the Admiral 
 on the date of his death, that is $10.81. 
 
 " In concluding I wish to express my very deep 
 sympathy with you in your bereavement, and if there 
 is anything further that I can do in the way of assistance, 
 please be free to call on me. 
 
 " Very sincerely, 
 
 " H. H. Balthis, 
 " Paymaster, U.S. Navy, Paymaster of the Yard. 
 " Mrs. A. T. Mahan, 
 
 " c/o Rear-Admiral C. F. Goodrich, U.S.N., 
 " No. 1,700 Pine Street, 
 Philadelphia, Pa." 
 
 The influence of Mahan' s writings was also felt in 
 those allied countries whose navies have contributed 
 their glorious share in making possible the concentration 
 of the main strength of the British Battle Fleet in the 
 North Sea, which was the outstanding strategic feature 
 of the late war. France in the Mediterranean, Italy 
 in the Adriatic, Japan in the Pacific, Russia in the Baltic, 
 all powerfully helped to keep the seas free of the German 
 menace. 
 
 The unchanging fundamental principle of naval 
 strategy in warfare is " concentration " — concentration 
 of maximum efficients of gunfire, speed, and armour 
 on the one spot which commands the movements of the 
 most powerful units of the opposing fleet. There is 
 little doubt that Mahan' s insistent and outspoken 
 advocacy of the principle of naval concentration and 
 his unswerving opposition to any division of the units 
 of the United States Battle Fleet influenced in no small 
 degree the consummation of the arrangement between 
 France and England which allowed of the withdrawal 
 of the major portion of the British naval forces from 
 the Mediterranean and their concentration in the 
 North Sea. 
 
1894-1911] WORLD-WIDE INFLUENCE 139 
 
 It is almost impossible to realise at this day the extent 
 of the influence of Mahan's writings on the minds of the 
 men in whose hands lay the control of the destinies of 
 nations a quarter of a century ago. More than one 
 serious publication declared that statesmen slept with 
 Mahan's books under their pillows. In the House of 
 Commons a quotation from his writings was sufficient 
 to close a discussion on a point of naval strategy. The 
 most distinguished and experienced Admirals and 
 administrators of the day sought his advice. In a letter 
 quoted elsewhere, Colonel Roosevelt, then Assistant 
 Secretary of the Navy and in close touch with many 
 of the brightest minds in the country, in acknowledging 
 receipt of some information from Mahan, says : 
 
 " There is no question that you stand head and shoulders 
 above the rest of us." 
 
 Another distinguished writer said : 
 
 " Other nations have embraced with ardour Captain 
 Mahan's conceptions, and the embrace has borne sub- 
 stantial fruit. In France, his classic work has had 
 countless readers. Germany has swallowed it with 
 equal alacrity. Japan has honoured it by an Edition 
 DE Luxe, and is introducing it into her schools. Even 
 the frozen North has loosened her loins at the tap of 
 Captain Mahan's wand, and it is not impossible to argue 
 that Russia's appearance upon the ice-free waters of 
 the Pacific is connected with his popular teaching upon 
 sea power and its advantages. AH these countries 
 have spent vastly greater sums upon their navies 
 since the appearance of these books, and some of 
 them show every indication of a settled change in 
 national policy." 
 
 Just before Mahan published The Influence of Sea 
 Power upon History, the Powers were spending 
 $190,000,000 (£38,000,000) on their navies in the course 
 of twelve months. In the year before war broke out 
 
140 THE MARGIN OF NAVAL STRENGTH [chap, xiv 
 
 they spent $835,000,000 (£167,000,000). Here are the 
 figures : 
 
 1888-9 
 
 1913-14 
 
 Britain 
 
 65,000,000 
 
 13,000,000 
 
 230,000,000 
 
 46,000,000 
 
 United States 
 
 20,000,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 145,000,000 
 
 29,000,000 
 
 Russia 
 
 20,000,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 120,000,000 
 
 24,000,000 
 
 Germany . 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 115,000,000 
 
 23,000,000 
 
 France 
 
 40,000,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 95,000,000 
 
 19,000,000 
 
 Italy 
 
 25,000,000 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 50,000,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 Japan 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 50,000,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 Austria 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 30,000,000 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 
 190,000,000 
 
 38,000,000 
 
 835,000,000 
 
 167,000,000 
 
 No one would be so immoderate as to claim that 
 Mahan was responsible for all this, but, to use a homely 
 alliteration, the figures furnish food for reflection. 
 
 Mahan' s writings abound in warnings to the British 
 people to preserve the all-essential margin of naval 
 strength for the safety of the Empire. The citation of 
 evidences of the effect of his teachings might be multi- 
 plied indefinitely. His warnings are open to all the 
 world to read. A couple of illustrations are here 
 selected from the mass. In Naval Strategy, published 
 in 1911, Mahan said : 
 
 " The power to control Germany does not exist in 
 Europe, except in the British Navy ; and if social and 
 political conditions in Great Britain develop as they 
 now promise, the British Navy will probably decline 
 in relative strength, so that it will not venture to with- 
 stand the German on any broad lines of policy, but only 
 in the narrowest sense of immediate British interests." 
 
 A prophetic warning both for Britain and America 
 is contained in these awe-inspiring words in The Interest 
 of America in International Conditions (1910) : 
 
 " A German Navy supreme by the fall of Great 
 Britain, with a supreme German Army able to spare 
 
1894-1911] MAHAN WARNS BRITAIN 141 
 
 readily a large expeditionary force for over-sea opera- 
 tions, is one of the possibilities of the future." 
 
 Mahan's warnings touched British pride to the quick, 
 and his philosophy of sea power put the subject of naval 
 supremacy in a new light. Of this the powerful advo- 
 cates of a Navy of predominating strength were quick 
 to take advantage, and their efforts, slowly at first, but 
 eventually with increasing momentum, resulted at last 
 in that superb instrument of defence, each unit of which 
 on August 4, 1914, on the cryptic signal consisting of 
 the single word " Go," dashed off at full speed, and 
 with hitherto undreamt-of dispatch took up its ap- 
 pointed place in that wondrous, restless, irresistible 
 bulwark of safety which was to keep free from molesta- 
 tion the sunny coasts of Britain's gallant friend and ally. 
 
 In Democracy's darkest hour in August 1914 the 
 superiority of Britain's naval strength kept the German 
 fleet and the German transports off the seas, and thereby 
 protected the northern and western coasts of France 
 from invasion. 
 
 This enabled France to concentrate her forces just 
 where they were most urgently required, on her north- 
 eastern frontier. 
 
 The thoroughness with which the British Navy swept 
 the seas clear of the enemy enabled England to fling 
 together her first armies, and rush them safely over to 
 France.* 
 
 These factors contributed to make possible the battle 
 of the Marne. 
 
 The battle of the Marne saved France. 
 
 But for such irresistible, effective, and compelling 
 
 1 Britain sent some 300,000 of the finest and best equipped troops 
 in the world to help the French during those first three critical months 
 of the war. Among innumerable other achievements, 3,000 of them 
 on November 11, 1914, at Ypres, annihilated, within view, it is said, 
 of the Emperor, 15,000 of the Prussian Guard, the flower of the 
 German Army. 
 
142 THE MARGIN OF NAVAL STRENGTH [chap, xiv 
 
 restraints as were imposed by the British naval forces, 
 the enemy would doubtless have succeeded in carrying 
 out his programme of ferocious destruction and plunder 
 in France. 
 
 In this particular war-game the taking of the first 
 trick — of which two cards were Paris and the Channel 
 Ports — was the crucial and decisive operation of the 
 entire forty years' prepared campaign. With these 
 strategically precious and dominating possessions in such 
 an enemy's grasp, before either England or America 
 was ready to strike, the fate of Democracy — for genera- 
 tions at least — was sealed. But the British Navy, thank 
 God, held the highest trumps. 
 
 Once more in Mahan's famous words, " Those far- 
 distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which the Grand Army 
 never looked, stood between it and the dominion of the 
 world." 
 
 Nor must the corollary of the battle of the Marne 
 be overlooked in according to Mahan his full share in the 
 glorious outcome of Democracy's mighty conflict. 
 
 The margin of strength of Britain's fleet made it 
 possible for the French and " the contemptible little 
 Army " ^ of Britain to save France at the Marne. But 
 it did infinitely more than that. The far-reaching 
 results of the battle of the Marne gave France and 
 England time — then of supreme importance — to build 
 up the matchless armies which have since covered them- 
 selves with glory on the western battlefields of fairest 
 France. Moreover, by keeping the ocean routes open, 
 the naval forces of Britain gave the United States, France, 
 and Britain time to develop their resources, pull them- 
 selves together — in more senses than one — and thus 
 qualify themselves for the great and final operations of 
 the war. The British Navy taught the central military 
 
 1 Eighty thousand men of the flower of the British Army for four 
 days prevented some 300,000 German troops from rolUng up the 
 left wing of the AUied Armies. 
 
1894-1911] THE PRICELESS MESSAGE 143 
 
 Powers that the seas could be held long enough to enable 
 Anglo-Saxondom to create armies larger and more 
 powerful than their own, but it was the American 
 Admiral, Alfred Thayer Mahan, who taught twentieth- 
 century Britain the priceless lesson of the paramount 
 necessity of an adequate margin of naval strength. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 " FREEDOM OF THE SEAS " 
 
 " The reason why naval officers urge with heart and soul the reten- 
 tion of the old right of capture is because they know not how to make 
 war without it, nor can any man tell them." — Julian Stafford 
 
 COBBETT. 
 
 Despite the fact that Germany has unconscionably 
 violated the compact, the nations have agreed — subject 
 to certain well-defined qualifications as to requisitions 
 for military requirements by an officer in command of 
 a district — to respect private property in occupied terri- 
 tory in time of war. The Hague War Regulations provide 
 that neither requisitions in kind nor services can be 
 demanded from communes or inhabitants except for 
 the necessities of the army of occupation. On the high- 
 seas, however, private property, by which is understood 
 the merchandise which represents seaborne commerce 
 in transit, whether carried in enemy or neutral ships, 
 has been considered subject to capture if belonging to or 
 destined for the enemy, provided a blockade of the 
 enemy's ports is maintained ; because, although the 
 goods themselves are for the most part the property of 
 individuals, the safe carriage and the ultimate disposal 
 of them benefit the enemy nation. Consequently a 
 nation with a large overseas commerce and an extensive 
 merchant marine, but possessing a Navy weaker than 
 that of its chief rival, naturally desires its merchandise 
 and merchant ships, and the merchandise and ships of 
 friendly and co-operative neutrals, to be immune from 
 capture at sea in time of war. This would practically 
 
 144 
 
1904] MAHAN WARNS THE PRESIDENT 145 
 
 do away with commercial blockades, except in so far as 
 articles contraband of war are concerned, and is the 
 interpretation which Germany, in support of her 
 nefarious schemes for world domination, has sought to 
 impose upon the catch-phrase, Freedom of the Seas.^ 
 
 Between the first and second Hague Conferences 
 Mahan was responsible for bringing about a change in 
 the attitude of many minds as to the wisdom of the policy 
 of advocating the immunity from capture of so-called 
 private property at sea in time of war. He thereby did 
 posterity a priceless service. For generations the 
 United States had consistently favoured such a policy 
 on the grounds of humanity. Some of the most eminent 
 jurists of the day in both hemispheres, including such men 
 as Lord Loreburn, Lord Chancellor of England, and the 
 Hon. Joseph Choate, were in sympathy with the policy 
 of immunity. 
 
 As a naval strategist, sensing the disastrous effects 
 of such a policy, Mahan was diametrically opposed to 
 it, and about eighteen months before the day approached 
 for the United States delegates to the second Hague 
 Conference to receive their instructions, he wrote the 
 following letter to President Roosevelt, exposing from 
 a military point of view the national danger of such a 
 project : 
 
 *' Dear Mr. President, 
 
 " When at Oyster Bay I mentioned to you my 
 wish to be free to write for publication concerning matters 
 that might come before the approaching Hague Confer- 
 ence, notably the question of exemption from maritime 
 capture of private property, so-called. 
 
 " A very proper and necessary regulation of the Navy 
 forbids officers discussing publicly matters of policy on 
 which the Government is embarked. The question arises, 
 
 1 By the courtesy of Mr. Charles Stewart Davison, extracts from an 
 article published by him in the American press is reproduced in the 
 Appendix. 
 
146 "FREEDOM OF THE SEAS" [chap, xv 
 
 however, is the Hague Conference a body where measures 
 are to be advocated as national pohcies ? Or are they 
 to be advanced for discussion, with a view to reaching 
 improved conditions of the code common to all, which 
 we call International Law ? 
 
 "It is by no means necessary that any Government 
 should formally announce either of the above as its own 
 attitude ; but should the second construction be adopted 
 by our own, there could be no impropriety in a public 
 officer contributing a properly worded argument on 
 either side. Taking the particular measure I mention, 
 our Government, I understand, has advanced it ; but, 
 in so doing, is it as a matter of national advantage so 
 pronounced that opposition is improper, or is the matter 
 one so far open to consideration that light may be wel- 
 comed whencever coming ? 
 
 " It must be obvious to you that the present pre- 
 possession of the public mind in most countries is such 
 that the question of war itself, and of questions inci- 
 dental to war, are in danger of being misjudged and 
 ' rushed.' One side only is clamorous. A special 
 element of danger in this direction is the present British 
 Government, with its huge heterogeneous majority to 
 keep placated. With a Conservative Government there 
 we might afford to be persistent in our old national 
 policy, feeling safe that it would not be accepted, but 
 would go over to another conference ; with the present 
 you will on military questions be playing with fire. 
 But especially to be considered is the popular attitude 
 in Germany toward the English-speaking communities, 
 and the effect of the exemption of private property upon 
 her ambitions at their expense. Maritime transportation, 
 and commercial movement which is what so-called 
 ' private property ' really amounts to, is now one of 
 her great interests, and is steadily growing. Great 
 Britain, and the British Navy, lie right across Germany's 
 carrying trade with the whole world. Exempt it, and 
 you remove the strongest hook in the jaw of Germany 
 that the English-speaking people have — a principal 
 gage for peace. 
 
 " British interests are not American interests ; no. 
 But taking the constitution of the British Empire, and 
 
1904] MAHAN APPEALS TO ROOSEVELT 147 
 
 the trade interests of the British Islands, the United 
 States has certainty of a very high order that the 
 British Empire will stand substantially on the same 
 lines of world privileges as ourselves ; that its strength 
 will be our strength, and the weakening it injury to us. 
 Germany is inevitably ambitious of transmarine develop- 
 ment. I don't grudge it her. As a proof, after the 
 Spanish War I refused a suggestion to use my supposed 
 influence against her acquisition of the Carolines, etc. ; 
 but her ambitions threaten us as well as Great Britain, 
 and I cannot but think that final action on the question 
 of so-called private property at sea would be better 
 deferred, and the question be thrown into the arena of 
 discussion, that action when taken may be in full light. 
 As yet the public has heard but one side. The instance 
 I quoted before to you is in clear point. No doubt our 
 Government a century ago would have signed away the 
 right of commercial blockade, which so helped us in the 
 Civil War. 
 
 " When to Germany are added the unsolved questions 
 of the Pacific, it may be said truly that the political 
 future is without form and void. Darkness is upon the 
 face of the deep. We will have to walk very warily in 
 matters affecting future ability to employ national 
 force. 
 
 " With much respect, 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " A. T. Mahan." 
 
 The President's reply suggests a strong existing bias 
 in high quarters towards immunity : 
 
 " White House, Washington, 
 " December 29, 1904. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " I am interested in your letter and the enclosure, 
 and shall take them up with John Hay. You open a 
 big subject for discussion. There is a strong tendency 
 to protect private property and private life on sea and 
 land. Of course, the earlier races killed or enslaved 
 every private citizen of the hostile nation whom they 
 could get at, and destroyed or took his property as a 
 11 
 
148 "FREEDOM OF THE SEAS" [chap, xv 
 
 matter of course. I shall have to think over the matter 
 before I could answer you at all definitely on this 
 proposition. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 The matter evidently received authoritative considera- 
 tion, for about seventeen months later Mr. Elihu Root, 
 then Secretary of State, addressed this important com- 
 munication on the subject to the Secretary of the Navy : 
 
 " Depabtment op State, Washington, 
 " May 21, 1906. 
 
 " The Honorable 
 
 " The Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I beg to enclose copy of a communication 
 received from Captain A. T. Mahan upon the subject of 
 the immunity of private property at sea in time of war, 
 for the purpose of calling your especial attention to a 
 suggestion made by him that the present policy of the 
 United States in regard to that question should be 
 made the subject of consideration by the General Board 
 of the Navy. 
 
 " The policy of the United States has long been 
 positive and outspoken in its advocacy of immunity. 
 Conditions in this world are, however, continually chang- 
 ing, and this subject may have an important relation to 
 the newly revived subject of general disarmament or 
 limitation of armament. It is quite certain that the 
 creation of an extensive commercial marine on the 
 part of any great commercial country amounts now, in 
 effect, to giving hostages for peace, and that the liability 
 of private property to seizure in time of war insures a 
 strong and powerful class in every commercial country 
 deeply interested in the preservation of peace. 
 
 " There is undoubtedly a question whether decreasing 
 the danger to commerce would not also greatly decrease 
 the reasons for peace, and whether the establishment 
 of immunity might not result in sacrificing human life 
 in order to save merchandise. On the other hand, the 
 necessity for protecting a merchant marine is undoubt- 
 
1906] ELIHU ROOT SUPPORTS MAHAN 149 
 
 edly an important consideration, leading to the enor- 
 mous increase of naval armament now in progress. 
 
 " In my judgment, the whole subject should receive 
 the most careful re-examination on the part of this 
 Government before final instructions are given to our 
 delegates to the second Hague Conference. As a 
 foundation for such consideration, the views of the 
 General Board of the Navy would be of great value, 
 and I shall be very much obliged if you will be good 
 enough to obtain them. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Elihu Root. 
 
 " Enclosure from Captain A. T. Mahan. 
 " April 20, 1906." 
 
 "First Endorsement. D. L. 
 
 " Navy Department, 
 
 " May 23, 1906. 
 
 " State Department : Encloses copy of communica- 
 tion from Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S.N., upon the 
 subject of the immunity of private property at sea in 
 time of war ; suggests that this matter be made the subject 
 of consideration by the General Board of the Navy. 
 
 " Respectfully referred to the General Board for con- 
 sideration and an expression of views as within requested 
 by the Secretary of State. 
 
 " Truman H. Newberry, 
 
 " Acting Secretary J^ 
 
 "Second Endorsement 
 
 " General Board, 
 
 ''June 20, 1906. 
 
 " State Department : Encloses copy of communica- 
 tion from Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S.N., upon the subject 
 of the immunity of private property at sea in time of 
 war; suggests that this matter be made the subject 
 of consideration by the General Board of the Navy. 
 — ( [L]— May 21, 1906.) 
 
 " Respectfully returned to the Department, through 
 the Bureau of Navigation, accompanied by a letter (G.B. 
 
150 "FREEDOM OF THE SEAS" [chap, xv 
 
 No. 438) of this date, expressing the views of the General 
 Board in compliance with the request of the Secretary of 
 State. 
 
 " By direction of the General Board, 
 " Sumner E. W. Kittelle, 
 
 " Lieut. -Commander U.S.N. , 
 " Secretary General Board.'''' 
 
 The question was thus submitted for the consideration 
 of the General Board of the Navy, of which Admiral 
 George Dewey was President. The Board's report is 
 too lengthy to be reproduced here, but in it they stated : 
 
 " The avowed policy of the United States has hereto- 
 fore been in favor of immunity of private property from 
 seizure at sea, but of late years this has been advocated 
 from moral considerations, and the General Board fears 
 that the military or practical considerations have not 
 received the attention in framing the United States 
 policy which they deserve. 
 
 " The modern tendency has been to limit more and 
 more the acknowledged rights of belligerents, and the 
 present necessity is to restrain this tendency within 
 reasonable bounds or wars may become so ineffective as 
 to lead to long-continued struggles which would be 
 directly contrary to the intentions of the humanitarians. 
 Captain Mahan clearly points out, in his letter forwarded 
 by the Secretary of State, how the fear of capture of sea- 
 borne commerce may prevent wars." 
 
 The following extracts from the Board's supplementary 
 report to the Secretary of the Navy ^ contains the gist of 
 their views and recommendations, in which it will be seen 
 they unqualifiedly endorse Mahan in every particular : 
 
 " The relations of the United States with England have 
 never been better than at the present time, and the 
 relations between England and Germany are never good, 
 so that in the event of war with Germany, it is not at all 
 
 * Reproduced by the courtesy of the Secretary of the Navy. 
 
1906] THE GENERAL BOARD OF THE NAVY 151 
 
 unlikely that the United States will be able to secure 
 the passive friendship of England, and probably, if 
 necessary, a treaty of mutual support .and protection 
 such as existed between Japan aiid England during the 
 recent Japanese-Russian War. 
 
 '* Germany will fear our interference with her mer- 
 chant marine to some extent in case of a war with the 
 United States single-handed, and of course if private 
 property at sea is immune in time of war she need not 
 fear it at all. But if the United States should secure 
 Great Britain as an ally, Germany's shipping would be 
 tied up no matter who Germany might secure as an ally, 
 on account of the strategical position of England as 
 regards German commerce, and on account of the large 
 Navy of Great Britain. 
 
 " Should private property at sea be immune in time 
 of war, this great advantage would be lost to Great 
 Britain, as well as to the United States, and the im- 
 mense assistance we might expect to receive from 
 Great Britain would be tremendously decreased. 
 
 " Germany is desirous of extending her colonial 
 possessions. Especially is it thought that she is desirous 
 of obtaining a foothold in the Western Hemisphere, and 
 many things indicate that she has her eyes on localities 
 in the West Indies, on the shores of the Caribbean, and 
 in parts of South America. It is believed in many 
 quarters that she is planning to test the Monroe Doctrine 
 by the annexation or by the establishment of a protec- 
 torate over a portion of South America, even going to 
 the extent of war with the United States when her fleet 
 is ready. 
 
 "It is asserted on good authority that Great Britain 
 does not wish to acquire any additional colonial posses- 
 sions. Should it be true that Germany wishes to extend 
 her colonial possessions to the Western Hemisphere, our 
 interests are here bound up with those of England, and 
 we can reasonably expect passive, if not active, assist- 
 ance from Great Britain should it become necessary for 
 the United States to prevent German acquisition of 
 territory in this hemisphere. 
 
 " The welfare of the United States and its immunity 
 from entanglements with the other Powers is greatly 
 
152 " FREEDOM OF THE SEAS " [chap, xv 
 
 strengthened by strong ties of friendship and by 
 unanimity of action with Great Britain. The two great 
 Enghsh-speaking nations seem destined to exert a great 
 influence on the conduct of war when war is inevitable. 
 Nothing should be agreed to that will lessen that in- 
 fluence or, where our interests are in common, to take 
 away so potent and influential a factor to prevent or 
 shorten a war, as the liability to seizure of enemy's 
 private property at sea in time of war." 
 
 Those Americans and Englishmen who in the old days 
 advocated immunity, did so from the highest motive, 
 namely that of humanity. Mahan and his brother- 
 strategists were called upon to expose the delusive 
 character of the arguments in favour of exempting such 
 property from the chance of capture at sea. They 
 further demonstrated the positive danger to the best 
 interests of the United States which such immunity 
 would entail. 
 
 An interesting sidelight is thrown upon the merits of 
 the claims for immunity by the fact that in pressing the 
 rights of the individual and enlarging upon the personal 
 loss to which he was continually exposed by the possible 
 capture of his merchandise, the existence of the safe- 
 guard of marine insurance by corporate or govern- 
 mental instrumentality was apparently ignored. 
 Another factor which was also seemingly overlooked 
 was the influence for peace which is exerted by those 
 numerous members of a community who stand to lose 
 money by the seizure of their property, whether directly 
 as merchants or indirectly as insurers, should war be 
 declared.* The practical effect of making private 
 
 ^ " Maritime capture, on the other hand, in the words of Mr. Dana, 
 ' takes no lives, sheds no blood, imperils no households, and deals 
 only with the persons and property volvmtarily embarked in the 
 chances of war for the purposes of gain, and with the protection of 
 insurance,' which by modern trading custom is invariably employed 
 to protect the owner of property against maritime war risks, and 
 which effects an immediate distribution of loss over a wide area. 
 
1907] SIR JULIAN CORBETT 153 
 
 property immune from seizure at sea would be the 
 immediate extension of the contraband list to include 
 every commodity of direct or indirect value to the 
 enemy. This would be essential to the success of the 
 operations of the Power or Powers desirous of establish- 
 ing a blockade, which is a recognised and legitimate 
 strategy of war. The immunity of innocent neutral 
 ships and goods has been closely determined. Paper 
 blockades are illegal and the rules regulating blockade 
 have been strictly drawn. Mahan with unanswerable 
 logic demonstrated that it was in accordance with the 
 military policy of the United States to advocate an 
 increase in the list of contraband goods, thus limiting 
 further the rights of neutrals, and to resist any attempt 
 to further limit the rights of blockaders. 
 
 In the collection of articles published in 1907 under 
 the title of Some Neglected Aspects of War, Mahan has 
 expressed his views on this subject in the chapter on 
 Belligerent Merchant Shipping, and has also em- 
 bodied in the book an article by the distinguished 
 authority Sir Julian Corbett ^ on The Capture of 
 Private Property at Sea. Both articles are highly 
 interesting, and shed luminous rays of cold facts on this 
 
 Mild, however, as its operation upon the individual is, maritime 
 capture is often an instrument of war of a much more efficient kind 
 than requisitioning has ever shown itself to be. In deranging the 
 common course of trade, in stopping raw material on its way to be 
 manufactured, in arresting the importation of food and exportation 
 of the produce of the country, it presses upon everybody sooner or 
 later and more or less ; and in rendering sailors prisoners of war 
 it saps the offensive maritime strength of the weaker belligerent. In 
 face of the results that maritime capture has often produced it is idle 
 to pretend that it is not among the most formidable of belligerent 
 weapons, and in face of obvious facts it is equally idle to deny that 
 there is no weapon the use of which causes so little individual misery." 
 — Hall's International Law. 
 
 1 Lecturer in History to the Naval War College, and Director of 
 Historical Section, Committee of Imperial Defence. Shares with 
 Mahan the distinction of having been awarded the Chesney Gold 
 Medal. 
 
154 " FREEDOM OF THE SEAS " [chap, xv 
 
 much misunderstood topic. Professor Corbett closes his 
 enlightening disquisition with the words at the head of 
 this chapter : " The reason why naval oncers urge with 
 heart and soul the retention of the old right of capture is 
 because they know not how to make war without it, nor can 
 any man tell them."^ 
 
 The present-day importance of the subject is enhanced 
 by the determination of the Allies to remove for ever 
 from the seas the menace of unrestricted submarine 
 piracy as practised by Germany in the late war. This 
 doubtless is what is implied by the second of President 
 Wilson's points essential to Peace : " Absolute freedom 
 of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, 
 alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be 
 closed in whole or in part by international action for the 
 enforcement of international covenants." 
 
 The author of the following breezy exposition of Sea 
 Power in the Brooklyn Eagle of November 13, 1918, 
 strikingly interprets Mahan's service to mankind : 
 
 " The phrase ' freedom of the seas ' need give us no 
 concern. Our Admiral Mahan explained our notion of 
 the phrase in fifteen volumes. If he is not right, we are 
 a long time coming to the point where we dispute him. 
 Mahan was a voice crying in the wilderness when he 
 exposed the German menace in 1910. Allan Westcott's 
 recently published Mahan on Naval Warfare contains 
 that prophetic exposure — from pages 38 to 46 — in 
 Mahan's The Interest of America in International 
 Conditions. 
 
 " The earth is three-fourths sea. Mahan covered a 
 subject second only to the stars. And when he died in 
 1914 he had only just started. Men of the sea have 
 never tolerated pirates. They tend to honesty as the 
 compass needle holds to the pole. They will grant no 
 freedom to do wrong. We have been forced by the 
 Germans to put billions into ships, and that fact has a 
 further bearing on freedom of the seas. Mahan wrote : 
 ' A broad basis of mercantile maritime interests and 
 
THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND 155 
 
 shipping will doubtless conduce to naval efficiency by 
 supplying a reserve of material and personnel.' 
 
 " Precisely what the psychology of Germany did not 
 anticipate comes about. Germany has given us more 
 seamen than we ever dreamed of having, and the more 
 seamen there are, the more honor ; the stricter the 
 observance of law on the sea. The U-boat has crowded 
 the sea with sailors. For one student of Mahan we now 
 have a thousand. The Kaiser who told Mahan that he 
 had ' devoured ' his book The Influence of Sea Power 
 upon History took a meal his mind could not assimilate. 
 And neither did we understand Mahan. We found his 
 books dry and technical, and what happened at Tra- 
 falgar did not seem to us of any immediate interest. 
 As late as 1916 we were saying that we were not con- 
 cerned with the causes of this war, and a little later came 
 another Trafalgar at Jutland. The British victory at 
 Jutland saved the world. Our loss of Mahan, in 
 December 1914, is comparable to the loss of Kitchener 
 to our joint cause. 
 
 " Yesterday, in all the Episcopal churches the world 
 over, sailors were held in special memory and special 
 prayers were said for them. In the sermons the debt of 
 mankind to sailors was acknowledged, and it is safe to 
 say that in every sermon mention was made of the 
 heroes who fought and died for us off Jutland on that 
 memorable May 31, 1916. None of the low visibility 
 clouded the conscience of the fighters, none palsied their 
 good, strong arms. 
 
 " The women of Portsmouth wept and the whole world 
 rejoiced. The strategy and technic of Trafalgar are a 
 part of our most blessed heritage, for only by knowing 
 how to fight and esteeming the worth of the fighting 
 sailor can we understand, as all the people who travel 
 the sea for a living understand, that sea power is vital 
 to a progressive nation." 
 
 The effective blockade of the German ports by the 
 British Fleet, the success of which Mahan did so much to 
 ensure, saved the world, and thereby he did his country- 
 men an invaluable service, because but for that success- 
 
156 " FREEDOM OF THE SEAS " [chap, xv 
 
 ful blockade of the North Sea, Germany could have 
 landed military forces in America and caused inconceiv- 
 able devastation and misery ; moreover, America could 
 not have safely sent a soldier, a bale of merchandise, or 
 a letter to Europe, nor could she have made her ten 
 thousand million dollars war profits, nor have had the 
 use of the half-million tons of German shipping which 
 the British cruisers bottled up in her ports. Without 
 the British Navy, Democracy could not have won the 
 war ; without the British Navy, Prussianism would have 
 triumphed, and Liberty, as Anglo-Saxons comprehend it, 
 would have perished from the face of the earth for 
 generations to come. 
 
 Possibly it may be permissible at this opportunity to 
 interpose a word about those associated with the enemy 
 by ties of blood, some of whom may read these lines. 
 In the last analysis, whatever the German people as a 
 nation are at heart ; whatever they have been in the 
 past ; whatever they may become in the future ; those 
 among them who are humane, generous, upright, and God- 
 fearing — and there must be many such — must recognise 
 the one all-comprehensive fact that the atrocious in- 
 famies perpetrated by a large and representative section 
 of their countrymen — infamies which have robbed the 
 Turk of that sinister four-syllabled descriptive adjective 
 with which his name has been for centuries associated- 
 are responsible for the world's just condemnation and 
 contempt. From this unhappily all Germans must 
 suffer for generations to come, however innocent they 
 themselves as individuals may have been, and the 
 obvious task of all such good folk of Teutonic stock in 
 the present and coming generations is to become so re- 
 incarnated in thought, word, and deed as to divorce 
 themselves and their descendants definitely and for all 
 time from the minutest trace of that indelible stain which 
 may be best described by the one word Prussianism. 
 
 Admiral Sims, the distinguished Commander-in-Chief 
 
ADMIRAL SIMS 157 
 
 of the American Naval Forces in European Waters, 
 adds to that of the mihtary strategists his testimony 
 as to the paramount influence of the British Navy. In 
 his address to the visiting American journahsts he 
 said : 
 
 " I would like American papers to pay particular 
 attention to the fact that there are about five thousand 
 anti-submarine craft in the ocean to-day, cutting out 
 mines, escorting troopships, and making it possible for 
 us to go ahead and win this war. The reason they can 
 do this is because up in the North Sea somewhere lying 
 at anchor is the great British Grand Fleet. They can do 
 this work because the British Grand Fleet is so powerful 
 that the German High Seas Fleet has to stay at home. 
 If a catastrophe should happen to the British Grand 
 Fleet there is no power on earth that can save us, for 
 then the German High Seas Fleet can come out and 
 sweep the seas. The British Grand Fleet is the founda- 
 tion stone of the cause of the whole of the Allies." 
 
 In 1918, when the man in the street was seeking a 
 reliable definition of the term " freedom of the sea," 
 Admiral Sims said : "So far as history goes, the power 
 of Great Britain has permitted practically absolute 
 freedom of the seas to everybody, because any vessel 
 could go to any British port and carry goods to any 
 other port. To me, that looks like perfect freedom of 
 the seas." 
 
 Four years before war broke out, Admiral Mahan 
 warned the British and American peoples of the danger 
 of weakening the defensive power of the blockade. In a 
 trenchant article on Britain and the World's Peace 
 in the columns of the London Daily Mail he said : 
 
 " There is little cause for wonder, then, that Germany 
 is contracting debt in order to strengthen her Navy. 
 The wonder is that intelligent men in Great Britain 
 should be found to ignore these facts, and to advocate 
 immunity from the incidence of war for sea-borne 
 
158 "FREEDOM OF THE SEAS" [chap, xv 
 
 commerce, under the delusive definition of ' private 
 property.'" {See Appendix.) 
 
 Admiral Mahan divided honours with Lord Roberts 
 in persistent and consistent advocacy of undeniably 
 sound national measures which met with determined 
 opposition from enlightened quarters. But whereas 
 the failure to adopt Lord Roberts's proposals cost 
 England countless lives and untold treasure, the failure 
 of Mahan' s opponents to introduce their suicidal innova- 
 tion before hostilities opened in 1914 did much to save 
 the world. Blockade did more than bullets to win the 
 war. 
 
 In the light of the crowning justification of his conten- 
 tions as exemplified in the actual experiences of the all- 
 momentous contest between right and wrong now glori- 
 ously ended in the vindication of the right, it is almost 
 pathetic to recall Mr. Andrew White's difficulties at the 
 Hague in reconciling Mahan' s views with those of the 
 advocates of presenting the Central Empires with a 
 trump card which would have furnished them with the 
 means of evading the consequences of the blockade and 
 possibly winning the war. The subject is of such 
 momentous import that it may be considered permissible 
 to here repeat the extract from Mr. White's autobio- 
 graphy reproduced in the chapter on the First Hague 
 Conference. 
 
 " Then to the hotel and began work on the draft of a 
 report, regarding the whole work of the conference, 
 to the State Department. I was especially embarrassed 
 by the fact that the wording of it must be suited to the 
 scruples of my colleague Captain Mahan. He is a man 
 of the highest character and of great ability, whom I 
 respect and greatly like ; but, as an old naval officer, 
 wedded to the views generally entertained by older 
 members of the Naval and Military Service, he has had 
 very little, if any, sympathy with the main purposes of 
 the conference, and he has not hesitated to declare his 
 
HON. ANDREW WHITE 159 
 
 disbelief in some of the measures which we were especi- 
 ally instructed to press. In his books he is on record 
 against the immunity of private property at sea, and in 
 drawing up our memorial to the conference regarding 
 this latter matter, in making my speech with reference 
 to it in the conference, and in preparing our report to the 
 State Department, I have been embarrassed by this 
 fact. It was important to have unanimity, and it could 
 not be had, so far as he was concerned, without toning 
 down the whole thing, and, indeed, leaving out much that, 
 in my judgment, the documents emanating from us on 
 the subject ought to contain. So now, in regard to 
 arbitration, as well as the other measures finally adopted, 
 his feelings must be considered. Still, his views have 
 been an excellent tonic ; they have effectively prevented 
 any lapse into sentimentality. When he speaks, the 
 millenium fades and this stern, severe, actual world 
 appears." 
 
 Yet another side of this engrossing controversy pre- 
 sents itself in the consideration of the more than probable 
 contingency that had the purposes of the blockade 
 been frustrated by the adoption of the principle of im- 
 munity of private property at sea, friendly neutrals,* 
 including the United States, would have continued to 
 provide with the wherewithal to prolong, and possibly 
 win, the war, those whom the world has learnt by bitter 
 experience to recognise as the enemies of mankind. 
 The thought is too hideous to contemplate. Thank 
 God the practical knowledge, foresight, and courage of 
 
 ^ Should future international law or the League of Nations fail to 
 eliminate from the political horizon the so-called " neutral " of the 
 past, measures will be necessary to obviate in future any such cruel 
 injiiry as that from which the Allies suffered in the late conflict, by 
 reason of the wholesale and gigantic abuse of neutral privileges on 
 the part of those countries contiguous and semi-contiguous to Germany, 
 through the instrumentality of other neutrals who in the first year 
 of the war poured their foodstuffs and merchandise into these countries 
 for the benefit of the enemy either directly or by means of subtle 
 substitution, and would have continued to do so but for the effective 
 commercial blockade maintained by the British Fleet. — C. C. T. 
 
160 " FREEDOM OF THE SEAS " [chap, xv 
 
 Admiral Mahan were instrumental in helping materially 
 to avert so appalling a calamity. 
 
 In the last analysis Mahan and his teachings probably 
 did more than any other one factor to right the greatest 
 wrong in history and to start the joy-bells ringing in 
 every Anglo-Saxon heart. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THEN AND NOW 
 
 " A Navy, therefore, whose primary sphere of action is war, is, in 
 the last analysis and from the least misleading point of view, a political 
 factor of the utmost importance in international affairs, one more 
 often deterrent than irritant, 
 
 "It is in that light, according to the conditions of the age and of 
 the nation, that it asks and deserves the appreciation of the State, 
 and that it should be developed in proportion to the reasonable possi- 
 bilities of the political future." — A. T. Mahan, The Future in Relation 
 to American Naval Power, 1895. 
 
 In these days of thousand milUon dollar naval appropria- 
 tions it is hardly possible to conceive of the indifference 
 with which the Navy was regarded by the American 
 people up to about the time when Mahan first came into 
 public notice as an author in 1883. This date coincides 
 with the birth of what was then known as the New Navy, 
 which occurred in President Arthur's administration 
 under the vigorous policies of Secretary Hunt and Secre- 
 tary Chandler. Mahan' s influence was not to be 
 actively felt in the United States until some ten years 
 after this. 
 
 So great was the difficulty of getting Congress to vote 
 for even one battleship of the second class in the early 
 days, that the wits of the Navy used to illustrate the 
 situation by the story of the old lady who, on being told 
 that the honey she was enjoying was from her host's 
 garden, said, " I think I'll get a bee for my garden too." 
 
 The following letter to Mahan from Admiral Stockton 
 reflects the views of intelligent naval men of the day : 
 
 " Make Island, Cal., 
 
 " My dear Captain, "-^"^^ ^^' i^^^- 
 
 " I have just finished reading your book and 
 cannot refrain from writing to you to congratulate you 
 
 161 
 
162 THEN AND NOW [chap, xvi 
 
 upon its value and success. As I had not the good 
 fortune to hear your lectures it was not in any way a 
 ' twice-told tale ' to me, and I found it most interesting 
 and valuable. I was at first disposed to doubt the 
 advisability of pointing the moral by referring to our 
 conditions, our uncertain and erroneous policies, and 
 want of strength , but I finally concluded that, in and 
 out of season, it is advisable and even a solemn pro- 
 fessional and patriotic duty to call attention to the 
 lamentable state of affairs and the ostrichlike conduct 
 of those who legislate for us. 
 
 " With kindest regards to Mrs. Mahan, I am, 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " Charles H. Stockton." 
 
 The Chicago, which Mahan commanded from 1893 to 
 1895 and which was at that time considered the most 
 powerful ship in the United States Navy, was finished in 
 1887, and with two other unarmoured cruisers, the 
 Atlanta and the Boston, constituted at that time the 
 Navy's effective unit of modern warships. Then fol- 
 lowed slowly the construction of a few additional ships, 
 until in 1890, the year in which The Influence of Sea Power 
 upon History appeared, came the dawn of a new era, and 
 the first serious step was taken in the direction of building 
 a Navy worthy of the United States. This was during 
 President Harrison's administration and was in great 
 measure due to the initiative of Secretary Tracy. Soon 
 after this Mahan may be said to have begun to influence 
 professional opinion. The far-reaching stimulus created 
 by his unique reception in England, which made the 
 name of Mahan a household word in all maritime coun- 
 tries and greatly enhanced the prestige of the American 
 Navy, was further intensified by the lessons learnt in the 
 Spanish-American war and brought about a change in 
 public sentiment towards the Navy. The naval victories 
 at Manila and Santiago further contributed to influence 
 legislators favourably in the direction of navy building. 
 
1903-16] THE NEW AMERICAN NAVY 163 
 
 The result was that by 1903, some ten years after the 
 earUest date at which the teachings of Mahan's first sea- 
 power books began to take effect in America, the United 
 States Navy boasted, in commission and under construc- 
 tion, twenty-four first-class battleships and ten armoured 
 cruisers. 
 
 From this time on the growth of the Battle Fleet was 
 steady and continuous, usually two first-class ships 
 being added every year. Then came the Great 
 War, and the supreme importance of sea power, as 
 illustrated by the predominant control exercised by 
 the British naval forces, resulted in 1916 in the 
 authorisation by Congress of a naval programme 
 absolutely without parallel in history. This was further 
 supplemented by the provisions of another Act in 
 March 1917. 
 
 Political considerations do not yet allow of a detailed 
 and comprehensive account of the present and imminent 
 strength of the American Navy ; but when peace condi- 
 tions are finally established and all restrictions are 
 removed, the author anticipates the crowning pleasure 
 of offering his readers a recital that will raise a tumult 
 of emotion and patriotic pride in every American heart. 
 It is, however, permissible to condense into a fairly 
 palatable capsule this much of the information which is 
 already available abroad. The 1916 Act appropriated 
 three hundred million dollars to cover the expenditures 
 of the first year of a three-years programme, which 
 included, among a number of other craft, ten battle- 
 cruisers and ten battleships. Four of the battleships 
 were to be of 32,600 tons, with a speed of 21 knots and 
 carrying eight 16-inch guns ; six battleships were to be 
 of 40,000 tons with a speed of 25 knots and carrying 
 twelve 16-inch guns ; and six battle-cruisers of 34,800 
 tons with a speed of 35 knots and carrying ten 14-inch 
 guns. The battleships were to cost some $20,000,000 
 each, and the battle-cruisers were to be 850 feet in length, 
 12 
 
164 THEN AND NOW [chap, xvi 
 
 200,000 horse-power, and cost $21,000,000 each.^ The 
 Act of March 4, 1917, authorised a further appropriation 
 of five hundred milUon dollars.^ More than this cannot 
 here be said about the American Navy, except that, as all 
 the world knows, the United States now have in com- 
 mission a squadron of ships of the Pennsylvania class, 
 each equipped with a dozen 14-inch arguments for 
 democracy, and Uncle Sam's resources for accumulating 
 convincing logic of this character are practically inex- 
 haustible. The accompanying illustration of the 
 powerful ships of this class gives an idea of their stately 
 and graceful lines suggesting those of the destroyer 
 type.* 
 
 The destructive power of the modern Dreadnought 
 is such that no comparison is possible between the 
 strength of the present United States Navy and that of 
 Mahan's day, as represented by a few ships of the 
 Chicago class. As regards comparative rank, the 
 American Navy in those regrettable days had, inter- 
 nationally speaking, no standing ; to-day she is fast 
 approaching second place among the great navies of 
 the world.* 
 
 An illustration of the comparative sizes of individual 
 representative ships of that period and of the present 
 day is shown in the accompanying picture of the Chicago 
 
 ^ A 16-inch naval gun will accurately throw a projectile weighing 
 a ton about fifteen miles. The ships of the Queen Elizabeth class of 
 the British Navy are of 27,500 tons, 650 feet in length, carry eight 
 15-inch giuis, and steam about twenty-five knots. The battle-cruisers 
 of the Lion class are of 26,000 tons, 675 feet in length, carry eight 
 13'6-inch gims, and steam about thirty knots. 
 
 2 For war purposes the Naval Budget subsequently exceeded 
 a thousand million dollars. 
 
 ' In Jane's Fighting Ships, 1919, it is stated that New Mexico, 
 Idaho, and Mississippi are improvements upon Pennsylvania and 
 Arizona, which, " taken all round, represent one of the most successful, 
 if not the most successfiil, of aU Dreadnought designs up to the present 
 time." 
 
 * Written before the surrender of the German Fleet. American 
 Navy now stands second. 
 
(I 
 
 (I 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 165 
 
 and the Pennsylvania photographed together on the 
 same sheet. 
 
 Of all Mahan's innumerable exhortations to his 
 countrymen demonstrating the vital necessity of a 
 strong Navy, none perhaps had greater potency than 
 that in which he defined in the following words that 
 policy which is so dear to the heart of every American, 
 and is known as the Monroe Doctrine : " Reduced to its 
 barest statement^ and stripped of all deductions, natural or 
 forced, the Monroe Doctrine, if it were not a mere political 
 abstraction, formulated an idea to which in the last resort 
 effect could be given only through the instrumentality of a 
 Navy.'" 
 
 Mahan's efforts for many years were exerted in the 
 direction of awakening public opinion in America to the 
 importance of a Navy in keeping with the national 
 responsibilities of the United States. Some of his articles 
 on the subject are contained in a volume published in 
 1897 under the title of The Interest of America in Sea 
 Power, Present and Future ; but his writings for thirty 
 years contained innumerable lessons, presented as never 
 before by human ingenuity, and vividly illustrating the 
 imperative demand for a strong and active fleet in the 
 national interest and for the security and welfare of the 
 people of the United States. 
 
 Although his success unfortunately gave rise to 
 jealousy in some quarters, there is ample evidence that 
 many naval officers of the most thoughtful and efficient 
 type thoroughly appreciated his efforts to secure for his 
 country a Navy and a Navy Department in every way 
 worthy of the United States. This letter from Admiral 
 Bowman Hendry McCalla is characteristic of a number 
 of similar tributes to Mahan's invaluable services in this 
 all-important direction : 
 
 " Dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " Ever since your work upon The Influence of 
 Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire 
 
166 THEN AND NOW [chap, xvi 
 
 was published I have anticipated reading, with great 
 pleasure and instruction, the work which I knew 
 you intended to publish eventually, bringing the 
 influence of Sea Power up to and including the War 
 of 1812. 
 
 " I am just now in the first volume of The Influence 
 of Sea Power upon the War of 1812, and I feel it to be a 
 privilege to have the opportunity to express to you the 
 great satisfaction and pleasure with which I am becoming 
 familiar with the actual conditions which prevailed in 
 both countries prior to the declaration of our last war 
 with England. I will not take any of your time beyond 
 asking you to accept my congratulations upon the 
 wonderful insight you have given to those who are 
 interested in naval matters of the enormous influence 
 which fleets have exerted upon the rise and fall of 
 nations. 
 
 " If our people, our legislators, and our officers show 
 by their efforts in future their appreciation of your 
 inspired works, they will so modify the organisation of 
 the Navy Department, the administration of the Navy, 
 and method of promotion as to make our Service equal 
 to the most efficient among maritime nations. We 
 may then feel, I think, that our Navy will have been 
 responsible, through your teaching, in creating a real Fleet, 
 which may be expected to be at least equal in efficiency 
 to those of other nations. 
 
 " May I ask you to do me the favor to convey to Mrs. 
 Mahan our very great pleasure at the well-deserved and 
 immortal reputation which her husband has gained for 
 his family and our Navy ? 
 
 " Very sincerely, 
 
 " B. H. McCalla." 
 
 In practice as in precept he was equally persistent, 
 and it is interesting to trace the several links in the chain 
 of official occurrences which eventually led to the adop- 
 tion of a strong naval policy by the United States 
 Government. 
 
 When he was ordered to sea in 1893 he warmly recom- 
 
ORIGIN OF THE GENERAL BOARD 167 
 
 mended as his successor in the Presidency of the Naval 
 War College his colleague and friend, Captain H. C. 
 Taylor. Mr. Herbert, Secretary of the Navy, approved 
 of Mahan's choice and duly appointed Captain Taylor 
 President of the College. 
 
 In those days there was no General Board of the Navy, 
 and its establishment was primarily due to Mahan's 
 influence with Taylor, who induced the then Secretary 
 of the Navy to approve of the plan and also persuaded 
 Admiral Dewey to accept the first Presidency of the 
 Board. The modern Navy of the United States owes its 
 character largely to the expert knowledge of the 
 members of the General Board, among whom at that 
 time were Rear-Admirals George A. Converse, Charles 
 S. Sperry, William Swift, Seaton Schroeder, William T. 
 Swinburne, Richard Wainwright, and Captain Sumner 
 Kittelle. 
 
 At a hearing before the Committee on Naval Affairs 
 of the House of Representatives in February 1916, 
 Rear-Admiral Cameron McRae Winslow, then Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, gave the following 
 evidence : 
 
 " I can give you the history of the General Board, and 
 I am inclined to think that I am the only officer in the 
 Navy who can give to you what produced the General 
 Board and its development. Many years ago, when 
 Admiral Dewey came home from Manila, he came home 
 with very high rank. It was a problem in the Navy 
 Department just where Admiral Dewey would fit in. It 
 was quite a serious problem. Admiral H. C. Taylor, 
 who was probably one of the most far-seeing men that 
 we had at the time in the Navy or that we have at the 
 present time, was very closely associated with Admiral 
 Mahan. They were deep thinkers, and they realised what 
 must come if we were to have a Navy. Admiral Taylor 
 was very close to the Secretary of the Navy at the time, 
 and the Secretary of the Navy had great confidence in 
 him. 
 
168 THEN AND NOW [chap, xvi 
 
 " In talking this thing over, Admiral Taylor saw that 
 there was an opportunity to make a start on a different 
 organisation in the Navy Department, and he advocated 
 the formation of a General Board with Admiral Dewey 
 at the head of it, provided it would be satisfactory to 
 Admiral Dewey, which it was. I think it would have 
 been almost impossible to have formed the General 
 Board at that time if the situation had not been such as 
 it was, because the General Board was bitterly opposed, 
 as it was after it was formed. It was bound to continue 
 on with Admiral Dewey at the head, but the General 
 Board was not then, nor has it been since, what Admiral 
 Taylor hoped would be the final development. What he 
 wanted was a General Staff, and that is what I have 
 always thought was the best. My opinion, of course, 
 is not of great consequence, but that was the opinion of 
 Admiral Mahan and Admiral Taylor, and it was the 
 opinion of everybody who has made a study of how to 
 control a great military body, realising that you can 
 get higher efficiency and better results by having it con- 
 trolled by a General Staff, but we have not gone to that 
 extent. The General Board, mind you, is not a General 
 Staff, but it has become so important in the Navy 
 Department that it would not be done away with, the 
 Secretary would not like to do without it, and I doubt 
 if any Member of Congress would like to do without the 
 General Board." ^ 
 
 Thus Mahan' s influence can be traced through his 
 volumes of earnest admonition and throughout the 
 various evolutions which eventually produced the 
 present American Battle Fleet, and the following letter 
 from Admiral Sims, one of America's foremost naval 
 commanders, adds authoritative evidence of Mahan' s 
 far-reaching inspiration in the creation of the national 
 sentiment which has been so largely responsible for the 
 
 1 In The Navy as a Fighting Machine Admiral Fiske says that Congress 
 has so enlarged the scope of the office of Chief of Naval Operations as 
 to make it a General Staff. 
 
ADMIRAL SIMS 169 
 
 eminent position the United States is rapidly assuming 
 in international naval affairs : 
 
 " U.S. Naval Fokobs Operating in European Waters, 
 " U.S.S. ' Melville,' Flagship, 
 
 30, Gbosvenor Gardens, 
 
 " London, S.W.I., 
 
 " May 2, 1918. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " I am very glad to learn from your letter of 
 March 28, 1918, that you are writing a biography of the 
 late Admiral Mahan. I think it specially fortunate that 
 this is being done at this particular time by an official 
 of the British Government, when the British and 
 American Navies are so closely associated in this great 
 war for Democracy, for in a very real sense the Admiral's 
 life-work very intimately concerns not only Great 
 Britain but the United States, and every seaman, every 
 statesman, and every citizen of those countries whose 
 national policies depend for their realisation upon the 
 free and peaceful use of the sea. 
 
 " During the past twenty years I have been in frequent 
 association with many officers of the principal navies 
 of the world, and with the statesmen of these nations, 
 their leading naval advisers, and their national authori- 
 ties in the various branches of naval warfare. Almost 
 without exception, these men have referred to the great 
 influence of Mahan' s works in making clear the vital 
 importance of sea power in safeguarding the sovereignty 
 and independence of nations. I know of no other 
 similar influence upon governmental policy that is so 
 universally acknowledged. 
 
 " At the time when Admiral Mahan began his writings 
 at the United States Naval War College, the art of naval 
 warfare was in a state of development corresponding 
 approximately to that of land warfare previous to the 
 advent of Napoleon. After Waterloo there followed 
 a long period of anal5i;ical study, which led to the modern 
 conceptions of land warfare and of the function of 
 armies in the life arid development of nations. 
 
 " Strange to say, the true cause of Napoleon's down- 
 fall — the comparatively inconspicuous pressure of sea 
 power — was overlooked. It is even doubtful whether 
 
170 THEN AND NOW [chap, xvi 
 
 the navy which exerted this pressure clearly compre- 
 hended the vital significance of its influence until Mahan's 
 analytical genius made it clear to all the world. He 
 demonstrated also the similar influence of sea power 
 upon the outcome of many of the great wars, including 
 the American Civil War. 
 
 " The value of his studies was, very naturally, first 
 appreciated in Great Britain, the country of all others 
 most dependent upon maritime commerce ; and all 
 naval critics have testified to the influence of these 
 studies in ensuring a renewal of a strong British naval 
 policy. 
 
 " Similarly the United States was also awakened and 
 began building up its Navy, which had fallen to a low ebb. 
 Fortunate indeed was this renewal of naval policy — this 
 adequate strengthening of our sea forces— as illustrated 
 perhaps more strikingly than ever before by the events 
 of this great war. 
 
 " We have seen the Navies of the Allies standing 
 between German domination and the freedom of the 
 world, and we realise how much Great Britain, the 
 United States, and all of humanity owe to the wisdom of 
 Mahan — the pioneer thinker in demonstrating the vital 
 relation between sea power and national life. 
 
 " His loss is keenly felt in the naval world, and by 
 many illustrious men in all countries. Very often have 
 I heard sincere regret expressed that he could not have 
 lived to witness the most impressive illustration of the 
 principles which he so convincingly demonstrated, and 
 that we should have been deprived during these critical 
 times of the benefit of his unrivalled knowledge of naval 
 warfare and his great powers of analytical reasoning. 
 
 " Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "Wm. S. Sims. 
 " To Carlisle Taylor, Esq., 
 " British Vice Consul, 
 
 " New York, U.S.A." 
 
 Incidentally the fact that Admiral Sims was born 
 under the British flag, and that his mother was British, 
 her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sowden, the Admiral's grand- 
 father and grandmother, being both English, may be 
 
ROOSEVELT'S TRIBUTE 171 
 
 said to contribute a naval link to the chain of close 
 Anglo-American relations which Mahan was so desirous 
 to promote. 
 
 No man understood and appreciated Mahan more 
 thoroughly than Theodore Roosevelt, who has left this 
 on record : 
 
 " In dealing with our naval officers, in working for the 
 Navy from within the Navy, Mahan was merely one 
 among a number of first-class men ; and many of these 
 first-class men were better than he was in the practical 
 handling of the huge and complicated instruments of 
 modern war. But in the vitally important task of con- 
 vincing the masters of all of us— the people as a whole — 
 of the importance of a true understanding of naval needs, 
 Mahan stood alone. There was no one else in his class, 
 or anywhere near it." 
 
 It would be impossible to estimate how large a part 
 Mahan played, directly and indirectly, in the creation 
 of the great fleet which now upholds the honour and 
 dignity of the American people. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 PEACE VIEWS 
 
 " The power to control Germany does not exist in Europe, except 
 in the British Navy." — A, T. Mahan. 
 
 "It is as fallacious and dangerous to rely wholly upon covu-age, 
 devotion, and resources of the people, without practical preparation, 
 as it is futile to depend upon isolated position or arbitration to for 
 ever protect us from war." — Colonel James G. Haebord, United 
 States Army. 
 
 In the preface to the collection of articles published in 
 book form in 1912, under the title of Armaments and 
 Arbitration^ or the Place of Force in the International 
 Relations of States, Mahan explains that : 
 
 " The first six were planned as a series, intended to 
 present the arguments, too frequently ignored, that 
 neither Arbitration in a general sense, nor Arbitration 
 in the more specific form of judicial decision based 
 upon a code of law, can always take the place, either 
 practically or beneficially, of the processes and results 
 obtained by the free play of natural forces. Of these 
 forces national efficiency is a chief element, and arma- 
 ment, being the representation of the national strength, 
 is the exponent." 
 
 The chief significance of this statement lies in the 
 word always ; Mahan' s view being that while most 
 international differences can and should be adjudicated 
 by arbitration, there are conditions of political security 
 and principles of national honour, determined violation 
 of which by another Government can be settled by force 
 alone, or at best by the threat of the employment of 
 
 172 
 
ARBITRATION 173 
 
 adequate force. Unhappily recent historical events 
 support this view, for it is now evident to all mankind 
 that absolutely nothing but force could have prevented 
 the plunder of the civilised world by the Central Powers. 
 
 Mahan made it clear that in the arbitration treaties 
 into which the United States has entered, the decision 
 as to justiciable or non- justiciable issues rests with the 
 Government of the day. The lesson he sought to teach 
 was, briefly, that nations should be prepared for defence 
 according to the reasonable requirements of their respec- 
 tive territories. No nation should arm for offence. 
 Neither disarmament nor lack of preparation necessarily 
 prevents war ; otherwise the American Civil War would 
 not have taken place. There are in history instances of 
 wars that have resulted in just and beneficial conclusions 
 which would not have been attained had the issues been 
 submitted to arbitration on purely legal grounds, apart 
 from considerations of national honour, and the civil 
 and political liberties of the individual. As illustra- 
 tions of these he mentions the Spanish-American War 
 and the Boer War. He also quotes the Monroe Doctrine 
 as a political contention having no support in inter- 
 national law. Can anyone picture the United States 
 submitting to arbitration a question involving the 
 principles of the Monroe Doctrine ? 
 
 In an article under the title Why not Disarm ? Mahan 
 enlarges on this subject, and summarises his message to 
 the people of the United States in these words : 
 
 " Our Monroe Doctrine imposes a veto upon inter- 
 position by non-American States. Arbitration cannot 
 uphold the Doctrine because it has no legal status. 
 Armament alone can sustain, and to be bloodless it must 
 be efficient ' that the opposed may beware of thee.' " 
 
 Here is a letter, one sentence of which suggests in a 
 nutshell the underlying truth which, in the absence of an 
 international court of arbitration sufficiently powerful 
 
174 PEACE VIEWS [chap, xvii 
 
 to enforce its decrees, made the Spanish-American War 
 
 inevitable : 
 
 " Navy Department, Washington, 
 
 " March 21, 1898. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " There is no question that you stand head and 
 shoulders above the rest of us ! You have given us just 
 the suggestions we want. I am going to show your 
 letter to the Secretary first, and then get some members 
 of the Board to go over it. 
 
 " Personally, I can hardly see how we can avoid inter- 
 vening in Cuba if we are to retain our self-respect as a 
 nation. 
 
 " You probably don't know how much your letter has 
 really helped me clearly to formulate certain things which 
 I had only vaguely in mind. I think I have studied your 
 books to pretty good purpose. If I can get the Secre- 
 tary to enunciate just the policy about promotions 
 which you advocate, I am sure it will help us more 
 than anything else. 
 
 " Faithfully yours, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 " P.S. — There are mines off Fort Monroe, and in the 
 fort three modern 10-inch rifles, and a number of good 
 mortars. These, with a couple of small harbor torpedo- 
 boats, would I think be enough to prevent a raid on 
 Hampton Roads by a hostile fleet. 
 
 " Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S.N., 
 " 160, West 86th Street, 
 " New York." 
 
 Our self-respect as a nation ! What judicial body can 
 arbitrate on that ? But might not the cause of the offence 
 in most cases be removed by combined international 
 pressure ? ^ 
 
 1 A futiire continfrency which the League of Nations must take 
 into account is reflec < ed in the fact that in the international complica- 
 tions arising out of the Spanish-American War, Britain, as on similar 
 occasions in days gone by, sided with the United States against the 
 principal European Powers. — C. C. T. 
 
ANGLO-AMERICAN CO-OPERATION 175 
 
 Mahan loved his country, and as a strategist of pro- 
 found historical insight he advocated an American 
 Navy strong enough to meet successfully all contingencies 
 the future might present. Yet he was by nature un- 
 doubtedly a man of peace. His views on armament 
 and arbitration were based on a knowledge of human 
 nature. He felt that a sufficient change in man's atti- 
 tude towards his moral obligations would prevent war. 
 He expressed his feelings in these words : — ^ 
 
 " I feel with full intensity of personal conviction that\ 
 when moral motives come to weigh heavier with man- ' 
 kind than material desires, there will be no war, and I 
 coincidently therewith better provision of reasonable / '^ 
 
 bodily necessities to all men." ^..,,,,0-^ Jl 
 
 "~ As such a change in human nature unfortunately J^>^^^ 
 cannot be relied on, Mahan, if he were here, would now •i^t\k niil/ 
 doubtless agree with the majority of eminent strategists ,^^ . j^ 
 throughout the world, that peace can be best assured by ^^ . V 
 some sort of agreement under which the Navies of Great ^^^^^ -/ 
 Britain and the United States would co-operate to close /W'<> /^ /^ 
 the seas instantly to any nations resorting to arms with- J/UA 7jA^^ 
 out having first exhausted every means of a settlement A/)/^n jUdJt 
 by international arbitration. If a League of Nations ^ 
 
 can be organised to ensure this more effectually, all the 
 better ; but all Mahan' s teachings demand that America 
 and Britain must ultimately stand together as the 
 imperative and essential and indispensable foundation 
 of any plan for the effective preservation of peace * 
 throughout the world in the years to come. 
 
 Some two thousand years ago Marcus Aurelius said : 
 
 ** Wouldst thou confer upon any country the clouds 
 of war — induce its government to disarm." 
 
 Twenty centuries later, in a speech in a.d. 1895, Mahan 
 said : 
 " In maintaining the strength of the British Navy, I 
 
 1 In the unromantic but significant words raw materials reposes the 
 secret of one of the most potential levers for the maintenance of peace. 
 
176 PEACE VIEWS [chap, xvii 
 
 consider, lies one of the best hopes for the peace of the 
 world." 
 
 Twenty-three years after this, on the anniversary of 
 the arrival of the first United States warships in British 
 waters. Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, Commander-in-Chief 
 of the British naval forces on the Irish coast, concluded 
 his address to the American destroyer flotilla with these 
 words : 
 
 " To command you is an honour, to work with you is 
 a pleasure, to know you is to know the best traits of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race." 
 
 Mahan's conception of the preservation of universal 
 peace was united action on the part of all that is repre- 
 sented and implied by the Stars and Stripes and the 
 Union Jack on the high-seas, and to that end he con- 
 sistently urged adequate naval strength for America as 
 well as Britain and enlightenment of the masses in both 
 countries to bring about such union, not through the 
 instrumentality of statesmen, but as a yielding to 
 irresistible popular impulse. 
 
 Mahan did not disguise his feeling of apprehension lest 
 in far-off days to come the subsidence of the military 
 spirit in the civilised nations of the West, and the con- 
 sequent loss of those lessons of obedience and respect for 
 authority and law and order which military training 
 imposes upon the youth of each succeeding generation, 
 should contribute to pave the way for the development 
 of the yellow peril. Although a strong advocate for 
 universal peace, he warned posterity that it is not to be \ . 
 ensured by the representatives of Western civilisation \ \ 
 dropping their arms, relaxing the tension of their moral 
 muscle, and through ease and material prosperity 
 becoming " fattened cattle fit only for slaughter." 
 
 " What e'er betide," he adds, " sea power will play, in 
 those days, the leading part which it has in all history, 
 and the United States by her geographical position must 
 
SEA POWER AND PEACE 177, 
 
 be one of the frontiers from which, as from a base of 
 operations, the sea power of the civilised world will 
 energise." 
 
 As the great exponent of Sea Power, Mahan con- 
 tributed more than any other factor to make possible 
 the glorious peace which naval strength has done so much 
 to win, and which Sea Power will continue to preserve 
 as the paramount essential to the welfare and happiness 
 of the human race. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 TWO ADMIRALS 
 
 " Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals, or where the 
 superiority on one side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on 
 the other." — Dr. Samuel Johnson. 
 
 Owing chiefly to his natural reserve, Mahan's circle of 
 intimate friends was small. In From Sail to Steam he 
 acknowledged that while he experienced no difficulty 
 in entering into civil conversation with a stranger who 
 addressed him, he rarely took the first step, preferring 
 an introduction. He also admitted to an abhorrence of 
 public speaking, and a desire, amounting to a mania, to 
 slip unobserved into a back seat wherever he went. In 
 view of the proverbial sociability of the Irish race, his 
 personal conclusions are of interest. He says : " But 
 I am bound to admit I get both these dispositions from 
 my father, whose Irishry was undiluted by foreign ad- 
 mixture. I have none of the gregariousness of the 
 French or Irish." 
 
 Such tendencies do not make for a large personal 
 acquaintance. Had he been of the pushing, aggressive, 
 advertising type, Mahan could no doubt have made him- 
 self one of the most widely known Americans of his day 
 and generation. Despite his innate modesty and 
 retiring nature, however, he earned for himself an exalted 
 place among the most eminent men the United States 
 have so far produced. 
 
 His European experiences apparently had a broadening 
 effect, for he writes to his family : 
 
 " The mixing easily with strangers is sometimes a 
 
 178 
 
ADMIRAL BOUVERIE CLARK 179 
 
 natural gift, but when it is otherwise, custom soon rubs 
 off natural shyness. There are few men naturally more 
 retiring than myself, yet this cruise has resulted in 
 making me perfectly at ease in all companies and all 
 places, except when making a speech, and even that is 
 getting easier." 
 
 One of the distinguished naval officers who best knew 
 him and understood him was Vice-Admiral Sir Bouverie 
 Clark of the British Navy. Owing to their migratory 
 existence, it is inevitable that the friendships of naval 
 men should often be kept alive by correspondence. 
 That between Bouverie Clark and Mahan was no excep- 
 tion to the rule. An outline of the lifelong friendship 
 of these two Admirals is contained in a letter from Sir 
 Bouverie Clark to the author. Here it is ; 
 
 " I have to thank you for your letter of March 20, 
 telling me you have undertaken the task of writing a 
 biography of Admiral Mahan, and asking me for a letter 
 giving my recollections of him as a friend. This I find 
 a little difficulty in doing, as our friendship consisted of 
 two phases with a considerable gap between them, 
 and during the latter stage was mainly on paper. 
 
 " When I first met Mahan in 1884, on the Pacific 
 Station, he was in command of the U.S. corvette 
 Wachusett, and I commanded H.M. ship Sappho. We 
 met several times at various Chilian and Peruvian ports, 
 and after exchanging the usual official visits, we soon 
 became very friendly, although, as you say, he was a 
 reserved man. During our conversations we found 
 many subjects of mutual interest, and I was strongly 
 attracted towards him, and formed a very high opinion 
 of his sound common sense in all matters that we ever 
 discussed together, and the longer I knew him the more 
 I admired him. 
 
 " Towards the end of 1884 I returned to England on 
 promotion to Captain, and our brief but lasting friend- 
 ship came temporarily to an end. During the next ten 
 years I was serving afloat almost continuously. But in / 
 1895, when his books on ' Sea Power ' were published, I 
 13 
 
180 TWO ADMIRALS [chap, xviii 
 
 could not refrain from writing to him to tell him with 
 what cordial appreciation they had been received in 
 naval circles on this side. From that time I continued 
 a desultory correspondence with him up to the time of 
 his last illness, and I saw him on each of his rare visits 
 to this country, if I happened to be in England myself, 
 and in 1894 he paid me a short visit at the Royal Naval 
 Barracks at Devonport, where I was then in command. 
 After that I was appointed ' Director of Transports ' at 
 the Admiralty, and during the South African War of 
 1899 to 1902 I was in pretty constant correspondence 
 with Mahan and gave him a lot of information about the 
 Transport work for The Story of the War in South Africa, 
 which he was then writing. 
 
 " I have, I think, copies of all his books ; but that 
 book and his Life of Nelson I am proud to have ' from 
 the Author.' I am afraid this letter will not be of much 
 help to you, but it will explain the circumstances of my 
 friendship with Mahan. I never kept copies of any of 
 my letters to him. 
 
 " With best wishes for the success of your biography, 
 believe me, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " BouvERiE Clark." 
 
 Although the Admiral kept no copies of his letters to 
 Mahan, he carefully preserved Mahan' s letters to him, 
 and their contents, which by his courtesy have been made 
 available for the purposes of this book, throw light on 
 Mahan' s views on many important subjects. They 
 show that Mahan had very decided political views, and 
 that he was staunch Republican, being of the opinion, 
 rightly or wrongly, that the Democratic Party were 
 opposed to the creation of such a Navy as he considered 
 essential to the safety and welfare of the United States : 
 
 " Being of the opposite party to the Administration, 
 I am less concerned than as a patriot I ought to be ; but 
 in truth from the beginning of our nationality, in 1789, 
 the Democratic Party has refused the maintenance of a 
 Navy such as necessity, and therefore patriotism. 
 
THE MENACE OF GERMANY 181 
 
 demands, I shall not feel secure while they are 
 m office."* 
 
 As regards British politics, his sympathies were on the 
 side of the Conservatives and, despite his Irish Catholic 
 descent, he was strongly opposed to Home Rule. He 
 writes : 
 
 " I am, and always have been, a convinced anti-Home 
 Ruler, and I greatly disadmire the methods by which 
 your present Government has reduced Great Britain to 
 a single-chamber State. This business of the Lower 
 House of the legislature assuming all power to itself for 
 five years seems to me despotism like that of the French 
 National Convention of 1792, only not tempered, as that 
 was, by Revolution." 
 
 The British alliance with Japan did not appeal to 
 him : " friendly relations, certainly — but no alliance." 
 He had no use whatever for the Turk. He thoroughly 
 realised and appreciated the gravity of the menace of Ger- 
 many, and in one letter expressed his views in these words : 
 
 " She has now, what she had not forty years or less 
 ago, a huge trade and industrial system resting on the 
 sea. Your position and superior navy can throttle it "^ 
 in case of trouble. The Dreadnought gave her a chance--— 
 to take a new start, nearly even, to mantain equality on 
 the sea. Of course she can't do it, unless your people 
 weaken ; but that she should take the off-chance of your 
 so far weakening, through the Socialist element of the 
 Labor Party, is not remarkable ; especially in view of 
 the very wobbly — as it seems to me — attitude of the^ 
 present Government. I myself think, and have thought/ K 
 ever since you struck hands with Japan to the temporary ,- 1 
 ruin of Russia, that your foreign policy has been on the.! ' 
 wrong track. Germany could not spend so much on her 
 Navy, nor ride so high a horse, if Russia were what she 
 was. But your Government made France keep her 
 
 ^ Tho policy of tho present Democratic Administration would seem 
 to tend towards the construction of " incomparably the strongest 
 Navy in tho world," to qviote the words of Secretary Daniels. 
 
182 TWO ADMIRALS [chap, xviii 
 
 hands off, and Germany was only too glad to see Russia 
 in a scrape from which she must issue weakened." 
 
 Among Mahan's many intellectual possessions was the 
 priceless gift of common sense, that supreme quality 
 which mercifully throws the sunlight of intelligence upon 
 the sombre shadows of prejudice and ignorance, and 
 when given full play evolves adequate solutions of most 
 of the problems of life. It might almost be said to have 
 been the key-note of his character. It seems to have 
 stood him in good stead throughout his career, and have 
 safely steered him through many a rocky shoal. He 
 looked facts straight in the face and allowed neither 
 sentiment nor inclination to sway him one pin's point 
 from the convictions his mind dictated. Like many 
 another faithful Cobdenite of the present generation, he 
 realised that while the principle of free trade is sound, 
 the changed conditions of the twentieth century render 
 its application impracticable. In his own words : 
 
 " Although myself theoretically a free trader, I am 
 satisfied that the system is impossible to-day. The 
 world won't have it ; and if the world don't want it, 
 it is of no use one nation standing out. I believe you are 
 on the road to what Dizzy conceived as Imperial Demo- 
 cracy. We are much the same ; and I believe in it as 
 inevitable." 
 
 His views on Latin- America are reflected in the follow- 
 ing extract : 
 
 " The Chilians have disappointed everyone. I only 
 have a compensation. I ventured dour predictions as 
 to the result of the Latin-American incapacity for 
 governing themselves ; and just as I was about to 
 publish the beggars settled down and behaved with 
 remarkable decency for some time. However, when the 
 book was in print, they broke out again from Guatemala 
 down to Buenos Ayres ; and when Chili joined in the 
 riot the case was made, for it is always open to say during 
 my life, " Why, look at Chili : after thirty years' quiet the 
 
Photo by Elliott d: Fnj. 
 
 VICE-ADMIRAL SIE BOUVERIE CLARK, K.C.B. 
 
 182] 
 
CLEVELAND AND VENEZUELA 183 
 
 blood was too strong," etc. I am sorry for them, however ; 
 such doings are bad for all hands. I don't see any like- 
 lihood of my coming your way. A man with a family 
 and small means is pretty well anchored, and that is my 
 fix. Unless my next ship takes me across, I am not 
 likely to go." 
 
 Here is his frank and friendly comment on the Vene- 
 zuelan incident : 
 
 "It is only six months since our President resisted 
 firmly — and in my opinion most properly — consider- 
 able popular clamor to interfere in your difficulty with 
 Nicaragua. I don't expect you to think him right now, 
 but I think you should remember the other fact, and 
 make allowance for a dictatorial, self-willed man, unused 
 to diplomatic phrasing, expressing himself more strongly 
 than he realised, or perhaps even now understands. 
 Upon the right or WTong of the particular contention I 
 express no opinion, but it seems to me clear that, although 
 Great Britain is so great and long-established a Power 
 here, it is impossible to say that her interests in the 
 questions of this continent can possibly be as vital to her 
 as ours to us. I will not believe war possible : if it 
 comes, and I am in it, I think I shall have to request the 
 Admiralty to hoist on your ships some other flag than 
 the British^ — for, save our own, there is none other on 
 which I should be so reluctant to fire." 
 
 He expressed in this wise his feelings at the time of the 
 assassination of President McKinley : 
 
 *' The death of our President was sad in its utter use- 
 lessness and folly. If the scoundrel had tried, he could 
 not better have demonstrated the absurdity as well as 
 wickedness of the crimes of which he is one instance. 
 McKinley was at the very crown of his career. He 
 could not have got higher ; success had attended him 
 throughout, and he had fairly reached the end of one 
 set of difficulties. Another was opening before him, but 
 as yet nothing had happened to dim in the least the 
 lustre of his success. He was not only honored, but 
 had conquered a singular affection in the whole com- 
 
184 TWO ADMIRALS [chap, xviii 
 
 munity. Life could have brought him no more ; the 
 murderer simply secured him his safe place in our his- 
 tory. As regards the nation, the feeling of security was 
 no more affected than it would be by the killing of the 
 Emperor of Austria. I think there is a general feeling 
 that Roosevelt is even a better man for the immediate 
 future." 
 
 The two Admirals seem to have differed on the Turkish 
 question, although there is no evidence of the extent to 
 which Mahan's correspondent was supporting the Turk 
 as a measure of political expediency or of the nature of 
 that support. Constantinople and the control of the 
 Dardanelles, the only gateway to the Mediterranean not 
 in the safe custody of Great Britain, are of vast strategic 
 and political importance, no matter in whose possession 
 they may be, and this fact has for centuries postponed 
 the inevitable doom of the Turk until the Great War 
 arrived to settle the question. 
 
 The following letter from Mahan in October 1913 is 
 fairly characteristic of his correspondence with Admiral 
 Bouverie Clark. The contents of a number of other 
 letters are referred to elsewhere : 
 
 " Makshmebe, Quogue, Long Island. 
 
 " My dear Clark, 
 
 " Your birthday letter to me made a bull's-eye 
 this time, arriving here on the forenoon of the very day. 
 Many thanks for your good wishes and remembrance. 
 I am very well for 73, but I certainly lose in a twelve- 
 month. I have bathed in the sea all the summer, and 
 for both surf and swimming still do well enough. I 
 also still can ride my bicycle, though neither so fast 
 nor so far. It takes indeed over twenty minutes and 
 three or four miles to get my heart working right. In 
 this flat country we rarely walk anywhere ; our wheels 
 are always at the door for use. 
 
 " My last letter to you must have been from Sicily, 
 and probably from Palermo. We left there April 5 
 in a very slow Cunarder, the Saxonia, but had a delight- 
 ful voyage, if it did take two weeks. After another 
 
THE TURK 185 
 
 fortnight in town we came here and have remained 
 steadily. In fact, it is our home, as we not only 
 have here all our household goods, but have developed 
 in the five years very attractive surroundings. Here, 
 and here only, we are all satisfied for the summer. We 
 have always a blaze of color from the flowers, ' and 
 more sunshine to the square foot and to the week than 
 any place we know. 
 
 " You must not look for sympathy with your pro- 
 Turk view from me, nor, I believe, from one American 
 in a hundred. The individual Turk I daresay is a very 
 decent fellow when his blood is not up, but I should 
 suppose it as settled as any historical question can be 
 that the Turkish race has no capacity for government, 
 except by the sword. Now, the sword is a good thing 
 in the background, but to be the only resource in peace 
 as in war, and upon non-combatants, is not political 
 management. The Balkan peoples have probably 
 behaved very badly also, but they have demonstrated 
 that they can organise and that they can lick the Turks. 
 It is not the fighting quality of the Turk that has fallen, 
 but the administrative incapacity of the Government, 
 with, probably, a momentary absence of any single able 
 man, that left the army, so called, a disorganised mob. 
 Turkey is hopeless. Her very return upon Adrianople, 
 though the natural thing to do, only mortgages her future 
 more deeply. 
 
 " Sir Edwin Pears, for forty years resident in Con- 
 stantinople, and now President of the European Bar 
 there, in an article in the June Contemporary, reaffirmed 
 what he had said twelve years before : ' Whenever the 
 dead weight of Turkish misrule had been removed, the 
 young Christian states have been fairly started on the 
 path of civilisation and satisfy the reasonable expecta- 
 
 ^ The author has had the privilege of sharing with the Admiral's 
 family the enjojonent of the garden at Marshmere, where the scent 
 of the sweetbriar steals through the open windows, with a fragrant 
 reminder " how lovesome a thing is a garden, down pathways of 
 delight," and accentuating the truth of Gurney's inspired words : 
 " The kiss of the sun for pardon. 
 
 The song of the birds for mirth — 
 One is nearer God's heart in a garden 
 Than anywhere else on earth." 
 
186 TWO ADMIRALS [chap, xviii 
 
 tions of the statesmen, etc., who sympathised with 
 and aided them in their aspirations for freedom.' Pears 
 was born in 1835, and so is of an age to have imbibed that 
 old British feeUng of the Crimean War, when, as Lord 
 SaHsbury said, you backed the wrong horse. 
 
 " I follow your politics with interest, but I find I can't 
 read as much or as carefully as I did, so that I am less up 
 than I could wish. You always have my best wishes for 
 your country no less than for yourself. 
 " Always sincerely yours, 
 
 " A. T. Mahan." 
 
 The culminating point of the career of Mahan's dis- 
 tinguished friend came in the Boer War, when he was 
 appointed Director of Transports. The task was colossal. 
 Several hundred thousand troops with equipment and 
 war supplies for a peculiarly difficult campaign had to 
 be transported six thousand miles by sea, and the lines 
 of water communication preserved intact. Those were 
 the historic days in which the German Emperor sent his 
 interfering message to Kruger and England promptly 
 replied by sending out the Flying Squadron under com- 
 mand of Admiral Arthur Taylor Dale, to whom the 
 author has the honour of being cousin. On hearing of 
 the effect of the Flying Squadron, President Kruger is 
 reported to have said, " The little old lady sneezed, and 
 the mighty war lord fell on his knees." Those were 
 the days of Victoria the Good. 
 
 In The Story of the War in South Africa, published in 
 1900, Mahan describes the feat of the British Transport 
 Service as an incident unprecedented, and in its success 
 unsurpassed in military history ; adding that as a 
 triumph of organisation it reflected the utmost credit 
 not only upon the Admiralty, but upon the Director of 
 Transports, Admiral Bouverie Clark. 
 
 Mahan's conclusions as expressed in this book, from the 
 point of view of the military strategist, are of interest. 
 As regards moral and its effect upon the ultimate result 
 
THE BRITISH OFFICER 187 
 
 of the conflict, he was of opinion that two factors largely 
 contributed to influence victory for the British forces. 
 One was, that in order to ensure their wonderful mobility, 
 the Boers had ever a horse tethered close at hand, on 
 which to escape in the event of disaster — thus attracting 
 their minds towards defence. As opposed to this the 
 British officers enjoyed the reputation of being ever in 
 the vanguard, willingly and cheerfully laying down their 
 lives whenever the supreme sacrifice was in their opinion 
 of benefit to the cause or to the welfare of the men under 
 their command. This influenced their minds towards 
 attack, and, as every strategist knows, attack, not defence, 
 is the trump card ; Will Shakespeare's Once more unto 
 the breach ; close the wall up with our English dead." 
 Mahan contends that the element of stupidity, which has 
 been somewhat lavishly attributed to the British officer 
 in cheaply holding his own life, has a military value, not 
 only great but decisive ; and he summarises the situa- 
 tion in these memorable words : *' Having been thus 
 reproached for now two centuries, the question is apt — 
 Where has it placed Great Britain among the nations of 
 the earth ? " 
 
 Probably " Bobs " of Kandahar could have given as 
 good an answer to that question as any man. Here 
 is a letter of his to Mahan, written from Cape Town, 
 January 23, 1900 : 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " Please accept my best thanks for your letter of 
 the 19th December. It was most kind of you to think 
 of writing to me, and I can assure you that your letter 
 gave me great pleasure. 
 
 " As you write, the work here is more arduous by far 
 than was at first supposed. We are learning how differ- 
 ently war must be conducted nowadays, and how 
 impossible it is for positions, held by a determined enemy 
 who can use their rifles with effect, to be taken by a 
 frontal attack. We have had our lessons, and I trust we 
 shall benefit by them. 
 
188 TWO ADMIRALS [chap, xviii 
 
 " The Boers have proved themselves to be no ordinary 
 taeticians, and the want of transport, confining us as it 
 did to fines of railway, forced us to play into their hands. 
 Matters are mending by degrees, and I trust you will 
 receive good accounts of our proceedings ere very long. 
 
 " I hope when next you go to England, I may have 
 the great pleasure of being able to welcome you there. 
 
 " With kindest regards, 
 
 " Believe me, yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Roberts." 
 
 Perhaps one of the noblest examples of an English 
 officer's contempt for danger when duty calls was given 
 by Nelson at Trafalgar, when, in order to encourage the 
 crew of the Victory to do their utmost, he courted death 
 by insisting upon exposing himself on deck in a uniform 
 covered with brilliant orders, so that his brave men 
 might instantly recognise him and derive inspiration 
 from his presence among them in the very thick of the 
 fight. His precious fife paid forefeit ; but, would 
 England have won at Trafalgar had Nelson remained 
 out of sight ? * 
 
 At the end of the Boer War Mahan writes : 
 
 " Your war bill is immense ; . but the real question 
 is whether, as an investment, you will be repaid by a 
 renewed South Africa and by the increased weight of 
 the Empire in the councils of the world. I think you 
 will, and if so, while I could wish your bargain had been 
 cheaper, it is a good one none the less. All this talk 
 about the costliness of war is nonsense, except where one 
 pays too dearly for the result, or where the result is 
 worthless. Such a bargain is bad in any line of life. A 
 railway run through a region that won't pay one per 
 cent, on the investment is as bad a bargain as a resultless 
 war. Of course it is a pity results can't be had without 
 
 1 The query opens the flood-gates of historical speculation, and 
 suggests another absorbing mental exercise, the contemplation of 
 what might have been the history of England had Queen Elizabeth 
 married, and peopled the throne with Tudor stock, to the elimination 
 of the Stuarts and the unstaging of the Cromwellian drama. 
 
KRUGER 189 
 
 killing people and upsetting trade ; but one has only to 
 say Kruger, and realise that some bad things cannot be 
 settled except by fighting. 
 
 " Now as to Buller, of whom you speak, I don't know 
 if I ever said my say to you, but he seems to me the 
 most colossal failure of your war. I met him several 
 times in 1894, and was much impressed by him. Never 
 so astounded as by his actions ; not only by what 
 seemed to me mistakes in generalship, but also by a 
 certain seeming indecision— notably in his dealing with 
 Warren. As regards popularity with his own command, 
 we had singular evidence of the same sort in our civil 
 war in McClellan ; a man of the highest repute before ; 
 who proved a most signal failure, but whose men always 
 swore by him, and probably still do. Like Buller, he 
 too was a man of exceptional personal gallantry." 
 
 Admiral Bouverie Clark evidently received a copy of 
 The Story of the War in South Africa from the author, and 
 his letter of thanks brought the following response from 
 Mahan : 
 
 " It was a very small matter to send you an advanced 
 copy of the Boer War, after your invaluable help in 
 giving me data for one of the most interesting — to me — 
 and useful chapters in it. I wanted to lay it on you a 
 little thicker than I did, for I know well enough that the 
 smoother and more efficiently a machine runs, the less 
 credit does the driver get with the outside world. But 
 I was afraid my intention, by being too obvious, might 
 defeat itself; and I trusted that the unqualified praise 
 I gave to the work itself, and coupling your name immedi- 
 ately with it as the person most directly responsible, 
 would get you your dues with thinking men." 
 
 Their cordial relations continued until the end, and 
 when Mahan " reached port after stormie seas " and 
 went to live in the Garden of Forgiveness ^ his old friend 
 sent this tribute to his memory : 
 
 " It has always been a source of pride to me to be 
 able to say I had the friendship of so distinguished a 
 man." 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 AS STATESMAN 
 
 " The secret of Mahan's success was the breadth of view of the 
 writer. One felt, in regarding his calm and often stately periods, 
 that he was regarding history from a pinnacle whence nothing petty 
 was visible, that he addressed his fellow-men of all nations, and that 
 his judgment in matters where bias might have been looked for was 
 serenely impartial. The books bore the impress of statesmanship in 
 the highest meaning of the word." — Sydenham. 
 
 In the popular acceptation of the word Mahan was not 
 a statesman. He held no political portfolio, nor did he 
 influence public opinion through the statesman's 
 customary medium of oratory. But in a very practical 
 sense he was a statesman of a high order, because he had 
 the rare gift of foresight and the ability to make known 
 to the world at large, in language all could understand, 
 the supreme importance of adequate^ naval and mari- 
 time strength as a guarantee of national security. 
 Moreover, he warned civilisation of its need for self- 
 preservation against an existing but unacknowledged 
 source of deadly peril. 
 
 Of his innumerable pronouncements conveying such 
 warnings the following from an article he contributed to 
 the Daily Mail of October 31, 1910,i is characteristic : 
 
 " These things are not sai'd to incite strife, for indeed 
 they are not new, even if ignored. I would now, as I 
 hoped ten years ago, that things had taken a different 
 turn. But as they are, it is in the interests of peace to 
 point out that no force in Europe can so act as a deter- 
 rent from war, induced by the possible ambitious or 
 otherwise inevitable tendencies of Middle Europe as can 
 
 ^ Reproduced in the Appendix by courtesy of the Editor of the 
 Daily Mail. 
 
 190 
 
THE CARIBBEAN 191 
 
 the Navy of Great Britain. The dividing line cleft 
 between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente is 
 too plain to be ignored. It has been emphasised at 
 Algeciras, in Crete, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in other 
 incidents less conspicuous but equally known. Under 
 such circumstances the one salvation from war is readi- 
 ness for war, based upon a clear appreciation of what 
 can best be done and what should most be feared." 
 
 The pages of The Interest of America in International 
 Conditions are full of timely warning to all but the 
 intellectually blind, and some of the technicalities and 
 dangers of the international situation are enlarged upon 
 in the articles published under the title of Some Neglected 
 Aspects of War. An intimate glimpse into Mahan's 
 vision as a statesman may be had by a perusal of his 
 masterly analysis of the strategic features of the Gulf of 
 Mexico and the Caribbean Sea written in 1897. It 
 might be safely contended that probably no other man 
 living could have written that article. In it Mahan 
 demonstrates the future military significance of the 
 waters known as the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and their ultimate commercial importance 
 resulting from the development of the United States and 
 the inevitable completion of a canal through the Isthmus. 
 He first outlines the political and strategic history of the 
 Mediterranean, and then with the aid of an excellent map — 
 herein reproduced — he illustrates the eventual prominence 
 of the trade routes converging upon the Isthmus, 
 and the relative strategic values of Cuba, Jamaica, the 
 Windward Passage, Santa Lucia, Martinique, St. 
 Thomas, Santo Domingo, the mouth of the Mississippi, 
 Pensacola, the Strait of Florida, the Yucatan Channel, 
 the Mona and Anegada Passages, and other points of 
 military interest within the sphere of sea power, of which 
 he asserts the Caribbean is pre-eminently the domain. 
 He holds that Cuba, largely on account of her size, enjoys 
 the preponderant strategic position of the Caribbean, 
 
192 AS STATESMAN [chap, xix 
 
 with Jamaica a good second, and that " a superior navy 
 resting on Santiago de Cuba or Jamaica could very 
 seriously incommode all access of the United States to 
 the Caribbean mainland, and especially to the Isthmus." 
 In the following words Mahan comments upon the 
 dramatic history of Jamaica : 
 
 " When one recalls that it passed into the hands 
 of Great Britain in the days of Cromwell by accidental 
 conquest, the expedition having been intended primarily 
 against Santo Domingo ; that in the two centuries and 
 a half which have since intervened it has played no part 
 adequate to its advantages, such as now looms before it ; 
 that, by all the probabilities, it should have been recon- 
 quered and retained by Spain in the war of the American 
 Revolution ; and when, again, it is recalled that a like 
 accident and a like subsequent uncertainty attended 
 the conquest and retention of the decisive Mediterranean 
 positions of Gibraltar and Malta, one marvels whether 
 incidents so widely separated in time and place, all 
 tending towards one end — the maritime predominance 
 of Great Britain — can be accidents, or are simply the 
 exhibition of a Personal Will, acting through all time, 
 with purpose deliberate and consecutive, to ends not 
 yet discerned." 
 
 Mahan' s summary of the military situation is to the 
 effect that the islands of Cuba and Jamaica are the real 
 rivals for control of the Caribbean and of the Gulf of 
 Mexico ; that the strategic centre of interest for both 
 is to be found in the Windward Passage, and that a 
 mobile force capable of keeping the Windward Passage 
 open throughout hostilities would be necessary in order 
 to render Jamaica strategically equal or superior to 
 Cuba. 
 
 In Lessons of the War with Spain he draws special 
 attention to the strategic importance of Puerto Rico : 
 
 " The military importance of Puerto Rico should never 
 be lost sight of by us as long as we have any responsi- 
 bility, direct or indirect, for the safety or independence 
 
PUERTO RICO 193 
 
 of Cuba. Puerto Rico, considered militarily, is to Cuba, 
 to the future Isthmian Canal and to our Pacific coast, 
 what Malta is, or may be, to Egypt and the beyond ; and 
 there is for us the like necessity to hold and strengthen 
 the one, that there is for Great Britain to hold the other 
 for the security of her position in Egypt, for the use of 
 the Suez Canal and for the control of the route to India. 
 It would be extremely difficult for a European state to 
 sustain operations in the Eastern Mediterranean with a 
 British fleet at Malta. Similarly it would be very 
 difficult for a transatlantic State to maintain operations 
 in the Western Caribbean with a United States fleet 
 based upon Puerto Rico and the adjacent islands. The 
 same reasons prompted Bonaparte to seize Malta in his 
 expedition against Egypt and India in 1798. In his 
 masterly eyes, as in those of Nelson, it was essential 
 to the communications between France, Egypt, and India. 
 His scheme failed, not because Malta was less than 
 invaluable, but for want of adequate naval strength, 
 without which no maritime position possesses value." 
 
 There is a wealth of significance in this brief note from 
 
 the man whom many consider the greatest American of 
 
 modern times : 
 
 " White House, Washington, 
 
 " November 21, 1904. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " Your letter pleases me greatly. I thank you 
 for it. 
 
 " I wish you could get on here. There are so many 
 things I should like to speak to you about. 
 " Faithfully yours, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt held the opinion that Mahan was the 
 only great naval writer who possessed in international 
 matters the mind of a statesman of the first class. 
 Haply Mr. Roosevelt realised the extent of Mahan' s 
 admiration for him. In one of his letters to his friend 
 Sir Bouverie Clark in 190G Mahan said : 
 
 " Your letter spoke of the President's spelling reform. 
 
194 AS STATESMAN [cpiap. xix 
 
 then I suppose a new thing. To-day's paper announces 
 that the Lower House has passed a resolution contrary to 
 it, and the President has ' come down.' With his usual 
 luck, I suppose this will increase his popularity ; it will 
 probably take immensely, ' bowing to the will of the 
 people, as expressed by their representatives.' He 
 deserves it, however ; he is a thoroughly good fellow all 
 round ; honest and immensely shrewd. Better judges 
 than I say he is one of the most sagacious ' politicians ' 
 in the country ; but from beginning to end his strength 
 with the people has been his downright courage, to 
 which they are little used in public men." 
 
 As with other authors, certain portions of Mahan's 
 writings specially commended themselves to the critics. 
 The Athenceum had this to say of three chapters of The 
 Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and 
 Empire : 
 
 " We have little hesitation in saying that the two 
 chapters examining the war against commerce before and 
 after the issue of the Berlin Decree of 1806 and the last 
 chapter summing up ' The Function of Sea Power and 
 the Policy of Great Britain in the Revolutionary and 
 Napoleonic Wars ' rank beside the most profound his- 
 torical work of the century. We do not know when- 
 ever before has the true aspect of the ' noiseless pressure ' ^ 
 been fully revealed. The remarkable character of these 
 chapters is exhibited in their statesmanlike grasp of all 
 controlling circumstances and the lucidity with which 
 the conclusions are set out." 
 
 In Mie following letter Mr. John Hay, one of the most 
 capable diplomats that have ever represented Uncle 
 Sam, thanked Mahan for an expression of apprecia- 
 
 1 The battles of naval warfare are few compared with those on 
 land ; it is the unremitting daily silent pressure of naval force, when 
 it has attained command of the sea against an opponent — the con- 
 tinuous blocking of communication — which has made sea power so 
 decisive an element in the history of the world." — A. T. Mahan. 
 
JU±liN ±1AY lUiJ 
 
 tion of the great work he was doing as Secretary of 
 State ! 
 
 " Washington, D.C, 
 
 " November 23, 1904. 
 
 " My dear Captain Maiian, ' 
 
 " I have received your Jetter of the 20th of 
 November, and I am greatly obhged to you for your kind 
 references to our work in the State Department. I 
 receive so many comphments which I know I do not 
 deserve, from people who have no capacity for judging, 
 that when I occasionally get a generous word of support 
 from the highest possible authority, like yourself, I am 
 extremely grateful for it, and begin to doubt my own 
 distrust. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " John Hay." 
 
 The following correspondence tells its own story : 
 
 " Sampson Low, Marbton & Company, 
 " London, E.G., 
 
 " January 6, 1893. 
 
 " To Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S.N., 
 " President, 
 
 " United States Naval War College. 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " We have the honour to be the English publishers 
 of your invaluable and, to an Englishman, enchanting 
 books on the Influence of Sea Power. I have read your 
 books from cover to cover with the keenest interest, and 
 I read them as one who has almost from childhood recog- 
 nised that only by sea power can we hope to exist as a 
 powerful nation. . . . 
 
 " My object in writing this letter — and I hope you 
 will pardon my presumption in doing so — is to ask you 
 if you would object to give me for publication very 
 briefly your opinion on these points : 
 
 "1. Would the making of a submarine tunnel 
 between England and France, apart from com- 
 mercial considerations, be a wise or an unwise 
 policy ? 
 
 " 2. Would such a tunnel be a danger to our sea 
 power ? 
 14 
 
196 AS STATESMAN [chap, xix 
 
 " Your opinion and authority would have immense 
 weight, and if I venture to ask for it, it is in the name 
 of those dead British naval heroes the importance of 
 whose devoted services to their country and to the world 
 has never before been so brilliantly stated and abundantly 
 proved as in your own writings. 
 " I am, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient Servant, 
 
 " R. B. Marston, 
 *' Director, S. L. M. & Co., Ltd:' 
 
 The tenor of Mahan's reply is contained in these words : 
 
 " Such a tunnel would be a bridge between France 
 and Great Britain. . . . Historically, every bridge is 
 an element of danger. ... It may safely be predicted 
 that once built it will not be destroyed, but that through- 
 out any war reliance will be placed upon its defences. 
 History teaches us again and again the dangers of sur- 
 prise — the dangers of over-confidence. You will have 
 continually in your midst an open gap, absorbing a large 
 part of your available force for its protection. As to the 
 effect upon the sea power of Great Britain, it is obvious 
 that your Navy, were it tenfold its present strength, can 
 neither protect the tunnel nor remedy the evils incurred 
 by its passing into the hands of an enemy. ... It is 
 an odd kind of thing — making one lay down the pen 
 and muse — to think of an open passage to Great Britain 
 in the hands of a foe, and British ships, like toothless 
 dogs, prowling vainly round the shores of the island." 
 
 Mahan did national service by acting as the confiden- 
 tial adviser of leading statesmen of the day. The time 
 is not yet ripe for the publication of all the documents 
 found among his effects, but some idea of the national 
 importance of his activities in this direction may be 
 gained by reading between the lines of the following 
 portions of his correspondence with Senator Lodge, who 
 has kindly consented to their publication, adding on his 
 own behalf that he is glad to do anything to testify to 
 
ARBITRATION TREATIES 197 
 
 his friendship for Admiral Mahan and his admiration for 
 his great abihties : 
 
 " 45 W. 35th St., 
 
 "January 5, 1912. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Lodge, 
 
 " I am sensible that there is some incongruity 
 in a man of my slight equipment and practice of affairs 
 making a suggestion to one of your long antecedents 
 concerning a provision of the pending treaties ; but the 
 following argument has had such weight in my mind that 
 I venture to submit it. 
 
 "1. By the universal custom of nations it has been, 
 and still is, lawful and proper for nations to acquire or 
 transfer territory, by war, by purchase, by exchange. 
 So invariable has this rule been, that I presume it might 
 claim the standing of a ' principle of law,' as cited in 
 Article 1 of the treaties. We acquired the Philippines 
 by purchase. Porto Rico as the result of war. Ger- 
 many has just acquired a huge African territory by 
 transfer from France. 
 
 "2. Up to 1823 this principle of law applied in 
 America, as well as in other quarters of the world. 
 Actually, in 1809 and 1810, for instance, Great Britain 
 acquired Martinique , and Guadeloupe from France by 
 conquest and returned them in 1814. Since 1823, and 
 at present, the United States by the Monroe Doctrine 
 opposes and forbids such transfers, under threat of 
 opposition by us ; but how can this policy of a single 
 nation affect a principle of the law of nations, when a 
 case involving such a principle is brought before any 
 tribunal ? whether the tribunal be one of ultimate 
 arbitration or intermediary, such as the proposed Joint 
 High Commission. How can such a tribunal hold that 
 the question of transfer of territory, everywhere recog- 
 nised and practised, is not * justiciable ' by the applica- 
 tion of principles of law, ' when such law exists in the 
 shape of established practice and custom everywhere 
 except in the American hemisphere, and there only 
 because of the pronouncement of a single state, unsup- 
 ported either by general assent or by treaty ? 
 
 "3. I am told that a matter of government policy 
 
198 AS STATESMAN [chap, xix 
 
 is ipso facto ' not justiciable.' If that means that a 
 State will not submit to arbitration a matter it considers 
 one of vital policy, I agree ; but it appears to me that 
 such an assertion merely begs the question. Such a 
 State refuses, not because there is no law to govern a 
 tribunal in the case, but because its vital interests are in 
 its mind above law. That is a tenable position, and one 
 on which all States act : an attribute of sovereignty 
 recognised by all. But this does not deprive the existing 
 law of its validity, nor make the matter one that is not 
 ' justiciable by reason of being susceptible of decision 
 by the application of the principles of law.' On the 
 contrary, the matter remains one that is so justiciable, 
 because there is an applicable law, until by some change 
 of law, either by general consent or by specific treaty, 
 it is removed from that category of questions. 
 
 "4. It appears to me that there is prevalent a mental 
 confusion between a question being non-justiciable 
 because a State as a matter of policy will not submit it 
 to arbitration, and its being non- justiciable because 
 there is no law that applies to the case. The only recon- 
 ciling factor that I can see is the general acceptance, as 
 of a fundamental principle, that when a State defines 
 a national determination as a national policy, that policy 
 merely ceases to be justiciable by law, however long the 
 applicable law may have existed. 
 
 "5. This is substantially what Italy has lately done 
 — very rightly in my judgment— and other States have 
 silently accepted. Such tacit acceptance is a step toward 
 the full acceptance of the principle just stated ; but it 
 overturns in so far most of the labored procedure of the 
 Hague Conference, by leaving each State the final judge 
 in its own case, unbound even by specific agreements, 
 still less by ' principles of law.' That a State is such 
 final judge has been an axiom ever since I first studied 
 international law ; qualified possibly by treaty obliga- 
 tions, when such exist, but not by the mere consensus 
 which we call international law. 
 
 " 6. I cannot but think the pending treaties fatally 
 vitiated by a confusion of thought which defines 
 ' justiciable' as ' capable of settlement by principles of 
 law,' yet apparently assumes that any principle of law 
 
SENATOR LODGE 199 
 
 disappears before a national pronouncement. What 
 then is law ? 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " A. T. Mahan. 
 " Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, 
 "U.S. Senator." 
 
 Extracts from Senator Lodge's correspondence with 
 Mahan : 
 
 " January 9, 1912. 
 
 " I have your letters with the enclosures, which I have 
 read with great interest. The one about the treaties 
 with Germany is unansv/erable, and is put with great 
 force and clearness. I have not seen that precise point 
 put yet, but it is a very telling one, and could be used by 
 those opposed to the treaties, if they chose to use it, with 
 great effect. Your letter to me is also equally strong. 
 I am afraid, however, that you are correct in your judg- 
 ment that it would not do for you in your position as an 
 executive officer of the Government to publish it, but 
 if I am forced to discuss the treaties in public, which I 
 do not want to do, I shall be glad to use the points you 
 make. It can only harm our foreign relations to have a 
 great public debate in the Senate upon these treaties. 
 Foreign relations ought never to be dealt with in that 
 way, but if the President insists that the treaties must 
 be passed unamended and without a resolution covering 
 the point of governmental policy, like Mr. Root's, and 
 the right to pass upon the arbitrability of all questions 
 after the decision of the International Commission of 
 Inquiry, such as I have prepared, we shall have this 
 protracted debate. There is a great dissatisfaction in 
 the Senate with the treaties. I know of scarcely any 
 Senators who are heartily in favor of them as they 
 stand, even those who are anxious to support the 
 Administration. I am very much troubled about them, 
 and how it will work out I really cannot tell." 
 
 " Avril 9, 1912. 
 
 " I have read the published letter which you sent 
 me with the greatest possible interest, and am much 
 obliged for it. It gives me a number of new points, 
 
200 AS STATESMAN [chap, xix 
 
 admirably stated, which I very much want when I come 
 to discuss the battleships in the Senate. I am also 
 glad to have the suggestion in your letter. I shall 
 rob you in a perfectly conscienceless way, and use all 
 your suggestions freely for the benefit of my speech. 
 I think we shall put the two ships on in the Senate, for, 
 so far as I can judge, the Senate is friendly to them. 
 I hope the House will accept them. I knew that the 
 House would be glad to vote them, being held back only 
 by the party caucus." 
 
 " Ji% 6, 1912. 
 
 " You have probably seen that we passed the Naval 
 Bill yesterday, and carried two battleships by a vote of 
 43 to 12, nearly four to one. We decided that as we 
 were sure to carry them it was not worth while to have 
 any debate, but that, on the contrary, it was important 
 to get the Bill through as soon as possible." 
 
 ''July 16, 1913. 
 
 " It is hardly necessary to say that I am in full accord 
 with you, and I also agree that we are faced with a very 
 difficult situation in regard to Japan, and I am sorry to 
 say that I do not think the present Administration ap- 
 pears to realise it. I cannot make out what they are 
 doing, for I am not in their confidence, but there seems 
 to be a feebleness in the way in which they are handling 
 it which makes me very anxious. The fact is that the 
 Japanese are demanding what no nation can demand of 
 another unless that other is subject and tributary. We 
 have no right to force our people upon Japan or to compel 
 them to pass land laws which will allow our people to 
 buy their lands, and they cannot do it to us. But they 
 are new in the family of nations, and they do not, appar- 
 ently, understand this. I am very glad that you wrote 
 the letter, which is a most valuable and important one." 
 
 Although by nature unusually reserved and unassum- 
 ing, Mahan was quite capable of holding his own in any 
 company when occasion demanded. In The New 
 American Navy Mr. Long records that on one occasion 
 
LORD SYDENHAM 201 
 
 he demolished the Secretary of War, General Russell 
 Alger, in front of President McKinley : 
 
 " I remember rather a pretty scrimmage between him 
 and Captain Mahan in the White House when President 
 McKinley was present. The Navy had been helpful in 
 connection with the Army transports and in landing 
 troops, and especially efficient in destroying the Spanish 
 fleet. The Secretary of War was complaining because we 
 did not take the risk of blowing up our ships by going 
 over the mines at Santiago Harbor and capturing also 
 the city, which the Army was undertaking to capture, 
 though the Navy was bound to help, of course, all it 
 could. Mahan at last sailed into him, telling him that he 
 didn't know anything about the use or purpose of the 
 Navy, which rather amused the President, who always 
 liked a little badinage. The Secretary of War, with 
 his usual good-nature, took the matter in good part." 
 
 The matter in some of his essays contained in the 
 volume published as The Interest of America in Sea 
 Power Present and Future brought upon him the dis- 
 approval of his friend and admirer G. S. Clarke, now 
 Lord Sydenham. In Mahan' s Counsels to the United 
 States, which appeared in the Nineteenth Century, 
 Clarke regretfully complained : 
 
 " In magazine articles dealing with questions of the 
 day, descending from the general to the particular and 
 directed to a limited and special purpose, it would not 
 be just to expect the same lofty standard. Nevertheless, 
 while making full allowance for the change of condi- 
 tions, I have read this volume of collected essays with 
 disappointment. Only here and there is it possible to 
 trace the hand of the author of The Influence of Sea Power 
 on History. No great nation ever needed guidance more 
 than does the United States to-day, the strong guidance 
 of a master mind, fearlessly offered, in language which 
 could not be misunderstood. No one is so well qualified 
 as Captain Mahan to render this service to his country ; 
 
202 AS STATESMAN [chap, xix 
 
 but the needed guidance is not forthcoming, for the 
 statesmanship is too frequently wanting." 
 
 He then proceeds to quote chapter and verse, and to 
 other grounds for criticism he further adds these : 
 
 " Our press, in its usual superior manner, is wont to 
 lecture the United States in common with all other 
 Powers ; but of animosity or of positive dislike there 
 were no traces during the period of tension produced by 
 President Cleveland's message. . . . Absurd as it may 
 seem, there were large numbers of Americans who 
 honestly believed that they were supporting an en- 
 lightened Republic — that of Venezuela ! — against a 
 benighted despotism. It did not occur to them that 
 Venezuela is a Republic only in name, and that they 
 were upholding barbarism against civilisation — gross 
 corruption against pure government. The naive sur- 
 prise and delight of the ' boy journalist ' who recently 
 paid us a visit tells a tale. Nothing was as his school- 
 books had led him to expect. ... In the Venezuela 
 dispute the United States lost, as Captain Mahan 
 admits, and rightly lost the sympathy of the civilised 
 world. Why did he not fearlessly expound to his 
 countrymen the cause of this general revulsion of sen- 
 timent ? ... If then the United States, as sooner or 
 later they must, accept the obligations and the responsi- 
 bilities of a great nation, I believe that the movement 
 will be of happy augury to the progress of the world. But 
 the new policy, the policy of ' looking outwards,' will 
 demand radical administrative changes, the abandon- 
 ment of some cherished insular ideas, and the modifica- 
 tion of a constitution eminently unfitted to meet the 
 requirements of expansion across the seas. It is not a 
 question only of a navy, of coast fortifications, of pre- 
 parations for war, but of leading the people of the United 
 States to forgo their habitual concentration upon their 
 internal affairs and to seek to play a worthy part in 
 moulding the destinies of mankind. Thus arises the 
 vital need of statesmanlike guidance and of fearless 
 speaking, and it is because I have failed to find such 
 guidance so expressed in these essays that I venture 
 
ROOSEVELT ON ARBITRATION 203 
 
 to criticise the master to whose brilliant teaching Great 
 Britain is eternally indebted." 
 
 There are letters the character of which is essentially 
 that of a communication from one statesman to another : 
 here is one : 
 
 "June 8, 1911. 
 
 " Dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " A couple of days ago Mrs. Roosevelt showed 
 me with triumph your letter to the Times, which I need 
 hardly say I greatly appreciate ; and immediately after- 
 wards I picked up the Century and read your admirable 
 piece on the Panama Canal. 
 
 " I do wish our authorities would consult you before 
 committing themselves to foolish propositions, which 
 it would be dishonourable either to carry out or to refuse 
 to carry out, when once they had been made into solemn 
 agreements. Any man who knows you knows that you 
 are incapable of advocating national wrongdoing just as 
 you are incapable of advocating individual wrongdoing. 
 But it is not virtue — it is mere weakness of the kind that 
 ultimately leads to wickedness — to refuse to look facts 
 in the face, and to take a position which implies the 
 abandonment of national self-respect. 
 
 " With Great Britain, I firmly believe, no difficulty 
 can arise which we cannot solve by arbitration. But if 
 Great Britain claimed as regards us what not many 
 years ago the British Government claimed as regards 
 their own South African possessions, that is, the right 
 to permit an unlimited coolie emigration to the United 
 States, this country would not arbitrate the question, 
 and would no more admit the coolies than South Africa 
 and Australia and British Columbia would do so. I had 
 to refuse point blank to arbitrate the Alaskan boundary 
 matter, and we got a settlement of that case only because 
 I was forced to explain that if the Commission could not 
 agree, I would have no alternative but myself to reduce 
 to possession the disputed territory. The settlement 
 of the Alaskan boundary settled the last serious trouble 
 between the British Empire and ourselves, as everything 
 else could be arbitrated ; but neither England nor the 
 
204 AS STATESMAN [chap, xix 
 
 United States should agree to do something that they 
 could not live up to. 
 
 " If we repeated with an English vessel the experi- 
 ment Captain Wilkes tried in 'CI, England would not 
 arbitrate the matter ; she would say that we had to do 
 as we did in '61, that is, express regret and undo the 
 wrong we had done ; and England would be quite right 
 in taking such a position. I feel very differently toward 
 England from the way I feel toward Germany, but surely 
 we must consider before making a treaty whether we 
 could then refuse to make such a treaty with Germany. 
 I do not believe this nation is prepared to arbitrate such 
 ''questions as to whether it shall fortify the canal, as to 
 whether it shall retain Hawaii, nor yet to arbitrate the 
 Monroe Doctrine nor the right to exclude immigrants if 
 it thinks wise to do so. 
 
 " Faithfully yours, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt." 
 " Captain Alfred T. Mahan, 
 " 160, West 86th Street, 
 " New York." 
 
 The following extracts from a letter to a friend in 
 1909 reflect Mahan' s views on the subject of Germany 
 and the Monroe Doctrine : 
 
 " The Naval Appropriation Bill reached me to-day, 
 and I am much indebted for it. My chief purpose in 
 asking was, that if both Houses have passed the Senate 
 clause, recommending the division of the Battleship Fleet 
 between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, I felt it would 
 be time for naval officers to speak out for the enlighten- 
 ment of the people and the folly of Congress in dealing 
 with such matters. As you know, the remonstrance of 
 the ' one rnan,' ^ the President, with the House Com- 
 mittee helped largely to prevent this suicidal recom- 
 mendation. 
 
 " Owing to the refusal of Congress to give the four 
 
 new ships recommended by the ' one man,' the German 
 
 Navy will in 1912 — in three years — have a stronger 
 
 battle fleet in A.B.G. ships than we. What then shall 
 
 1 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
THE GERMAN MENACE 205 
 
 we say, upon what shall we rely, if she, on occasion 
 arising, defy us in the Monroe Doctrine ? How do we 
 propose to keep that national idol on its feet without 
 a superior Navy ? 
 
 " It may be said that in any event the British Navy 
 is far superior to ours ; indeed, to a degree that no one 
 proposes to overtake : granted, for it is true. The 
 reply is that Great Britain is already overloaded with 
 colonial possessions ; her present problem being how to 
 bring into a more solid framework of mutual support 
 those she now has, not to acquire more American terri- 
 tory, which is the gist of that to which the Monroe 
 Doctrine opposes itself. The exposure of Canada, in f 
 case of war with the United States, would at once bring / / 
 to an acute state the question of the future political 
 relations of that Dominion. Besides, we have now a 
 long history of discussion with Great Britain, in which 
 the Monroe Doctrine has been the avowed, or the latent, 
 motive ; and it is assured that that country has no 
 reason now, and no disposition, to traverse our position 
 in the matter. 
 
 " It is very different with Germany. Her commercial 
 and colonial development is a matter of yesterday ; and 
 the rapidity in both directions testifies at once to strong 
 national purpose and to masterly organisation of effort. 
 But the colonies she now has are far from the first order 
 of commercial value, and all other land throughout the 
 world is now pre-empted, and occupied — politically if 
 not actually. Germany cannot but desire acquisition ; 
 and acquisition by war is a legitimate international 
 transaction. In natural resources, as distinguished 
 from the value as a market which an adequate popula- 
 tion constitutes as a body of consumers. South America 
 probably leads the world ; and the smallness of present 
 population is an additional advantage from the point 
 of view of colonial acquisition. 
 
 " In addition, should the hopes of Holland, from the 
 Queen's approaching accouchement, be again disap- 
 pointed, we shall be definitely menaced with the possibility 
 of Germany, with the second strongest Navy in Europe, 
 becoming heir to the Dutch colonial system. Is it to 
 be imagined that with a claim so entirely lawful she 
 
206 AS STATESMAN [chap, xix 
 
 would respect our position as to the transfer of American 
 
 territory from one European Power to another ? She 
 
 has done so so far ; but her Navy has not been superior. 
 
 " The question of expenditure is not what we are 
 
 wilHng to pay, but whether we are wilhng to hold 
 
 our most cherished international dogma — the Monroe 
 
 I Doctrine — at the mercy of a superior Navy, the posses- 
 
 i sors of which may have good reason to disregard our 
 
 \ views." 
 
 The eminent jurist Sir Frederick Pollock wrote 
 Mahan this note from the Athenaeum Club : 
 
 " May 8, 1897. 
 
 " Deau Captain Mahan, 
 
 " I have been profiting by the Easter vacation 
 to read your Life of Nelson. It is worth a shipload of 
 arbitration treaties. 
 
 " Yours trulv, 
 
 " F. Pollock." 
 
 Here is an extract from a letter from the Editor of 
 McClure's Magazine, in 1902, which reflects the opinion 
 in which Mahan was held by the publishers of the day : 
 
 " We were all talking about the remarks you made 
 at the Columbia exercises. Is there not there the 
 subject of an article for us ? It seems to me that we 
 should particularly like to have something from you 
 along those lines, but then we should like to have some- 
 thing along almost any line you choose to think, so that 
 perhaps it were better to inquire what you are thinking 
 about. What interests you at present ? For example, 
 are you considering at all the future of our country in 
 its relations to the policy of the present administration ? 
 I should much appreciate your writing us about this, 
 or, if you prefer, I might go down to see and talk with 
 you." 
 
 Soon after the publication of the first Sea Power books, 
 the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly wrote Mahan that 
 although he appreciated the loss which his retirement 
 
" THE PROBLEM OF ASIA " 207 
 
 would entail upon the Naval Service, he would gladly 
 welcome his more decided accession to the ranks of 
 literature, and especially the literature of public affairs. 
 
 No man who had not in him more than a little of the 
 statesman could have written The Problem of Asia. 
 A statesman has been defined as a politician who has 
 broad and sagacious views and distinguished ability in 
 dealing with the questions arising in public affairs. In 
 this acceptation of the term Mahan was hardly a states- 
 man, because he was not a politician, and minor local 
 affairs did not appeal to him. But as an experienced 
 and learned counsellor upon whose advice the leading 
 men of the nation could rely to guide them safely through 
 the mazes of international policy, more especially in its 
 direct application to the larger issues of naval and mari- 
 time affairs, Mahan exhibited the qualities of a states- 
 man, and in such capacity was of invaluable service to 
 his country. 
 
 In the words of Katrina Trask : 
 
 " He was, indeed, a statesman — he foresaw 
 Tlie far-off vision of great things to he. 
 And strove to bring it near ; with vital words 
 He called on men to follow the far gleam, ; 
 And warned them also of impending ilia. 
 He knew the fatal rocks and shallow shoals. 
 But steered his course by tJw clear star of faith. 
 He was a patriot — he put aside 
 His own advantage for the sake of truth ; 
 Foregoing splendour of proud palaces, 
 He was content to build protecting dikes 
 Against the inrush of disastrous tides.'' 
 
 Few statesmen accomplish more than a wise adminis- 
 tration of the contemporary affairs of their own country, 
 but Mahan has mightily influenced the destinies of many 
 nations, not only in the historic times which have so 
 dramatically distinguished the opening of the twentieth 
 century, but in countless generations to come. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 AS PROPHET 
 
 " There is no man in the wide world to-day whose opinions on all 
 concerned with the branch of learning which he has made his own 
 command greater respect and wider attention than those of Rear- 
 Admiral Mahan. It is no exaggeration to say that from the days 
 of Raleigh to those of Mahan no other author had gained a hearing 
 for such a doctrine. Nowadays the case is widely different. Mahan's 
 doctrines are the commonplace of naval political thought, and it is 
 tacitly recognised tliat no man is entitled to raise his voice in a public 
 discussion until he has inwardly digested them." — "A Birthday Ap- 
 preciation," The (London) Morning Post. 
 
 In articles in the American press commenting on the 
 predominant influence of the British Fleet in having made 
 possible a victorious peace, the wish has been expressed 
 that Admiral Mahan were here to see the practical con- 
 firmation of his doctrines. Perhaps he does see them 
 in spirit. Who knows ? 
 
 His later works must be read to appreciate the full 
 measure of his political foresight. They abound in 
 statesmanlike prophecy. In 1907 he wrote : 
 
 " The persuasion that war, as an inevitable factor in 
 history, is a thing of the past, is a public prepossession 
 which will disappear when men study questions of inter- 
 national relations in their world-wide bearing ; which 
 very few do. Fallacies are in their working as insidious 
 as bacteria are in theirs. There are at this moment 
 pending before the world, unnoted by most, momentous 
 differences which cannot be settled by arbitration." 
 
 In The Interest of America in International Conditions, 
 given to the world in 1910, he accurately foreshadowed 
 
 208 
 
SURRENDER OF GERMAN NAVY 209 
 
 the late war with dramatic fideUty. He held that the 
 attack would come from Germany. He predicted that 
 Italy's sympathies with England would cause her to join 
 the Entente against the inevitable combination of Ger- 
 many and Austria-Hungary, and gave convincing 
 reasons for all his contentions. He demonstrated the 
 inherent weakness of Russia, showed that the naval 
 position and maritime power of Great Britain was 
 supreme, " the sole military force in the world superior 
 to anything that Germany can as yet bring into action," 
 and forewarned the nations that concentration of the 
 British Fleet in the North Sea successfully blockading 
 German ports would decide the issue. 
 
 A writer in the Marine Rundschau, describing Mahan's 
 chief characteristics, deplores evidences of his lack of 
 sympathy with Germany and German ambitions, and 
 complains that " in many places in his writings he 
 speaks with not exactly good feeling about the aggres- 
 sive military spirit and such like threatening character- 
 istics of the present German Empire." This writer 
 confirms the impression that Mahan did not study Clause- 
 witz, the great German exponent of warfare. 
 
 A special correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, 
 whose name is unfortunately not known to the author, 
 writing from New York just after the surrender of the 
 German Fleet to Admiral Beatty, recounts in the following 
 words a remarkable instance of his prophetic foresight : 
 
 " Shortly after the war started. Admiral Mahan 
 received me in his Long Island home, and predicted that 
 Germany's ' future upon the sea ' would end in a sail 
 to English ports to surrender, and with the realisation of 
 the prophecy of the great naval theoretician, steeped in 
 history and fact, we here believe that the legend of the 
 German superman disappears for all time." 
 
 Prior to the publication of the famous Sea Power 
 trilogy, it is doubtful if any nation actively realised the 
 paramount importance of a large and efficient mercantile 
 
210 AS PROPHET [chap, xx 
 
 marine. Its supreme value has been proved in the 
 world-wide conflict just ended. The creator of the 
 modern conception of Sea Power thoroughly appreciated 
 it, and foresaw its influence in what he knew to be the 
 great coming struggle of all time. Mr. Edward Hurley, 
 Chairman of the United States Shipping Board, confirms 
 Mahan in this tribute to Britain's merchant service : 
 
 " It has long been the dominating force in ocean 
 commerce and will continue to be after the war. Auto- 
 cracy might have throttled the world without the British 
 merchant marine,^ mobilising the men and food of the 
 British Empire. We owe British merchant ships and 
 sailors a great debt for transporting our man-power to 
 France." 
 
 Mahan' s private correspondence also sustains the 
 impression that he had a very clear and statesmanlike 
 vision of the coming conflict. In a letter to his friend 
 Admiral Sir Bouverie Clark a couple of years before 
 hostilities broke out, he expressed the opinion that, 
 despite apparently smooth water, there was more trouble 
 ahead everywhere than " our ignorant optimists believe." 
 These obsessions he confirmed in newspaper and maga- 
 zine articles, and in press interviews. In what he believed 
 to be the interests of his country, both publicly and 
 privately, and in his confidential relations with the 
 Government, he constituted himself an unceasing 
 advocate of " more battleships." 
 
 Another dictum, comprehensive appreciation of which 
 
 1 " Viewed from whatever standpoint we may clioose, it is impossible 
 to arrive at any ottier conclusion than that the British mercantile 
 marine is not only the greatest British industry, but that, from its 
 overwhelming importance and far-reaching effect upon mankind, it 
 is the most stupendous monument of human energy and enterprise 
 that the world has ever seen. Yet, with that pecuUar absence of 
 pride in our own institutions, that easy-going magnanimity which, 
 in spite of what not only foreign writers, but many of our own authors, 
 assert, is really the most distinctive characteristic of the British 
 race, we show but little appreciation of this marvel of commercial 
 genius and concentrated effort." — Fbank Bullen. 
 
THE IMPREGNABLE DARDANELLES 211 
 
 by the British mihtary authorities might have saved 
 tens of thousands of priceless young Uves in the calamit- 
 ous attempt to force the Dardanelles, is contained on 
 page 823 of his work on Naval Strategy. There he says 
 that: 
 
 " Passages having a situation like that of the Wind- 
 ward channel bear an analogy to bridges over a river, 
 except that, unless exceedingly narrow, they must be 
 held by an active force instead of by permanent works ; 
 for they cannot be closed by fortifications. If, for 
 instance, the Windward channel between Cuba and Haiti 
 were two miles wide, with anchorage depth, it could be 
 made impregnable by forts and .torpedoes against all 
 ordinary attack or passage. Natural water bridges of 
 such a character are of rare occurrence. The Bosphorus 
 and the Dardanelles are a conspicuous example of such, 
 and in the hands of a strong nation could not be forced." 
 
 In common with other great authorities, Mahan was 
 by no means infallible. Some of his naval friends were 
 of opinion that his professional reputation might have 
 stood even higher than it did had he published nothing 
 but the three classics, The Influence of Sea Power upon 
 History, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French 
 Revolution and Empire, and The Life of Nelson. The 
 majority, however, did not share this opinion, notwith- 
 standing the undeniably inferior standard of some of his 
 subsequent writings as compared with his three master- 
 pieces. No one excelled him in historical treatment of 
 his subject. In dealing with the intricacies of naval 
 strategy his views met with the approval of his pro- 
 fessional brethren, but the consensus of naval expert 
 opinion did not always uphold his ideas regarding some 
 of the technical details of the most effective distribution 
 of the various elements of fighting power in warships. 
 After the defeat of the Russian Fleet by the Japanese in 
 1905, Mahan wrote an article under the title of Reflec- 
 tions, Historic and Other, suggested by the Battle of the Sea 
 15 
 
212 AS PROPHET [chap, xx 
 
 of Japan. With some of the conclusions drawn in that 
 article, which was published in the Proceedings of the 
 United States Naval Institute, vol. xxxii, Admiral 
 Sims did not agree, and his views,' as well as Mahan's 
 article, were reprinted, at the instance of the United 
 States Senate, in The Congressional Record of the 
 second session of the 59th Congress, Doc. 213, 1906- 
 1907. The points at issue were the relative and com- 
 parative values of speed, range, size of guns, and 
 effectiveness of gunfire. Given a limited expenditure, 
 Admiral Sims unreservedly advocated the largest possible 
 number of the most powerful guns and the highest 
 possible rate of speed, compatible with tonnage, con- 
 centrated in a few large all-big-gun ships ; whereas, sub- 
 ject to a similarly limited expenditure, Mahan contended 
 for a larger number of mixed-battery ships with powerful 
 secondary batteries of 6-inch guns, to attain which he 
 was willing to forgo the maximum possibilities of power 
 in range and speed. He rather minimised the advant- 
 age gained by the superior speed of the Japanese ships in 
 the battle under review, which Admiral Sims held was won 
 by the 12-inch guns, owing to their range and accurate 
 fire in the favourable positions secured and maintained 
 for them by superior speed ; explaining that, contrary 
 to the original impressions, experience has now con- 
 clusively proved that at modern battleship ranges it is 
 more difficult to hit with a 6-inch than with a 12-inch 
 gun, owing to the angle of fall and the respective danger 
 spaces, and adding that the important consideration as 
 a standard of efficiency for all kinds of gunfire is 
 rapidity of hitting rather than volume of fire. 
 
 Admiral Sims does Mahan the justice to explain very 
 clearly that he was fortunate enough to be in possession 
 of some highly important details of the actual fighting 
 and of the effectiveness of the shellfire that were not 
 
 1 " The inherent tactical qualities of all-big-gun, one-calibre battle- 
 ships of high speed, large displacement and gun-powf*'' " 
 
WARNING ENGLAND 213 
 
 available when Mahan wrote his article, which he feels 
 convinced was prepared under a misapprehension of the 
 facts. He suggests, however, that Mahan apparently 
 failed to appreciate the inherent and very important 
 tactical qualities of large vessels, and that some of his con- 
 clusions were founded on mistaken principles of gunfire. 
 
 The following extracts from an article contributed to 
 the Daily Mail under date of July 6, 1910, four years 
 before the Germans launched their criminal assault upon 
 the sacred liberties of the world, afford an illustration of 
 Mahan' s prophetic vision, as well as his statesmanlike 
 grasp of fundamental facts and his gift for calm, im- 
 partial statement, as if coming from a mind entirely 
 detached from all sentimental considerations, although 
 dealing with matters of momentous import ^ : 
 
 " The huge development of the German Navy within 
 the past decade, and the assurance that the present 
 rate of expenditure — over £20,000,000 annually — will 
 be maintained for several years to come, is a matter of 
 general international importance. Elsewhere, and in 
 another connection, I have had occasion to point out, 
 in the American press, that the question immediately 
 raised is not what Germany means to do with this force, 
 which already is second only to that of Great Britain, 
 and for which is contemplated a further large expansion. 
 The real subject for the reflection of every person, states- 
 man or private, patriotically interested in his country's 
 future, is the simple existence present, and still more 
 prospective, of a new international factor to be reckoned 
 with in all calculations where oppositions of national 
 interests may arise. From this point of view it is not 
 particularly interesting to inquire whether Germany 
 has any far-reaching purposes of invading Great Britain 
 or of dismembering her Empire. 
 
 " The people of Great Britain should not depend 
 
 1 By the courtesy of the proprietors of the Daily Mail, this pro- 
 phetic article, full of warning to British voters, is reproduced in the 
 appendix. 
 
L. 
 
 214 AS PROPHET [chap, xx 
 
 upon apprehension of Germany's intentions to attack 
 in order to appraise their naval necessities and awaken 
 their determinations. Resolutions based upon such 
 artificial stimulus are much like the excitement of drink, 
 liable to excess in demonstration, as well as to mis- 
 direction and ultimate collapse in energy, as momentary 
 panic is succeeded by reaction. Unemotional business- 
 like recognition of facts, in their due proportions, befits 
 national policies, to be followed by well-weighed 
 measures corresponding to the exigency of the discernible 
 future. This is the manly way, neither over-confident 
 nor over-fearful ; above all, not agitated. Of such 
 steadfast attitude, timeliness of precaution is an essential 
 element. Postponement of precaution is the sure road 
 to panic in emergency. An English naval worthy oi \ 
 two centuries ago aptly said, ' It is better to be afraid ] 
 now than next summer when the French Fleet will be in / 
 the Channel.' ^,-'' 
 
 " In the present condition of Europe the creation of 
 the German Fleet, with its existing and proposed develop- 
 ment, has necessitated the concentration in British waters 
 of more than four-fifths of the disposable British battle 
 force. These facts constitute Germany the immediate 
 antagonist of Great Britain. I do not say for a moment 
 that this manifests Germany's purpose ; I simply state 
 the military and international fact without inference 
 as to motives." 
 
 Mahan prophesied that submarines would not sub- 
 jugate battleships. He prophesied that Zeppelins would 
 be found to have been greatly over-rated. He predicted 
 the war, saw that Italy would abandon the Triple 
 Alliance, held that sea power would be the deciding 
 factor, and that the German Navy would surrender to 
 the British Fleet. In all these forecasts his judgment 
 was sound, and by his statesmanlike grasp of the situa- 
 tion and his eloquent exposition of its requirements on 
 both sides of the Atlantic, he did more than can be 
 readily estimated to make possible the glorious results 
 of the titanic conflict now happily brought to a close as 
 he foreshadowed. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS 
 
 " Fortunately our diSerences have been mainly with Great Britain, 
 the great and beneficent coloniser, a State between which and our- 
 selves a sympathy, deeper than both parties have been always ready 
 to admit, has continued to exist, because founded upon common 
 fundamental ideas of law and justice." — A. T. Mahan. 
 
 In the volume of articles published in 1897 under the 
 name of The Interest of America in Sea Power ^ Present 
 and Future will be found one on the subject of Anglo- 
 American reunion, which was written in 1894 at the 
 request of the Editor of the North American Review, 
 and in which Mahan summarises in the following words 
 his impression of the international situation as it affects 
 the United States and the British Empire : 
 
 " To Great Britain and the United States, if they 
 rightly estimate the part they may play in the great 
 drama of human progress, is entrusted a maritime interest 
 in the broadest sense of the word, which demands, as one 
 of the conditions of its exercise and its safety, the 
 organised force adequate to control the general course 
 of events at sea ; to maintain, if necessity arises, not 
 arbitrarily, but as those in whom interest and power 
 alike justify the claim to do so, the laws that shall 
 regulate maritime warfare. 
 
 " This is no mere speculation, resting upon a course 
 of specious reasoning, but is based on the teaching of the 
 past. By the exertion of such force and by the main- 
 tenance of such laws, and by these means only. Great 
 Britain in the beginning of this century, when she was 
 the solitary power of the seas, saved herself from de- 
 
 215 
 
/ 
 
 \ 
 
 216 ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS [chap, xxi 
 
 struction, and powerfully modified for the better the 
 course of history." 
 
 Mahan held as a fundamental truth that the water is 
 nature's great medium of communication, and con- 
 sequently that control of the sea by naval supremacy 
 and maritime commerce gives predominance in the 
 world. He expressed in his habitually candid fashion 
 his views as to the best means of bringing about the 
 Anglo-American reunion he considered so essential to 
 the welfare of the English-speaking peoples of the two 
 hemispheres. He was of those who, in his own words, 
 " hail the growing light, and would hasten gladly the 
 perfect day," but he did not believe in forcing the issue. 
 He did not hold with the advocates ^ of an immediate 
 statesman-made naval alliance, for which he believed 
 the time to be premature.^ He was convinced that 
 each nation should be gradually educated to realise the 
 length and breadth of its own interest in the sea. As 
 soon as that was accomplished, the identity of these 
 interests would, he felt, become apparent, and the result 
 would be not only advantageous to the United States 
 and Great Britain, but of benefit to the whole world. 
 
 He was eager that the two nations should act together 
 in complete accord upon the seas, and greatly desired a 
 change in the mental attitude of his countrymen towards 
 maritime affairs. His efforts in this direction eventu- 
 ally met with success, especially in influential quarters, 
 where, although the numbers be few, the effect is pro- 
 portionately greater. The culmination was brought 
 about by the war,' the incidents of which have already 
 
 1 Sir George Clarke and Mr. Arthur Silva White. 
 
 a 1894. 
 
 3 " What is our next duty ? It is to establish and to maintain 
 bonds of permanent amity with our kinsmen across the Atlantic. 
 Terrible as war may be, even war itself would be cheaply purchased 
 if, in a great and noble cause, the Stars and Stripes and the Union 
 Jack should wave together over an Anglo-Saxon alliance." — Joseph 
 Chamberlain. 
 
MUTUAL INTERESTS 217 
 
 accomplished wonders in the direction of converting 
 pubhc opinion in America, and the past three years have 
 seen a transformation in the naval and maritime power 
 of the United States so remarkable that even Mahan 
 would have felt satisfied. Thus one of his chief objec- 
 tions to what he considered, in 1894, a one-sided and 
 consequently unstable naval alliance has now been 
 removed. 
 
 In the cordial co-operation of the two great Anglo- 
 Saxon naval Powers he saw a pledge of universal peace, 
 in which he was of like mind with those who believe 
 that the Great War might have been averted had it 
 been practicable in 1914 for the United States and Great 
 Britain to have united in a joint declaration to the 
 Central Powers that the moral and material resources of 
 the English-speaking world would be instantly thrown 
 into the scaleagainst any Power which initiated an armed 
 attack upon any other nation. Probably no more subtly 
 delicate problem ever taxed the intellectual resources of 
 a statesman than that which confronted President 
 Wilson during the early stages of the war. But the 
 heaven-sent revelation of the truth which later came to 
 the American people, made April 6, 1917, the most 
 glorious day in the annals of the United States, and gave 
 life and hope to the culminating phase of the world's 
 struggle against military despotism. 
 
 The distinguished author and administrator, Sir 
 George Clarke, now Lord Sydenham, who was a good 
 friend of Mahan' s and an outspoken critic of his writings, 
 held the opinion that the best hope of attaining to that 
 mutual understanding which he and Mahan so earnestly 
 desired lay in the chance that the Anglo-Saxon race 
 might some day find itself united in the prosecution of a 
 great common object. This the war has brought about. 
 Moreover, it has become the source of a glorious awaken- 
 ing of Anglo-American potentialities, for by reason of the 
 heart-searching exigencies of that world-crisis, England 
 
218 ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS [chap, xxi 
 
 has found her brains and America has found her soul. 
 England, who had of late become the apostle and 
 victim of laissez-faire^ was in danger of losing the faculty 
 of constructive administration. It was becoming the 
 fashion to belittle organisation and to mistrust the skilled 
 organiser. A fatal and suicidal pose, were it permitted 
 to survive ; because organisation — which in the last 
 analysis is intelligent constructive thought converted into 
 practical effective force — is the automatic machinery 
 which alone can produce worth-while results, the silent 
 irresistible power which transforms small beginnings 
 into great enterprises. Organisation is not a luxury, 
 nor is it a fad. It is the foundation without which no 
 lasting edifice of State or commerce can be erected. 
 The war converted England into a huge storehouse, 
 where the Allies found vast accumulations of every kind 
 of munition of war of the finest quality, the miraculous 
 creation of Britain's awakened capabilities ; and when 
 historians summarise the chief incidents of the conflict 
 and connote the more momentous and critical events 
 which mainly contributed to the ultimate result, one of 
 the red-letter days will be that on which David Lloyd 
 George took the reins of government into his fearless 
 hands, and, for the one all-compelling object of winning 
 the war, instantly called to his aid the constructive brains 
 of the Empire. 
 
 America, who in recent generations, despite her 
 idealism, has been devoting her energies largely to the 
 making of money, has in a mighty cause poured out her 
 immense resources with such lavish generosity that her 
 President comes forward and says of her people : " They 
 will not fail now to show the world for what their wealth 
 was intended." Can England ever repay America for 
 the prompt, generous, and indispensable financial assist- 
 ance extended at a highly critical period of 1917 ? Can 
 America ever repay England for the protection afforded 
 by her Fleet during the first three years of the war ? Yes. 
 
AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP 219 
 
 Both can do so by co-operating to preserve the future 
 peace of the world. 
 
 Of profound significance are these prophetic words of 
 the distinguished President of, the Equitable Life 
 Assurance Society of the United States, the Hon. William 
 A. Day : 
 
 " Our country is on the road to a mighty victory — 
 a victory not only over our enemies in the field, but a 
 victory over ourselves. The great war, deplorable and 
 horrible as it is, will make better citizens of us — will 
 elevate our ideals, intensify our devotion to them, and 
 inspire us with a desire to render an ever-enlarging 
 service to humanity." 
 
 Ever since the dramatic opening of hostilities in 
 August 1914, distinguished Americans on both sides of 
 the Atlantic have vigorously and without cessation 
 during the war upheld Great Britain in the most critical 
 period of her history. Such men as James Montgomery 
 Beck and Dr. William Thomas Manning, to name but 
 two, have devoted to the cause of liberty the far-reaching 
 influence of their eloquent voices, and by their never- 
 failing sympathy have placed the British race under a 
 debt of gratitude it is not possible to repay. 
 
 America's gift of a million dollars to the British Red 
 Cross touched the innermost chords of English hearts, 
 which were still further warmed and cheered in those 
 sombre days by Major Grayson Murphy's accompanying 
 message : 
 
 " We hope that you will accept our contribution as 
 an earnest of the desire of our people to begin to take our 
 share of the burden of the war which your forces have 
 waged for three years in behalf of the whole civilised 
 world." 
 
 Mahan strikes the keynote of the fundamental unity 
 of interests between England and America when he says : 
 
 " Of all the elements of the civilisation that has spread 
 over Europe and America, none is so potential for good 
 
220 ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS [chap, xxi 
 
 as that singular combination of two essential but oppos- 
 ing factors of individual freedom with subjection to law 
 which finds its most vigorous working in Great Britain 
 and the United States, its only exponents in which an 
 approach to a due balance has been effected." 
 
 He draws attention to the fact that the frontier which 
 stretches for three thousand miles between Canada and 
 the United States is from ,end to end undefended, and 
 that the Canadian Pacific Railway, which in the event 
 of a conflict between Great Britain and the United States 
 would be the very first and most vulnerable object of 
 attack, is absolutely undefended. Yet without waiting 
 long enough to give England an opportunity to even 
 suggest co-operation, Canada voluntarily sprang to the 
 assistance of the mother-country at the very outbreak 
 of the war and with the unhesitating concurrence of 
 Great Britain denuded her territory of military defenders, 
 thereby contributing a highly significant illustration of 
 the feelings of friendly security existing between the 
 Governments and people of these three countries.^ 
 Mahan also pointed out that in a topographical sense 
 ' Canada is a permanent hostage for peace between the 
 fl United States and the British Empire. 
 
 It was in 1823, in the infant days of the American 
 Republic, seventy-four years before Mahan wrote these 
 words and nine years after the treaty signed on Christmas 
 Eve in that old Carthusian convent at Ghent had brought 
 to a termination the last hostilities between England 
 and America, that Canning, the British Foreign Secre- 
 tary, warned President Monroe of the danger of the Holy 
 Alliance, offered to co-operate with the United States 
 against its intervention in South America, and laid the 
 foundation of the Monroe Doctrine, which some authori- 
 
 1 Whitaker^s Almanack, which for half a century has been the repre- 
 sentative English book of reference, subdivides its information about 
 the various nations of the earth into three distinct headings : (1) British 
 Empire, (2) United States of America, (3) Foreign Countries. 
 
MADISON, JEFFERSON AND MONROE 221 
 
 ties have contended should rightly be called the Canning- 
 Monroe Doctrine. Historic are the words in which 
 President Monroe sought and received the advice of the 
 former Presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 
 in this first momentous " understanding " between the 
 two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race.^ 
 
 It is a far cry from 1814 to 1914, but motives some- 
 what similar to those which actuated these three eminent 
 statesmen seem to have influenced red-blooded young 
 Americans a century later to offer their services and 
 their lives to the mother-country in another " epoch " 
 in which Despotism threatened Liberty. This touching 
 letter is from the widow of one of these brave and clear- 
 
 ^ " Has not the epoch arrived when Great Britain must take her 
 stand, either on the side of the monarchs of Europe or on the side of 
 the United States, and, in consequence, either in favor of Despotism 
 or of Liberty, and may it not be presumed that, aware of that necessity, 
 her Government has seized on the present occurrence as that which 
 it deems the most suitable to announce and mark the commencement 
 of that career ? My own impression is that we ought to meet the 
 proposal of the British Government and to make it known that 
 we would view an interference on the part of the European Powers, 
 and especially an attack on the Colonies, as an attack on ourselves." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson replied October 24, 1823 : " The question presented 
 by the letters you have sent me is the most momentous which has 
 ever been offered to my contemplation since that of Independence. 
 While Europe is laboring to become the domicile of despotism, our 
 endeavor shoizld surely be to make our hemisphere that of freedom. 
 One nation, most of aU, could disturb us in this pursuit. She now 
 offers to lead, aid, and accompany us in it. By acceding to her pro- 
 position we detach her from the band, bring her mighty weight into 
 the scale of free government, and emancipate at one stroke a whole 
 continent which might otherwise linger long in doubt and difficulty. 
 Great Britain is the nation which can do us the most harm of any one 
 or all on earth, and with her on our side we need not fear the whole 
 world. With her then we should the most sedulously nourish a 
 cordial friendship, and nothing would tend more to knit our affections 
 than to be fighting once more side by side in the same cause." 
 
 Mr. Madison concurred in these words : " With the British power 
 and Navy combined with our own, we have nothing to fear from the 
 rest of the world ; and in the great struggle of the epoch between 
 Liberty and Despotism we owe it to ourselves to sustain the former, 
 in this hemisphere at least." 
 
222 ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS [chap, xxi 
 
 sighted men who have laid down their Uves in the death- 
 less cause, and whose memory is enshrined for all time in 
 the grateful heart of England : 
 
 " C. Clive Bayley, Esq., 
 
 " British Consul-General, 
 " New York. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I wish to thank you for your expressions of 
 sympathy for me in my trouble. I have received advice 
 from the War Office and regimental officers of the Grena- 
 dier Guards that my husband died for the cause of the 
 Allies. 
 
 " I can only say that I am sure he considered it a 
 privilege to give his life for England and her fight, and I 
 am proud that he did his work well. 
 
 " He was among the first Americans to volunteer for 
 your country, enlisting in October 1914, because he had 
 followed so closely events that had happened abroad 
 and foresaw that England was Germany's goal. You 
 will forgive me for mentioning these small personal 
 details when I am sure your time does not permit of such 
 things. I only wish to say that although you have merely 
 lost another private in your ranks, I know that you have 
 lost a man who counted it a privilege to wear your uni- 
 form and to give his life for your country. 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Frances Kent Cook. 
 
 "RiVERTON, New Jersey, 
 " October 16, 1917." 
 
 Such deeds and sentiments, worthy as they are of the 
 noblest traditions of the Anglo-Saxon race, are the links 
 in the chain of Anglo-American relations forged by the 
 wisdom of Madison, Jefferson, and Monroe nearly three- 
 quarters of a century before Mahan's masterly analysis 
 of history bound the two countries still closer together. 
 
 Mahan's writings afford many significant illustrations 
 of the extent to which the interests of America in matters 
 of momentous international import are closely bound up 
 with those of Britain,|a situation happily^ recognised by 
 
BRITISH FRIENDSHIP 223 
 
 leading statesmen and naval authorities on both sides of 
 the Atlantic, although as yet but dimly realised by the 
 masses. In The Problem of Asia he states that he has 
 been " assured, by an authority, in which he entirely 
 trusts, that to a proposition made to Great Britain (at 
 the time of the Spanish-American War) to enter into a 
 combination to constrain the use of our power — as Japan 
 was five years ago constrained by the joint action of 
 Russia, France, and Germany — the reply was not only a 
 refusal to enter into such combination, but an assurance 
 of active resistance to it, if attempted." ^ 
 
 In The Fighting Fleets, Ralph Paine says : 
 
 " Admiral Wemyss resembles Vice- Admiral Sims in 
 the ability to inspire devoted service. Both are men 
 of action with long and varied experience in ships at sea, 
 and both can play the courtier and diplomat when occa- 
 sion requires. When it comes to discussing naval matters, 
 the First Sea Lord speaks straight from the shoulder, 
 with an abrupt and convincing sincerity. 
 
 " ' Tell them when you go home that your Navy is 
 first-class,' he said to me. ' We like your people im- 
 mensely. I hear it from our Admirals and other officers. 
 There is nothing to be gained by flattery or empty 
 compliments. We are in it together to the finish. And 
 our fleets must work in harmony after this beastly war 
 is over, or God help the civilisation we are fighting 
 to save. To my mind we can't afford to misunder- 
 stand each other. All that rubbish should be swept 
 aside.' " 
 
 Mahan rejoiced in the unmistakable growth of mutual 
 kindly feelings between Great Britain and the United 
 States during these latter years, and in the following 
 
 1 At Manila the name of Chichester became another imperishable 
 link between the Navies of the two countries. In The New United 
 States Navy Mr. Long records that Admiral Dewey used British charts 
 to guide the American warships through the difficult passage of Manila 
 Bay. 
 
224 ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS [chap, xxi 
 
 words gave proof of his realisation of the strength of 
 sentiment in the adjustment of international affairs : 
 
 " As a matter of sentiment only, this reviving affec- 
 tion well might fix the serious attention of those who 
 watch the growth of world questions, recognising how 
 far imagination and sympathy rule the world ; but 
 when, besides the powerful sentimental impulse, it is 
 remembered that beneath considerable differences of 
 political form there lie a common inherited political 
 tradition and habit of thought, that the moral forces 
 which govern and shape political development are the 
 same in either people, the possibility of a gradual 
 approach to concerted action becomes increasingly 
 striking." 
 
 With comprehensive vision the ever-welcome heir to 
 the British Throne has declared that only personal 
 contact is needed to prevent misunderstanding between 
 American democracy and our own, 
 
 Mahan emphasised another factor which, in his opinion, 
 must tend to incline the two nations towards a similar 
 course of action in the future. In these words he ex- 
 pounds a great and important truth : 
 
 " Partners, each, in the great commonwealth of 
 nations which share the blessings of European civilisa- 
 tion, they alone, though in varying degrees, are so severed 
 geographically from all existing rivals as to be exempt 
 from the burden of great land armies ; while at the same 
 time they must depend upon the sea, in chief measure, 
 for that intercourse with other members of the body 
 upon which national well-being depends." 
 
 It is quite probable that had Mahan lived a few years 
 longer he would, in view of the momentous changes 
 brought about by the war, have concurred in the follow- 
 ing pronouncement made by Mr. Theodore Roosevelt 
 shortly before his death : 
 
 " I regard the British Navy as probably the most 
 potent instrumentality for peace in the world. I do 
 
ADMIRAL BEATTY 225 
 
 not believe we should try to build a navy in rivalry to 
 it, but I do believe we should have the second navy in 
 the world. Moreover, I am now prepared to say what 
 five years ago I would not have said. I think the time 
 has come when the United States aiid the British Empire 
 can agree to a universal arbitration treaty. In other 
 words, I believe that the time has come when we should 
 say that under no circumstances shall there ever be a 
 resort to war between the United States and the British 
 Empire, and that no question can ever arise between 
 them that cannot be settled in judicial fashion, in some 
 such manner as questions between States of our own 
 Union would be settled." 
 
 It would be difficult to over-estimate the extent to 
 which the active co-operation of the British and 
 American naval forces as an accomplished fact con- 
 tributed towards the enemy's decision to capitulate in 
 1918. In the following letter Admiral Earl Beatty 
 bears witness to the consummation of the hopes enter- 
 tained by Mahan, that reunion would some day be 
 brought about by the two nations fighting side by side 
 in a common cause : 
 
 " H.M.S. ' Queen Elizabeth,' 
 
 " July 12, 1918. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I am interested to hear that you are preparing 
 a biography of Admiral Mahan, the great naval his- 
 torian of our time. It is opportune that this tribute to 
 his memory should appear at a moment when the Navies 
 of Great Britain and the United States are working 
 in the closest harmony for ideals common to both 
 nations. 
 
 " The works of Admiral Mahan gained immediate and 
 world-wide recognition and have had a profound influ- 
 ence. His teachings are of special consequence to the 
 British nation, since the very existence of our Empire 
 must depend in the future, as in the past, on a right 
 
226 ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS [chap, xxi 
 
 understanding of the paramount importance of Sea 
 Power. 
 
 "I am, yours faithfully, 
 
 " David Beatty, 
 
 " Admiral. 
 " C. Carlisle Taylor, Esq." 
 
 Reading between the lines of Mahan's private cor- 
 respondence, the impression may be gained that those 
 on both sides of the Atlantic who have the interests of 
 the two great English-speaking democracies at heart 
 may take courage in the fact that the shrewd common- 
 sense of the silent but amicably disposed nine-tenths of 
 the citizens of the United States will always be sufficient 
 to more than offset the noisy agitation of the disaffected 
 one-tenth. 
 
 The late United States Ambassador to Great Britain, 
 Mr. Walter Hines Page, spoke for the people of America 
 in these memorable words : 
 
 " The Sea which separates us becomes smaller as our 
 understanding of each other becomes closer. Our striv- 
 ing together to the utmost for the thing dearest to us 
 both will have the inevitable result of making us brothers 
 for life." 
 
 The good work of the Pilgrims Society and the many 
 similar associations for uniting the English-speaking 
 peoples is already bearing fruit, and the old stupid, moss- 
 grown prejudices are gradually giving place to enlight- 
 ened appreciation and esteem. Please God, the repre- 
 sentative custodians of the happiness and welfare of the 
 peoples of these two dominant nations may in the 
 stimulating sunlight of a hard-won victory over des- 
 potism meet each other midway on the broad ocean 
 of sympathy and tolerance, the inevitable offspring of 
 sound common-sense and the mutual desire to learn of 
 one another, and may thus ensure to humanity for all 
 time the priceless gifts of liberty and peace. 
 
INEVITABLE ALLIES 227 
 
 Mahan not only taught the wisdom of promoting 
 cordial relations between the people of the United States 
 and Great Britain, but he enforced the lesson that those 
 who do aught by word or deed to estrange these two 
 natural allies are out of touch with the intelligence of 
 the hour and constitute themselves the active enemies 
 of human progress. 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 mahan's message to his countrymen 
 
 " It is impossible that one who sees in the sea — in the function which 
 it discharges towards the world at large — the most potent factor in 
 national prosperity and in the course of history, should not desire 
 a change in the mental attitude of our coiintrymen towards maritime 
 affairs. The subject presents itself not merely as one of national 
 importance, but as one concerning the world's history and the welfare 
 of mankind, which are bound up, so far as we can see, in the security 
 and strength of that civilisation which is identified with Europe and 
 its offshoots in America." — A. T. Mahan. 
 
 Mahan's writings seem to say to his fellow- Americans, 
 " Read history ; study international questions ; acquire 
 true historical perspective ; learn to realise and appre- 
 ciate the supreme importance of the sea ; insist upon a 
 Navy commensurate with the ever-growing responsi- 
 bilities of the United States ; cultivate friendly relations 
 with Great Britain." 
 
 When a national mental condition exists which calls 
 for earnest exhortation on the part of a highly qualified 
 and friendly critic, there must always co-exist some 
 fundamental cause for the prevalence of such a state of 
 mind. In the case of the people of the United States, 
 the source of the indifference towards matters con- 
 nected with the sea — which unconcern Mahan strove so 
 fervently to dispel — might be summed up in the words 
 unlimited local markets. When Emerson defined 
 America as God's last chance to save the world he spoke 
 no doubt in the spiritual sense. As such America has 
 not yet fulfilled that destiny ; but in a material sense, 
 how true ! That which rendered possible America's 
 gigantic contributions to help make the world safe for 
 democracy was money ; vast accumulations arising 
 from the inexhaustible national resources in precious 
 metals, oil, coal, cotton, and farm produce which mother- 
 
 228 
 
BOUNDLESS OPPORTUNITY 229 
 
 earth has poured into the laps of the fortunate people of 
 this vast continent — of recent years at the almost in- 
 credible rate of twenty thousand million dollars every 
 twelve months— and of which they have not failed to 
 take advantage. This immense and never-failing stream 
 of new wealth has gradually created new markets of a 
 capacity hitherto unknown in the world's history : 
 markets which alone have made possible the conditions 
 responsible for the success and prosperity of America's 
 industrious sons and daughters ; markets which are 
 the source and foundation of the crowning gift of 
 America, boundless opportunity^ which not only attracts 
 millions to her shores, but is enhanced a thousand-fold 
 by the invigorating atmosphere with which nature has 
 blessed this highly favoured land. 
 
 It can readily be imagined that in such a huge con- 
 tinent as that of America, the average citizen, who has 
 never seen the sea and seldom hears of it, and who finds 
 the markets of his own and forty other conveniently 
 adjacent States more than he can well supply, is little 
 likely to turn his thoughts towards maritime affairs 
 and foreign marts. The necessities of Europe during 
 the war revolutionised this condition of affairs, and 
 America, with eyes turned towards the sea, became the 
 colossal exporter and owner of ships. 
 
 Sometimes a concrete illustration is more illuminative 
 than pages of explanation. Here is a letter which, read 
 between the lines, is eloquent of the unfamiliarity with 
 maritime affairs which obtained a few years ago, even 
 among those in high places : 
 
 " ' The Outlook,' 
 
 " 287, Fourth Avenue, 
 " New York, 
 
 ''June 27, 1911. 
 
 " My dear Captain Mahan, 
 
 " You are entirely right. The flying squadron 
 was looked upon with hysterical anxiety by the North- 
 
230 MAHAN'S MESSAGE [chap, xxii 
 
 east and its representatives in Congress as a protection 
 against a Spanish attack ! If you can get in to see me, or 
 motor over to take lunch with me at Oyster Bay, I should 
 really like to tell you about some of the requests made 
 to me for ships to protect Portland, Maine, Jekyl Island, 
 Narragansett Pier, and other points of like vast strategic 
 importance ! Hale and Tom Reed actually made the 
 President say that he would send a ship to Portland. 
 I arranged to send them a Civil War monitor with 
 twenty-one New Jersey Naval Militia aboard, which 
 satisfied Portland entirely I It would have been useless 
 against any war vessel more modern than one of 
 Hamilkar's galleys. 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 " Theodore Roosevelt." 
 " Captain A. T. Mahan, 
 " Marshmere, 
 
 " Quogue, L.I." 
 
 It was a many-sided message that Mahan bequeathed 
 to his countrymen. He taught that as world-conditions 
 change, national policies must be correspondingly 
 adjusted. A principle of international policy which was 
 appropriate in 1800 may well be useless or injurious in 
 1900. The incidents of four years of war have done more 
 to vindicate his contentions than a century of peace. In 
 speaking of a possible future world-wide conflict he said : 
 
 " In this same pregnant strife the United States 
 doubtless will be led, by undeniable interests and aroused 
 national sympathies, to play a part, to cast aside the 
 policy of isolation which befitted her infancy, and to 
 recognise that, whereas once to avoid European en- 
 tanglements was essential to the development of her 
 individuality, now to take her share of the travail of 
 Europe is but to assume an inevitable task, an appointed 
 lot, in the work of upholding the common interests of 
 civilisation." ^^^ 
 
 With relentless logic he demonstrated that the day 
 has now come when the United States must accept the 
 
TO HIS COUNTRYMEN 231 
 
 responsibilities of her great and unique position and 
 take her rightful place among the nations of the earth. 
 He eloquently entreated his countrymen to look out-__ 
 wards and to build an adequate; navy "and merchant 
 marine, and thereby recover their fair share in the power 
 and emoluments which the sea alone can yield. 
 
 Mahan's writings abound in the recital of historic 
 events which appeal for intelligent and impartial re- 
 adjustment of perspective on the part of his country- 
 men in connection with the history of their beloved 
 land. These lessons involved the telling of some very 
 plain truths, a few possibly not altogether acceptable to 
 time-honoured conceptions of various incidents of 
 American history as taught in the schools or handed 
 down by tradition. Mahan's historical narrative is so 
 accurate and so conclusive that it could hardly fail 
 to furnish some adjustment of popular impressions, or to 
 emphasise the significance of many recorded facts to which 
 little or no importance has commonly been attached 
 in the minds of the general public in America. 
 
 To mention but two as illustrative of the many to be 
 found within his pages. He records that, contrary to 
 the generally accepted idea, the determining military 
 factor in the War of Independence — as distinct from the 
 moral influence of Washington's superb character — was 
 the French Navy. He explains that the surrender of 
 Cornwallis at Yorktown was brought about by the 
 blockade maintained by the French Admiral de Grasse, 
 and made possible by the superior strength of the Spanish 
 and French Fleets over that of England. He further 
 reminds his readers that Washington fully realised this, 
 and openly acknowledged it in his letters to Lafayette 
 and Rochambeau, some of which he quotes and of 
 which these extracts are examples : 
 
 " In any operation, and under all circumstances, a 
 decisive naval superiority is to be considered as a 
 
232 MAHAN'S MESSAGE [chap, xxii 
 
 fundamental principle, and the basis upon which every 
 hope of success must ultimately depend." 
 
 " You will have observed that, whatever efforts are 
 made by the land armies, the Navy must have the casting 
 vote in the present contest." 
 
 " If France delays a timely and powerful aid in the 
 critical posture of our affairs, it will avail us nothing, 
 should she attempt it hereafter. Why need I run into 
 detail, when it may be declared in a word that we are at 
 the end of our tether, and that now or never our deliver- 
 ance must come." 
 
 Mahan recounts that this blockade was the only 
 instance in which de Grasse conducted any notably 
 successful operation at sea. Cornwallis surrendered on 
 October 19, 1781. The very day before, October 18, 
 British naval forces, after a fatal delay, were ready to 
 sail to his relief, but he had capitulated before they 
 could reach the scene of action. Mahan says : 
 
 " Having regard to the character of de Grasse, it is 
 reasonable to believe that, if he had found the British 
 Fleet thus drawn up at anchor in Chesapeake Bay, as he 
 found Hood at St. Kitts in the following January, he 
 would have waited off the entrance for de Barras, and 
 then have gone to sea, leaving Washington and 
 Rochambeau to look at Cornwallis slipping out of their 
 grasp." 
 
 Mahan sums up the situation in these words : 
 
 " During the four years that followed, until the sur- 
 render of Yorktown, the scales rose and fell as the one 
 navy or the other appeared on the scene, or as English 
 commanders kept touch with the sea or pushed their 
 operations far from its support. Finally, at the great 
 crisis, all is found depending upon the question whether 
 the French or the English Fleet should first appear, and 
 upon their relative force. 
 
 '* Will it be too much for American pride to admit 
 
TO HIS COUNTRYMEN 233 
 
 that, had France refused to contest the control of the sea 
 with England, the latter would have been able to reduce 
 the Atlantic seaboard ? Let us not kick down the ladder 
 by which we mounted, nor refuse to acknowledge what 
 our fathers felt in their hour of trial. 
 
 " The defeat of Graves and subsequent surrender of 
 Cornwallis did not end the naval operations in the 
 Western hemisphere. On the contrary, one of the most 
 interesting tactical feats and the most brilliant victory 
 of the whole war were yet to grace the English flag in 
 the West Indies ^ ; but with the events at Yorktown 
 the patriotic interest for Americans closes.^ Before 
 quitting that struggle for independence it must again be 
 affirmed that its successful ending, at least at so early 
 a date, was due to the control of the sea — to sea power 
 in the hands of the French and its improper distribution 
 by the English authorities." 
 
 As touching the political motive of the French Govern- 
 ment of that day, Mahan frankly lays before his country- 
 men the historical fact that France lent her aid rather 
 from a desire to injure England than out of sympathy 
 for the Colonists ; that both Spain and France had as 
 their objective the crippling of England and the acquisi- 
 tion of territory in the Mediterranean and in the East 
 and West Indies. In this their hopes were doomed to 
 failure, for within a few months of the surrender of 
 Cornwallis at Yorktown the British Navy won the great 
 victory over the French which resulted in the capture 
 of de Grasse, who had promised Washington naval sup- 
 port in the following year's campaign ; and England 
 emerged from the contest strong enough to record 
 within a few years the glorious achievements of which 
 Nelson and the younger Pitt were the master-spirits. 
 
 1 Known as the " Battle of the Saints," De Grasse was captured, 
 and upon his release retxirned to France, where he was court-martialled 
 and retired from active service. — C. C. T. 
 
 2 Washington did not by any means regard the struggle as ended 
 See his letters to Lafayette and de Grasse. — C. C. T. 
 
234 MAHAN'S MESSAGE [chap, xxii 
 
 The following passage in From Sail to Steam sums up 
 Mahan's estimate of the younger Pitt : 
 
 " Pitt was not a general nor an admiral, nor does he 
 appear so to have considered himself; but he realised 
 perfectly where Great Britain's strength lay, and where 
 the sphere of her efforts. By that understanding he 
 guided her movements ; and, in the final triumph, 
 wrought by the spirit of the British nation over the 
 spirit of the French Revolution, the greatest share can- 
 not justly be denied to the chief who, in the long 
 struggle against wind and tide, forced often to swerve 
 from the direct course he would have followed by un- 
 foreseen dangers that arose around the ship in her 
 passage through unknown seas, never forgot the goal, 
 ' security,' upon which from the first his will was set. 
 Fit, indeed, it was that he should drop at his post 
 just when Trafalgar had been won and Austerlitz lost. 
 That striking contrast of substantial and, in fact, 
 decisive success, with bewildering but evanescent 
 disaster, symbolised well his troubled career as it super- 
 ficially appears. 
 
 " As the helm escaped his dying hands, all seemed 
 lost, but in truth the worst was passed — ' the pilot had 
 weathered the storm.' " 
 
 A second illustration concerns the War of 1812, of 
 which Mahan records that — 
 
 " Owing to the vast inferiority of American naval 
 strength,the completeness of the blockade of the American 
 coasts produced an exhaustion of means in the midst of 
 plenty, a financial catastrophe which compelled peace 
 without obtaining the formal concession of any one of 
 the points for which the nation went to war." 
 
 And he thus summarises the ineffectiveness of single 
 ship combats : 
 
 " The War of 1812 demonstrated the usefulness of a 
 Navy, not, indeed, by the admirable but utterly un- 
 availing single-ship victories that illustrated its course. 
 
TO HIS COUNTRYMEN 235 
 
 but by the prostration into which our seaboard and 
 external communications fell, through the lack of a Navy 
 at all proportionate to the country's needs and exposure. 
 The Navy doubtless reaped honor in that brilliant sea- 
 struggle, but the honor was its own alone ; only dis- 
 credit accrued to the statesmen who, with such men to 
 serve them, none the less left the country open to the 
 humiliation of its harried coasts and blasted commerce. 
 Never was there a more lustrous example of what Jomini 
 calls ' the sterile glory of fighting battles merely to win 
 them.' Except for the prestige which at last awoke the 
 country to the high efficiency of the petty force we called 
 our Navy, and showed what the sea might be to us, never 
 was blood spilled more uselessly than in the frigate and 
 sloop actions of that day.^ They presented no analogy 
 to the outpost and reconnaissance fighting, to the 
 detached services, that are not only inevitable, but in- 
 valuable in maintaining the moral of a military organisa- 
 tion in campaign. They were simply scattered efforts, 
 without relation either to one another or to any main 
 body whatsoever, capable of affecting seriously the issues 
 
 1 " The lesson of the War of 1812 should be learned by Englislimen 
 of the present day, when a long naval peace has generated a confidence 
 in numerical superiority, in the mere possession of heavier materiel, 
 and in the merits of a rigidly uniform system of training, such confi- 
 dence, as experience has shown, being often the forerunner of mis- 
 fortune. It is neither patriotic nor intelligent to minimise the American 
 successes. Certainly they have been exaggerated by the Americans, 
 and even by the British. To take the frigate actions alone as being 
 those which properly attracted most attention, the captures in action 
 amounted to three on each side, the proportionate loss to the Americans, 
 considering the smallness of their fleet, being immensely greater than 
 to the British. We also see that no British frigate was taken after 
 the first seven months of a war which lasted two and a half years. 
 Attempts have been made to spread a belief that British reverses 
 were due to nothing but the greater size and heavier gvins of the enemy's 
 ships. It is now established that the superiority in these details, 
 which the Americans certainly enjoyed, was not great and not of itself 
 enough to account for these victories. In the words of Admiral Jurien 
 de la Graviere : ' The ships of the United States constantly fought 
 with the chances in their favour.' All this is indisputable. Never- 
 theless in any future war British sea power, great as it may be, should 
 not receive shocks like those that it unquestionably did suffer in 1812." 
 — Admiral Sib Cyprian Bridge, Enoyclopcedia Britannica, vol. xxiv. 
 
236 MAHAN'S MESSAGE [chap, xxii 
 
 of war, or, indeed, to any plan of operations worthy of 
 the name." 
 
 In the chapters on Freedom of the Seas and Peace 
 Views will be found messages of profound and far- 
 reaching significance to the people of the United States. 
 In From Sail to Steam Mahan said : 
 
 " It involves getting rid of old ideas, which is quite 
 as bad as pulling teeth, and much harder ; and the 
 subsequent adoption of new ones, that are as uneasy as 
 tight shoes. We had then certain accepted maxims, 
 dating mainly from 1812, which were as thoroughly 
 current in the country — and I fear in the Navy, too — 
 as the ' dollar of the daddies ' was not long after. One was 
 that commerce destroying was the great efficient weapon 
 of naval warfare. Everybody — the Navy as well — 
 believed we had beaten Great Britain in 1812, brought 
 her to her knees, by the destruction of her commerce 
 through the system observed by us of single cruisers, 
 naval or privateers. From that erroneous premise was 
 deduced the conclusion of a Navy of cruisers, and small 
 cruisers at that ; no battleship nor fleets. Then we 
 wanted a Navy for coast defence only, no aggressive 
 action in our pious souls , an amusing instance being 
 that our first battleships were styled ' coast defence ' 
 battleships, a nomenclature which probably facilitated 
 the appropriations. They were that ; but they were 
 capable of better things, as the event has proved." 
 
 To this he appended the following footnote : 
 
 " This is not the place for a discussion of commerce- 
 destroying as a method of war ; but having myself given, 
 as I believe, historical demonstration that as a sole or 
 principal resource, maintained by scattered cruisers 
 only, it is insufficient, I wish to warn public opinion 
 against the reaction, the return swing of the pendulum, 
 seen by me with dismay, which would make it of no use 
 at all, and under the plea of immunity to ' private 
 
TO HIS COUNTRYMEN 237 
 
 property,' so called, would exempt from attack the 
 maritime commerce of belligerents." 
 
 Such messages of his are clarion calls . for the exer- 
 cise of true historic perspective and for intelligent up-to- 
 date appreciation of modern naval conditions and 
 requirements. 
 
 Mahan's intimate knowledge and understanding of the 
 broad lines of English policy enabled him to demonstrate 
 to his countrymen that first judgments, based on incom- 
 plete or incorrect information, are apt to be unjust to 
 the old country, and that he is a prudent statesman who, 
 refusing to judge by appearances or to be swayed by 
 popular clamour, exhaustively investigates in the light 
 of international law and precedent any action or motive 
 of Great Britain before pronouncing judgment or taking 
 action. A recent illustration occurs in the scholarly 
 and impartial exposition of one of America's foremost 
 authorities on international law, Dr. James Brown Scott, 
 in his Survey of International Relations between the United 
 States and Germany, August 1, 1914, to April 6, 1917. 
 In a review of this remarkable work in the United States 
 Naval Institute Proceedings, Professor H. C. Washburn, 
 of the Naval Academy, in referring to the differences of 
 opinion which not unnaturally arose between the British 
 and American Governments in connection with various 
 phases of the British naval blockade during the early 
 stages of the war, says : 
 
 " In view of policies put in force by the United States 
 since its entry into the war, conflicts between American 
 and British opinion, now seen in retrospect, with all the 
 evidence and law reviewed, give two clear impressions, 
 that in every important discussion the British Govern- 
 ment found decisions of the United States Supreme 
 Court to warrant the principles if not the details of inter- 
 national law upon which Great Britain has acted. 
 
 " In justice to both the British and the American 
 Governments, it should now be realised that the former 
 
238 MAHAN'S MESSAGE [chap, xxii 
 
 was, under the circumstances, more than fair in its 
 appHcation of principles, that the latter was more than 
 strict, and that the concrete result was a situation lasting 
 over two years which tended to injure the rightful in- 
 terests of Great Britain, and also to increase the burden 
 of war, to which the United States later became 
 committed. 
 
 " If there is anything for Americans to regret in the 
 whole record, it is the cases in which our Government 
 made strong objection to British policies which we have 
 since not only carried out ourselves, but exceeded in 
 practical completeness." 
 
 In this comprehensive summary Mahan gives us one 
 of his characteristic examples of historical perspective : 
 
 " To the citizen of the United States, the war whose 
 results were summed up and sealed in the Treaty of 
 Versailles is a landmark of history surpassing all others 
 in interest and importance. His sympathies are stirred 
 by the sufferings of the many, his pride animated by the 
 noble constancy of the few whose names will be for ever 
 identified with the birth-throes of his country. Yet in 
 a less degree this feeling may well be shared by a native 
 of Western Europe, though he have not the same vivid 
 impression of the strife, which, in so distant a land and 
 on so small a scale, brought a new nation to life. This 
 indeed was the great outcome of the war ; but in its 
 progress, Europe, India, and the Sea had been the 
 scenes of deeds of arms far more dazzling and at times 
 much nearer home than the obscure contest in America. 
 In dramatic effect nothing has exceeded the three-years 
 siege of Gibraltar, teeming as it did with exciting interest, 
 fluctuating hopes and fears, triumphant expectation and 
 bitter disappointment. England from her shores saw 
 gathered in the Channel sixty-six French and Spanish 
 ships-of-the-line— a force larger than had ever threat- 
 ened her since the days of the Great Armada, and before 
 which her inferior numbers had to fly, for the first time, 
 to the shelter of her ports. Rodney and Suffren had 
 conducted sea-campaigns, fought sea-fights, and won 
 sea-victories which stirred beyond the common the 
 
TO HIS COUNTRYMEN 239 
 
 hearts of men in their day, and which still stand con- 
 spicuous in the story of either Navy. In one respect 
 above all this war was distinguished — in the develop- 
 ment, on both sides, of naval power. Never since the 
 Peace of Versailles to our own day has there been such an 
 approach to equality between the parties to a sea- war." 
 
 In an article for a boys' magazine Mahan relates in the 
 simple language of personal narrative the following 
 incident, which has a human touch, and aptly reflects 
 the conciliatory nature of the relations which may exist 
 between honourable commanders of opposing armies 
 even in such a momentous struggle : 
 
 " Ten years after the surrender of Yorktown, when 
 George Washington was the first President of the United 
 States, a young English gentleman sailed from Calcutta, 
 in India, of which Cornwallis was then Governor-General 
 —much the same as President. He was going to 
 Philadelphia, and Cornwallis, to whom he was known, 
 gave him a letter to President Washington, at the same 
 time charging him to say how highly he esteemed him 
 and his character. The young Englishman accordingly 
 called on Washington, who was living in Market Street, 
 Philadelphia ; Philadelphia being then the seat of 
 Government of the United States, as the city of 
 Washington now is. The President came in with his 
 wife, and when the visitor delivered his message replied 
 that he also had a great admiration for Lord Cornwallis. 
 This incident of two ancient antagonists exchanging 
 personal compliments and kindly appreciation, from 
 such opposite quarters of the globe as New York and 
 Calcutta, is a pleasant conclusion to the story of the 
 surrender ; which to one was a memorable triumph and 
 to the other the great misfortune of a distinguished 
 career." 
 
 In imparting to his countrymen in so impressive a 
 manner the fruits of his exhaustive investigation of the 
 early history of the United States, Mahan called atten- 
 tion to the prejudicial character of the versions upon 
 
240 MAHAN'S MESSAGE [chap, xxii 
 
 which young America is wont to be fed. No Httle pro- 
 gress has already been made in revising American school 
 books, but much remains to be done, and no task can be 
 undertaken that is of such paramount importance to 
 the promotion of friendly relations between America 
 and Britain in days to come.^ 
 
 The following obituary notice from the New York 
 Press appreciatively epitomises Mahan's chief message 
 to his countrymen : 
 
 " Admiral Mahan was never more needed by his 
 country than when he died yesterday. Always a deep 
 student of naval strategy and for years a world authority 
 on sea power, his illuminations of the lessons to be drawn 
 from the great war in Europe, had he lived beyond its 
 end, would have been for the American people priceless. 
 
 "As it was. Admiral Mahan lived through enough 
 days of this unparalleled conflict to see his judgment 
 perfectly vindicated as to England's recompense for 
 maintaining through the generations superlative war 
 fleets giving her the command of all the ocean. 
 
 " It has come to pass, as he always held it must, that, 
 with the Old World convulsed by war, races plunged 
 into slaughter and countries given over to devastation, 
 Britons, guarded by their floating fortresses, live at 
 home as securely and traffic with the world as freely in 
 war as in peace. 
 
 " No man ever gave Englishmen a deeper realisation 
 of the destiny held for them in fleets invincible than this 
 simple, modest American, with his vision of genius, 
 lucidity of thought, and eloquence of words. 
 
 " But what he taught Englishmen as to their sea 
 power, he strove to make as clear and inspiring a lesson 
 to his own Americans. With the war storming over the 
 Old World, his countrymen are awakening to the truths 
 that he told them many times and over again. With 
 his life gone, but his shining memory remaining, they 
 
 1 According to Mr. Charles Altschul's published analysis, a majority 
 of the elementary schools of America stiU make use of history text- 
 books which create deplorably unjust impressions of Great Britain 
 and sow seeds of bitterness and suspicion in the young. 
 
TO HIS COUNTRYMEN 241 
 
 may act upon those truths, as England was ever doing, 
 to her safety and honor now. 
 
 " And let no American ever forget the text he gave 
 us upon our Monroe Doctrine, so cherished by the people 
 of the United States— that this great principle, impera- 
 tive to the safety and welfare of all the nations of the 
 New World, shall always be as strong as the sea power 
 of the United States, ready to enforce it, but must be 
 as weak as that sea power unprepared, not one whit 
 more, not one whit less." 
 
 An especially impressive lesson — or rather series of 
 lessons, historical, strategical, and topographical — is con- 
 veyed by the following commentary on the influence of 
 sea power in the American Civil War : 
 
 " As regards the development of sea power, it is not 
 the total number of square miles which a country con- 
 tains, but the length of its coast-line and the character 
 of its harbors that are to be considered. As to these, 
 it is to be said that, the geographical and physical condi- 
 tions being the same, extent of sea-coast is a source of 
 strength or weakness according as the population is 
 large or small. A country is in this like a fortress ; the 
 garrison must be proportioned to the enceinte. A 
 recent familiar instance is found in the American War of 
 Secession. Had the South had a people as numerous 
 as it was warlike, and a Navy commensurate to its other 
 resources as a sea power, the great extent of its sea- 
 coast and its numerous inlets would have been elements 
 of great strength. The people of the United States and 
 the Government of that day justly prided themselves 
 on the effectiveness of the blockade of the whole Southern 
 coast. It was a great feat, a very great feat ; but it 
 would have been an impossible feat had the Southerners 
 been more numerous, and a nation of seamen. What 
 was there shown was not, as has been said, how such 
 a blockade can be maintained, but that such a blockade 
 is possible in the face of a population not only unused 
 to the sea, but also scanty in numbers. Those who 
 recall how the blockade was maintained, and the class of 
 ships that blockaded during great part of the war, know 
 
242 MAHAN'S MESSAGE [chap, xxii 
 
 that the plan, correct under the circumstances, could not 
 have been carried out in the face of a real Navy. Scat- 
 tered unsupported along the coast, the United States 
 ships kept their places, singly or in small detachments, 
 in face of an extensive network of inland water com- 
 munications which favored secret concentration of the 
 enemy. Behind the first line of water communications 
 were long estuaries, and here and there strong fortresses, 
 upon either of which the enemy's ships could always fall 
 back to elude pursuit or to receive protection. Had 
 there been a Southern Navy to profit by such advantage, 
 or by the scattered condition of the United States ships, 
 the latter could not have been distributed as they were ; 
 and being forced to concentrate for mutual support, 
 many small but useful approaches would have been left 
 open to commerce. But as the Southern coast, from its 
 extent and many inlets, might have been a source of 
 strength, so, from those very characteristics, it became 
 a fruitful source of injury. The great story of the 
 opening of the Mississippi is but the most striking 
 illustration of an action that was going on incessantly 
 all over the South. At every breach of the sea frontier, 
 war-ships were entering. The streams that had carried 
 the wealth and supported the trade of the seceding 
 States turned against them, and admitted their enemies 
 to their hearts. Dismay, insecurity, paralysis, prevailed 
 in regions that might, under happier auspices, have kept 
 a nation alive through the most exhausting war. Never 
 did sea power play a greater or a more decisive part than 
 in the contest which determined that the course of the 
 world's history would be modified by the existence of 
 one great nation, instead of several rival States, in the 
 North American continent. But while just pride is 
 felt in the well-earned glory of those days, and the 
 greatness of the results due to naval preponderance is 
 admitted, Americans who understand the facts should 
 never fail to remind the over-confidence of their country- 
 men that the South not only had no Navy, not only was 
 not a seafaring people, but that also its population was 
 not proportioned to the extent of the sea-coast which 
 it had to defend." ^ 
 
 ^ Influence of Sea Power upon History, p. 43. 
 
TO HIS COUNTRYMEN 243 
 
 The epitome of Mahan's innumerable messages to his 
 countrymen on the necessity for an adequate Navy is 
 aptly reflected in his pronouncement that " every dangei;^. 
 of a military character to which the United States is 
 exposed can be met best outside her own territory — at 
 sea. Preparedness for naval war — preparedness against 
 naval attack and for naval offence — is preparedness for 
 anything that is likely to occur." He declared himself 
 emphatically in favour of a Navy " second to none but 
 that of Great Britain, to rival which is inexpedient, 
 because for many reasons unnecessary." 
 
 He was eager for active preparedness. He was 
 earnestly desirous that his countrymen should realise 
 how indispensable to the national welfare was the 
 immediate execution of well-considered measures for 
 naval defence. This volume will not have been written 
 in vain if it does nothing more than incite some of 
 Mahan's fellow-countrymen, who have not already done 
 so, to read the wondrous messages he sent them. In 
 the words of Theodore Roosevelt, his masterpieces 
 " should be studied with especial care by all Americans 
 who desire to know what the real interest of their country 
 demands in the way of thought and action from her 
 sons and daughters." 
 
 In a letter to Mrs. Mahan, Mr. Henry White, one of 
 the United States delegates to the Peace Conference in 
 Paris, paid this tribute to his friend : 
 
 " Admiral Mahan's death is a great shock and a real 
 sorrow to me. Not only had I a great admiration for 
 his character and ability, but I have always felt grateful 
 to him for the inestimable services which he has rendered 
 to our country through his wonderful books. And, 
 moreover, I was sincerely attached to him personally 
 and delighted in exchanging views with him and obtain- 
 ing the benefit of his wise counsel on public affairs. 
 
 "It is a cruel disappointment to me to feel that I 
 shall not now be able to enjoy the many talks with him 
 17 
 
244 MAHAN'S MESSAGE [chap, xxii 
 
 to which I was greatly looking forward this winter, and 
 that I shall never again hear the sound of his sym- 
 pathetic voice." 
 
 Mahan's life teaches us all a great lesson. He did not 
 avail himself of the lucrative opportunities of business 
 or politics or one of the learned professions. He en- 
 joyed none of the advantages of capital or influence. 
 He was not as a youth subjected to that early appren- 
 ticeship in the school of money-making which the 
 younger generation is apt to regard as essential to 
 success in life. He was modest and reserved and un- 
 assuming. He lacked those traits of aggressive smartness 
 which are usually associated with worldly advance- 
 ment. Financially he made no more than a competency. 
 Yet he reached the topmost rung in the ladder of inter- 
 national fame and became one of the most eminent 
 Americans of his day and generation. He achieved 
 things really worth while, and won the admiration of the 
 best minds in all countries. He was a public benefactor, 
 and rendered not only to his own countrymen, but to all 
 humanity, a service so immense that it can never be 
 repaid. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 LITERARY TRAITS 
 
 " I not only immensely admired the Admiral, but regarded him as 
 one of the greatest and most useful influences in American life. He 
 was one of those few men who leave a permanent mark on history 
 and literature, aside from their profound and far-reaching influence 
 on contemporary thought. He was a great man and a very good 
 man and good citizen." — Thkodoee Roosevelt. 
 
 Analysis of his chief works would seem to suggest 
 kicidity and accuracy as the two predominating charac- 
 teristics of Mahan's style. A desire to be accurate in 
 facts and conclusions was the besetting anxiety of his 
 soul, and he was nervously susceptible of being con- 
 victed of a mistake. It would not be an exaggeration 
 to say that there is hardly a sentence of any moment 
 in his principal works which has not been the subject of 
 consideration, and of revision, until the best possible con- 
 struction of which he was capable, and the most appro- 
 priate language he could command were assured. 
 
 He believed in Samuel Johnson's advice, diligently 
 to set down thoughts as they arise in the first words in 
 which they occur, and later to formulate and embellish 
 as required. He has left on record these inspiring and 
 reassuring words : 
 
 " I got much comfort from Darwin's complaint of 
 frequent recurrences of inability to give adequate expres- 
 sion to thoughts, which he could then put down only in 
 such crude, imperfect form as the moment suggested, 
 leaving the task of elaboration to a more propitious 
 season. If so great a man was thus troubled, no strange 
 
 245 
 
246 LITERARY TRAITS [chap, xxiii 
 
 thing was happening to me in a like experience. Such 
 good cheer in intellectual as well as moral effort is one 
 of the best services of biography and history, raising to 
 the rank of ministering spirits the men whose struggles 
 and success they tell." 
 
 Mahan did not consciously imitate the style of other 
 writers,* although he frankly admits to unrestrained 
 plagiarism of apt expressions. A curious sidelight is 
 thrown upon his early literary prepossessions by the 
 fact that he had to force himself to read Shakespeare 
 before he eventually succumbed to the irresistible charm 
 of that matchless mind. Another proof of the possession 
 of that fund of common sense which so often happily 
 intervened to rescue him from the narrowing influences 
 of his younger days. 
 
 He no doubt owed much of the clearness of his style 
 to a natural and hearty agreement with Robert Louis 
 Stevenson's opinion that everything depends upon the 
 order of the words, and that the sentence should be like 
 a legal statute, as nearly as possible independent of 
 punctuation. He was intensely averse to reading any- 
 thing he could not readily understand, and this no doubt 
 added strength to his obsession for uninvolved writing, 
 which may have justified in a measure an occasional 
 
 1 "As I progressed, I worked out a theory for myself, just as I 
 had the theory of the influence of sea power. Style, I said, has two 
 sides. It is first and above all the expression of a man's personality, 
 as characteristic as any other trait ; or, as some one has said — was 
 it Buffon ? — style is the man himself. From this point of view it is 
 susceptible of training, of development, or of pruning ; but to attempt 
 to jjattern it on that of another person is a mistake. For one chance 
 of success there are a dozen of failure ; for you are trying to raise a 
 special product from a soil probably uncongenial, or a fruit from an 
 alien stem — figs from vines. But beyond this there is to style an 
 artificial element, which I conceive to be indicated by the word tech- 
 nique as applied to the arts ; though it is possible that I misapprehend 
 the term, being ignorant of art. In authorship I understand by 
 technique mainly the correct construction of periods by the proper 
 collocation of their parts." — From Sail to Steam. 
 
NEOLOGY 247 
 
 criticism for diffuseness to which portions of his writings 
 have been subjected. As he says himself : 
 
 "It is to this anxiety for full and accurate develop- 
 ment of statements and ideas that I chiefly attribute a 
 diffuseness with which my writing has been reproached ; 
 I have no doubt justly. I have not however tried to 
 check the evil at the root. I am built that way, and 
 think that way ; all around a subject, as far as I can see 
 it. I am uneasy if a presentment err by defect, by 
 excess, or by obscurity apparent to myself. I must get 
 the whole in, and for due emphasis am very probably 
 redundant. I am not willing to attempt seriously modi- 
 fying my natural style, the reflection of myself, lest, 
 while digging up the tares of prolixity, I root up also the 
 wheat of precision." 
 
 He exercised the privilege of an author to coin and 
 resuscitate words, and among others he has contributed 
 manywhere, eventless, and forbiddal ; and has made use 
 of thitherto, desperateness, ex-centric, immediateness, dis- 
 admire and selfsufficingness. He admitted an abhor- 
 rence of the split infinitive : this as a matter of taste, as 
 he confessed to a temptation to snuggle the adverb close 
 to the verb. Some authors appear indifferent to the 
 repetition of the same word in the same paragraph, but 
 Mahan was not of their number. 
 
 His plan was to write for several hours in the morning. 
 He did not write in the afternoon nor in the evening. 
 The hours after the mid-day meal were devoted to 
 reading, to exercise, and to his family. His habit of 
 carefully conserving his note -books makes it possible to 
 record that he wrote a good hand, and that what he put 
 down was legible, which greatly lessened the task of 
 Mrs. Mahan, who transcribed his MSS. into typewriting, 
 in which form they were submitted to the publishers. 
 
 His correspondence, note-books, and MSS. also show 
 him to have been a remarkably easy, prolific, and fluent 
 writer. During his absences abroad he would write 
 
248 LITERARY TRAITS [chap, xxin 
 
 interesting and descriptive letters, not only to Mrs. 
 Mahan, but to both his daughters and to his son, record- 
 ing his doings and his impressions of the people he met 
 and the places he visited. Extracts from some of these 
 letters are quoted in other parts of this work. On the 
 literary side the correspondence shows him to have been 
 an admirer of good poetry, having a partiality for William 
 Sharp's Sofinets of this Century ; his favourites being 
 Matthew Arnold's " East London " and Herbert 
 Clarke's " The Assignation." He expresses a horror of 
 Zola's works, and asks his daughter not to read any 
 of them. He constantly refers to Boswell's Johnson^ 
 which he evidently enjoyed immensely. The following 
 extract from one of his letters quaintly reveals his 
 natural diffidence and his well-bred self-possession in 
 society : 
 
 " As regards embarrassment, I have never seemed to 
 realise, even with the Queen, that I was speaking to 
 other than a lady who was entitled to certain forms of 
 respect. All that kind of self-possession seems so un- 
 natural to me that I don't understand it ; for I think 
 you know I inherit father's disposition to withdraw into 
 the background — and indeed I do so. I think the 
 British flunkey comes much nearer overwhelming me 
 than the biggest lord in the puddle. The look of calm 
 surprise that can evolve from their faces, e.g. if you take 
 a wrong direction, is extraordinary, and particularly 
 as they effect it without moving a muscle or winking an 
 eyelash. I own I think them the most formidable 
 members of British Society." 
 
 In another place he admits that shunning people had 
 been the greatest error of his life. He tells his family 
 of a complimentary allusion to him in O'Connor Morris's 
 Life of Napoleon : 
 
 "My friend O'Connor Morris in his last letter to me 
 asked that I would read his Life of Napoleon and give 
 him my candid opinion about it — a rather delicate 
 
HISTORICAL RESEARCH 249 
 
 request. However, I bought the book — a dollar — and 
 have nearly finished it, and happily can write a com- 
 plimentary opinion. In the closing paragraph of the 
 preface he gives me a send-off which I copy for your 
 benefit : ' After these sheets had been corrected for the 
 press, I have had an opportunity of reading the second 
 part of Capt. Mahan's admirable work on Sea Power. 
 I have made no changes in my text ; but it is gratifying 
 to me to find that my views as regards Napoleon's pro- 
 jects of a descent on England and the operations which 
 ended at Trafalgar, and as regards the Continental 
 System, coincide with those of a writer who is not only 
 the first living authority on naval warfare, but also 
 possesses remarkable political insight.' " 
 
 In one letter, when he was well on in years, he com- 
 plained that he had to some extent lost his old capacity 
 for instantly and unerringly selecting the right word. 
 
 His innumerable note -books of historical facts are 
 written with the care and precision which characterise 
 all his work. The stupendous character of his historical 
 researches is disclosed in these tangible evidences of the 
 years of study and application he devoted to them. 
 
 Here. is a specimen of Mahan's genius for interpreting 
 facts of history and setting them down in clear and con- 
 vincing language. It is from The Influence of Sea Power 
 upon History : 
 
 " Matters had at last reached the crisis to which they 
 had been tending for years. Louis XIV and William of 
 Orange, long-standing enemies, and at the moment the 
 two chief figures in European politics, alike for their 
 strong personalities and the cause which either repre- 
 sented, stood on the brink of great actions, whose effects 
 were to be felt through many generations. William, 
 despotic in temper himself, stood on the shores of 
 Holland looking hopefully towards free England, from 
 which he was separated by the narrow belt of water that 
 was the defense of the island kingdom, and might yet be 
 an impassable barrier to his own high aims, for the 
 
250 LITERARY TRAITS [chap, xxiii 
 
 French King at that moment could control the sea if 
 he would. Louis, holding all the power of France in 
 his single grasp, facing eastward as before, saw the Con- 
 tinent gathering against him ; while on his flank was 
 England, heartily hostile, longing to enter on the strife 
 against him, but as yet without a leader. It still 
 remained with him to decide whether he would leave 
 the road open for the head to join the waiting body, and 
 to bring Holland and England, the two sea powers, under 
 one rule. If he attacked Holland by land, and sent his 
 superior Navy into the Channel, he might well keep 
 William in his own country, the more so as the English 
 Navy, beloved and petted by the King, was likely to have 
 more than the usual loyalty of seamen to their chief. 
 Faithful to the bias of his life, perhaps unable to free 
 himself from it, he turned towards the Continent, and 
 September 24, 1688, he declared war against Germany, 
 and moved his armies towards the Rhine. William, 
 overjoyed, saw removed the last obstacle to his 
 ambition." 
 
 What a masterful combination of condensed, un- 
 affected, yet vigorous descriptive writing and rare in- 
 sight into the lessons of history ! It was no doubt partly 
 owing to an indefinable charm in his mode of literary 
 treatment that Mahan was able to command one hundred 
 and fifty dollars, and in some cases as much as five 
 hundred dollars, for a single m.agazine article. 
 
 As might be expected from his upbringing, Mahan was 
 a purist in language. Even when he used a colloquialism 
 he was wont to add " as they say," or some such half- 
 apologetic qualification. He never condescended to 
 slang of any sort, either in his speech or in his writings, 
 and he was of those patriots who hope that as one of the 
 happy results of the English and American comradeship 
 in arms, the good American citizen will chase from the 
 camp for all time the objectionable foreign mongrel yeah^ 
 and insist upon the use of the genuine English word yes 
 when the intention is to express assent. 
 
STYLE 251 
 
 His style, for which he received unstinted praise from 
 the critics, owed much to his upright character, his 
 scrupulous honesty of purpose, his high sense of duty, 
 and his deep regard for truth and accuracy. These 
 characteristics shine forth in his pages from cover to 
 cover, and go far to stamp his chief works as classics. 
 Buff on could hardly have had a better illustration of the 
 truth of his maxim that style " is the man himself," for 
 style is an indefinable something for which the environ- 
 ment of early youth is largely responsible, being in part 
 an auditory inheritance from our parents' habitual 
 mode of speech. Some of its attributes, like the tone 
 of the voice, the look in the eyes, the expression of the 
 mouth, are no doubt transmitted directly through the 
 medium of that well-nigh invisible miracle for good 
 and evil, the human germ cell ; and for much of the rest, 
 character and the quality of the brain are together 
 responsible. But speaking broadly, style is a gift. 
 
 Mr. Austin Taylor, President of the Philomathic 
 Society of Liverpool, has left this on record ; 
 
 " The appearance of true literary genius is always 
 something of a phenomenon, but when this genius 
 happens to reside in a naval officer our wonder is pro- 
 portionately increased. 
 
 " When certain books appeared from the pen of Pierre 
 Loti of a strangely tender sensibility, the evident pro- 
 duct of a genius to whom the minor chords in nature 
 powerfully appealed, curiosity was stimulated rather 
 than satisfied by the discovery that their author was a 
 young officer of the French Navy. It had never occurred 
 to anyone that this profession could produce authors 
 of the first literary genius. 
 
 " Scarcely had the reading public recovered from this 
 blow when it received from the Western hemisphere a 
 similar shock. An historical genius suddenly disclosed 
 himself who, treating of the minutiae of his own pro- 
 fession with perfect accuracy, yet displayed at the same 
 time a profound acquaintance with the issues which 
 underlie national destiny. 
 
252 LITERARY TRAITS [cuap. xxni 
 
 " It is not every day that the waves of the ocean cast 
 up at our feet pearls of such exceeding price." 
 
 A facsimile of Mahan's first literary effort is repro- 
 duced in this chapter. He was seven years old at the 
 time, and his comment on Jonah gives evidence of an 
 early taste for analytical writing. His style shows 
 some improvement in his next effort, which reflects the 
 American boy's traditional love of noise. Here it is : 
 
 "June 24, 1848. 
 
 " Dear Mother, 
 
 " I want you to bring me up some fireworks for 
 fourth of July. viz. one triangle Romoneandles flower pots 
 chasers spiningwheels rockets fireballs and firecrackers, 
 you may get anything else that you please. The codets 
 
 went into camp to-day. Tomy McD went down to 
 
 New York today so that the little carriage you sent him 
 we could not give him so Fredy plays with it. I want 
 some sugarplums for Mamey and some firecrackers. I 
 should be glad to hear how Uncle John and Anty jane 
 and Anty Whity and Grandma are. Kiss grandma 
 for me please. Your affectionate son 
 
 " Alfred T. Mahan." 
 
 He was eight years old when he presented these fiery 
 demands. 
 
 Half a century later, in a review of Mahan's Life of 
 Nelson, The Spectator says : 
 
 " This is a book which is so great — great in so many 
 ways — that as one closes it one almost fears to review, 
 lest one should be tempted to use language that will 
 rather mar the effect which its own charm and its own 
 power ought to exercise on the independent mind of 
 every reader. What we should like to do is simply to 
 convince everyone that they ought to read it for them- 
 selves, with no fears that they will not be able to under- 
 stand every line of it, and that they should then freely 
 form their own judgment upon it. 
 
 " That Captain Mahan is able to write of naval war- 
 
y^ CL^Tt^ '^^^<rc-<4k^OT^ O'/lcrOOy O'TL.O'TnjtZ ^..<2.'^*»-€-' ^ 
 
 '7■r^.<^-'>'^-' 
 
 
 
 t^^^l-r^. 
 
 
 
 MAHAN'S FIRST LEITEE, AGE 7. 
 
 ^.^ 
 
 2o2j 
 
EXPRESSIONS OF APPROVAL 253 
 
 fare in such a style, and with such clearness as to make 
 it easily intelligible to every landsman, is well-known 
 to all those who have read his fascinating volumes on 
 The Influence of Sea Power upon History-. 
 
 " He has an almost Shakespearian tendency to drop 
 as he goes along wise reflections, pithy sentences, gnomoe, 
 many of which are, apart from their context, of almost 
 universal application in the affairs of life. Often they 
 are highly polished, always wholesome, and not in- 
 frequently very weighty." 
 
 Another point of view is expressed in an illustrated 
 article by Francis W. Halsey in the Literary Supplement 
 of The New York Times. It is well worth quoting. 
 This is what he says ; 
 
 " The most interesting thing about Captain Mahan's 
 books is something which the books do not tell us — the 
 answer to this question : How he, a naval officer, took 
 to literature and acquitted himself in that field of action 
 with so much honor. One fact we may assume : He 
 has read great authors and learned to know what good 
 historical writing consists of. If he has not spent his 
 days and nights with Addison he has spent them with 
 other masters of English. He has made no man's style 
 his own, but he has conformed to certain fundamental 
 qualities of which all good writing consists — clearness, 
 personality, variety, charm. 
 
 " Style unquestionably is the man, but a man may not 
 have style in prose without education and experience ; 
 he may not have it without knowing what it is, and he 
 cannot master it until he has long practiced it. The 
 question remains unanswered, except in so far as a 
 partial answer is found in character. 
 
 " In not a few cases the men have seemed greater 
 than their works, their works only a partial manifesta- 
 tion of their qualities. This remains true of Captain 
 Mahan. All through his writings is writ large the man. 
 Conscience is dominant. Here are seen laborious search 
 for truth, restraint in utterance, the repose of conscious 
 strength ; now the vigour of power, now the silence of 
 power." 
 
254 LITERARY TRAITS [chap, xxiii 
 
 While critics on both sides of the Atlantic were giving 
 expression to gratifying tributes to his literary accom- 
 plishments, how did Mahan himself regard his success ? 
 Luckily we have in his private correspondence some 
 interesting evidence on this point. Writing to his family 
 in 1895 he says : 
 
 *' Well, how do I feel about it all ? Of course I have 
 been immensely gratified and pleased. It is but human, 
 and I cannot think wrong so to feel ; but elated, I think 
 not. It is constantly ringing in my ears, ' What hast 
 thou that thou hast not received ? ' And so feeling, 
 withal, there has been an absence of self-consciousness or 
 embarrassment that has fairly surprised me. Smalley 
 did me there no more than justice — I have really not felt 
 any conceit, for the reason that my knowledge of the 
 success of my work is wholly external ; I know it as a 
 fact — but I don't realise it, nor, somehow, identify it 
 with myself." 
 
 Both matter and style in his Life of Nelson were sub- 
 jected to somewhat caustic criticism by Mr. David 
 Hannay, who impugned some of Mahan' s historical con- 
 clusions, and among other things, some complimentary 
 and some the reverse, had this to say of his style : 
 
 " Captain Mahan — a slight touch of the school- 
 master, and a pardonable tinge of the dogmatist being 
 allowed for — is always on the side of the angels, that is to 
 say, in agreement with common sense. ... A book 
 being by the nature of things a piece of writing, the ques- 
 tion how it is written has to be, if not settled, at least 
 recognised, when we are considering its merits. Like 
 the error of Nelson in regard to Napoleon's generalship 
 in 1797, Captain Mahan' s style is not quite worthy of his 
 native sagacity. There is a certain looseness of fibre 
 about his form which weakens the matter in the telling ; 
 and this has its counterpart in a certain redundancy of 
 narrative. . . . Captain Mahan is not without something 
 of Napier's sense of the poetry of war, but he cannot get 
 
DAVID HANNAY'S CRITICISM 255 
 
 it expressed. It is all in solution, and struggles out 
 incoherently." 
 
 At the end of the article ^ these words are pencilled 
 in Mahan's handwriting : 
 
 " The divergence is such as to show that one or the 
 other of us is either wholly incompetent — or in this 
 particular instance too wholly wrong-headed — to write 
 as a critic on military matters." 
 
 Writing to Mahan about his Influence of Sea Power 
 upon History, Admiral Colomb, the noted naval historian, 
 said : 
 
 " I hope you were satisfied with the reception your 
 book received in this country. I think all our naval 
 men regard it as the naval book of the age. We have 
 all been struck by the beauty of your style, as much as 
 by the force of your arguments." 
 
 Occasionally, although not in his principal works, 
 he indulged in what the stylists would term inelegancies 
 of expression ; such for instance as '' there could not but 
 be mistakes," when he intended to say " mistakes would 
 have been inevitable"; and ''he came to be more 
 distinguished," instead of " he became." In one 
 article he dropped into the mistake of referring to the 
 German Emperor as " Emperor of Germany." 
 
 A few years ago a list of the first Forty Immortals 
 to constitute a proposed American Academy of Arts 
 and Letters was prepared by the National Institute of 
 Arts and Letters of America. The name of Alfred 
 Thayer Mahan was among those thus honoured. 
 
 Mahan deserved and won personal credit for the 
 tangible results of his many excellences. Literary style 
 is in large measure a gift, similar to that of a beautiful 
 voice, a lovely face, remarkable strength or speed, for 
 which the unthinking world is all too apt to ascribe 
 
 ^ Nelson and his Biographers. 
 
256 LITERARY TRAITS [chap, xxiii 
 
 credit to the individual, whereas such gifts merit but 
 admiration, except in so far as they have been developed 
 and improved by personal effort. To this task he 
 devoted much painstaking thought and labour.^ He 
 by no means escaped criticism in respect of both matter 
 and style, but it was the happy combination of the 
 two, as constituting the literary vehicle of his priceless 
 message to mankind, that influenced more than one 
 authority to express the opinion that he was the greatest 
 writer America had yet produced. 
 
 1 " Such advance as I have made in technique — and I trust I have 
 made some — I have owed to the critical running analysis of the con- 
 struction of sentences, which has been my habit ever since I began 
 to write. That this is constant with me, subconsciously, is shown by 
 the frequency with which it passes into a conscious logical recasting 
 of what I read. To get antecedents and consequents as near one 
 another as possible ; qualifying words or phrases as close as may be 
 to that which they qualify ; an object near its verb ; to avoid an 
 adjective which applies to one or two nouns being so placed as to 
 seem to qualify both ; such minute details seem to me worthy of the 
 utmost care, and I think I can trace advance in these respects." — 
 From Sail to Steam. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 
 
 " The good which Admiral Mahan did in the Church and in the 
 world are not easily estimated, but his life, with its deep faith, was 
 an inspiration to us all." — Frederick Burgess, Bishop of Long 
 Island. 
 
 No portrait of Alfred Thayer Mahan which failed to 
 emphasise his deeply religious nature would faithfully 
 reflect his true personality. It would be difficult to 
 exaggerate the intensity of his convictions or his life- 
 long devotion to things spiritual. 
 
 His letters to his friend Mr. Ashe suggest that he was 
 religiously inclined, even at the age of eighteen, although 
 perhaps unconsciously so. He disclaims any personal 
 religious tendencies at this time, but expresses scorn for 
 anyone who becomes religious from a sense of fear. His 
 correspondence indicates that a deep appreciation of the 
 literary beauty ' of the Bible led to his active adoption 
 of the religious life. In one letter when he was nineteen 
 he says : 
 
 " Do you ever read the Bible ? What a beautiful 
 passage this is that I met the other day in a book : 
 
 " ' Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden 
 bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, 
 or the wheel broken at the cistern : then shall the dust 
 return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return 
 unto God who gave it.' 
 
 " Sam, I am not religious, but does it need religion to 
 
 1 " With the English Bible and Shakespeare one may inherit not 
 only the Anglo-Saxon tradition but also the world's supreme achieve- 
 ments in prose, poetry, and religion." — Thayer's Life of John Hay. 
 
 257 
 
258 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS [chai . xxiv 
 
 appreciate the beauty and sublimity of such poetry as 
 that ? " 
 
 Mr. Ashe recounts that at the end of the Civil War, 
 Mahan sent him part of his savings to help him to make 
 a start in his profession. 
 
 His diaries as a young man in the twenties testify to a 
 daily habit of self-introspection most rare in one so young 
 and not in holy orders. Its severe and searching char- 
 acter might almost be described as morbidly exacting. 
 No action or thought during the day escaped examina- 
 tion and criticism in the light of his duty toward God. 
 His proneness to ill-temper caused him much concern 
 as a young man. An entry in his diary reads : 
 
 " They can never be recalled. Those moments of un- 
 lovely irritability cannot be changed to sweet charity 
 now. Pardoned they may be, but respent, never." 
 
 No doubt this religious habit of life was largely, even 
 if unconsciously, the outcome of early association with 
 his mother, who was a profoundly devout woman and 
 instilled into her children a deep sense of the beauty and 
 satisfaction of the religious life, and the exquisite joy of 
 close communion with the never-failing Friend, who, 
 although transcending definition in so poor and in- 
 sufficient a medium as language, may perhaps be 
 visualised as the spiritual embodiment of the sum of all 
 the noblest aspirations of the human heart. 
 
 Among the most notable traits in Mahan' s character 
 was a sense of duty so strong and so all-comprehensive 
 that it was impossible for him to be other than scrupu- 
 lously honest in thought, word, and deed. As a natural 
 outcome, everyone trusted him, far and near ; and his 
 writings deservedly earned an enviable reputation for 
 impartial truth in statement and accuracy in detail. 
 In all his twenty books and innumerable pamphlets, 
 articles, and letters on various subjects, so far as the 
 
HABIT OF PRAYER 259 
 
 author has discovered, only twice was he justly accused 
 of an inaccuracy of any moment, and in both instances 
 the error was acknowledged and rectified in subsequent 
 editions of the book in which it occurred. 
 
 While there is no evidence that Mahan ever prayed for 
 material things, it was the invariable habit of his life to 
 ask for spiritual guidance and assistance in all matters of 
 importance. How marvellous a power is habit in every 
 relation of life ! But for its mysterious force and silent 
 influence the poor would do away with themselves and 
 the rich would be down on their knees all day long 
 thanking God for their overflowing larders. Mahan' s 
 natural reticence in connection with sacred matters is 
 strikingly illustrated by the fact that none of his books, 
 not even the autobiography he wrote under the title 
 From Sail to Steam, contain more than a passing and 
 isolated reference to his religious convictions. The one 
 exception is The Harvest Within, which, under the 
 description of Thoughts on the Life of the Christian, is of 
 an entirely religious character, and eloquently testifies 
 to the intensity of his spiritual beliefs, to his remarkable 
 knowledge of the Scriptures, and to the study and research 
 which from his youth up he had devoted to religious 
 subjects. 
 
 In common with many religious works of a similar 
 character. The Harvest Within suffers from a super- 
 abundance of familiar Biblical quotations, but the book 
 abounds in helpful counsel, telling historic parallel and 
 apt illustration, of which the following is perhaps a 
 characteristic example : 
 
 " Untiring as man's efforts may be, and much as they 
 may conduce to constitute conditions favorable to life 
 and to growth, the life is not his, never was his ; never, 
 thank God, will be his. It was given him ; it is main- 
 tained in him. He grows, but he does not make him- 
 self. There is no self-made man in the Kingdom of 
 God." 
 18 
 
260 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS [chap, xxiv 
 
 The brass tablet erected in his memory in the Church 
 of the Atonement at Quogue, Long Island, and which 
 is here reproduced, bears faithful witness to the genuinely 
 high opinion in which he was held by those who knew 
 him best. His bank-books justify the assumption that 
 he too agreed that " the greatest of these is Charity " ; 
 for in view of the comparatively limited means at his 
 disposal, they disclose a liberality bespeaking a most 
 generous nature and a high sense of responsibility 
 towards his less favoured fellow men. No. 4 of some 
 " Notes for daily conduct of life," which appear in one of 
 his diaries when he was about twenty-eight, provides for 
 setting aside seventeen dollars per month for alms- 
 giving. This would have made a considerable inroad 
 into his slender income in those early days. He was a 
 believer in Charity in its highest and best sense, as inter- 
 preted by kind thoughts, kinder words, and kindest 
 deeds ; the one offering altogether acceptable to the 
 Supreme Author of loving kindness, as attested in that 
 matchless summary of the final and all-comprehensive 
 verdict, " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
 Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the 
 world : for inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least 
 of these my brethren ye did it unto me." 
 
 Reference has already been made to Mahan's voluntary 
 offering of all the means at his disposal at the end of the 
 Civil War to help Southern Naval Officers in financial 
 straits. Another instance of his kindly disposition is 
 reflected in the following communication, which tells its 
 own tale and from which the names have been appro- 
 priately deleted : 
 
 " Bishop's House, 
 
 " The Rev. of informs me that he has 
 
 applied to you asking for a loan of money, and requests 
 me to write you regarding this. 
 
 " Mr. has been under heavy expense owing to the 
 
 poor health of his mother, who is entirely dependent 
 upon him. Mr. has been at for one year, 
 
^^-^m^^fe^J.-?^^^^^ 
 
 ^,.*€-«w«.@.^^ 
 
 
 1540 
 
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 1914 
 
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 m ■ ^j}k ■ Km(sDO^ • OP • €>0J) -hs-^r 
 ^K?i^pii€- OF- n • {{r^r^issisn;- (Dhr 
 
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 Erected • by • ms, ■ Friends 
 
 AND • FEIiliOWWORSHJPPERS 
 
 
 MEMORIAL TABLET LST THE CHUBCH OP THE ATONEMENT, QUOGUE, 
 LONG ISLAND. 
 
 2G01 
 
 THE CHESNEY GOLD MEDAL. 
 
CHARITY AND HOPE 261 
 
 where he has furnished the rectory to make a home for 
 his mother. His salary is $1,200 per year. On this he 
 would be able to get along were it not that he took his 
 mother West for her health, before .coming to — — , 
 which cost him three or four hundred dollars more than 
 he anticipated. This, with the expense of setting up 
 house-keeping, has caused him embarrassment. 
 
 " I am sending you the facts, and leave to your own 
 judgment whether you care to make the loan. There 
 is no doubt that the loan would be of great assistance to 
 
 Mr. in his present situation. 
 
 " Faithfully yours, 
 
 Note by Admiral Mahan : 
 
 " Nov. 2, 1911. Sent Mr. cheque for $100 named 
 
 January, 1913, for repayment, but said sum would be 
 given or returned to some church work. He was, there- 
 fore, to consider himself in debt to the Church, rather 
 than to me, and on that basis to contrive repayment. 
 
 " In case of my death authorised him to pay the 
 amount to Bishop for missionary work in diocese." 
 
 Now although Mahan seems to have privately lived up 
 to the principle of the super-excellence of Charity, he 
 publicly extolled Ilo'pe in an address in which he made 
 his confession of faith, summarising his experiences in the 
 following words : 
 
 " It is, I think, the hopefulness of Religion that has 
 most impressed itself as the result of my experience — 
 and I am not naturally of sanguine temper. As a 
 matter of experience, starting in life with a fearful and 
 apprehensive mind, I find constantly growing the feeling 
 of hopeful confidence. God has stood by me so often, 
 surely I can trust Him now. 
 
 " I sum it all up in the reiteration of my sure and 
 joyful confidence, that I have tried God these many years 
 and found Him ever faithful ; faithful not only in the 
 ordering of my external life, but still more faithful in 
 the gradual increase to me of that knowledge of God, in 
 which standeth our eternal life ; a knowledge of whose 
 growth I can give no account, except that I do know. 
 
262 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS [chap, xxiv 
 
 " I thank you greatly for listening to me, and your 
 Rector for asking me to speak. I value beyond words 
 the opportunity, once in my life, before God's people, 
 to avow my faith, that to me He is, and has been, — not 
 in my imperfect service, but in His own perfect faithful- 
 ness, — Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, 
 the First and the Last. I rejoice that once at least I am 
 able publicly to lay at His feet in words — however poor 
 my deeds — the confession that all I have, all I am, all 
 that I have accomplished, has been of Him and through 
 Him ; and that, as the end draws near, there abides, 
 what only my own demerit can forfeit, the Hope, which 
 experience of His faithfulness renews day by day." 
 
 He also extolled Hope in his address on receiving his 
 Degree at Dartmouth College. 
 
 Regular church attendance was a lifelong habit of his, 
 and there is no doubt he could have personally officiated 
 at any service of the Church with conspicuous ability. 
 It was not by any means unusual for him to signify by 
 a smile and an inclination of the head his approval of 
 those portions of a sermon which specially appealed to 
 him, maintaining a solemn and undemonstrative atti- 
 tude during the rest of the sermon ; a procedure some- 
 what disconcerting at times to those of the clergy to 
 whom it was a new experience ; more especially as in such 
 a small place of worship as the Church of the Atonement 
 at Quogue, Mahan would be sitting within a few feet 
 of the pulpit and in full view of the entire congregation.^ 
 When at sea, lonely and far away from family and friends, 
 at the hour when service was being held in his parish 
 
 1 " He was to me a typical example of the humble servant of the 
 Master, and his devotion and interest at the services in the chapel 
 impressed me profoundly. And added to all was his missionary zeal. 
 I shall never forget how impressed I was years ago by the fact that 
 he went into the city on one of the boiling-hot days of August to 
 attend a farewell service for some missionaries at the Board of Missions. 
 He had a strong effect upon me whenever I preached, silently chal- 
 lenging me, as it were, to do my best, and I count it one of the greatest 
 privileges of my life to have had him as hearer for so many years 
 during the summer." — Fkederick B. Cabter. 
 
CHAMPION OF THE FAITH 263 
 
 church at home, he would break away, if possible, from 
 his duties as captain of the ship, and read the Daily 
 Service in his cabin. 
 
 Among other activities in the direction of religious 
 work, Mahan was consulted about the revision of the 
 Prayer Book, and wrote several articles on the subject 
 which appeared in The Churchman. He was a strong 
 advocate of uniformity in Church Service procedure, 
 in order that community of worship throughout the 
 world should be maintained. He read before the 
 Episcopalian Club of Massachusetts in 1899 a paper 
 on the " Relations of the Church to the State " which 
 was subsequently published, and wrote a trenchant 
 criticism of Winston Churchill's The Inside of the Cup. 
 " That one letter," said a writer of the day, " showed 
 that Admiral Mahan' s reputation for scholarship, for 
 close reasoning, for forceful writing and churchmanship 
 of a high order, rests on a solid foundation." Later 
 he contributed to The North American Review an effec- 
 tive reply to a paper on Twentieth Century Christianity, 
 read by Doctor Charles W. Elliot of Harvard before a 
 general conference of Unitarian and other churches. 
 
 This response solicited expressions of grateful appre- 
 ciation from numerous quarters. One of these was 
 from Mr. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy : 
 
 " My dear Admiral, 
 
 " I have read with the greatest pleasure and profit 
 your article in The North American Review, replying to 
 Dr. Elliot. It is most helpful to the younger men to 
 read your clear call to hold fast to the ancient land- 
 marks our fathers set. 
 
 " With sentiments of esteem and kind regards, I am, 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " Josephus Daniels." 
 
 And Bishop Gailor of Tennessee wrote : "I thank God 
 for a layman who can state the faith as you have 
 declared it." 
 
264 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS [chap, xxiv 
 
 Mahan did much to promote the missionary work of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church of North America, 
 and was a member of the Commission on missionary 
 work in connection with the World Missionary Con- 
 ference in Edinburgh in 1910. 
 
 Although described by the Secretary of the Navy as 
 the best informed man upon war and its lessons with 
 whom he ever conversed, he was said in The Spirit of 
 Missions to be by practice a man of peace, and like Glad- 
 stone a man of great versatility, but of a deeply spiritual 
 and consecrated life, a son of whom the Church had 
 reason to be proud. 
 
 He was an ardent supporter of Foreign Missions, and on 
 the death of Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1900 he was elected 
 to the Board of Missions, on which he served for ten years. 
 An indirect outcome of his efforts was the Mahan School 
 at Yangchow, China. He was for many years an active 
 director of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York,i 
 
 1 Considered one of the best of its kind in any part of the world. 
 Its building is crowned by a lighthouse erected by public subscription 
 in memory of the victims of the Titanic disaster. It bears this 
 inscription : 
 
 LIGHTHOUSE TOWER AND TIME BALL 
 
 Erected by Public Subscription 
 
 THIS LIGHTHOUSE TOWER IS A MEMOBIAL TO THE 
 PASSENGEES, OFFICERS AND CREW OF THE STEAM- 
 SHIP ' TITANIC,' WHO DIED AS HEROES WHEN THAT 
 VESSEL SANK AFTER A COLLISION WITH AN ICEBERG. 
 
 Latitude 41° 46' North 
 Longitude 50° 14' West 
 April 15, 1912. 
 House the brave who sleep ' Women and children first,'' 
 
 Where the lost ' Titanic ' lies. Oh, strong and tender cry. 
 
 The men who knew what a man The sons whom women had borne 
 
 must do and nursed 
 
 When he looks Death in the eyes. Remembered — and dared to die. 
 
 The boats crept off in the dark. 
 The great ship groaned — and then — 
 Oh, stars of the night who saw that sight. 
 Bear witness these were men ! 
 
 Henry van Dyke. 
 
SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE 265 
 
 and the success of that splendid institution owes 
 much to his practical sympathy and unfailing sup- 
 port. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Seamen's 
 Church Institute of New York, held December 16, 1914, 
 the following minute was unanimously adopted : 
 
 " The death of Alfred Thayer Mahan, Rear- Admiral, 
 U.S.N., retired, America's foremost naval strategist 
 and the world's greatest authority on sea power, brings 
 especial sorrow to the Board of Managers of the Institute 
 of which he was a Lay Vice-President, having been a 
 member of the Board since 1867 — forty-seven years. 
 He was an absolutely conscientious member of the many 
 Committees on which he willingly, faithfully, and 
 graciously served. He was an interested and active 
 member of the Building Committee which erected the 
 Institute on the corner of South Street and Coenties 
 Slip, and was also a member of the Seamen's Church 
 Institute of America, a Commission appointed by the 
 General Convention in 1904. 
 
 " His deep interest in all matters which concerned the 
 good of seamen and his unfailing and unselfish service in 
 their interest will be gratefully remembered by all who 
 had the privilege of working with him. 
 
 "His quiet strong personality was always felt. 
 
 " He was essentially a man of God of superior intel- 
 lect, and with profound religious convictions ; a great 
 Churchman and an ardent patriot. 
 
 " The Board of Managers desires to express to his 
 immediate family and relatives profound feeling of 
 respect and sympathy. 
 
 " An Extract from the Minutes. 
 
 " Frank T. Warburton, 
 
 " Secretary.^'* 
 
 The following resolution bespeaks charitable activities 
 in another direction : 
 
 " At a meeting of the Trustees of the American Church 
 Institute for Negroes, held at the Diocesan House, 
 
266 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS [chap, xxiv 
 
 Thursday afternoon, December 3, 1914, the following 
 resolution was unanimously adopted : 
 
 " Resolved, that the Board of Trustees of the 
 American Church Institute for Negroes desire to express 
 their sense of the very great loss which they have sus- 
 tained in the death of Rear- Admiral Mahan. He was 
 always most deeply interested in the work of the Insti- 
 tute, and was one of the most regular attendants at its 
 meetings. His counsel and advice were always greatly 
 prized, and it will be difficult if not impossible to find 
 anyone to fill his place. 
 
 " David H. Greer, 
 " President, 
 ^^ American Church Institute for Negroes^ 
 
 The Reverend Milo Mahan, the Admiral's uncle, pro- 
 bably influenced his nephew's mind strongly towards a 
 sound conception of religion when he was a young man 
 at Columbia College and lived in his house. In a letter 
 written in 1864, among a number of other interesting 
 things he says : 
 
 " Things happen to us constantly, which prove that 
 God rules, or else that Chance rules. But, if I must 
 choose between Chance or God, to solve the mysteries 
 of life, it is certainly reasonable to refer things to God 
 of whom I can form some idea, rather than to Chance 
 of which I can form no idea whatever. God may be 
 mysterious. His ways may be dark and past finding 
 out. But Chance is not mysterious merely, it is utterly 
 unintelligible." 
 
 Frederick the Great is quoted as having said : 
 " The older one gets the more convinced one 
 becomes that His Majesty King Chance does three- 
 quarters of the business of this miserable universe." 
 
 Lieutenant Commander K. Asami of the Japanese 
 Navy wrote Mahan the following letter in March 1913 : 
 
JAPANESE APPRECIATION 267 
 
 " Admiral Mahan, 
 
 " Care of Navy Department, 
 "Washington, D.C. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " Knowing your interest in the cause of rehgion 
 and humanity, I venture to write to you about a plan 
 that I, as a Christian, have of writing the biography of 
 the late Vice- Admiral Serata, who was a Christian. The 
 biography is to be in Japanese, but if the whole, or some 
 parts, could be published in English it would tend, I 
 believe, to promote good feeling between your country 
 and ours, since Admiral Serata was eduated in Anna- 
 polis, In any case the publication in Japan alone will 
 have some effect in promoting the cause of religion 
 and of international peace. 
 
 " If you would write some words for the book, either 
 in the form of an introduction from the American 
 point of view, or as a chapter on Admiral Serata' s 
 life in the Academy, such words would have great 
 influence upon our officers, who are all familiar with 
 your works. 
 
 " I should be much obliged, if, in addition to this, 
 you could introduce me to some of the Admiral's 
 classmates at the Academy between 1877 and 1881, as 
 I should like to have some reminiscences written by 
 some of them. 
 
 " I am aware that I am asking a great favor, but 
 trusting that you will be willing to render your assistance 
 in so good a cause, 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 
 " Respectfully yours, 
 
 " K. ASAMI, 
 
 " Lieutenant Commander, I.J.N '' 
 
 That Mahan readily consented is apparent from a 
 letter which followed a few months later and of which 
 the following is an extract : 
 
 "It is with gratitude and satisfaction that I receive 
 your kind letter of May 17, granting my request for an 
 introduction to the proposed biography of Admiral 
 Serata. The mere fact of your writing it will help pro- 
 
268 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS [chap, xxiv 
 
 mote good feeling between the two nations ; and I hope 
 that the book will have such a circulation that your 
 message regarding the harmonising element in Chris- 
 tianity will cause many to think of the power of Christ 
 to make all men one. Admiral Uriu has consented to 
 help in the preparation of the book, which I trust may 
 bring the Gospel to many who have not received it." 
 
 A year later Commander Asami wrote : 
 
 " The flaming work of the Serata's biography now 
 come to the end, and it will be published within two 
 months. Admiral Mahan is well acquainted in our Navy 
 through his books, and he is now beginning to be 
 widely known through his Christian character." 
 
 Admiral C. H. Stockton wrote an appreciation of 
 Mahan in The Churchman, in which he said that there 
 were no half-way measures with the Admiral, and that 
 he entered into the devout life with all of his intellectual 
 power and all the strength of his character. That he 
 was not only a Christian gentleman and a devout Church- 
 man, but belonged to the highest and most unselfish 
 type of American citizenship. 
 
 Mahan' s message at seventy years of age may be 
 summed up in these words of his : 
 
 " It is on this practical side of religion, as one who has 
 tried God these thirty years and more, that I see any 
 right in me to speak. We begin, perhaps not exactly 
 by trusting in ourselves, but in laying great store — 
 not wholly undeserved — upon the things we ourselves 
 do ; upon our prayers, our efforts, our observances of 
 every kind. They are right ; they are good ; they are 
 incumbent ; but the great trouble is that they are ours, 
 rather than His. So we go forth, generation after 
 generation, to the conflict — and many a rattling fall 
 we get. 
 
 " The hearing of God's word, prayer, the outward act 
 of receiving the sacraments, spiritual effort of every 
 
HIS MESSAGE 269 
 
 character, — this is man's part, — the casting of the seed 
 and the tending of it ; but the growth is not of him. 
 The ripening of Life, the maturing of the Christian 
 character, goes on by itself, not independent of man's 
 care, but wholly independent of man's power. 
 
 " Here you have, not only in due proportion, but also 
 fully developed, the two factors — man's part and God's 
 part. The man casts the seed into the earth, — an ex- 
 pression which involves by implication all that man 
 does, the preparation of the ground, the planting, the 
 tending, the watering ; but who is there that knows 
 not that the growth of the grain is a life, the essential 
 principle of which not only defies man's investigation, 
 but is independent of his power ? 
 
 " You are to supply the conditions essential to the 
 Lord's coming, by prayer, by sacrament, by effort, for 
 these are means which He has ordained ; but you are not 
 to fall into the spiritual error of expecting that the doing 
 these things will make you good, that you will conquer 
 by their means, 
 
 " I knew long ago by intellectual acceptance ; I know 
 now by a knowledge for which I can give no account ; 
 but I know as I never knew of old. And I feel justified 
 in believing that through my generation telling you to 
 expect that which I, at least, did not for a long time 
 apprehend, you will find earlier than I found ; you will 
 find that knowledge and that confidence, the possession 
 of which passes all understanding, like the Peace of God, 
 — which indeed it is. 
 
 ' Such is my experience which I give to you. Some 
 distant day, perhaps, someone here young may tell a 
 future generation that he was helped along his road — 
 not by me, but by the Spirit of God speaking through 
 me ; for unless it be the Spirit that speaks, and not I, 
 these words are vain. Perhaps then he will feel that, 
 having been so helped, he, at the close of his days, was 
 farther on than else he would have been. 
 
 "It is the grace of God to advancing years, a grace 
 which, when received, more than compensates the man 
 for the beauty and freshness of youth, that with the 
 lapse of time he thus more and more sees his Maker as 
 He is, and sees himself as he is." 
 
270 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS [chap, xxiv 
 
 " A favourite verse of Mahan's was Browning's : 
 
 " Oroio old along with me ! 
 
 The best is yet to be. 
 The last of life, for which the first was made ; 
 Our times are in His hand 
 
 Who saith, ' A whole I planned, 
 ' Youth shows but half ; trust Ood, see all, nor be afraid.' " 
 
 The contemplation of the incidents of such a life as 
 that of Alfred Thayer Mahan is apt to raise a question 
 in the mind as to just what the term Religion is going to 
 imply in the twentieth century. Haply the day is 
 approaching when, except possibly among the densely 
 ignorant, religion will cease to be regarded as a blind 
 adherence to certain arbitrary observances and articles 
 of faith inherited in large measure from mediaevalism. 
 It has been said that the happiness of one of the least of 
 His children is more precious to Almighty God than all 
 the Creeds in Christendom. When the various Churches 
 and Sects pool their energies, inter-associate their 
 divergencies of creed and procedure, overcome their 
 prejudices — for the most part acquired by inheritance — 
 and teach their people the one supreme and funda- 
 mental truth, that in the sight of God kindness is every- 
 thing, as compared with which the Church is nothing, 
 will not Religion become universally recognised as 
 essentially a standard of conduct, an habitual practice of 
 the golden rule ? 
 
 It is a difficult and a delicate matter to attempt to 
 interpret the innermost feelings of a fellow human being, 
 but in so far as it is permissible to do so, it would seem 
 justifiable to suggest that Mahan's religion was of that 
 nature which in the present day is apt to be termed old- 
 fashioned ; that in his heart he was a conscientious 
 advocate of the dogma of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church. Whatever may have been his undisclosed 
 convictions upon the many phases of Christian belief, 
 his religion was of the type which makes for irreproach- 
 
KINDNESS 271 
 
 al)le conduct in life ; and Mahan no doubt realised that 
 there is no joy in the world in any way comparable to 
 that which inevitably springs from the giving of happi- 
 ness to others, and that in the final analysis Religion is 
 neither Church, nor creed, nor dogma, nor observance ; 
 but, first, last, and always, kindness, and all that kindness 
 implies and comprehends. 
 
 When he passed away, Bishop Greer of New York 
 wrote this to Mrs. Mahan : 
 
 " I shared with all the world the admiration for his 
 eminent services to his chosen profession, and yet, 
 beyond and above all that, I admired him for the 
 beauty and charm of his Christian character." 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE AUTUMN OF LIFE 
 
 " Call no man happy till he dies ; but having had the full term of 
 life I feel that I may say confidently that I have had seventy years 
 of happiness very little clouded." — A. T. Mahan. 
 
 Maiian was promoted to Rear-Admiral on the retired 
 list on June 29, 1906. " You will congratulate me, I 
 am sure," he writes Admiral Bouverie Clark, " on pro- 
 motion to Rear-Admiral Retired, a more substantial 
 incident being that it increases my pay by something 
 over £200. For the other, ' Captain Mahan,' has become 
 almost a nom de 'plume for me, and I am a little perplexed 
 about changing it." Most men on approaching the three 
 score and ten milestone yearn for a complete relaxation 
 from toil, but this virile thinker continued valiantly in 
 harness until the end, although he was officially detached 
 from all naval duty on June 6, 1912, and in October 
 of that year, when he was seventy-two, he said in a 
 letter to a friend : 
 
 " I am now with friends near Philadelphia, and have 
 already felt the benefit in these days, not only of the 
 idleness but of the absence of the desk and its parapher- 
 nalia which keeps work always in mind. I hope the 
 total absence will break up all such associations and 
 perhaps free me from the active interposition in current 
 national naval policies which has added so much to my 
 work this year.'' 
 
 The years 1912 and 1913 were partly occupied with 
 the publication of Armaments and Arbitration and Major 
 Operations of the Navies in the War of American Inde- 
 
 272 
 
1912-14] THE TOLL OF YEARS 273 
 
 pendence ; and about this time his correspondence with 
 Admiral Sir Bouveric Clark shows that he was realising 
 that the years were beginning to tell. In one letter 
 he says : 
 
 " My old beloved friend, Dr. Johnson — do you know 
 your Boswell ? — was always morose towards anyone 
 that reminded him of his birthday. I can't say I have 
 quite the same feeling about it, having rather a philo- 
 sophic indifference, except at the not infrequent re- 
 minders I get that I can't do things quite as I used to. 
 A little slacking of the grip here, a little shortening of 
 the walk there, not quite so many minutes of head work 
 per diem, these and other little similar incidents remind 
 me that I am coming to pieces after a fashion ; here a 
 little and there a little, which all counts in the end. 
 All this seems like grumbling, but it isn't ; upon the 
 whole I think I am happier, steadily, than at any previous 
 period of my life." 
 
 Such was his vitality, however, at seventy-one years of 
 age that he was able to write : 
 
 " Here our bicycles are at the door like so many horses 
 every day, and we go on them everywhere — church, 
 post-office, beach, friends, and all. It is also for me a 
 standard of strength. The long rides of five years ago 
 I never take now, and my long rides are those which 
 then were daily. For bathing I am much where I used 
 to be, and go in colder water, remaining as long or longer. 
 With the thermometer at 20 I get on very well with no 
 overcoat, having great delight in the freer movement, 
 and wonder at seeing men forty years my junior in gar- 
 ments that are about as limber as plate armor, with 
 heavy furs often to boot. I can still walk nearly four 
 miles an hour, though I could not keep it up over an 
 hour." 
 
 The house referred to in the paragraph just quoted 
 was built by the Admiral and Mrs. Mahan some years 
 before this, and became their permanent home in Long 
 Island. It is known as " Marshmere," and the accom- 
 
274 THE AUTUMN OF LIFE [chap, xxv 
 
 panying photograph shows the side away from the sea 
 and the garden. Here the author spent several enjoy- 
 able weeks as the guest of Mrs. Mahan, sorting out 
 material for this work in the Admiral's study. 
 
 In the early part of 1913 he was abroad with his wife 
 and two daughters, visiting France, Italy, and Sicily, 
 and in a letter from Palermo he complains in somewhat 
 melancholy fashion, "as an awful proof of old age," 
 that sight-seeing, which a few years before he used to 
 enjoy, bores him indescribably. 
 
 The condition of affairs in the Balkans at that time 
 evidently gave him some concern for the safety of his 
 family. He feared the spark which might ignite the 
 mighty conflagration, the arrival of which he foresaw 
 and so eloquently predicted in his writings. He tells 
 Sir Bouverie Clark : 
 
 " Things have been moving pretty rapidly since I left 
 London. It has been on my mind, though I have not 
 worried, that any slight slip among the diplomats might 
 land all the fat in the fire, and the Mediterranean be a 
 scene of war before I would get my womenfolk out — not 
 to say my gray hairs, what I have of them. Even now I 
 should not be surprised by a mauvais tour in the proceed- 
 ings, but they have been talking so long I fancy now 
 they will be able to settle things without fighting. 
 Nevertheless, as long as Turkey exists she will be per- 
 petually giving rise to ' questions.' I believe the indi- 
 vidual Turk is not a bad sort, but any people more 
 hopelessly unfit for governing it is hard to imagine. I 
 believe the Persians are worse." 
 
 On the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he 
 received many gratifying offers to write about the war. 
 Two of these were of a highly remunerative character, 
 and the money would have been more than acceptable, 
 for in the closing years of his life he was much concerned 
 about the financial position of his family in the event of 
 his death and the cessation of his pay as Rear-Admiral 
 
1914] MUZZLED 275 
 
 Retired. He was deprived of the fruits of this lucrative 
 work, however, by an Order from the Government, pro- 
 hibiting officers of the Army and Navy from writing 
 about the war. The Order read ; 
 
 " The White House, 
 " Washington, 
 
 " August 6, 1914. 
 
 " I write to suggest that you request and advise all 
 officers of the Service, whether active or retired, to re- 
 refrain from public comment of any kind upon the 
 military or political situation on the other side of the 
 water. I would be obliged if you would let them know 
 that the request and advice comes from me. It seems 
 to me highly unwise and improper that officers of the 
 Navy and Army of the United States should make any 
 public utterances to which any color of political or 
 military criticism can be given where other nations are 
 involved. 
 
 " Cordially and faithfully yours, 
 
 " WooDRow Wilson. 
 " Josephus Daniels, 
 
 ** Secretary of the NavyJ'^ 
 
 Mahan appealed to the Secretary of the Navy for 
 exemption as a retired officer : 
 
 " QuoGUE, N.Y., 
 
 " August 15, 1914. 
 
 " To the Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 "1. I have received the Department's Special Order 
 of August 6, 1914, with reference to public comment by 
 officers upon the existing European War. 
 
 "2. I would represent that the status of a retired 
 naval officer is by law so detached from employment by 
 the Government, that his relation to the course of the 
 Government and consequent responsibility of the 
 Government for his published opinions differ scarcely 
 at all from the case of a private citizen. 
 
 " This consideration is reinforced by the fact that all 
 the weight attached to the judgment of any particular 
 officer is purely personal to him, and therefore private. 
 
 19 
 
276 THE AUTUMN OF LIFE [chap, xxv 
 
 If I were to resign from the Navy to-morrow, my opinions 
 on professional matters would be valued neither less nor 
 more than they now are. 
 
 " 3. Assuming that the reason of the Government for 
 the Order was to forestall any appearance of bias on its 
 own part towards either belligerent — for no otherwise 
 can a personal expression afiect it — I submit that the 
 published opinion of a retired officer can in no wise com- 
 promise the just sensitiveness of the Government as to 
 the clear and evident impartiality of its attitude. 
 
 "4. Public opinion being in the last analysis the 
 determining force in our national policy, the effect 
 of the Order is to disable a class of men best qualified by 
 their past occupations, and present position, to put 
 before the public considerations which would tend to 
 base public opinion, in matters of current public interest, 
 upon sound professional grounds. 
 
 " 5. Personally, at the age of seventy-four, I find 
 myself silenced at a moment when the particular pur- 
 suits of nearly thirty years, the results of which had the 
 approval of the naval authorities in almost all countries, 
 might be utilised for the public. I admit a feeling of 
 personal disappointment, but that necessarily must be 
 of less consequence in any reconsideration that may be 
 granted. I may state that I have, from Great Britain 
 and from our own country, applications more than I 
 could attend to, if permitted, couched in terms of strong 
 appreciation of my particular fitness for the work, and 
 which may consequently be assumed to indicate a 
 popular want. 
 
 "6. I believe that the terms of the Order exceed 
 in stringency the rules of many of the great naval 
 states, notably those of Great Britain. The Officer 
 of Naval Intelligence can probably inform the Depart- 
 ment on this point. 
 
 " 7. On my own behalf I request the withdrawal of 
 the Order as far as applicable to retired officers." 
 
 Influential friends also made heroic efforts to induce 
 the Administration to make an exception in his favour 
 in view of his world-wide reputation for accurate and 
 
1914] LUCRATIVE OFFERS 277 
 
 impartial presentation of military facts,* but they failed 
 in their object. 
 
 Colonel Frederick Mahan, writing from Paris in May 
 1915 to a friend in New York, says : 
 
 " I thank you very much for your words of sympathy 
 in regard to my brother's death. There is no doubt in 
 the minds of our family that the President's ' muzzling 
 order ' forbidding officers in the Army or Navy to write 
 anything in connection with the war hastened greatly 
 his death, because — so my sister writes me — he chafed 
 much at not being able to call the attention of our people 
 to the great danger of being unprepared." 
 
 These letters from the Editors of The Independent 
 and Leslie^ s tell their own story : 
 
 " The Independent, 
 
 "119, West 40th Street, 
 "New York. 
 " Fen WICK, Conn., 
 
 " August 7, 1914. 
 
 " Dear Admiral Mahan, 
 
 " The telephone treated me badly this afternoon, 
 and I said I would write. We hope that you will find 
 it possible to write each week during the progress of 
 the war an interpretation of the naval events, so that 
 the people may understand what is going on, and what 
 it means — so far as that can be done consistently with 
 the President's instructions. For the nev/spaper rights 
 in such a series of articles we shall be glad to pay you one 
 hundred dollars a week. It seems to us that it will con- 
 stitute a great public service, as well as be a strong 
 feature for The Independent. The articles may be from 
 1,200 to 3,000 words, and should be in hand each week 
 on Friday. 
 
 1 In 1906 President Roosevelt had written him : " Your position is 
 a peculiar one, and without intending to treat this as a precedent, I 
 desire you to have a free hand to discuss in any way you wish the 
 so-called peace proposals. You have a deserved reputation as a publicist 
 which makes this proper from the public standpoint. Indeed, I think 
 it important for you to write just what you think of the matter." 
 
278 THE AUTUMN OF LIFE [chap, xxv 
 
 " I venture to recall myself to your acquaintance as 
 for many years the publisher of The Outlook. 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " William B. Howland." 
 
 " The Independent, 
 
 " 119, West 40th Street, 
 " New York, 
 
 *' August 9, 1914. 
 
 '* Dear Admiral Mahan, 
 
 " I am delighted beyond measure to hear that 
 you will try to contribute an article on the Naval 
 Strategy of the War to The Independent, and I take 
 great pleasure in enclosing our check of $100 for it. 
 
 " We shall need the manuscript by Thursday of next 
 week. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 " William B. Howland." 
 
 (Note by Mahan : 
 
 Returned " advanced check " Aug. 11. 
 
 A. T. M.) 
 
 " The Independent, 
 
 " August 12, 1914. 
 
 " Dear Admiral Mahan, 
 
 " Your letter of August 10, followed by that of 
 August 11, returning check for One Hundred dollars, is 
 at hand. Thank you very much for giving our applica- 
 tion so careful attention. I am quite confident that 
 the President has issued his instructions in rather more 
 drastic fashion than is desirable in the interests of the 
 public, and I am glad to find that you agree with me in 
 this feeling. Would it possibly be worth while, and in 
 proper accord with the attitude of an officer toward the 
 Administration, for you to make inquiry, either through 
 the Secretary of the Navy, or directly to the President, 
 whether for the kind of interpretation we have in mind, 
 an exception may not be properly made. It is the 
 purpose of The Independent to interpret the news, which 
 is poured out by the daily papers in a flood, in such 
 intelligent fashion as to afford a consecutive, clear and 
 impartial Story of the War. There is no naval officer 
 
1914] EDITORIAL SYNDICATE 279 
 
 so well qualified as yourself to do this work. If you 
 should feel that it is proper for you to make any inquiry 
 at Washington, and let me know, we shall also be glad 
 to take the matter up. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " William B. Howl and." 
 
 " Leslik's, 
 
 " New York, 
 
 " August 6, 1914. 
 
 " My dear Admiral, 
 
 " Your articles have always pleased me, but none 
 has given me greater pleasure than the one I received 
 from your pen this morning. It impelled me to tele- 
 graph you the proposition that you follow the war, from 
 the naval standpoint, as a regular weekly contributor to 
 Leslie's, choosing your own subject or your own point of 
 view, and getting the article to this office by Tuesday 
 morning of each week. I do not ask that these weekly 
 contributions be long, you can suit your own con- 
 venience as to their length. It will be a pleasure to remit 
 $100 every week for each article, and we will feel 
 honored by having you as one of our contributing 
 editors. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " John A. Sleicher, 
 
 " Editorr 
 
 In May 1914 Mahan was invited by Mr. Atherton 
 Brownell to join an Editorial Syndicate, and the follow- 
 ing extracts from Mr. Brownell' s letters explain the 
 scope of the project : 
 
 " Reduced to its simplest point, my proposition will 
 be to ask if you will be willing to write during the coming 
 year a series of short articles, not to exceed 700 words 
 in length each, and to the number perhaps of twelve, 
 having to do with current and timely events particularly 
 within the scope of your interest and study. It is 
 designed that these should be published on the editorial 
 page of a large chain of papers (dailies) over your 
 signature. 
 
280 THE AUTUMN OF LIFE [chap, xxv 
 
 " The importance of this work can best be indicated 
 when I say to you that this suggestion to you is a part 
 of a broader plan. 
 
 " Without going into a discussion as to whether or 
 not the influence of the daily editorial page has actually 
 deteriorated or not — since there are those who hold that 
 the same complaint has been heard from time im- 
 memorial — there can be no question that the calibre of 
 the daily editorial in most instances is not such as to 
 create sound thought by the public as to the news 
 events of which they read. 
 
 " The plan that is now in mind is to create a board 
 of contributing editors, composed of men each one of 
 whom has made himself an authority in some special 
 line or lines, and representing various shades of opinion, 
 who shall contribute with more or less regularity his 
 views or digest of the news of the day." 
 
 "It is the purpose that this work shall be directed 
 by an advisory board, which provisionally has been 
 selected as follows : Prof. Franklin H. Giddings, Colum- 
 bia University ; Dr. Talcott Williams, Dean of the School 
 of Journalism of Columbia ; Waldemar Kaempffert, 
 Managing Editor of the Scientific American; and the 
 officers of the syndicate, consisting of John W. Hunter, 
 formerly President of the Washington Herald, and myself. 
 
 " We have extended this invitation thus far to Dr. 
 Charles W. Eliot, Albert Bushnell Hart, Prof. William 
 R. Shepherd, Prof. Emory Johnson, Dr. David Starr 
 Jordan, Dr. Ernst Richard, Roger W. Babson, former 
 Ambassador Curtis Guild, Frank A. Vanderlip, Edward 
 T. Devine and several others, and are receiving from most 
 of them a full measure of encouragement for the plan." 
 
 (Note by Mahan : " Charge fifty dollars for 700 ; 700 
 being harder than 1,000.") 
 
 Although Mahan unfortunately survived but four 
 months of active hostilities in 1914, he had time and op- 
 portunity enough to express his approval of the disposition 
 and strategy of the British Fleet, significantly adding that 
 it would have been madness to have yielded to any rash 
 
1914] EXTOLS BRITAIN AND HER NAVY 281 
 
 impulse to pursue the Germans into their mine-locked 
 harbours. He further expressed his firm conviction as 
 to the ultimate victory of the Allies, and paid a glowing 
 tribute to the British Navy. He is reported to have said 
 in an interview shortly after the outbreak of the war : 
 
 " You people in England do not realise the immense 
 admiration felt all over the world, yes, and in Germany 
 also, for the British Navy. Speaking from my stand- 
 point, as an American, I tell you that there is only one 
 navy in the world, and that the others are mere strip- 
 lings by comparison. I do not mean to underrate the 
 American and other fleets, but, by comparison with the 
 British, every other navy still has much to learn, 
 Whether the moral of the officers and men is as good 
 to-day as in the time of Nelson remains to be proved, 
 but, personally, I hold that the British Navy to-day, in 
 all essentials, remains as incomparably superb as ever." 
 
 In a letter written to Messrs. B. F. Stevens & Brown, 
 his London agents, Mahan said : 
 
 " I take this opportunity to express to you the vivid 
 interest with which I am following Great Britain's 
 course in this war. But the testimony to the upright- 
 ness and efficiency of her Imperial rule, given by the 
 strong adhesion and support of India and the Dominions, 
 is a glory exceeding that of pitched battle and over- 
 whelming victory." 
 
 In summing up the varied and complex incentives 
 which contributed to bring about that wondrous 
 unanimity with which the widely scattered overseas 
 partners of the British Empire instantly rallied to the 
 flag on the outbreak of war in 1914, who can estimate 
 the measure of -the silent unconscious influence of 
 England's irreproachable Court ? 
 
 Mahan entertained no illusions whatever as to the 
 quarter in which lay the awful responsibility for plunging 
 the world in bloodshed and sorrow in 1914. In an 
 
282 THE AUTUMN OF LIFE [chap, xxv 
 
 interview to the press at the time/ among other state- 
 ments of his indicating profound and comprehensive 
 grasp of the situation, was this : 
 
 " The aggressive insolence of Austria's ultimatum to 
 Servia, taken with the concession by the latter of all the 
 demands except those too humiliating for self-respect, 
 indicate that the real cause of the war is other than set 
 forth by the ultimatum. 
 
 " Knowing from past experience how the matter 
 must be regarded by Russia, it is incredible that Austria 
 would have ventured on the ultimatum unless assured 
 beforehand of the consent of Germany to it. The 
 inference is irresistible that the substance of the ulti- 
 matum was the pretext for a war already determined on 
 as soon as plausible occasion offered." 
 
 In the later period of his life, two of Mahan's favourite 
 haunts in New York were the Century Club and the 
 University Club. In the library of the latter he was for 
 many years a familiar figure. Here he wrote several of 
 his books. In Mr. James W. Alexander's history of the 
 University Club, his portrait appears among those of 
 other distinguished members. Through the courtesy of 
 Mr. William Alexander, Secretary of the Equitable Life 
 Assurance Society of the United States, Mr. Robert 
 Bridges, Editor of Scribner^s Magazine, and the members 
 of the House Committee and the Library Committee of 
 the Club, the author was accorded the invaluable privi- 
 lege of two months' honorary membership, which was of 
 no little advantage in preparing some of the matter for 
 these pages, and for which he will always remain in- 
 debted to the members of the Club. He also records 
 with gratitude the courteous hospitality of the Lotos 
 Club, famous for its exhibitions of pictures and its 
 dinners to distinguished men. 
 
 For some time previous to his death Mahan had been 
 
 ^ See Appendix. 
 
1914] THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR 283 
 
 at work on a History of the United States, and among his 
 papers is an introductory summary of some thirty sheets, 
 which is apparently all that was actually written, 
 although there are evidences of extensive preparation. 
 This was apparently his last literary work. From 
 beginning to end he wrote for thirty years, and at the 
 close of his life perhaps no tribute to his genius was 
 more highly appreciated by his friends than that from 
 the British Ambassador at Washington : 
 
 " British EMBAsav, 
 
 " Washington, D.C, 
 
 " December 2, 1914. 
 
 " Madam, 
 
 " It is my duty on behalf of the British Admiralty 
 to express the sorrow British sailors feel at the death of 
 your husband. Although other countries besides our 
 own and other Navies profited by the insight and know- 
 ledge with which he drew and discovered the great con- 
 clusions of Naval History, the British service is his chief 
 debtor. The achievements of our sailors were his theme 
 and their consequences his doctrine. 
 
 " There is probably no officer in any of the Battle 
 Fleets and Squadrons now serving all over the world who 
 has not been, and is not now being encouraged and 
 instructed by the truths he taught about sea power. 
 We remember also that he was a sincere friend of our 
 country in times when friends are dear. 
 
 " I have the honour to remain, Madam, 
 
 " Respectfully yours, 
 
 " Cecil Spring-Rice." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE PEACEFUL END 
 
 " It was my good fortune to be thrown into close relations with 
 Admiral Mahan. He was a man of rare scope and vision, being able 
 to see things in their wider relations. His place in his day and genera- 
 tion is assured, as that of a student of affairs, past and present, who 
 possessed a peculiar power to grasp principles which others had seen 
 only dimly, and to set them forth with such clearness and force that 
 all could understand them. In this way he left a deep impression 
 upon his times. Equally characteristic was his deep sense of truth 
 and perfect sincerity. He was also singularly fair in his judgments. 
 All that he said and wrote sprang from profound conviction and an 
 earnest desire to be just and helpful." — Professor John Bassett 
 Moore, LL.D.i 
 
 In letters to his old friend Admiral Sir Bouverie Clark, 
 with whom he continued to correspond to the end, Mahan 
 began complaining in 1908 of waning strength, the result 
 of which had been to compel him to cut down both work 
 and exercise. In 1907 and .1908 he had two serious 
 operations, and the pressure to write all that was asked 
 of him subsequently brought on what he described as a 
 heart attack, from which, however, he recovered. 
 
 He told Admiral Clark, in 1908, that he was feeling 
 close to his actual age, sixty-eight, whereas two years 
 before he was " substantially fifty." He still claimed, 
 however, that he had plans and an outlook, and was 
 contemplating the writing of another book. Three 
 years later he wrote : " The conclusion of the whole 
 matter is I am a hopeless old fogey " ; notwithstanding 
 which, in the autumn of 1914, he moved to Washington 
 
 1 Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, and Assistant 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 284 
 
1914] SIMPLE FUNERAL SERVICE 285 
 
 with his family, intending to pass the winter there in 
 special research work for the Carnegie Institute, with 
 a view to writing the history of American expansion 
 and its bearing on sea power, a monumental work to 
 which he had given much thought. In November he 
 had another heart attack, to which he succumbed. He 
 quietly and peacefully breathed his life away at the 
 Naval Hospital in Washington on December 1, 1914, 
 in his seventy-fifth year. 
 
 The funeral service was held in St. Thomas' Epis- 
 copal Church in Washington, the Rev. Ernest Smith, 
 the Rector, officiating. In accordance with the Admiral's 
 wish the service was of the simplest character and 
 without military ceremony. As in his life, so in his 
 death, he manifested the same modest and unassuming 
 tendencies. His mortal remains lie buried in the 
 little cemetery at Quogue, Long Island, and a simple 
 cross marks his last resting-place. 
 
 The cousinly tribute which here follows strikes the 
 keynote of his singularly unpretentious nature : 
 
 " Chestnut Avenue, 
 
 " Chestnut Hill, 
 
 " December 12, 1914. 
 
 " I was so glad we could be with you at that beautiful 
 service at St. Thomas' Church. It seemed to me that 
 the simplicity of it all was just what Cousin Alfred would 
 have liked. I am so thankful that we had that little 
 visit from him last winter, for it left such a lasting impres- 
 sion on my mind of his goodness and humility. I had 
 always loved Cousin Alfred from the time he stayed 
 with Madie when you were first married, and he used to 
 sing to us the old songs, such as ' Where are you going, 
 Billy Boy ? ' and ' Mother, will you buy me a pan of 
 milk ? ' I have sung those same songs to all my children, 
 and they love them too ; but last winter I was so im- 
 pressed with the way in which Cousin Alfred lived his 
 religion, it was an example I hope I shall never forget." 
 
 *' Eugenia M. Cheston." 
 
286 THE PEACEFUL END [chap, xxvi 
 
 The obituary notices which appeared would fill a 
 number of large scrap-books. Every newspaper and 
 periodical of any importance in both hemispheres re- 
 corded the irretrievable loss the world had sustained, 
 and published extended biographical sketches of his 
 life and work, in many instances extending to several 
 columns. From the mass a few extracts characteristic 
 of the majority are here selected : 
 
 " Rear-Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, U.S.N., re- 
 tired, America's foremost naval strategist and the 
 world's greatest authority on sea power, died suddenly 
 at the United States Naval Hospital here at 7.15 o'clock 
 this morning of heart disease. 
 
 " Though he was in his seventy-fifth year, Admiral 
 Mahan was in apparently good health until the war 
 began. The first month of hostilities deeply affected 
 him. There were great demands made upon him for 
 comments as a naval expert, and during the early days 
 of the war he gave many interviews and wrote a number 
 of articles dealing with the contest. 
 
 " Only last week he visited Secretary Daniels at the 
 Navy Department, and Mr. Daniels said to-night the 
 Admiral was the best-informed man on the war and its 
 lessons he had conversed with. 
 
 " Admiral Mahan was as familiar with Europe, her 
 history and armaments, as he was with American 
 history, and knew many of the men actively identified 
 with the war in high places in England, Germany, and 
 France. Some of his intimate friends among the military 
 and naval men in Europe had lost their lives in the war, 
 and this shocked him. 
 
 " His great reputation had been developed in the 
 nine years immediately preceding the First Hague 
 Conference. It was in 1890 that his first book of 
 international importance. The Influence of Sea Power 
 upon History, was published in Boston, and made 
 the author known around the world. This book is 
 really responsible for the German Navy as it exists 
 to-day. 
 
 " Three intimate friends who met him frequently on 
 
1914] WORLD-WIDE APPRECIATION 287 
 
 his visit to Washington this winter, expressed the behef 
 to-night that the war in Europe had hastened his death. 
 They said that Admiral Mahan was not only most keenly 
 interested in the great struggle, its relation to sea power, 
 and the naval and strategic problems and lessons being 
 solved or taught by the war, but that the events of the 
 war greatly excited his mind and heart." — The New 
 York Times. ''^ 
 
 The London Morning Post, in appreciative words, ex- 
 pressed the sympathetic admiration of the people of 
 Great Britain : 
 
 " In Admiral Mahan dies the greatest among naval 
 historians, for he both chronicled naval events and 
 deduced from them their governing principles, so that 
 he was above all the naval philosopher. Ever a cordial 
 friend to England, inspired with a profound admiration 
 for the British Navy, the distinguished American did in 
 a sense which he himself never in the least anticipated 
 inflict an immense burden upon this country. For he 
 taught the civilised world what had hitherto been hid 
 from their eyes, and which, excepting a few sailors and 
 fewer statesmen, was by no means understood by the 
 people of Great Britain, the sovereign virtue of sea 
 power. The Influence of Sea Power upon History was 
 published in 1890, and in the course of a few years every 
 nation began to profit by its teaching, with the inevit- 
 able result that Great Britain was compelled to spend 
 larger and still increasing sums upon her Navy. For 
 Mahan' s doctrine, drawn as it was mainly from the 
 history of the British Navy, proved in irrefragable terms 
 that for the British Empire a supreme Navy was the 
 condition of its existence. Few men who have achieved 
 greatness owned less intention to win fame. One of the 
 first British sailors to recognise the extraordinary value 
 of the work was Lord Charles Beresford, who was then 
 captain of H.M.S. Undaunted, and who wrote to the 
 author on the subject. Gifted with an admirable modesty, 
 Mahan was always ready to give his sagacious counsel 
 to those who sought it. This country owes to the great 
 
288 THE PEACEFUL END [chap, xxvi 
 
 American a debt which can never be repaid, for he was 
 the first elaborately and comprehensively to formulate the 
 philosophy of British sea power, and from time to time, 
 as occasions of difficulty arose, he published an essay or 
 an article which indicated the right course for Great 
 Britain to follow. He foresaw that the present war 
 would come, and his counsel in existing circumstances 
 would have been invaluable." 
 
 The spiritual aspect of Mahan's nature, and the loss 
 which the Church sustained in his death, formed the 
 subject of a tribute to his memory in the Parish record of 
 Old Trinity Church, New York, which voiced the senti- 
 ments of Churchmen throughout the world : 
 
 " In the death of Admiral Mahan, the Church has lost 
 one who may truly be described as a great layman, 
 accepting with his whole heart the Church's teaching, 
 interested and active in her work, illustrating her truth 
 in his own Christian character and life. The powers of 
 his trained and disciplined mind, which gained him 
 recognition throughout the world in naval affairs, were 
 used by Admiral Mahan just as earnestly and con- 
 scientiously in spiritual matters. He said once, on a 
 public occasion, that he felt it a privilege to bear his 
 witness that he found in the statements in the Church's 
 Creed not only the deepest spiritual help but the most 
 intense intellectual satisfaction. In 1910 Admiral 
 Mahan published a work entitled The Harvest Within, 
 the Life of the Christian, which reveals both his unusual 
 theological knowledge and the reality of his own spiritual 
 experience. Its keynote is found in the words ' The 
 riches of Christ are unsearchable ; but chief among them 
 is the gift of love for Himself. It is a gift, not an 
 acquisition.' It would be well if every Churchman 
 would make himself familiar with this volume." 
 
 Among the many letters of condolence and recognition 
 of his services to mankind, was one from the Hon. 
 
1914] JOSEPHUS DANIELS 289 
 
 Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, who wrote on 
 behalf of the Navy Department : 
 
 " Navy Department, 
 " Washington, 
 
 " December 1, 1914. 
 " Mrs. Alfred T. Mahan, 
 
 " 2025 HiLLYER Place, 
 
 " Washington, D.C. 
 
 *' My dear Mrs. Mahan, 
 
 " The Department is deeply grieved to learn of 
 the death of your husband, Rear-Admiral Alfred T. 
 Mahan, U.S. Navy, Retired, which occurred at the 
 Naval Hospital, Washington, D.C, December 1, 1914, 
 and extends to you its sincere sympathy in your 
 bereavement. 
 
 " Admiral Mahan was not only a fine type of Naval 
 Officer, but possessed a lovable character that en- 
 deared him to all with whom he came in contact. 
 His attainments, which gave him a world-wide renown, 
 were of immeasurable value to the country he loved and 
 served, and though he is gone, his works happily remain 
 as a guide and inspiration, not only for this generation 
 but for all that are to come. 
 
 " What he so ably and convincingly wrote was accepted 
 at home and abroad as authority, and there are no 
 enlightened peoples who are not familiar with his name. 
 
 " In your distress you must feel a solemn pride that 
 throughout the world to-day his passing will be learned 
 of with deep regret, not only because of the high esteem 
 in which his name is held, but because he leaves in the 
 world of achievement a place that cannot be filled. 
 
 " Your grief is shared not only by the Service he loved 
 and long and nobly worked for, but by the Nation. 
 
 " Very respectfully and with heartfelt sympathy, 
 
 " Josephus Daniels, 
 " Secretary of the Navy.''' 
 
 The Navy League of Great Britain sympathised with 
 the American Navy League in their mutual loss, and 
 expressed their feelings in this appreciative message : 
 
 " Members of the Navy League in every part of the 
 world will deeply regret the death of Admiral Alfred 
 
290 THE PEACEFUL END [chap, xxvi 
 
 Thayer Mahan, which took place on December 1, 1914. 
 To readers of The Navy the name of the distinguished 
 American naval publicist will be a household word. 
 No writer has more profoundly expressed the thought of 
 his time with the significance of sea power in international 
 policy. His series of great works on naval subjects 
 profoundly influenced the thought of the nations, and the 
 opinions he expressed with so much eloquence and con- 
 viction have been in no small measure responsible for the 
 evolution of latter-day naval policy. The members of 
 the British Navy League tender with all respect their 
 most sincere expression of sympathy and regret to the 
 members of the American Navy League and the people 
 of the United States in the loss which they have sustained 
 through the death of this gallant officer." 
 
 A couple of letterss are here selected from the mass 
 of communications from personal friends : one from 
 Admiral Rodgers : 
 
 " Gband Hotel National, 
 
 " LtrOEBNE, 
 
 " December 9, 1914. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Mahan, 
 
 " We were deeply grieved in learning by the 
 papers of the death of your husband : indeed it came to 
 us as a shock, for we recalled how well and strong and 
 young he was only three years ago when he came to 
 Newport and the War College. We recalled this and the 
 deep impression he made upon us all by the interest and 
 range of his conversation and the charm of his manner. 
 Of the fame he acquired years ago and maintained 
 throughout his life I need not speak to you who were 
 for so long his co-laborer, but I beg you to receive 
 this expression of our very deep sympathy in the loss 
 of one whose name is known the world around and to 
 believe me, 
 
 *' Yours sincerely, 
 
 " Raymond T. Rodgers." 
 
 And one from Mr. James Ford Rhodes, the distinguished 
 historian and lecturer ; 
 
1914] JAMES FORD RHODES 291 
 
 " 392, Beacon Street, 
 " Boston, 
 " December 3, 1914. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Maiian, 
 
 " I must send to you my profound grief at 
 Admiral Mahan's death. I had a long talk with him 
 last April and he seemed to me in the best of health, 
 using a strong voice and an active brain as he imparted 
 to me his common-sense views of the policy of our 
 country which was under our discussion. My acquaint- 
 ance with Admiral Mahan runs back to the last century, 
 and while we did not see one another often, it so hap- 
 pened that we had long talks when we met. I learned 
 very much from him and always felt that, after an inter- 
 view, I had made an intellectual advance. We saw 
 one another frequently at the University Club, not so 
 often at the Century, and the impression that I formed 
 from my intercourse with him during his several visits 
 to Boston, was confirmed, that never did I know a man 
 of such just celebrity, and such rare intellectual dis- 
 tinction, who was withal so modest. 
 
 " I feel that history and literature have suffered a 
 great loss. 
 
 " I remain, 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " James Ford Rhodes." 
 
 The following resolution speaks for itself : 
 
 " Navy Recobds Society, 
 " Admiralty, 
 
 " London, S.W.I. 
 
 Hon. Treasurer : Sir W. Graham Greene, K.C.B., 
 
 Secretary : W. G. Perrin. 
 
 Resolution passed at a Meeting of the Navy Records 
 
 Society, December, 1914. 
 
 " The Council of the Navy Records Society desire 
 to offer to the family of the late Admiral Mahan a sincere 
 expression of sympathy and to record their sense of the 
 loss the British Empire has sustained by the termina- 
 tion of the career of one who so generously appreciated 
 the real work of the Royal Navy." 
 
 20 
 
292 THE PEACEFUL END [chap, xxvi 
 
 As soon as the news of the sudden and fatal termination 
 of his illness reached the Government in Washington, 
 the Navy Department made this announcement : 
 
 " Admiral Mahan became famous as an author and 
 historian in the early nineties, when his books on The 
 Influence of Sea Power upon History and The Influence 
 of Sea Power upon the French Revolution were published. 
 These were followed by a Life of Nelson. These books 
 were classics in their line, and were widely read through- 
 out the world. In England and Germany in particular 
 they received the highest commendation, and in every 
 country possessing a navy they became veritable text- 
 books in naval strategy. In England the leading naval 
 men of the day confessed that it had remained for 
 him to elucidate the work of the British Navy in a way 
 that they themselves had never understood or even 
 dreamed of. 
 
 " Since his first books he has written many of lesser 
 importance, and these and his essays have kept him 
 before the world as the greatest modern writer on naval 
 strategy. He was a close student of world politics, and 
 his writings on the trend of the politics of the leading 
 nations of the world were accepted as an authority. 
 It may be safely said that no writer of modern times 
 evinced a keener insight in the affairs of the world or 
 expressed himself concerning them more clearly and 
 convincingly than did the late Admiral Mahan. 
 
 " His death will cause international regret, not 
 only because of the high esteem in which he is held in 
 every country of the world interested in naval affairs, 
 but also because of the fact that his death leaves a void 
 among naval and political authorities of the world that 
 no author and writer can fill." 
 
 This expressive letter was written to The Times ^ by 
 Mahan's London publisher, Mr. R. B. Marston : 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " It was with much regret that I saw the an- 
 nouncement in The Times of December 2 of the death 
 of Admiral A. T. Mahan, with whom for nearly a quarter 
 
1914] R. B. MARSTON 293 
 
 of a century I have had very friendly relations, especially 
 in connection with the publication in this and other 
 countries of his great works on sea power. I should like 
 to add my testimony to the charming courtesy which 
 everyone who had any relations' with the Admiral always 
 experienced from him, and also to the fact of his great 
 love and admiration for our country, which he often 
 expressed to me in conversation and in his letters. 
 
 " I am sending the following copy of the last letter I 
 received from him, little more than a month ago, because 
 it is very characteristic, and, coming from such a pro- 
 found student of naval power, very encouraging for our 
 Empire and our Allies : 
 
 " ' Mabshmeee, Quogue, Long Island, 
 
 " ' October 14. 
 
 " ' Dear Mr. Marston, 
 
 " ' Many thanks for your letter of September 21, 
 and for clipping enclosed. 
 
 " ' Since you wrote, the misfortune to the three A.C.'s 
 [i.e. the armoured cruisers Cressy, Hogue, and Aboukir] 
 has occurred, and I saw yesterday that the Russians 
 had also lost the Pallada. I have been surprised myself 
 that such attempts have not been more frequent, and 
 doubtless, if a full return of all submarine prowlings 
 were obtainable, we should find many failures against 
 each success. I have not shared Sir Percy Scott's dismal 
 forebodings, believing that the question of the submarine 
 would reduce itself to one of scouting and look-out ; yet 
 I have not ventured so positive an adverse opinion as 
 sometimes I see attributed to me. As regards the in- 
 activity of the German Main Fleet, it is to be remem- 
 bered that it is numerically much inferior. In an article 
 written for one of our weeklies early in the war I gave 
 the opinion that the Germans would first try to reduce 
 the margin against them by torpedo attacks, and possibly 
 by airships, and I have been accordingly surprised that 
 no more has been attempted in the two months inter- 
 vening. As regards the general course of the war, to- 
 day's news is superficially discouraging, and I am dis- 
 appointed that the Allies should have made so little 
 impression on the lines of the Germans in France, while 
 
294 THE PEACEFUL END [chap, xxvi 
 
 these were able to spare men enough to reduce Antwerp. 
 Nevertheless, numbers and money will eventually tell, 
 as in our Civil War, if the Allies persist to the end ; and 
 in any case the British Fleet holds the decision in its 
 hands, as in the days of Napoleon. I do not permit 
 myself anxiety, though it is hard to avoid when so 
 interested ; besides, I am sure that if Germany wins 
 by a big margin she is likely to be nasty to us. Lord 
 Roberts has a fine chance for " I told you so " as regards 
 the need of your Army for greater numbers, if he wished 
 to be disagreeable. 
 
 " ' Myself and family are very well, though my seventy- 
 four years, now complete, make themselves felt more and 
 more. I have lost perceptibly in physical vigour during 
 the summer. This winter we are to spend in Washing- 
 ton instead of New York, I having been asked to do some 
 research work there. 
 
 *' ' With my most earnest interest in your nation's 
 present and future, and my personal regards to 
 yourself, 
 
 " ' Yours sincerely, 
 
 " ' A. T. Mahan.' 
 
 " The last time Admiral Mahan was in London he 
 expressed to me his astonishment that our country seemed 
 to be so unaware of or so indifferent to the menacing 
 attitude of Germany, and so deaf to the call of our King 
 to ' Wake up.' It will be seen from his letter that he 
 was under no delusions as to the danger to America 
 should Germany and Austria break our power in this 
 war ; in him we have lost a firm friend, a great admirer 
 of our Fleet, and the man whose calm judicial pages are 
 ablaze with its glorious deeds and tremendous world 
 power. It is indeed heartening to know our faith 
 in our Fleet was so fully shared by him. 
 
 " I am, Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 " R. B. Marston. 
 
 " SHEBEY^^LODGE, DENMARK HlLI,, S.E." 
 
 In his last illness, after expressing admiration for many 
 beautiful things in the world which in the activities of 
 
1914] AMONG THE IMMORTALS 295 
 
 life are ordinarily overlooked, Mahan said, '"'' If a few 
 more quiet years were granted me I might see and enjoy 
 these things, hut God is just and I am content." 
 
 From youth to the mellow autumn days of his earthly 
 existence, he lived the life of an earnest Christian, and 
 died as he had lived, leaving behind him a stainless 
 record. 
 
 Well done, Mahan ! Rest from your labours. The 
 echo of your fame shall reverberate through the ages, 
 even so long as men go down to the sea in ships. You 
 were a credit to the Green Isle from which your grand- 
 sire came ; you rendered an incomparable service to 
 England and to France, whence your mother's forbears 
 sprang ; and you have brought honour and renown to 
 America, the land which gave you birth. You were 
 the Rosetta Stone which revealed the hidden language 
 of the seas. Your genius shall continue for all time to 
 inspire those to whom posterity shall entrust the des- 
 tinies of the great nations of the earth. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 " It ia not given to every author to achieve celebrity in his own Ufe- 
 time ; still more rarely does he live to see his thoughts exercising a 
 profound influence upon the minds of his contemporaries, shaping the 
 evolution of nations, and dictating the policy of their Governments." — 
 Austin Taylor, B.A.^ 
 
 " A gentleman, young sir, I take it, is 'one born with the God-like 
 capacity to think and feel for others, irrespective of their rank or 
 condition. One who possesses an ideal so lofty, a mind so delicate, 
 that it lifts him above all things ignoble, yet strengthens his hands to 
 raise those who are fallen, no matter how low." — Jeffeby Farnol. 
 
 Just where does Alfred Thayer Mahan stand in the 
 ranks of great men ? Greatness is said to consist of a 
 happy combination of commanding attributes of 
 character, activity, and intellect, so rare as to raise their 
 fortunate possessor conspicuously and permanently 
 above the heads of his fellow-men. Under this definition 
 his place is assuredly an exalted one. With but few 
 exceptions, no American in recent times has been 
 accorded so substantial a measure of recognition by 
 accepted authorities in all parts of the world. 
 
 To the mass of the people, even to those of the 
 educated classes, the names of the eminent men of other 
 countries, with the possible exception of one or two 
 outstanding personalities, convey little more than the 
 vague impressions created by newspaper reports of their 
 activities from time to time. But the sea is common 
 property, and, moreover, absorbs by far the greater part 
 
 1 Inaugural Address as President of the Liverpool Philomathic 
 Society. 
 
 296 
 
MANKIND UNDER OBLIGATION 297 
 
 of the surface of the globe. The subject of maritime 
 control is in consequence one of cardinal and supreme 
 importance to the citizens of all the nations of the earth. 
 The words Sea Power and Mahan — the latter not in- 
 frequently mispronounced ' — are inseparably connected 
 in the public mind, and the reputation of Alfred Thayer 
 Mahan rests upon the substantial fact that in the 
 opinion of those best qualified to pass judgment, he 
 expounded the all-momentous subject of sea power in 
 so masterly and so scientific a fashion as to endow it 
 with a new meaning, the profound significance of which 
 has placed mankind under abundant and permanent 
 obligation to him. 
 
 A brief summary of a few of the innumerable expres- 
 sions of opinion which have appeared in representative 
 publications on both sides of the Atlantic may prove 
 of interest in the pleasing occupation of attempting to 
 assign to Mahan his rightful place in history. It has 
 been said of him : 
 
 "It is hardly too much to say that all modern naval 
 thought has centred around Mahan. His historical in- 
 sight has made his books indispensable to every student 
 of international affairs. He was the chief inspiration of 
 modern naval strategy. He had a wonderful knack of 
 reducing complicated facts to first principles, and he 
 consequently revolutionised public opinion on naval 
 matters. His books will certainly live in naval literature, 
 for they are based on great truths which have never 
 been so clearly realised before, because they have never 
 before been so well expressed. While historical matter 
 was not new nor details always exact, the picture of the 
 influence and importance of sea power was painted with 
 a vividness, a power of language, and a wealth of illus- 
 tration which were bound to carry conviction to every 
 understanding mind. He had the power to see clearly 
 and steadily to the heart of things and to allow no 
 
 ^ The family pronounce it Ma-han' : both a's aa in " fan " and the 
 accent on the last syllable. 
 
298 SUMMARY [chap, xxvii 
 
 elusive consideration to distract him from essentials. 
 Although a master of war he was no militarist. He 
 possessed the spirit of the historical analyst. The 
 phrase ' Sea Power,' as applied though not invented by 
 him, is one of those happy inspirations of genius which 
 flash the light of philosophy on a whole department of 
 human action. A judicial tone and impartial spirit 
 characterised his writings. No historian and no writer 
 of naval warfare has displayed so profound a grasp of 
 the true meaning of sea power as a determining factor 
 in human affairs. Mahan was incomparably the most 
 brilliant exponent of the philosophy of naval history." 
 
 Mahan was, in the best sense of the word, a statesman, 
 which unhappily can be said of but few politicians. 
 One of the essentials of the successful statesman, however, 
 is a capacity to favourably impress men by the power 
 of speech. Those who speak most effectively are wont 
 to become our leaders, whether we like it or not, as the late 
 Lord Salisbury used to say. This faculty Mahan did 
 not possess. Moreover, he had a natural distaste for 
 speaking in public, although his European experiences 
 showed that when forced to do so he found no great 
 difficulty in giving a creditable account of himself. It is 
 more than possible that he might have become a good 
 speaker had he been trained from his youth up to 
 " think upon his feet " in such an atmosphere as that of 
 the Debating Societies of the great Public Schools and 
 Universities of England, a fair proportion of whose 
 members ultimately blossom into the great spokesmen of 
 English public life. Mahan was not considered a speci- 
 ally good lecturer, despite the absorbing interest of his 
 subject matter. His dispassionate exposition of the 
 facts of early American history and his genuine admira- 
 tion for the British Navy no doubt tended to deprive 
 him in his own country of that full measure of popularity 
 and public recognition to which he was so justly entitled. 
 
 Irresistible literary tendencies, together with a 
 
HIS MENTAL HORIZON 299 
 
 natural distaste for the routine and detail inseparable 
 from the command of a battleship — he specially dis- 
 liked the task of disciplining wayward members of the 
 crew — combined to handicap him in his profession as a 
 practical seaman, although there existed in his day no 
 one more capable of advising upon sound strategy, in 
 the execution of which sailors of the type of Farragut 
 would probably have excelled him. It is only just to 
 state, however, that he never enjoyed an opportunity of 
 proving his ability to command a fleet, or even a battle- 
 ship, in action. Admiral Bradley Fiske said of him : 
 
 " Duty, in whatever form it came, was sacred. In- 
 variably he gave to its performance the best that was 
 in him. That he distinguished himself pre-eminently 
 on shipboard cannot be claimed. Luck or circum- 
 stances denied him the opportunity of doing things 
 heroic, and his modesty those purely spectacular. As a 
 subordinate or as captain of a single ship, what he did 
 was well done. No further proof of his qualities in this 
 respect is needed than the fact that, at the outbreak of 
 the Civil War, when finishing his midshipman's cruise, 
 he was asked by a shipmate, an officer who expected a 
 command, to go with him as ' first lieutenant.' To his 
 colleagues of the old Navy this invitation was the highest 
 form of professional approval. The fates decreed that 
 the wider field should not be his wherein, as commander- 
 in-chief of a fleet in war time, he could have exhibited 
 the mastery he surely possessed of that art with which 
 his name will forever be indissolubly linked.*' 
 
 While the average captain's mind would be engrossed 
 in contemplation of his ship or the next port to which 
 she was bound and the best and safest means of getting 
 there, Mahan's mind contemplated navies and envisioned 
 the map of the world, seeking out and placing in its 
 proper sphere and in due degree of importance every 
 strategic point, every trade route, and every national and 
 international influence. As a writer in the Morning 
 Post has pointed out, Mahan deals not only with strategy 
 
300 SUMMARY [chap, xxvii 
 
 and tactics, but with the intimate relation existing 
 between national life, national trade, national prosperity, 
 and the use of the sea. What he calls the elements of 
 sea power do not consist solely in fighting ships, or the 
 Navy ; but in trade, geographical position, physical con- 
 formation, extent of territory, number of population, 
 national character, and form of government. 
 
 At a meeting of The Royal United Service Institution 
 in 1893, Professor Laughton said : 
 
 " A short time ago I had the pleasure of receiving a 
 letter from Captain Mahan, in which he spoke of having 
 different opinions at different times ; that he thought, 
 in military questions, it was not the mean of different 
 opinions which was to be presumed to be the right ; 
 that, more probably, the right is with one or the other 
 of the opposing opinions, according to the different cir- 
 cumstances, but that the mean in all cases is probably 
 wrong. Students of history and strategy and tactics, 
 he thought, should make themselves acquainted with 
 both sides of a question, and be ready, when the time 
 comes, to use that one which is best adapted to the 
 circumstances." 
 
 In stature Mahan was tall and erect, standing well over 
 six feet in height ; of slight build, but wiry and athletic 
 and of distinguished appearance. His eyes, in which a 
 far-away look was at times discernible, were pale blue, 
 and he was of fair complexion, with hair, moustache, 
 and closely trimmed Vandyke beard of sandy colour, 
 which turned white as age advanced. As will be seen 
 from his photographs baldness overtook him in his later 
 years. He was soft and gentle in voice, with a pleasant 
 but reserved manner. It was said of him at The Hague 
 that there was not a little of romance in his eyes, which 
 were tinged with gentle melancholy and had a dreamy 
 far-off look. Not the look of the man at the wheel on 
 the watch for a distant object, but something inward 
 and reflective. Yet there was much strength in the 
 
PERSONAL TRAITS 301 
 
 structure of his face, which betokened firm and per- 
 sistent purpose. He was so shy that he consistently 
 avoided interviewers, and so conscientious as to being 
 accurately reported that he invariably wrote down 
 anything that was to be published. To intimate friends, 
 however, he was wont to reveal an unsuspected wealth of 
 entertaining stories. Although immaculate in his person, 
 he set no great store by clothes, leaving almost entirely 
 to his wife and daughters the obligation of seeing to it 
 that he was suitably dressed. At The Hague in 1899 he 
 probably escaped their watchful eyes, because close 
 examination of the group in which portraits of the 
 American delegates to the Peace Conference were to be 
 handed down to posterity discloses the fact that he 
 appears to have sat for the photograph in a pair of house 
 slippers ! a characteristic touch. As a young officer, 
 however, he feelingly complained of the lack of smart- 
 ness in the American naval uniform of the day and 
 the consequent sense of uneasiness experienced when 
 mingling with officers of other navies on dressy 
 occasions. 
 
 He was a good husband and a kind considerate father, 
 always just, although strict, with his children. He was 
 happy in his home life. He advised Mrs. Vernon-Mann, 
 a close friend of the family, to see that her sons thor- 
 oughly understood the meaning of obedience before 
 they were three years old, for he considered that after 
 that age it was too late. For which piece of advice Mrs. 
 Vernon-Mann holds that she is more indebted to him 
 than to all the books she has read about the psychology 
 of children. Mahan was extremely conscientious in 
 training his children, and always took pains to under- 
 stand their point of view and careful to make his own 
 clear. His method, so far as possible, was to make the 
 child choose what was good, and in punishing to " make 
 the punishment fit the crime." He never punished when 
 angry, but waited until calm and then coolly and im- 
 
802 SUMMARY [chap, xxvii 
 
 partially administered justice — though never forgetting 
 the proper amount of mercy. Again and again his 
 answer to the common complaint of the impossibility of 
 carrying out a command was " Very well, my dear, you 
 needn't ; only you can't go out until you do," a method 
 which proved most efficacious. In giving cither pleasure 
 or pain his chief aim was to avoid caprice. When his 
 permission was asked for some treat or other, his rule was 
 to inquire, " What does your mother say ? " Which once 
 brought from a little daughter who shared with him a 
 knowledge of French ^ the exasperated retort, A quoi hon 
 les papas si les mamans arrangent tout ? In every rela- 
 tion of life, both public and private, he governed each 
 act according to his ideas of right and wrong ; and nothing 
 was right, in his opinion, that disregarded either justice 
 or truth or charity. He had at times to do very un- 
 pleasant things and to inflict pain upon others, but he 
 never shirked doing what he believed to be right. 
 
 Mahan was a constant and reliable friend when his 
 confidence was once gained. His apparent aloofness 
 melted into kindness on closer acquaintance, and his 
 personal manners were such as have been said to unlock 
 doors that neither wealth nor position can open. To 
 those who enjoyed the rare privilege of his friendship he 
 was a charming companion. He was a man who 
 strongly believed in vigorous daily exercise, and he would 
 ride his bicycle and walk without undue effort a number 
 of miles that would baffle most men of his age. He 
 considered one of the chief happinesses in life to consist 
 in plenty of occupation. He wrote his superb Life of 
 Nelson between his fifty-sixth and fifty-eighth years, 
 and he continued to write for publication until his 
 seventy-third year. Few have such a record to their 
 credit, although delightful old Izaak Walton wrote 
 The Life of George Herbert when he was seventy-seven and 
 
 ^ Portions of some of his note-books are written in French. 
 
ADMIRAL MAHAN AND HIS GRANDSON. 
 
 302] 
 
1, 
 
SCRUPULOUS HONESTY 303 
 
 The Life of Doctor Sanderson in his eighty-fifth year. 
 Mahan greatly enjoyed surf bathing and neglected no 
 opportunity for a vigorous swim in the sea. He was 
 fond of riding, although in later life he had few oppor- 
 tunities to indulge in this form of exercise. He created 
 a mild sensation among the more supersensitive of his 
 Long Island neighbours by riding his bicycle in his shirt- 
 sleeves when the weather was sultry. 
 
 He was scrupulously honest and punctilious in his 
 personal and official obligations. When in residence 
 as President of the Naval War College at Newport he 
 would not allow his children to use even one of the 
 Government pencils. The members of his family tell 
 amusing stories of the terrors of passing through a 
 Custom House with him owing to the conscientious 
 nature of his dealings with Custom House officials. No 
 trouble was too great to make certain that the informa- 
 tion given was absolutely accurate in every detail. 
 
 Mahan was of the self-contained type, fully cognisant 
 of what contented him and satisfied his tastes and 
 aspirations. His convictions were based on experience 
 and common sense. Neither prejudice nor partiality 
 influenced his considered judgments. He was fortun- 
 ately free from the bane of provincialism. Discussing 
 in a letter to a friend the engrossing topic of the choice 
 of a permanent abode in the peaceful autumn days of 
 life, he said : 
 
 " I notice our millionaires are as uneasy as a parched 
 pea — they can do anything they want to, but they don't 
 know what they want. What I know of London I like 
 exceedingly, and if I were entirely free from predisposing 
 causes (which no one is) would, I think, choose it in pre- 
 ference to any place I know for a steady residence." 
 
 He was, on grounds of public policy, opposed to female 
 suffrage. He viewed the outcome with anxiety. Who 
 can now estimate the benefit to the country were the two 
 
304 SUMMARY [chap, xxvii 
 
 outstanding twentieth-century potentialities for good and 
 evil, the Press and Wommi Enfranchised, to devote 
 their incomparable influence and their energies and their 
 ballots to the supreme mission of promoting the welfare 
 of the community ? 
 
 In a letter to the author, Mr. Arthur Balfour accur- 
 ately typifies Mahan when he says : 
 
 ' I have always taken a great interest in Mahan' s 
 work, and count myself among his earliest and most 
 enthusiastic admirers. My personal acquaintance with 
 him was slight ; but I do not doubt that his character 
 was admirably reflected in his writings." 
 
 It was. The outstanding features of Mahan' s works 
 are lucidity and sincerity, crystal clear, based on sound 
 knowledge and convictions and inspired by the highest 
 ideals. He was entirely frank and open as to his 
 personal inclinations and preferences, and was an 
 avowed admirer of pretty women, as was his father 
 before him. He candidly enjoyed the cheery society 
 of his daughters' girl friends, and in his letters to 
 his family when he was abroad he was wont to refer 
 with boyish enthusiasm to good-looking women whom 
 he met in Society in England. An indication of the 
 calibre of his personal qualities is afforded by the fact 
 that he won the esteem of worth-while folk. 
 
 He was of the distinctly absent-minded type, and 
 following in the footsteps of his father, he would become 
 so absorbed in his thoughts as to render him unconscious 
 of his surroundings. His family could recount many 
 instances of his having complained of not being told of 
 circumstances that had been carefully explained to him 
 on occasions when he was lost in a brown study, immersed 
 doubtless in the convolutions of seventy-four gun ships- 
 of-the-line in some great battle of bygone days. He 
 shared the old salt's admiration for a sailing ship as a 
 
AT HEART A REFORMER 305 
 
 thing of beauty and life, yet Admiral Bradley Fiske 
 says : 
 
 " Not only have the writings of Mahan brought about 
 an increase in the sea power oi every great country ; 
 but this increase has so aroused the attention of the 
 engineering professions that the improvement of ships, 
 engines, and other sea material has gone ahead faster 
 than all the other engineering arts." 
 
 Mahan was at heart a reformer. In the seventies he 
 made heroic attempts to purge the United States Navy 
 of some highly undesirable political influences. A clue 
 to his innate strength of character may be found in this 
 admission, written to a friend when he was a midship- 
 man : "I believe that my heart once set on a thing, 
 everything save honor, affection, morality, everything 
 becomes subordinate." It was his persistence in pressing 
 home his incontrovertible arguments that eventually 
 routed the forces of the Little Navyites in England. 
 
 He had something of the martyr in his composition. 
 In his own words : " Bitter as was the humiliation, it 
 was less bitter than yielding my convictions would have 
 been. I am so constituted that no advantage can 
 repay me for stifling my sense of right." His strong 
 aversion to the Turks is emphasised in the following 
 extract : "I have an intense desire that the Christians 
 may finally drive the Turks out of Europe, and that if 
 England interferes again to uphold the Crescent that 
 she may get a good thrashing, as she will deserve." 
 He was a keen advocate of Anglo-American friendship. 
 To Mr. Ashe he wrote : 
 
 " To this I would add, throw overboard the Irish vote 
 (if you dare) and pursue a policy not of formal alliance 
 but of close sympathy, based on common ideas of justice, 
 law, freedom, and honesty with England. France is 
 what she has called Albion, ' perfide ' — England is like 
 every other nation, selfish ; but in the main honest, and 
 
306 SUMMARY [chap, xxvii 
 
 the best hope of the world is in the union of the branches 
 of that race to which she and we belong." 
 
 Mahan was essentially a teacher. Although by no 
 means infallible — as, for instance, in regard to certain 
 incidents of battleship construction and equipment — 
 the chief lessons he taught are imperishable and precious 
 beyond calculation. They have already borne tangible 
 fruit and have contributed more than can be readily 
 estimated towards the success of the gigantic task of 
 saving humanity from passing under the blood-stained 
 heel of Prussianism. No monument, however, has yet 
 been erected to his memory,^ nor has his family received 
 any substantial recognition of his services to the nation. 
 Time, the great and inevitable adjudicator, will doubt- 
 less reveal this world-renowned son of America in his 
 true light. 
 
 There is ample evidence that in the last few months 
 of his life Mahan suffered acute mental distress about 
 the war and the part he had played — although entirely 
 unpremeditated — in stimulating the growth of the 
 German Navy, thereby contributing to make possible 
 the crime of August 1914, with its appalling menace to 
 his own country. This anxiety doubtless reacted upon 
 his powers of physical resistance and tended to hasten 
 his end. A century ago Napoleon said he was not a man 
 hut an event. In the light of the dramatic naval events 
 of the colossal upheaval of this century, Mahan was both. 
 The study of most history is a matter of education and 
 training, the study of Mahan is a matter of national 
 safety. 
 
 Alfred Thayer Mahan will live in the memory of the 
 ages. He was a courteous, dignified, well-bred man of 
 irreproachable character and deeply religious nature. 
 Reserved and retiring, given to silence and profound 
 thought, yet inwardly enjoying an appreciative sense of 
 
 ^ One of the new American destroyers has been named Mahan. 
 
IMPERISHABLE FAME 307 
 
 humour. He was pre-eminently a just man, and was of 
 generous disposition. Throughout his hfe his actions 
 were controlled by an all-determining devotion to duty. 
 He conscientiously resisted and brought into subjection 
 an inherited predisposition towards irritability of 
 temper. He was modest and unassuming, but a stranger 
 to fear. Exceptionally energetic, both mentally and 
 physically, he was well able to hold his own in any 
 company when occasion demanded. He was a philo- 
 sopher rather than an historian ; a strategist rather than 
 a tactician ; brilliant in the supreme council chamber 
 rather than on the quarter-deck ; a statesman, not a 
 politician ; a controversialist, not a debater. He 
 acquired imperishable fame by bringing new-world 
 ingenuity to bear upon the treatment and presentation 
 of old-world historical facts of supreme importance. 
 As an exponent of sea power he stands without a peer 
 in the annals of literature. 
 
 As in past days of unhappy conflict, so in approaching 
 years of joyous peace, nay rather as long as this globe 
 and its myriad watery highways endure, men shall 
 acclaim the great American naval philosopher, whose 
 genius immeasurably contributed to save modern 
 civilisation through the mighty influence of sea power, 
 with which for all time shall be associated the name of 
 Mahan. 
 
 21 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 BRITAIN AND THE GERMAN NAVY 
 
 ADMIRAL MAHAN'S WARNING 
 
 The " Daily Mail" Wednesday^ July 6, 1910. Reproduced 
 by the courtesy of the Editor of the " Daily Mail." 
 
 The huge development of the German Navy within the past 
 decade, and the assurance that the present rate of expendi- 
 ture — over £20,000,000 annually — will be maintained for 
 several years to come, is a matter of general international 
 importance. Elsewhere, and in another connection, I have 
 had occasion to point out, in the American Press, that the 
 question immediately raised is not what Germany means to 
 do with this force, which already is second only to that of 
 Great Britain, and for which is contemplated a further large 
 expansion. The real subject for the reflection of every 
 person, statesman or private, patriotically interested in his 
 country's future, is the ample existence present, and still 
 more prospective, of a new international factor, to be i:eck- 
 oned with in all calculations where oppositions of national 
 interests may arise. 
 
 From this point of view it is not particularly interesting 
 to inquire whether Germany has any far-reaching purposes 
 of invading Great Britain or of dismembering her Empire ; 
 nor yet whether, on the other side of the ocean, she pur- 
 poses no longer in future contingencies to show that respect 
 for the Monroe doctrine which she hitherto has observed, 
 much to American satisfaction. Americans, while giving 
 full credit to Germany for the most friendly intentions 
 towards them, have to note that in the future she can do as 
 she pleases about the Monroe doctrine, so far as our intended 
 organisation of naval force goes, because she will be 
 
 308 
 
APPENDIX 309 
 
 decidedly stronger at sea than we in the United States expect 
 to be, and we have over her no miUtary check such as the 
 interests of Canada impose upon Great Britain. 
 
 The Right Attitude for Great Britain 
 
 Similarly, the people of Great Britain should not depend 
 upon apprehension of Germany's intentions to attack in 
 order to appraise their naval necessities and awaken their 
 determinations. Resolutions based upon such artificial 
 stimulus are much like the excitement of drink, liable to 
 excess in demonstration, as well as to misdirection and 
 ultimate collapse in energy, as momentary panic is succeeded 
 by reaction. Unemotional business-like recognition of facts, 
 in their due proportions, befits national policies, to be fol- 
 lowed by well-weighed measures corresponding to the 
 exigency of the discernible future. This is the manly way, 
 neither over-confident nor over-fearful ; above all, not 
 agitated. Of such steadfast attitude, timeliness of pre- 
 caution is an essential element. Postponement of precaution 
 is the sure road to panic in emergency. An English naval 
 worthy of two centuries ago aptly said, "It is better to be 
 afraid now than next summer when the French fleet will 
 be in the Channel." 
 
 In this characteristic of precautionary action a democracy 
 like that of Great Britain stands at a grave disadvantage 
 towards a people like the German, accustomed to a strong 
 Government. A German writer ^ has said recently, " In 
 Germany we hold a strong independent Government, assisted 
 by a democratic Parliament, to be a better scheme than the 
 continual change of party rule customary in England." This 
 was substantially the view of James I and Charles I in 
 England, and we know what came of it ; but it is the German 
 position to-day. Few Englishmen or Americans will accept 
 it ; I certainly do not ; but for the organisation of force in 
 the hands of a capable Government, such as that of Germany 
 has shown itself hitherto to be, the scheme is much more 
 efficient, because the plain people of a parliamentary country 
 — the voters — refuse to think about international or military 
 
 1 Hans Delbruck, Contemporary Review, October 1909, p. 406. My 
 italics. 
 
310 APPENDIX 
 
 matters. Yet it is they who make and unmake Govern- 
 ments, now one party, now the other ; and the Government's 
 outlook upon international preparation is always qualified 
 by a look over the shoulder at the voters. This is much less 
 the case where the people have behind them the tradition 
 of being disregarded comparatively. True, no Government, 
 not the most autocratic, can wholly disregard national feeling. 
 The question is one of more or less ; and as between Germany 
 and Great Britain, Government in Germany is, as Govern- 
 ment, much more efficient for organised action, even though 
 it make less for the kind of development which follows 
 personal freedom from constraint. 
 
 The Navy Becoming Less Popular 
 
 This is the fundamental condition which the British 
 democracy of to-day have to recognise as regards their national 
 security, upon which their economic future — their food, 
 clothing, and housing — depends : that they stand face to 
 face with a nation one-fourth more numerous than them- 
 selves, and one more highly organised for the sustainment by 
 force of a national policy. It is so because it has a Govern- 
 ment more efficient in the ordering of national life, in that 
 it can be, and is, more consecutive in purpose than one 
 balanced unsteadily upon the shoulders of a shifting popular 
 majority. Fortunately for Great Britain the popular tradi- 
 tion of the national need for a great Navy still supplies to 
 some extent and for the moment a steadying hand ; but to 
 one following from a distance the course of British action in 
 late years it certainly has seemed that this conviction is less 
 operative ; that its claims to allegiance are less felt and more 
 disputed. Yet, in case of national reverse, following upon 
 national failure to prepare, it is the democracy, the voters, 
 who will be responsible ; the voters also who will suffer. 
 
 The prolonged formal peace which Europe has enjoyed 
 for thirty years affords a precise illustration of the ineffective- 
 ness of populaces to realise external dangers. Continuance 
 of peace induces a practical disbelief in the possibility of war, 
 and practical disbeliefs soon result in practical action, or non- 
 action. Yet observant men know that there have been 
 at least three wars in this so-called period of peace ; wars 
 
APPENDIX 311 
 
 none the less because no blows were exchanged, for force 
 determined the issues. The common phrase for such trans- 
 actions is " the risk of war has been averted," The expres- 
 sion is dangerously misleading, because it is supposed that 
 the controlling element in this ' conclusion has been the 
 adroitness of statesmen, whereas the existence and calculation 
 of force have been really determinative. Force, too, not 
 merely in the raw material, but the organised force of armies 
 and navies ready — or unready — to move. " I had thought," 
 wrote the American General Sherman, " that the War of 
 Secession was settled by the armed forces of the nation, but 
 at a recent public dinner of lawyers I have learned that it 
 was done by the Courts." 
 
 The Weakness of Insular Communities 
 
 Such misconception is peculiarly liable to arise in com- 
 munities insular by position like Great Britain, or remote 
 from the great nations of the world as is the United States. 
 The measure of security from external aggression which such 
 conditions confer — the " water- walled bulwark " of Shake- 
 speare — favours greatly that free internal development for 
 which democracy is probably the most effective of instru- 
 ments. But the sense of this security, removing the pressure 
 felt by less happily situated peoples, begets an optimistic 
 attitude towards external dangers, fostering unreadiness for 
 war at the same time that it lessens dependence upon organised 
 government. Other national qualities being equal. Conti- 
 nental frontiers promote the establishment of government 
 effective for external action. As we all know, the Roman 
 democracy illustrated this fact by the institution of the 
 dictatorship for emergencies. 
 
 For these reasons insular democracies are lax and in- 
 efficient in preparation for war, and in natural consequence 
 their wars have been long and expensive. But wars in the 
 future cannot be long, though they may be expensive : ex- 
 pensive of much beside their immediate cost ; expensive in 
 advantages lost and in indemnities exacted. Democracies 
 can no longer afford to neglect preparation, relying upon 
 their strength of endurance and faculty for recovery which 
 probably may exceed that of less free institutions. The 
 
312 APPENDIX 
 
 time for recovery will not be conceded to them any more 
 than it is by a capable general to a routed foe. The only 
 provision of time for recovery open to modern conditions is 
 the time of preparation. 
 
 What reason is there in the nature of things that the 
 British democracy should not maintain an Army propor- 
 tionally as great as that of Germany ? None, except that the 
 British democracy will not. The national wealth is vastly 
 greater ; but notwithstanding this, which indicates not only 
 a certain greater power but a much greater stake, the national 
 will so to prepare does not exist. Many distinguished 
 Englishmen advocate measures tending to this result — to 
 the nation in arms ; but I doubt if anyone outside of Great 
 Britain expects to see it. 
 
 There remains the Fleet ; and it is the privilege of insular 
 democracies that they can pursue the quiet tenor of their way 
 behind the bulwark of a fleet efficient in numbers — that is, 
 in great preponderance — as well as in intrinsic worth. But 
 note that a State thus favoured is militarily in the same 
 position essentially as one that hires an army of mercenaries. 
 The only difference is that the seamen are fellow citizens ; 
 an immense distinction, it will be granted, but it does not 
 invalidate the fact that the mass of citizens are paying a 
 body of men to do their fighting for them. It follows that 
 the least the mass can do in self-respect as for security is to 
 pay amply and timely for the efficiency of the body they thus 
 employ. If they do not pay " with their persons," as the 
 French say, they should with their cash. But the only 
 adequate payment is timely payment — preparation. 
 
 Great Britain's Unparalleled Problem 
 
 Democracies have had various tasks thrown upon them at 
 various times, but never perhaps one equal in difficulty to 
 that which confronts the democracy of Great Britain. As 
 it now stands the British Empire territorially is an inherit- 
 ance from times not democratic, and the world is interested 
 to see whether the heir will prove equal to his fortune. There 
 are favourable signs ; one of the most so that has met my 
 eye has been the decision of the Labour Government in 
 Australia that in time of war the Australian Navy should be 
 
APPENDIX 313 
 
 at the absolute disposal of the British Admiralty. Such 
 sentiment, realised in commensurate action, is effective 
 imperial democracy. But my reading has not found the 
 corresponding reflection of this determination in the British 
 Labour Party at home ; rather, it has seemed to me, a dis- 
 position to undervalue the necessity of preponderant naval 
 force even in European waters. 
 
 The security of the British Empire, taken as a whole with 
 many parts, demands first the security of the British Islands 
 as the corner stone of the fabric ; and, second, the security 
 of each of the outlying parts. This means substantially 
 British control, in power if not in presence, of the com- 
 munications between the central kingdom and the Dominions. 
 This relation is essentially the same as that of a military base 
 of operations to the front of the operations themselves. 
 
 The New Grouping 
 
 In the present condition of Europe the creation of the 
 German Fleet, with its existing and proposed development, 
 has necessitated the concentration in British waters of more 
 than four-fifths of the disposable British battle force. These 
 facts constitute Germany the immediate antagonist of Great 
 Britain. I do not say for a moment that this manifests 
 Germany's purpose ; I simply state the military and inter- 
 national fact without inference as to motives. The geo- 
 graphical situation of the two States reproduces precisely 
 that of England and Holland in the early days of Cromwell. 
 It was not till the nations had fought and the Dutch were 
 reduced, less by battle than by trade destruction, that the 
 relief of pressure in the North Sea enabled English action 
 abroad. This result was attained more satisfactorily forty 
 years later by the alliance of the two States under the impulse 
 of a great common danger ; but whether that alliance would 
 have been feasible without the antecedent settlement by trial 
 of strength is disputable. In the course of the earlier war 
 the Mediterranean was abandoned by the English Navy in 
 order to concentrate in home waters, and this concentration, 
 coupled with the commanding position of the British Islands 
 with reference to Dutch trade routes, determined then the 
 issue. 
 
314 APPENDIX 
 
 The British Navy to-day has in great degree abandoned 
 the Mediterranean for a similar concentration. Over four- 
 fifths of the battleship force is in the " Home " and 
 " Atlantic " divisions. The Mediterranean has fallen from 
 eleven battleships in 1899 to six in 1910, and these six are of 
 distinctly inferior power. What is the contemporary signi- 
 ficance of this fact reproductive of a situation near three 
 centuries ago ? Constitutive, too, of a situation now novel ; 
 for during more than two centuries British preponderance 
 in the Mediterranean has been a notable international factor. 
 The significance, as read by an outsider, is that in the opinion 
 of the Government, under present conditions of preparation, 
 the security of the British Islands requires the weakening, 
 almost to abandonment, of the most delicate, yet very essen- 
 tial link in the system of communications of the Empire. 
 
 It is entirely true that for the moment the naval concen- 
 tration at home, coupled with the tremendous positional 
 advantage of Great Britain over German trade routes, con- 
 stitutes a great measure of security ; and, further, that the 
 British waters, occupied as they now are, do effectually inter- 
 pose between Germany and the British oversea Dominions. 
 The menacing feature in the future is the apparent indisposi- 
 tion and slackness of the new voters of the last half-century 
 over against the resolute spirit and tremendous faculty for 
 organising strength evident in Germany. 
 
 The Future Peril 
 
 An examination of present and probable future European 
 international relations is plainly incompatible with my 
 space ; but speaking as an onlooker, studying these, and 
 following the tone as well as the words of parliamentary 
 debates, I have thought to see the growth of a spirit which 
 threatens to leave Great Britain unprepared to hold her own, 
 and to sustain her Empire in the very probable contingencies 
 ahead. Impelled to weigh these seriously, the impression 
 has gained ground, against a steady previous conviction 
 that Great Britain would prove equal to her fortunes. 
 
 In a recent American magazine ^ a German writer, reported 
 
 1 McClure's Magazine, June 1910, p. 223. " The United States 
 and the War Cloud in Europe." By Theodor Schiemann. 
 
APPENDIX 315 
 
 to be a trusted confidential friend of the Emperor, has said, 
 " The weak man cannot trust his judge, and the dream 
 of the peace advocate is nothing but a dream." The con- 
 centration of the battle fleet in home waters is correct ; the 
 relative abandonment of the Mediterranean for that purpose, 
 if for the moment only, is likewise correct, especially as the 
 " Atlantic " fleet may be considered an intermediate body, 
 a reserve, able to move eastward or southward as conditions 
 require ; but the clear reluctance to acquiesce in present 
 naval requirements is ominous of a day when the Mediter- 
 ranean may pass out of the sphere of British influence, centred 
 round the British Islands exclusively. This will symbolise, 
 if it does not at once accompany, the passing of the Empire ; 
 for a hostile force in the Mediterranean controls not only 
 an interior line — as compared with the Cape route — but an 
 interior position, from which it is operative against the 
 Atlantic as well as in the East, 
 
 It is difficult to overstate the effect of this upon the solidity 
 of the Empire, for the Mediterranean is one of the great 
 central positions of the maritime world. A weakened 
 Mediterranean force is the symptom that neither as principal 
 nor as ally may Great Britain be able to play the part hitherto 
 assumed by her in the great drama of which the awakening 
 of the East is the present act ; while among the dramatis 
 personcB are Egypt, India, Australia, and New Zealand. 
 
 A. T. Mahan. 
 
 BRITAIN AND THE WORLD'S PEACE. THE SAL- 
 VATION FROM WAR IS READINESS FOR WAR 
 
 By Admiral A. T. Mahan, U.S.N. 
 
 The ''Daily Mail,'' October 31, 1910. Reproduced by 
 courtesy of the Editor of the " Daily Mail " 
 
 In an article, " Britain and the German Navy," published in 
 the Daily Mail of July 6, I said quite incidentally that " an 
 examination of present and probable future European inter- 
 national relations was incompatible with the space " de- 
 manded by the subject immediately in hand. I have been 
 asked to develop the thought underlying this remark. 
 
A 
 
 316 APPENDIX 
 
 In a study of the interest of America in international con- 
 ditions, made several months ago and passing through the 
 Press as I now write, I ventured to remark that, whatever 
 the internal troubles or external ambitions of Austria-Hun- 
 gary, she is bound to Germany by nearness, by inferior power, 
 and by interests partly common to the two States, as surely as 
 the moon is bound to the earth and with it constitutes a single 
 group in the planetary system. I have consequently been 
 interested and instructed to observe in The Times of Sep- 
 tember 21 that, on the occasion of the German Emperor's 
 recent visit to Vienna, " the standpoint everywhere adopted 
 by the Viennese Press," presumably representative of public 
 opinion, " is that, in view of the support unhesitatingly 
 given by the German Emperor to Austria-Hungary in the 
 annexation crisis, the Austro-German alliance has been 
 recognised by the world to be an institution so compactly built 
 that the countries forming it belong in some measure to 
 each other." 
 
 The Position of Austria 
 
 The simile, therefore, is justified by the appreciation of the 
 weaker party to the combination. Whatever the internal 
 clashes of the somewhat loosely united districts and variant 
 races that constitute Austria-Hungary, they have in their 
 neighbour Servia a perpetual reminder of the lot awaiting 
 small communities when they desire to remain independent 
 and yet be considered by the world. The lesson has been 
 emphasised by the inability of Greece and Crete to draw their 
 chestnuts out of the fire of the Turkish Revolution, as com- 
 pared with the success attending Bulgaria and Austria in 
 the same crisis ; while, more recently still, the adverse action 
 of Roumania towards Bulgaria in behalf of the Turk indicates 
 the troubles that might befall the Austrian provinces if de- 
 prived of the common tie of a common Sovereign. The 
 present weight of Germany in international relations, the 
 outgrowth of the past century, is chiefly due to the realisa- 
 tion of the value of union by many small States once inde- 
 pendent and discordant. 
 
 However imperfect and dissentient the internal union of 
 the Austrian Empire, it is for each of the constituent mem- 
 
APPENDIX 317 
 
 bers better than dissolution of the existing bond. Similarly, 
 the alliance with Germany, though the latter be necessarily 
 the preponderant partner, is better than isolation in presence 
 of powerful neighbours and of the unstable conditions of 
 the Balkans. Not that the inequality "between the two 
 constitutes a condition of protector and protected. The 
 reciprocity of benefit was gracefully admitted by the German 
 Emperor in his speech at Vienna. " The alliance has, to the 
 weal of the world, passed into and, like an imponderable 
 element, pervaded the convictions and the life of both 
 peoples." 
 
 The Motive of Alliances 
 
 This reciprocity of benefit means, of course, community 
 of interest, and interest is the sole stable element in the rela- 
 tions of States. No man has lived to be old without abund- 
 ant occasion to recognise the instability of other motives in 
 the actions of bodies politic. In the case of Austria-Hungary 
 and Germany this community of interest depends largely 
 upon nearness, upon continuousness of territory — often a 
 source of disagreements, but not so when both parties are 
 subject to strong external pressures and dangers, or when 
 their respective desires tend to ends which will be mutually 
 beneficial. There need only be mentioned Russia, the 
 Balkans, and the controlling position of Great Britain over 
 the sea communications of Germany, to show that in the 
 mere nature of things strong external pressures exist for both 
 allies ; a condition emphasised by the artificial factor of the 
 Triple Entente. So each step in the southward pressing of 
 Austria-Hungary will inure to the benefit of the German 
 Empire by causing the alliance to span more effectively the 
 space between the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the North 
 Sea ; while Austria-Hungary herself will gain in international 
 consideration should she succeed in achieving an open coast 
 frontier on the Mediterranean equivalent to that of Germany 
 on the North Sea. The centre of gravity around which the 
 alliance revolves will be shifted if the smaller should attain 
 the maritime development which, above all other single 
 factors, constitutes now the unity of the German Empire. 
 
 The ultimate result now is, and for an unmeasurable future 
 
318 APPENDIX 
 
 must be, to confirm the alliance, which may be defined most 
 accurately as that of Middle Europe. In my judgment, this 
 is the one great determinative factor in the present and pro- 
 spective international relations of Europe. But while this is 
 the main central fact, the unencumbered realisation of which 
 is essential to clear appreciation, it is itself surrounded by an 
 intricate complexity of circumstances, not necessarily arising 
 from it, even indirectly, but yet inevitably affected by it, as 
 the movements of the heavenly bodies are by the omnipresent 
 influence of gravity, modifying or disturbing their proper 
 motions. All Europe, and because all Europe the whole 
 world, is swayed in some measure by the existing solidarity 
 of Middle Europe, with its immense organisation of force. 
 
 Turkey and the Triple Alliance 
 
 A striking illustration of such effect is the rumoured, and 
 probable, attraction of the new Turkish Government towards 
 the Triple Alliance. Whether true or not, and to whatso- 
 ever extent advanced, it is in the nature of things that rela- 
 tive geographical situation, together with the consolidated 
 power of Middle Europe, should create this deflection from 
 the groupings of the Crimean War. Russia has been critic- 
 ally weakened by her recent war, a result to which Great 
 Britain contributed decisively by her treaty with Japan ; 
 and the weakness of Russia has meant a great increase in 
 strength to the Mid-Europe Alliance. Sixty years ago, 
 Russia being mighty, and Prussia and Austria having clash- 
 ing interests, Turkey in her distress turned naturally to the 
 Western Powers for aid, and these, controlling the sea, were 
 able to place their armies on shores where no opposing forces 
 were to be feared save the immediate enemy, and he com- 
 pelled there to exertions more remote from the centre of his 
 strength than they from theirs, in that his lines of com- 
 munication were more arduous. To-day, if serious troubles 
 should arise in that tinder-box the Near East, the only great 
 land power capable of exertion on the spot is that of the 
 Triple Alliance. This, by numbers and organisation, so over- 
 bears all competitors, or any possible combination of com- 
 petitors, that it is completely master of the situation on shore. 
 It is so because Russia for the moment is eliminated. Singly, 
 
APPENDIX 319 
 
 even without her recent defeats, she might not have equalled 
 the alliance ; but allied to France she would have constituted 
 a menace so serious as to qualify decisively all opposing action. 
 The Triple Entente was born too late. It should have ante- 
 dated, not postdated, the Russo-Japanese War. 
 
 India and Egypt 
 
 Another direct result of that war has been to precipitate 
 the commotion in Eastern nationalities, of which the " un- 
 rest " of India and Egypt are conspicuous instances. These 
 are so much in the public eye as to need no insistence, save 
 to remark that they affect the Powers of Western Europe 
 mainly in a weakening direction ; whereas for those of Middle 
 Europe, which have small possessions in the East, they con- 
 stitute the opportunity which, when waters are troubled, is 
 associated proverbially with those who have not. They stand 
 to lose nothing, with the possibility of gaining something, as 
 Austria-Hungary has done by the incorporation of Bosnia 
 and Herzegovina. It is trite to repeat the frequent remark 
 that detached and dispersed possessions, like those of the 
 British Empire and of France, are positions of exposure ; 
 but it is expedient to bear in mind that they are doubly so 
 when popular disaffection or the seeds of such disaffection 
 exist in them. 
 
 It is impossible, I suppose, to prevent ill-feeling when a new 
 and powerful rival appears upon the scene of commerce. It 
 can rarely soothe the feelings to be disturbed in the pos- 
 session of that which one has come to regard as secure ; and 
 history seems to demonstrate that, while great Navies may 
 be called into being without an immediate necessity for the 
 protection of shipping — as is now the case in the United 
 States and has been in Russia — the development of a 
 mercantile marine is followed pretty surely by the creation 
 of a Navy to safeguard it. 
 
 The Coming of the Dreadnought 
 
 Given these conditions, the existing rivalry between Great 
 Britain and Germany was pretty sure to result in ill-feeling, 
 and gradually to be exasperated. Then the adoption of the 
 
320 APPENDIX 
 
 Dreadnought, instituting a new type of warship, has enabled 
 Germany to enter upon a race of construction, with but httle 
 start against her, in the struggle to be preponderant at the 
 future moment when the ante-Dreadnoughts shall be con- 
 fessedly obsolete. The competition in all directions has been 
 severe, and is closer and more threatening because Great 
 Britain has not attained, and cannot in any near future attain, 
 the organising governmental control over the exertions of her 
 people that Germany is able to exercise, giving concentra- 
 tion of purpose and continuousness of aim. 
 
 The inter-relations of the European States at any par- 
 ticular moment constitute the basis, the military base, upon 
 which rests the influence of Europe as a whole upon the 
 politics of the world. In that grouping, at the present time, 
 the central and preponderant fact is the Mid-Europe Alli- 
 ance, not only because it is the greatest single factor, but 
 because it alone is a strictly natural combination. The 
 adhesion to it of Italy has, indeed, reasons of policy, but 
 they are complex and alloyed : " partly iron, partly miry 
 clay." The Triple Entente is purely artificial ; a result 
 of the Mid-Europe Alliance itself, but without the in- 
 trinsic strength. It is a reacti©n from the Alliance ; but 
 in this case reaction does not equal action in power. Its one 
 leading motive is opposition — defensive ; and it is a com- 
 monplace that mere opposition, simple defence, is not in 
 progressive force the equivalent of a positive policy. To an 
 aggressive action, such as the annexations of 1908, mere 
 opposition wavers in its parry, especially when two or more 
 parties have to agree upon a common course, in deter- 
 mining which each remembers its particular interests. I am 
 not here pronouncing an opinion upon the propriety of the 
 annexations, but merely noting an illustration of a general 
 fact, to be observed in most combinations the motive to 
 which is not action but opposition ; negative, not positive. 
 
 The German Army To-day 
 
 The weakness due to lack of unanimity of aims, and of 
 consequent motive, is increased by the geographical dis- 
 tribution of the members of the Triple Entente, and the effect 
 of that upon their aggregate military strength. The territory 
 
APPENDIX 321 
 
 of Austria-Hungary and Germany forms a continuous mass, 
 closely linked up by a highly developed railway system, in 
 the designing of which strategic considerations as well as 
 commercial have had a large share. The present generation 
 of the German Army has had little fighting, but its reputation 
 as a highly trained and efficient organisation is unim- 
 paired ; while under the test of mobilisation, at the time 
 of the annexations, that of Austria-Hungary is said to have 
 given satisfactory proofs. In view of the late war, the same 
 can scarcely be assumed as to the Russian Army. Upon that 
 of France I am incompetent to form an opinion. 
 
 Granting it, however, to be equivalent in efficiency to those 
 of the Mid-Europe monarchies, there is great disparity 
 of numbers, and an impossibility of the cohesive action 
 between Russia and France that is open to Austria- 
 Hungary and Germany. In short, the latter possess central 
 position and interior lines against the other two, assuming 
 the several groups to be enemies, as they are internationally 
 antagonistic for the moment. 
 
 Such military conditions are, and always must be, opera- 
 tive political considerations, in peace as in war. Such 
 circumstances govern the world now as they have in the past. 
 They are the instruments, or it may be the fetters, of the 
 statesman's policy. Perfect assurance may be felt on all 
 parts that war with a strong Power will not be provoked 
 in this age by any Government, unless it be one of fatalistic 
 tendency and somewhat desperate fortunes, in which case 
 willingness would be a misnomer for necessity. The 
 balance of forces influences continually and decisively the 
 solutions of diplomacy ; and such a condition is really war, 
 even though no shot be fired. It is the balance of forces, 
 realised in the preparations for war, which now makes war 
 an alternative not to be adopted without a shudder. It 
 was not so in days of less elaborate and costly development 
 of fighting power. 
 
 The British Navy 
 
 If this view be correct, and he will be a bold man who can 
 dispute it in the face of the decade just past, the balance of 
 force discernible in the present and near future will influence 
 
322 APPENDIX 
 
 decisively the outcome of present political conditions in 
 Europe, in the Mediterranean, and to the east of Suez. Some 
 of the leading elements have been stated. One has been 
 reserved to the last ; that is, the British Navy. For the 
 present and near future the British Army seems not more 
 than adequate to imperial responsibilities, unless some 
 rare opportunity should offer, such as the past has known, 
 where a corps comparatively small produces, by virtue of its 
 position, effects disproportionate to its size. But, putting 
 aside the defence of the British Islands, as a consideration 
 respectable but inadequate to a comprehensive defence of 
 British interests, the British Navy, if maintained in due 
 strength, holds in its hands the commercial communications 
 of Europe so long as the political lines of division indicated 
 by the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente endure. It 
 never again will be possible for the British Navy to control 
 the commerce of the whole world, nor of the whole European 
 continent ; but under the Triple Entente it remains possible 
 to Great Britain to control the maritime situation, because 
 by that entente the naval forces possible to be arrayed against 
 her are limited to numbers over which she can decisively 
 preponderate if she firmly so decides. 
 
 The stress I have laid upon land power typified in Armies, 
 frees me from assent to the extreme doctrines of the Blue 
 Water and Fleet-in-Being schools, to which my advocacy of 
 sea power has perhaps seemed to associate me. Yet I believe 
 it remains true that Navies dominate the communications of 
 sea commerce, and through them the financial prosperity 
 of countries, upon which depend not only the maintenance 
 of land war but the reasonable welfare of populations. The 
 Continental system of Napoleon is the extreme example of 
 the effect of such control. During that period sea power 
 and land power, in as extreme expression as they have ever 
 attained, were arrayed against each other ; and sea power 
 won, not by a combination of accidents, but by a logical 
 sequence of events. It might fairly be said that then com- 
 merce as a factor dominated war, and so it ever will be when 
 a contest between the two is stripped of confusing accessories 
 and they appear to the mind in their respective nakedness 
 and power. 
 
APPENDIX 323 
 
 France's Money and Britain's Ships 
 
 The massed land power of Mid-Europe and its political 
 gravitative effect upon the chief centres of European unsettle- 
 ment in South-Eastern Europe have been -indicated. Over 
 against it stands no equivalent land power, even if, in circum- 
 stances threatening a general conflagration, there are ele- 
 ments of such in France and Russia, which, though inferior, 
 must weigh heavily with a statesman envisaging war. But 
 the real offset against the military power of the Triple Alli- 
 ance is the financial resources of France and the Navy of 
 Great Britain. The two together represent sea power in the 
 scales of Europe, as Middle Europe represents land power. 
 As usual, neither stands alone, wholly separated from the 
 other. The Army of France is a large factor in land power ; 
 that of Great Britain one not wholly negligible ; and in naval 
 force Germany now stands second in the world. But, de- 
 spite this allowance, the broad division stands. Now, should 
 occasion arise, the Navy of Great Britain, if duly maintained, 
 controls the approaches to the German coast, and by such 
 control secures the communications of the British Islands 
 with the whole world— except perhaps the Baltic. This 
 means, substantially, the suppresson of German sea-borne 
 commerce, the extent of which is little realised. With 
 the world outside Europe this increased between 1894 
 and 1904 by 93 per cent,, with Europe by 68 per cent. ; 
 whereas the land interchange with Europe increased only 
 48 per cent. 
 
 The maintenance of this sea trade depends upon shipping, 
 and it is to be remarked that war with Great Britain elimi- 
 nates at once, as carriers to Germany, the two principal 
 mercantile marines — the British and the German. France, 
 with her entente sympathies and traditional grievances, will 
 not greatly object to measures which will eliminate also her 
 merchant vessels, already and otherwise sufficiently em- 
 ployed. The United States has none but coastwise shipping, 
 also fully employed, and is not likely to insist strongly upon 
 a privilege of supplying Germany with ships. There remains 
 no strong naval Power to object to the most serious repressive 
 measures that Great Britain may undertake within the 
 limits of International Law, broadly interpreted. 
 22 
 
324 APPENDIX 
 
 Germany's Naval Policy 
 
 There is little cause for wonder, then, that Germany is 
 contracting debt in order to strengthen her Navy. The 
 wonder is that intelligent men in Great Britain should be 
 found to ignore these facts, and to advocate immunity from 
 the incidence of war for sea-borne commerce, under the 
 delusive definition of " private property." 
 
 As a student of military and naval history, it is to me 
 certain that the advantages of the situation, regarded as com- 
 mercial and military, are almost wholly with Great Britain, 
 granting the continuance of the present laws of capture ; 
 and the German strenuousness in naval development silently 
 confirms this contention. The reply that a continental 
 country can repair this disadvantage through its continental 
 frontiers is so flagrant an ignoring of facts as to be scarcely 
 worthy of respectful consideration. Such a country can live, 
 yes ; but when it has built up a huge, complex industrial 
 and commercial system, based upon the sea, it cannot sustain 
 such cut off from the sea. Railroads, by the very nature of 
 things, cannot alone replace the copiousness of water traffic, 
 and, besides, they are rarely more than commensurate to a 
 certain maximum of carriage dependent upon known normal 
 conditions. The suppression of sea communications, total 
 or approximate, means now, as it always has meant, financial 
 disorganisation, military embarrassment, and popular 
 misery. 
 
 These things are not said to incite strife, for indeed they are 
 not new, even if ignored. I would now, as I hoped ten years 
 ago, that things had taken a different turn. But as they are, 
 it is in the interests of peace to point out that no force in 
 Europe can so act as a deterrent from war, induced by the 
 possible ambitious or otherwise inevitable tendencies of 
 Middle Europe, as can the Navy of Great Britain. The 
 dividing line cleft between the Triple Alliance and the Triple 
 Entente is too plain to be ignored. It has been emphasised 
 at Alge9iras, in Crete, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in other 
 incidents less conspicuous but equally known. Under such 
 circumstances the one salvation from war is readiness for 
 war, based upon a clear appreciation of what can best be 
 done and what should most be feared. 
 
APPENDIX 325 
 
 STATEMENT ISSUED TO THE PRESS BY ADMIRAL 
 MAHAN ON AUGUST 3, 1914 : THE DAY BEFORE 
 THE DECLARATION OF WAR BY GREAT 
 BRITAIN. 
 
 " The aggressive insolence of Austria's ultimatum to Servia, 
 taken with the concession by the latter of all the demands 
 except those too humiliating for national self-respect, indi- 
 cate that the real cause of the war is other than set forth by 
 the ultimatum. 
 
 " Knowing from past experience how the matter must be 
 reviewed by Russia, it is incredible that Austria would have 
 ventured on the ultimatum unless assured beforehand of the 
 consent of Germany to it. The inference is irresistible that 
 the substance of the ultimatum was the pretext for a war 
 already determined on as soon as plausible occasion offered. 
 
 " The cause of this predetermination is to be found in the 
 growing strength of Russia on recovering from her war with 
 Japan. With the known deficiencies of French armaments, 
 which were recently admitted, the moment was auspicious 
 for striking down France and Russia before they regained 
 strength. The motives are to be found in Austria's appre- 
 hension of the growing Slav power in the south and that of 
 Germany concerning Russia on the east. 
 
 " Great Britain as the third member of the Entente finds 
 herself in the position of Prussia in 1805, when she permitted 
 Napoleon to strike down Austria unaided and was herself 
 struck down the following year at Jena : or of that of France 
 in 1866, when she stood by while Prussia crushed Austria 
 and was herself overwhelmed in 1870. 
 
 " Germany's procedure is to overwhelm at once by con- 
 centrated preparation and impetuous momentum. If she 
 fail in this she is less able to sustain prolonged aggression, as 
 was indicated in the Franco-Prussian War during and after 
 the siege of Paris. 
 
 " The British fleet, which is superior to that of Germany, 
 has the power to prevent all commerce under the German 
 flag, and, by blockade, to close against neutrals all the rivers 
 properly German except those emptying into the Baltic 
 The British fleet is not strong enough to divide for blockade 
 
326 APPENDIX 
 
 in both Baltic and North Seas. The Rhine, emptying 
 through neutral Holland, cannot be blockaded. 
 
 " If the first German rush prove indecisive or prolonged, 
 the financial pressure thus in the power of Great Britain 
 may determine the issue, or may force the German fleet to 
 fight, in which case the issues will be determined by battle. 
 
 " If Germany succeeds in downing both France and Russia, 
 she gains a respite by land, which may enable her to build 
 up her sea force equal, or superior to that of Great Britain. 
 
 " In that case the world will be confronted by the naval 
 power of a state, not, like Great Britain, sated with territory, 
 but one eager and ambitious for expansion, eager also for 
 influence. This consideration may well affect American 
 sympathies. 
 
 " In my judgment, a right appreciation of the situation 
 should determine Great Britain to declare war at once. Other- 
 wise, her entente engagements, whatever the letter, will be 
 in spirit violated, and she will earn the entire distrust of all 
 probable future allies. 
 
 " Italy likewise owes it to herself to declare war against 
 her recent allies. In co-operation with France, and with 
 Greece, reinforced by the two American battleships just pur- 
 chased, she can doubtless maintain the balance of maritime 
 ^^power in the Mediterranean, prevent the Turks giving their 
 expected support to Germany, keep quiet the Bulgarians, if 
 these are so ill-advised as to purpose a diversion in favor 
 of Austria, and, in brief, consolidate the opposition of the 
 Balkan States to Austria-Hungary, whose ambitions are 
 notoriously inconsistent with those of Italy." 
 
 "THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS » " 
 Extracts from an Article by Charles Stewart 
 Davison, New York 
 
 It is to be hoped that there may be no hasty expression of 
 view nor public committal of the country to any specific 
 doctrine in relation to America's attitude on " The Freedom 
 of the Seas " until opportunity shall have occurred for full 
 conference and consideration. There is a point in relation 
 ^ Reproduced by the courtesy of Mr. Charles Stewart Davison. 
 
 « 
 
APPENDIX 327 
 
 to the question of our attitude as a nation on this subject 
 which siiould be taken under advisement. The major and 
 controlUng differentiation between private property on land 
 and private property at sea is wholly overlooked in the 
 proposition that the latter, when not contraband of war, 
 should be exempted from capture or destruction by belli- 
 gerents if we are to understand that we are therein seeking 
 complete immunity for private property at sea. 
 
 The instructions to the American delegates to the first 
 Hague Conference in 1899 did not, in fact, go quite to that 
 extent. They were to the effect that what was sought was 
 the same immunity of destruction or capture " which such 
 property already enjoys on land." 
 
 Popularly this has been construed as a demand for com- 
 plete immunity, and it is fair to say that the proposition was 
 so phrased or formulated by Secretary Marcy in 1856 as to 
 tend to sustain this popular construction of the instructions 
 which we gave to our Hague delegates, for our refusal in 
 1856 to sign the agreement of the Paris Conference in relation 
 to the abandonment of privateering was qualified by a proffer 
 to assent thereto provided it was also agreed that " private 
 property of subjects and citizens of a belligerent on the high 
 seas shall be exempted from seizure by public armed vessels 
 of the other belligerent, except it be contraband." It will 
 be noted that the position which we took in 1899 does not 
 go to the full extent of our proposition of 1856. The latter 
 asks for absolute immunity for private property not contra- 
 band at sea. The former asks only for the same immunity 
 which such property already enjoys on land. 
 
 Now, private property on land in time of war does not 
 enjoy under the laws of war total immunity from destruction 
 or capture, therefore, the analogy supposed to be appealed 
 to fails. Private property on land is subject, in gross, to 
 requisitions for the support of armies, etc. The burdens 
 placed in time of war on private property on land must, then, 
 if we are to proceed on analogies, find their parallel in the 
 placing of some equivalent burdens on private property at 
 sea, and the major premise in the argumentative instructions 
 disappears. But the great distinction or discrimination — 
 which, if we took the view ordinarily entertained of the 1899 
 
328 APPENDIX 
 
 instructions, would be wholly overlooked — is found in the 
 fact that private property on land, where its location is em- 
 braced within territory occupied by a belligerent, is stationary, 
 and by the occupation of the land such private property 
 ceases to be an available source of strength to the enemy, 
 and, therefore — no longer contributing to the enemy's sub- 
 stance nor capable of further forwarding his warlike effort — 
 no military reason exists which would justify its expropria- 
 tion except to the extent of the support of the invading 
 army, and to that extent, in the shape of reasonable requisi- 
 tions, it is subject thereto as also to destruction on retiring, 
 if it would be of advantage to the enemy in a military sense. 
 On the other hand, private property at sea is in transit as 
 part of an enemy's trade. Its arrival at destination and 
 its sale and the receipt by an individual enemy of its monetary 
 value enhance the resources of the enemy, benefit him and aid 
 in maintaining or increasing his resistance and warlike effort. 
 
 This is the fundamental difference between enemy private 
 property on land embraced within territory occupied by a 
 belligerent's forces and enemy private property at sea. The 
 one is rendered innocuous by the occupation of the territory 
 where it is located, the other, if immune from capture, would 
 remain an active element in the enemy's capacity for offence 
 and defence. It might therefore be argued that it would 
 be well to permit of the capture and retention of the vessel 
 and the storage of the goods, or, if perishable, their sale and 
 the holding of the proceeds to be returned to the private 
 owner at the conclusion of the war, but not for immunity 
 from seizure. 
 
 It is also to be observed that in addition to the goods the 
 vessel itself, that is, its use, is an object of value to the enemy. 
 The particular voyage on which it is engaged at any given 
 time is presumably not the last voyage which any given 
 vessel would have an opportunity of making during the con- 
 tinuance of hostilities, in its capacity of being an element of 
 commercial resources of the enemy. A belligerent should 
 therefore be entitled to exercise such control as may be 
 necessary to prevent this result. Again, assuming that the 
 vessel safely returned to the belligerent's country, it would 
 become available for the transportation of troops and 
 
APPENDIX 329 
 
 munitions. Its use would, therefore, in the first instance 
 aid in maintaining the enemy's general resources, and in the 
 second instance would directly aid in his warlike effort. 
 Against both of these uses the other belligerent should be 
 entitled to protect himself by capture. 
 
 There should, therefore, be no blind adoption nor hasty 
 acquiescence in a policy which is not founded on reason and 
 one which, to the extent to which it has at any time been 
 deemed American policy, has been founded upon a mis- 
 apprehension of the fundamental considerations involved. 
 
 It cannot be said that the laws of war either at sea or on 
 land are founded on fantastic considerations. Each gain 
 in the direction of amelioration of the conditions of war has 
 been made only where it has been capable of demonstration 
 that the step advocated did not involve any concession 
 to the enemy's efficiency or any augmenting of the enemy's 
 resources in the then present war. They have all had sound 
 reason along these lines in their support. This one sugges- 
 tion of immunity at sea has not sound reason underlying it, 
 but is a fantastic step, basing its claims to consideration on 
 quasi-humanitarian or, rather, on a fictitious application 
 of such views and on an entire failure to consider a funda- 
 mental distinction. 
 
 So far as the attitude which we took in 1899 is concerned, 
 it is possible that there was a certain amount of German 
 influence mingled therein. It may be that we were at least 
 strengthened in our views thereby, possibly quite uncon- 
 sciously to ourselves, for at the time that our proposals in 
 this direction were put forward Germany offered to acquiesce 
 if contraband and blockade were included, or, rather, if specific 
 agreements were come to as to what should constitute contra- 
 band and as to the limitations of blockade. 
 
 German Diplomacy Military 
 
 At a glance it is clear that Germany was simply under- 
 taking to promote her own warlike enterprise. Her open and 
 avowed enemy was England (though England refused to 
 recognise it), or, specifically, the English fleet. If she could 
 have accomplished the result that no goods save munitions 
 should be contraband and that there should be no captures 
 
330 APPENDIX 
 
 at sea save of contraband, and if she could have procured 
 the adoption of a strict Umitation upon the right of blockade, 
 she would have gone a long way toward neutralising her chief 
 enemy's main power. It must be borne in mind that Ger- 
 many's diplomacy and diplomatic methods, of which we 
 have now learned a little, did not begin on August 1, 1914. 
 Our instructions in 1899 to our Hague delegates might on 
 close investigation be found not to have been wholly unin- 
 fluenced by Germany's efforts, and it is instructive to note 
 that those nations which Germany expected to stand pri- 
 marily in the way of her world aggression — Great Britain, 
 France, and Russia — were fully advised of the intent and pur- 
 pose of the proposals and voted against them. 
 
 MAHAN'S SYNOPSIS OF THE DECISIVE EVENTS OF 
 THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 
 
 The question transmitted to me through Taylor is one on 
 which my knowledge is less extensive and precise than you 
 have imagined. I have not time to supply these deficiencies 
 by any elaborate study, and in giving my reply I will accom- 
 pany it with a brief analysis, which may enable your friends 
 to test its value for themselves. 
 
 The struggle between the North and the South was that 
 of a much stronger party against a weaker ; the latter, how- 
 ever, was in possession, and, as in most cases of conflict in 
 arms, had the usual advantages of the defense, in positions 
 assumed more or less deliberately, and strengthened by 
 fortifications. 
 
 Again, not only was there an original disparity of strength,' 
 but the North's control of the water enabled it to shut off 
 the South from external support. The North, therefore, 
 not only possessed the superior original strength, but the 
 potentiality of indefinite renewal. This showed itself chiefly 
 in finance, in the superior staying money power of the North, 
 also in facility for providing warlike stores. This summarises 
 the significance of the blockade. 
 
 Under these conditions of force, the southern front of 
 operations extended — roughly stated — from the Atlantic 
 
APPENDIX 331 
 
 seaboard by the Potomac and Ohio Rivers to the Rio Grande. 
 There the South stood on the defense, and against this hne 
 the North moved in force much superior, but at the first not 
 so decisively so. The weak part of the Southern position was 
 its being traversed in the west — their left — by the Mississippi ; 
 weak, because the water potentialities of the North far 
 exceeded theirs. On their right they were similarly, but not 
 so decisively weak ; for there their right flank rested on the 
 sea, and was also open to the water power of the North, and 
 did continually receive weakening flank attacks. 
 
 The Northern plan of operations, as summarised in history, 
 was to move against both flanks ; not till very late in the 
 war was the movement upon the Southern centre. But in 
 the west the great movement was made, for there the attack 
 was not so much on the flank itself, but upon the point where 
 flank and centre met ; the aim — as historically shown, rather 
 than in the consciousness of the day — being to turn the flank, 
 and at the same time cut off and put out of action the 
 Southern extreme left. 
 
 Accepting this analysis, the year 1860 passed without 
 decisive or even very significant incident. 
 
 In 1862 Farragut entered the Mississippi, and in April 
 captured New Orleans. The army and navy moved from 
 the Upper Mississippi ; and the naval incidents of Fort Henry 
 and Memphis, combined with the military events of Fort 
 Donelson, Shiloh, and whatever further advance the army 
 made after that battle, were the decisive features. In the 
 east the Peninsula campaign, Pope's fiascos about Manassas, 
 the battle of Antietam, taken all together, were simply the 
 swaying back and forth of combatants as yet substantially 
 equal, i.e. taking into account commanders. Much blood- 
 shed, but a drawn strife. The subsequent affairs of 
 Fredericksburg (1862) and Chancellorsville (1863) fall in the 
 same category. 
 
 The really representative scenes in this year were, I should 
 say, the capture of New Orleans and the surrender of Donel- 
 son. The latter may not have been the most decisive, but 
 it was the most dramatic occurrence. 
 
 In 1863, the same attempts were renewed. The North 
 succeeded in driving its way through the Mississippi ; of this 
 
332 APPENDIX 
 
 Farragut's passage of Port Hudson and the surrender of 
 Vieksburg are, in my judgment, the representative events. 
 On the east at Chancellorsville we renewed our flank attack, 
 but the great event of the year was the offensive return by 
 Lee, which ended in repulse at Gettysburg. This was a 
 decisive event, for it demonstrated that the South had not 
 the strength to act offensively on our flank; while it was 
 equally clear that the North had power so to act on the 
 west. These coincident facts made this the decisive year. 
 
 For 1863 then, in my judgment. Port Hudson, Vieksburg, 
 and Gettysburg are the representative occurrences. 
 
 In 1864, the leading operations are Grant's Wilderness 
 Campaign and Sherman's advance upon Atlanta, followed 
 by the march through Georgia. The latter operation 
 succeeded a great deal of hard fighting in 1862 and 1863, 
 done in reaching and controlling Sherman's initial point, 
 in the neighbourhood of Chattanooga. This antecedent 
 fighting had the characteristic which I noted before con- 
 cerning events in the east in 1862 ; there was varied fortune, 
 swinging back and forth, much bloodshed, no decisive issue, 
 though upon the whole the North had gained and did advance. 
 In these years, 1862 and 1863, the scene of struggle was the 
 Confederate centre ; but our success in the latter year on the 
 Mississippi made it, in 1864, more nearly the Confederate 
 left. Sherman's success again turned the Confederate flank, 
 while at the same time lopping many a considerable fragment. 
 Of his campaign Atlanta is the representative name. Its 
 capture ended the serious fighting, and from it began his 
 easy triumphal march. 
 
 I confess myself unable to point to a decisive incident in 
 Grant's campaign of 1864 ; but of course Lee's surrender 
 at Appomattax is the dramatic finale of the conflict. 
 
 If there should be any disposition to recognise the block- 
 ade's part in the result, the two battles of Port Royal and 
 Mobile appear to me to represent its action ; for the ultimate 
 effort of the blockade was to assert itself by holding the 
 harbours. Of these endeavors Port Royal was the first 
 — barring Hatteras, a much 1 ess important affair — and 
 Mobile the last. 
 
 From the purely military standpoint Vieksburg and 
 
APPENDIX 333 
 
 Gettysburg were the decisive battles. The former actually 
 decided the fate of the Mississippi. Gettysburg did not so 
 much decide events as prove a decisive fact, viz. that 
 the South was unable to carry out an offensive return. 
 
 Politically, New Orleans was the most decisive battle. 
 Foreign intervention was until then, I believe, possible ; 
 from that time it was hopeless. 
 
 My list then in order of importance would stand : Vicks- 
 burg, New Orleans, Gettysburg, Port Hudson (naval), Donel- 
 son, Port Royal, Atlanta, Mobile, Appomattax. There are 
 nine. Of these to eliminate I should take away Port Royal ; 
 because though more important than Mobile, it is less well 
 known and less dramatic. 
 
 I must add that I think my detailed knowledge so defec- 
 tive that I may very well have overlooked some incident, 
 intrinsically small, actually more decisive than bigger affairs. 
 I believe, however, that my analysis, in its leading lines, is 
 fairly correct, and that somewhere on these lines the decisive 
 events are to be found, even though my solution be open to 
 criticism. 
 
 A. T. M. 
 
 MAHAN'S VIEWS ON FEMALE SUFFRAGE 
 
 It has been said that, owing to Great Britain having no 
 written constitution as a check upon the powers of her 
 legislature, there is nothing which Parliament cannot do, 
 except to make a woman a man. To define this object as 
 the end of the suffrage movement would probably be called 
 a caricature ; yet a moment's reflection will show that it is 
 true, in the sense of breaking down and removing for ever the 
 line of demarcation, which the general sense of the world 
 and the course of history have drawn, as the barrier separat- 
 ing the respective spheres of men and women. It is obvious 
 that the movement cannot stop with the mere grant of the 
 vote ; that inevitably it goes on to the full entrance of 
 women upon the whole field of political activity ; upon the 
 legislative field, from the National Congress down, and upon 
 the Executive, from the President of the United States to 
 the smallest political office in the gift of the Government. 
 This is not to establish merely equality of consideration, 
 
334 APPENDIX 
 
 upon which so much argument is wasted, with the implica- 
 tion that the withholding of suffrage is an imputation of the 
 inferiority of women to men. The result, stated above as 
 inevitable, if the vote be at once attained, is not equality in 
 any sense, but identity of social function between women 
 and men. It means that women shall no longer concentrate 
 their ambitions and affections upon the home, the children, 
 and all the sacred relationships attaching to their work, but 
 shall disperse their energy and modify their characters and 
 entire personality as a sex, by entering upon the outside 
 hurly-burly of masculine life. 
 
 The question before us, then, is whether it is, or can be, 
 good for the community to sacrifice, wholly or even in 
 great measure, the special social function of women which 
 throughout the Christian era has been hers in the Christian 
 household. The equality of the sexes has been in the teach- 
 ing of Christianity from the beginning ; and nowhere else 
 than where Christianity enters has that equality been found : 
 because women have neither the physical nor the moral 
 energy to compel it by brute force. But Christianity — 
 which is the corner-stone of European civilisation — while 
 inculcating equality, emphasises differentiations and denies 
 identity of function. Such identity is the end of the present 
 woman's movement. It promises and is already accom- 
 panied by a lessening esteem for home and children. Is it 
 probably for the good of the community ? The true test to 
 be applied to every social and political demand is the good 
 of the community ; not the gratification of a very small 
 section of it. Is it expedient for the welfare of the com- 
 munity that women should have the ballot ? Here we must 
 recognise and remember that we face a far-reaching pro- 
 position. You cannot stop with the vote. There follows 
 necessarily the full range of all the political activities. These 
 at present are confined to men. Will it be to the advantage 
 of the community — of the State — that women enter this 
 arena also ? Are political activities so consonant to women's 
 sphere as to make this advisable? Or is it more probable 
 that as actually men superintend all the commercial and 
 business activities, all that constitutes the prosperity and 
 order of the State, to them also should be confined the 
 
APPENDIX 335 
 
 political action which reglates business, commerce, trans- 
 port, manufactures ? 
 
 With these consequences in view, to give women the vote 
 breaks down the constant practice of the past ages by which 
 to men are assigned the outdoor rough action of life and to 
 women that indoor sphere which we call the family. There 
 is no drawing a line here other than that of sex. Remove 
 that barrier as is proposed and you reverse what has hereto- 
 fore been fundamental in our society. 
 
 A. T. M. 
 
 ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS 
 
 Message sent to the Prime Minister of England, Mr. David 
 Lloyd George, by distinguished representatives of the three 
 foremost patriotic Societies of America, The Society of the 
 Cincinnati, The Sons of the Revolution, and The Sons of the 
 American Revolution, on the fourth anniversary of Great 
 Britain's entrance into the war, August 4, 1918 : 
 
 " Desiring through you to assure the Government and people 
 of Great Britain, on this fourth anniversary of their entrance 
 into the great war, of the sincere regard and affection enter- 
 tained for your nation by members of the Society of the Cincinnati 
 (formed by General Washington, and the Marquis de Lafayette 
 from the officers of the Continental Army) and by members of 
 the patriotic ancestral Societies of the Sons of the Revolution 
 and Sons of the American Revolution, whose membership is 
 composed exclusively of those whose forefathers fought in the 
 Revolutionary War under General Washington ; we, here to- 
 day on August 4 in Fraunces Tavern, New York City, where 
 General Washington as Commander-in-Chief held the farewell 
 reception to his officers, preparatory to his retirement to private 
 life, have signed our names to this paper to testify to the fact 
 of our highest appreciation of the noble efforts and heroic self- 
 sacrifice of your valiant soldiers and sailors, and to state that as 
 July 4 is our ' Independence Day,' so August 4 will ever be 
 held sacred by us as ' Dependence Day ' in honor of the great 
 mother-land which drew her sword without hesitation for the 
 cause of Belgium and world freedom, to show that treaties once 
 made must be kept, and that perfect dependence could be placed 
 upon her to keep her plighted troth.'" 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 WORKS BY MAHAN 
 
 1883. " The Gulf and Inland Waters." 
 
 1890. " The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660- 
 
 1783." 
 1892. " The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revo- 
 lution and Empire, 1793-1812." Two volumes. 
 " The Life of Admiral Farragut." 
 
 1897. " The Life of Nelson : the Embodiment of the Sea 
 Power of Great Britain." Two volumes. 
 " The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and 
 Future." 
 
 The United States looking outward — Hawaii and our Future 
 Sea Power — The Isthmus and Sea Power — Possibilities 
 of an Anglo-American Reunion — The Future in Relation 
 to American Naval Power — Preparedness for Naval War — 
 A Twentieth-century Outlook — Strategic Features of the 
 Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 1899. " Lessons of the War with Spain." 
 
 Lessons of the War with Spain — The Peace Conference and 
 the Moral Aspect of War — The Relations of the United 
 States to their new Dependencies — -Distinguishing Qualities 
 of Ships of War — Current Fallacies upon Naval Subjects. 
 
 1900. " The Problem of Asia, and its Effect upon Inter- 
 
 national Policies." 
 
 The Problem of Asia — Effect of Asiatic Conditions upon 
 World Policies — Merits of the Transvaal Dispute. 
 
 " The Story of the War in South Africa, 1899-1900." 
 Another edition. Profusely illustrated. (R. H. 
 Russell.) 
 
 1901. " Types of Naval Officers, Drawn from the History 
 
 of the British Navy." 
 336 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 337 
 
 1902. " Retrospect and Prospect : Studies in International 
 Relations, Naval and Political." 
 
 Retrospect and Prospect — Conditions determining the Naval 
 Expansion of the United States — The Influence of the 
 South African War upon th'e Prestige of the British Empire 
 — Motives to Imperial Federation — Considerations 
 governing the Disposition of Navies — The Persian Oulf 
 and International Relations — The Military Rule of 
 Obedience — Admiral Sampson. 
 
 1905. " Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812." 
 Two volumes. 
 
 1907. " Some Neglected Aspects of War." 
 
 The Moral Aspect of War — The Practical Aspect of War — 
 War from the Christian Standpoint — The Hague Confer- 
 ence of 1907 and the Question of Immunity for Belligerent 
 Merchant Shipping. 
 
 " From Sail to Steam : Recollections of Naval Life." 
 
 1908. " Naval Administration and Warfare." 
 
 The Principles of Naval Adm-inistration — The United States 
 Navy Department — Principles involved in the War between 
 Japan and Russia — Retrospect upon the War between 
 Japan and Russia — Objects of the United States Naval 
 War College — The Practical Character of the United States 
 Naval War College — Subordination in Historical Treat- 
 ment — The Strength of Nelson — The Value of the Pacific 
 Cruise of the United States Fleet, 1908 — The Monroe 
 Doctrine. 
 
 1909. " The Harvest Within : Thoughts on the Life of the 
 
 Christian." 
 
 1910. " The Interest of America in International Condi- 
 
 tions." 
 
 The Origin and Character of Present International Groupings 
 in Europe — The Present Predominance of Germany in 
 Europe — Its Foundations and Tendencies — Relations 
 between the East and the West — The Open Door. 
 
 1911. " Naval Strategy Compared and Contrasted with 
 
 the Principles and Practice of Military Opera- 
 tions on Land." 
 
338 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 1912. " Armaments and Arbitration ; or the Place of Force 
 
 in the International Relations of States." 
 
 Armaments and Arbitration — Diplomacy and Arbitration — 
 Navies as International Factors — The Deficiencies of Law 
 as an Instrument of International Adjustments — The 
 Place of Force in International Relations — " The Great 
 Illusion " — The Panama Canal and Sea Power in the 
 Pacific — Why fortify the Panama Canal ? — The Naval 
 War College — Was Panama " a Chapter of National 
 Dishonor " ? 
 
 1913. " The Major Operations of the Navies in the War 
 
 of American Independence." 
 
 MISCELLANY 
 
 " Reflections, Historical and Other, Suggested by the Battle 
 
 of the Sea of Japan," U.S. Naval Institute, June 1906 ; 
 
 reprinted in Journal of the Royal United Service Institu- 
 tion, November 1906. 
 " The Battleship of All Big Guns," World's Work, January 
 
 1911. 
 " Misrepresenting Mr. Roosevelt," Outlook, June 17, 1911. 
 " Importance of Command of the Sea," Scientific American, 
 
 December 9, 1911. 
 " Japan among Nations," Living Age, August 2, 1913. 
 " Twentieth-century Christianity," Nortli American Review, 
 
 April 1914. 
 " Macdonough at Plattsburg," North American Review, 
 
 August 1914. 
 " The Panama Canal and the Distribution of the Fleet," 
 
 North American Review, September 1914. 
 " The Panama Canal from a Military Point of View," Revue 
 
 ^conomique Internationale, Brussels, January 1913. 
 " Sea Power in the Present European War," Leslie's Weekly, 
 
 August 20, 1914. 
 " Nelson at Trafalgar," " Nelson in the Battle of the Nile," 
 
 Century, vol. xxxi. 
 Introduction to H. W. Wilson's " Ironclads in Action," 1897. 
 " The Growth of our National Feeling," World's Work, N.Y. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 339 
 
 " Prayer Book Revision," The Churchman. 
 
 " The Apparent Decadence of the Church's Influence," 
 
 Florence, 1903. 
 " Britain and the German Navy," Dailij Mail, July 6, 1910. 
 " Britain and the World's Peace," Daily Mail, October 31, 
 
 1910. 
 
 PUBLICATIONS REFERRING TO MAHAN 
 
 " Captain Mahan's Counsels to the United States," George 
 
 Sydenham Clarke, Nineteenth Century, February 1898. 
 " Nelson at Naples," F. P. Badham, 1900. 
 " Mahan on Sea Power," S. G. W. Benjamin, New York 
 
 Times Book Review, January 18, 1902. 
 " La Maitrise de la Mer," Auguste Moireau, Uevue des Deux 
 
 Mondes, October 1902. 
 " Some American Historians," Professor II. Morse Stephens,. 
 
 World's Work, July 1902. 
 " Lee at Appomattox, and Other Papers," Charles Francis 
 
 Adams, 1903. 
 " The Writings of Mahan," New York Nation, December 10„ 
 
 1914. 
 " A Great Public Servant," Theodore Roosevelt, Outlook, 
 
 January 13, 1915. See also Outlook, December 9, 1914. 
 " Alfred Thayer Mahan — In Memoriam," United States 
 
 Naval Institute, January-February 1915. 
 " The Influence of America's Greatest Naval Strategist on 
 
 the War in Europe," Current Opinion, February 1915. 
 
 (From Paris Figaro.) 
 "■ Naval History : Mahan and his Successors," Military 
 
 Historian and Economist, January 1918. 
 " The Parliament of Peace," W. T. Stead, Review ofRevieivs, 
 
 1899. 
 " Mahan's Worth as Writer and Historian," Marine-Rund- 
 
 schau, 1908. 
 " Lessons from Mahan for To-day," Charles C. Gill, Sea 
 
 Power, September 1919. 
 " Alfred Thayer Mahan," Professor William Milligan Sloane, 
 
 Columbia University Quarterly, March 1916. 
 " The White Race and the Mastery of the Sea," J. Sachs, 
 
 Vienna, 1909. 
 
 23 
 
340 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 " Notre Puissance Maritime et le Livre de Mahan," Leonce 
 
 Abeille, Paris, 1912. 
 " Captain Mahan on Maritime Power," Professor J. K. 
 
 Laughton, Edinburgh Review, October 1890 and April 
 
 1893. 
 " Captain Mahan," Austin Taylor, B.A., President Liverpool 
 
 Philomathic Society, 1898. 
 " Captain Mahan's ' Nelson,' " William O'Connor Morris, 
 
 Fortnightly Review, vol. Ixi. 
 " The New Nelson," Spenser Wilkinson, The National Review, 
 
 vol. xxix, July 1897, 
 *' Life of Nelson," George Sydenham Clarke, The Nineteenth 
 
 Century, vol. xli, June 1897. 
 " Nelson and his Biographers," David Hannay, Macmillan's^ 
 
 May 1897. 
 " Rear-Admiral Mahan," Rev. George Wm. Douglas, D.D., 
 
 The Churchman, December 12, 1914. 
 " Alfred Thayer Mahan : An Appreciation," Rear- Admiral 
 
 C. H. Stockton, The Churchman, December 19, 1914. 
 "Captain Mahan's Life of Nelson," Professor J. K. Laughton, 
 
 Edinburgh Review, vol. clxxxvi, July 1897. 
 *' Nelson," J. R. Thursfield, Quarterly Review, vol. clxxxvii, 
 
 January 1898, 
 *' Admiral Mahan's Warning," Fortnightly Review, vol. xciv, 
 
 1910. 
 Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, 1905. 
 "The Peace Conference at the Hague," G. F. W. Holls. 
 *' Mahan on Naval Warfare," Allan Westcott, 1918. 
 *' The Navy as a Fighting Machine," Rear-Admiral Bradley 
 
 A. Fiske, 1916. 
 " Memories of Annapolis," Samuel Ashe, South Atlantic 
 
 Quarterly, July 1919. 
 " Types of Naval Officers," Captain Borckenhagen, Marine- 
 
 Rundschau, 1902, No. 5. 
 Report of the Proceedings of the Hague Conference, 1899. 
 *' Freedom of the Seas," Brooklyn Eagle, November 13, 1918. 
 Report of the Proceedings of the Hague Conference, 1899. 
 "jThe Inherent Tactical Qualities of All-big-gun, One-calibre 
 
 Battleships of High Speed, Large Displacement, and 
 
 Gun Power," Admiral William S. Sims. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 341 
 
 *' The Great Illusion " (reply), Norman Angell, North 
 American Review, June 1912. 
 
 *' Fallacies of Captain Mahan," L. A. Mead, Arena, Sep- 
 tember 1908. 
 
 " Sea Power and Freedom," Gerard Fiennes. 
 
 " History of the United States Naval War College, Newport." 
 
 " After Work," Edward Marston. 
 
 *' Captain Mahan : The Great Strategist," Andrew Deir, 
 Nautical Magazine, November 1904. 
 
 *' The Story of our Navy for Young Americans," W. J.Abbot, 
 1910. 
 
 Encyclopaedia Britamiica : Biographical Sketch ; " Com- 
 mand of the Sea," and " Sea Power," Sir Cyprian 
 Bridge ; " Navy and Navies," David Hannay. 
 
 Biographical Sketches and Portraits in numerous other 
 Encylopaedias and Periodicals. 
 
 A number of Translations of Mahan's Works in French, 
 German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, by Comte A. 
 de Diesbach, M. Boisse, M. Gaston Fournier, Professor 
 Izoulet, Ensign de Rivoyre, the Club of Japanese Naval 
 Officers (Tokyo), Mr. M. Minakami, and others. 
 
 Obituary notices in representative publications throughout 
 the world on or about December 2, 1914. 
 
CHRONOLOGY 
 
 1840. September 27, Alfred Thayer Mahan born at West 
 Point, New York, son of Professor Dennis Hart 
 Mahan of the U.S. Mihtary Academy. 
 
 1854-1856. Columbia College. 
 
 1856. September 30, entered the third class, U.S. Naval 
 Academy, as Acting Midshipman. Appointed from 
 the 10th Congressional District of New York. 
 
 1859. June 9, graduated as Midshipman. 
 
 1859-1861. Frigate Congress, Brazil station. 
 
 1861. August 31, promoted to Lieutenant. Converted 
 steamer James Adger for ten days. 
 
 1861-1862. Steam corvette Pocahontas, in the Potomac 
 flotilla ; capture of Port Royal, November 7, 1861 ; 
 South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. 
 
 1862-1863. Naval Academy at Newport, Rhode Island. 
 First Lieutenant in the Macedonian during the 
 summer practice cruise to England in 1863. 
 
 1863-1864. Steam corvette Seminole, West Gulf Block- 
 ading Squadron. 
 
 1864-1865. James Adger; staff of Rear-Admiral Dahlgren, 
 South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. 
 
 1865-1866. Double-ender Muscoota. 
 
 1865. June 7, promoted to Lieutenant-Commander. I 
 
 1866. Ordnance duty, Washington Navy Yard. 
 1867-1869. Steam sloop Iroquois, to Asiatic station, via 
 
 Cape of Good Hope. Detached in 1869 ; returned 
 
 via India, Rome, and Paris. 
 1869. Commanding gunboat Aroostook, Asiatic station. 
 1870-1871. Navy Yard, New York. 
 
 1871. Worcester, home station. 
 
 1872. Promoted to Commander. Receiving ship, New 
 
 York. 
 
 342 
 
CHRONOLOGY 343 
 
 1873-1874. Commanding side-wheel steamer Wasp in the 
 
 Rio de la Plata. 
 1875-1876. Navy Yard, Boston. 
 1877-1880. Naval Academy, Annapolis^ 
 1880-1883. Navy Yard, New York. 
 1883-1885. Commanding steam sloop Wachussett, South 
 
 Pacific Squadron. 
 1885. Promoted to Captain. Assigned to Naval War 
 
 College, as Lecturer on Naval History and Strategy. 
 1886-1889. President of Naval War College. 
 1889-1892. Special duty, Bureau of Navigation. Member 
 
 of Commission to choose site for navy yard in Puget 
 
 Sound. 
 1892-1893. President of Naval War College. 
 1893-1895. Commanding cruiser Chicago, flagship of Rear- 
 
 Admiral Erben, European station. 
 1894. D.C.L., Oxford; LL.D., Cambridge. 
 1895-1896. Special duty at the Naval War College. 
 
 LL.D., Harvard. 
 
 1896. November 17, retired as Captain on his own applica- 
 
 tion after forty years' service. 
 1896-1912. Special duty in connection with Naval War 
 College. 
 
 1897. LL.D., Yale. 
 
 1898. Member of Naval War Board during Spanish- 
 
 American War. 
 
 1899. Delegate to Hague Peace Conference. 
 
 1900. LL.D., Columbia. 
 
 1902. President of the American Historical Association. 
 
 1903. LL.D., Dartmouth. 
 
 1906. June 29, Rear-Admiral on the retired list. 
 
 1908. Appointed by President Roosevelt a member of the 
 
 Commission to report on the reorganisation of the 
 Navy Department ; Chairman of a joint Com- 
 mission on Naval Affairs ; and a member of a Sub- 
 Committee on Department Methods. 
 
 1909. LL.D., MagiU. 
 
 1914. December 1, died at the Naval Hospital, Washington. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbott, General Henry L., 2 
 
 Abonkir, H.M.S., 293 
 
 AlEiskan botmdary, Roosevelt on, 
 203 
 
 Alexander, James W., 282 
 
 Alexander, William, x, 282 
 
 Algeciras, 191 
 
 Alger, General Russell, M. de- 
 molishes, 201 
 
 All-big-gun ships, 204 ; M. and 
 Sims on, 212, 213 
 
 Altschul, Charles, analysis of 
 American school histories, 240 
 
 America, v, vii ; M.'s counsels to, 
 201 ; transformation naval and 
 maritime Power, 217 ; most 
 glorious day in annals of, 217; 
 finds her soul, 218 ; as money 
 maker, 218 ; as world's banker, 
 218 ; preservation of peace, 
 219 ; Red Cross gift, 219 ; Eng- 
 lajid's gratitude, 222 ; the am- 
 icable majority, 226 ; M.'s 
 message to, 228-44 ; imlimited 
 markets, 228, • 229 ; land of 
 boiindless opporttmity, 229 ; 
 international responsibilities, 
 230, 231 ; deplorable school 
 histories, 239, 240, 240 (note) ; 
 needs M., 240 
 
 American Church Institute for 
 negroes, 266 
 
 American naval officers, 66 
 
 Anegada Passage, 191 
 
 Anglo-American relations, 106 ; 
 community of interests, 147, 
 151, 152 ; never better than 
 to-day, 150; Admiral Sims a 
 naval link, 170, 171 ; co-opera- 
 tion American and British 
 navies, 175, 176 ; Admiral 
 Bayly on American destroyers, 
 176 ; no difficulty unsolvable by 
 arbitration, 203 ; M. on Anglo- 
 American reunion, 215-17, 224, 
 227 ; J. M. Beck, 219 ; Dr. 
 
 Manning, 219 ; American Red 
 Cross, 219 ; Canada and Cana- 
 dian Pacific Railway unde- 
 fended, 220 ; first Anglo- 
 American reunion, 220, 221, 
 221 (note) ; Chichester, 223 
 (note) ; growth of good feeling, 
 223 ; Prince of Wales on, 224 ; 
 Roosevelt on, 224, 225 ; co- 
 operation of Anglo-American 
 naval forces, 225 ; amicable 
 majority in America, 226 ; M.'s 
 message to Americans, 228 ; 
 American school histories, 240, 
 240 (note) ; M. on Anglo- 
 American friendshipj 305, 306 
 
 Anglo-Japanese Alliance, M.'s 
 disapproval of, 181 
 
 Anglo-Saxondom, 143, 146, 217, 
 222 
 
 Annapolis Naval Academy, 7, 
 7 (note), 8, 9, 10 
 
 Arbitration, M.'s views, 173, 197, 
 198 ; Roosevelt's views, 203, 
 204 
 
 Armaments and Arbitration, 112, 
 172, 173, 175, 176, 272; see 
 Bibliography 
 
 Army and Navy Journal, 24 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 68, 248 
 
 Aroostook, gunboat, 18 
 
 Arthur, President Chester A. , 24 ; 
 birth of the new American Navy, 
 161 
 
 Asami, Commander K., 266-8 
 
 Ashe, Hon. Samuel, x, 8, 257, 258, 
 305 
 
 Assignation, The, 248 
 
 AthenEeum Club entertains M., 
 74, 206 
 
 Athenceum,, The, 194 
 
 Atlanta, U.S.S., 162 
 
 Atlantic Monthly,n2, 113,114, 206 
 
 Audubon, John J., 3 
 
 Audubon, the Misses Eliza, Lucy, 
 and Annie, 3 
 
 345 
 
346 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Australia, coolie immigrants, 203 
 Austria, 282 
 
 Babson, Roger W., 280 
 
 Bacon, Sir Francis, 41 
 
 Baker, Hon. Newton D., 57 
 
 Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur, x ; 
 enthusiastic admirer of M., 304 
 
 Balthis, H. H., 138 
 
 Bancroft Hall, Annapolis, 8 
 
 Bancroft, Hon. George, 7 
 
 Banqueting House, Whitehall 
 Palace, 102, 102 (note) ; Rubens 
 ceiling, 102, 103 (note) 
 
 Barker, Captain A. S., 88 
 
 Barnes, James, x 
 
 Barnes, Captain Jolin S., 45, 92 
 
 Battleship fleet, division of, 204 
 
 Battleships, M. and Simsi on 
 A.B.G. ships, 211-13; import- 
 ance of speed, 212 ; 12-inch 
 versus 6- inch guns, 212 ; 
 rapidity of hit'ing all important, 
 212 
 
 Bayard, Hon. T. F., American 
 Ambassador, 63, 73 ; writes to 
 M., 74, 75 
 
 Bayley, Clive, x 
 
 Bayly, Admiral Sir Lewis, com- 
 mends iVmerican destroyer 
 flotilla, 176 
 
 Beatty, Admiral Earl, x, 209 ; 
 tribute to M., 225, 226 
 
 Beck, James Montgomery, 219 
 
 Bee, naval story about, 161 
 
 Bell, General Franklin, 109 
 
 Beresf ord. Admiral Lord (Charles), 
 45 ; tribute to M.'s books, 134, 
 135, 287 
 
 Berry, Sir Edward, Flag-Captain 
 at the Nile, 86 
 
 Bible, the, literary beauty of, 
 256, 256 (note) 
 
 Bigelow, Poultney, ex-Kaiser's 
 telegram to, 131 
 
 Bliss, Captain Tasker, 32 
 
 Blockade, 141, 147, 153, 155, 156; 
 effect of, 158 ; prejudiced by 
 neutrals, 159 ; M. predicts suc- 
 cess of British, 209 ; in Ameri- 
 can Civil War, 234, 235, 241, 
 242 ; conflict of opinions, 237 
 
 Boer War, non- justiciable, 173 ; 
 M. on, 188 
 
 Boers, mental attitude, 187 ; Lord 
 Roberts on, 188 
 
 Bosnia-Herzegovina, 191 
 
 Bosphorus, 211 
 
 Bosto7i, U.S.S., 162 
 
 Boswell, 273 
 
 Brass tablet, 260 
 
 Brathwaite, Dr. F. G., x, 62 
 
 Bridge, Admiral Sir Cyprian, 40, 
 45, 235 (note) 
 
 Bridges, Robert, x, 282 
 
 Britain, 3, 13 ; British Empire, 
 105 ; maritime supremacy of, 
 49 ; M.'s lesson to, 143 ; and 
 warnings, 140, 141, 213, 214; 
 the beneficent coloniser, 215 ; 
 sympathy with America, 223 ; 
 solidarity of, 281 ; tribute from 
 M., 281, 305 
 
 Britain and the World's Peace, 157, 
 158, appendix 
 
 British Army, 141 (note) ; annihi- 
 late Prussian Guard, 141 (note) 
 
 British Columbia, coolie immi- 
 grants, 203 
 
 British officer, M. eulogises, 187 
 
 British Transport Service, M.'s 
 praise of, 186 
 
 Brooklyn Eagle, on Freedom of the 
 Seas, 154, 155 
 
 Brownell, Atherton, 279 
 
 Browning, Robert, 270 
 
 Buckingham, Lieut., 34 
 
 Buff on, 246 (note), 251 
 
 Bullen, Frank, eulogy of British 
 mercantile marine, 210 
 
 Buller, General, 189 
 
 Bunce, Admiral, 37 
 
 Burrows, Captain Montague,R.N., 
 66, 67 
 
 Butler, Dr., Master of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, 72 
 
 Cambridge, Duke of, 72, 103; 
 
 notifies M. of award of Chesney 
 
 Gold Medal, 103, 104; M.'s 
 
 appreciation, 105 
 Cambridge University confers 
 
 degree of LL.D., 70-2 
 Cambro-Briton, 41 (note) 
 Campbell, John, historian, 27 
 Canada, 205 ; undefended fron- 
 tier, 220 ; loyalty, 220 ; hostage 
 
 for peace, 220 
 Canadian Pacific Railway vm- 
 
 defended, 220 
 Canning, 220, 221 
 Capture of Private Property at Sea 
 
 (Corbett), 153 
 Caribbean Sea, 134 ; Germany's 
 
 ambitions, 151 ; strategic 
 
 features of, 191, 192 
 
INDEX 
 
 347 
 
 'Carnegie Institute, 285 
 
 Carter, Frederick B., tribute to 
 
 M., 262 (note) 
 Century Club, 282 
 Century Magazine, 112, 117, 203 
 Chamberlain, Joseph, Anglo- 
 American friendship, 216 (note) 
 Chandler, Secretary, vigorous 
 
 naval policy, 24, 161 
 Charles I, King, 102, 102 (note) 
 Charleston, surrender of, 17 
 Chesney Gold Medal, 102-6 ; 
 awarded to M., 103-5, 153 (note) 
 Chesney, Sir George, 104, 106 
 Cheston, Eugenia M., 285 
 Chevalier, Michel, 27, 65 (note) 
 Chicago, U.S.S., 61, 62, 63, 70, 78, 
 
 79, 162, 164 
 'Chichester, Captain, 223 (note) 
 Choate, Hon. Joseph, 145 
 Church of the Atonement, 
 Quogue, L.I., brass tablet, 260 ; 
 M.'s regular attendance, 262 
 Churchill, Winston, 263 
 Churchman, The, 269 
 Clark, Admiral Sir Bouverie, ix, x, 
 23, 65, 86, 124, 178; on his 
 friendship with M., 179, 180, 
 184 ; Director of Transports, 
 186; praise from M., 186; 
 friendly tribute to M., 189 ; 193, 
 210, 272, 273, 274, 284 
 Clarke, Sir George Sydenham 
 (now Lord Sydenham), tribute 
 to M., 133, 134; onM.'sstates- 
 manshiiD,190 ; criticises M., 201- 
 203; 216 (note) ; Anglo-Ameri- 
 can reunion, 217 
 Clarke, Herbert, 248 
 Clas Merdin, 41 
 Clausewitz, 26, 209 
 Cleveland, President, Venezuela 
 
 incident, 183, 202 
 Clover, Commander Richardson, 
 
 88 
 Club of Naval Officers, Tokyo, 114 
 Coke, Sir Edward, 41, 41 (note) 
 Colbert, 27 
 
 Collier, Robert J., 118, 119 
 Collier's Weekly, 118, 119 
 Collomb, Admiral, 26, 41 ; on 
 
 M.'s style, 255 
 Columbia University Quarterly, 129 
 Commander - in - Chief, Channel 
 
 Squadron, entertains M., 77 
 Commerce destroying, 236 
 Concentration, principle of naval 
 strategy, 138 
 
 Congress, U.S. frigate, 14, illus- 
 tration facing 14 
 Congressional Record, The, M. 
 
 and Sims on A.B.G. ships, 212 
 Connaught, H.R.H. Duke of, 62 
 Constantin'ople, 184 
 Constellation, U.S. frigate, 37 
 " Contemptible little Army," The, 
 
 142 (note) 
 Contraband, 153 
 
 Converse, Admiral George A., 167 
 Cook, Frances Kent, 222 
 Coolie immigrants, Roosevelt on, 
 
 203 
 Cooper, Fenimore, 7, 12 
 Corbett, Sir Julian, on capture of 
 
 private property at sea,144, 153, 
 
 153 (note), 154 
 Cornwallis, General, 18, 231, 232, 
 
 233, 239 
 Co)Tespondence and Commentaries, 
 
 Napoleon, 49 
 Court, British, influence of, 281 
 Cowles, Admiral William S., 108 
 
 (note) 
 Cressy, H.M.S., 293 
 Crete, 191 
 
 Crowninshield, Admiral, 88 
 Crozier, Captain M. W., 94 
 Cuba, strategic value of, 191, 192 
 
 Dahlgren, Admiral, 17 
 
 Daily Mail, editor of, x,190 (note); 
 Britain and the world's peace, 
 157, 158, 190 ; M.'s warnings, 
 213, 213 (note), 214, Appendix 
 
 Daily Telegraph, M. predicts sur- 
 render German fleet, 209 
 
 Dale, Admiral Arthur Taylor, 186 
 
 Daniels, Hon. Josephus, Secretary 
 of the Navy, x, 36, 102, 150 
 (note), 181 (note), 263, 275, 286; 
 tribute to M., 289 
 
 Dardanelles, control of, 184 ; im- 
 pregnability of, 211 
 
 Dartmouth confers LL.D., 107 ; 
 M.'s address at, 262 
 
 Darwin, 245 
 
 Davison, Charles Stewart, x, 145 
 (note) ; see Appendix 
 
 Day, Hon. William A., on moral 
 victory, 219 
 
 Despotism and Liberty, 221, 221 
 (note) 
 
 Devine, Edward T., 280 
 
 Dewey, Admiral George, 150 ; 
 first President General Board, 
 167 
 
348 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Disraeli, 182 
 
 Dorking, The Battle of, 106 
 
 Drinkwater, account of battle of 
 
 St. Vincent, 79 
 Ducie, Earl of, 79 
 Dutch Navy League, 108 
 
 East London, 248 
 
 Eberle, Admiral E. W., x, 7 
 
 Edison, Thomas E., 48 
 
 Edinburgh Revieiv, 45 
 
 Edward VII, H.M. King, 62 ; M. 
 
 invited to meet, 72 
 Efficiency, definition of, 58 
 Egypt, 193 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 73, 188 (note) 
 Elliot, Dr. Charles W., 263, 280 
 Enchantress, Government yacht, 
 
 61 
 Enemies of human progress, 227 
 England, 41, 57, 68 ; as mistress 
 
 of the seas, 77 ; finds her brains, 
 
 218 ; preservation of peace, 
 
 218, 219 ; irreproachable Court 
 
 of, 281 
 English people, 68, 77 
 English Princesses visit flagship 
 
 Chicago, 62 
 Equitable Life Assurance Society, 
 
 U.S.A., 219, 282 
 Erben, Admiral, 61, 63, 64 
 Evans, Admiral Robley, 108, 108 
 
 (note) 
 Evening Post, The, 78 
 
 Faisneau, Newport, 37 
 
 Farnol, Jeffery, 21, 296 
 
 Farquhar, Admiral Norman, 10 
 
 Farragut, Admiral, Life of, 53, 54 ; 
 greater than Grant, 56 ; life of, 
 78 
 
 Farragut, Loyall, 24, 54 
 
 Fiennes, Gerard, 132 
 
 Fighting Fleets, 223 
 
 Fiske, Admiral Bradley, x ; tri- 
 bute to naval power and Great 
 Britain, 76-7; 130; how M. 
 stimulated growth of navies, 
 132,133; 168 (note) ; pen pic- 
 ture of M., 299 ; 305 
 
 Flying Squadron, 186 
 
 Folger, Admiral William M., 108 
 (note) 
 
 Forum, The, 112 
 
 Fouche, Joseph, 131 
 
 Fournier, L., 127 
 
 Fox, Charles James, 49 
 
 Fox, Captain G. V., 16 
 
 France, British Fleet protects, 
 
 141 ; Battle of the Marne, 141 ; 
 Paris and the Channel ports, 
 
 142 ; France " perfide," not 
 England, 305 
 
 Frederic, Harold, 84 
 
 Frederick the Great, 266 
 
 Freedom of the Seas, 144-60 ; 
 German catch-phrase, 145 ; M. 
 intervenes, 145 ; warns Presi- 
 dent, 145-7 ; General Board's 
 opinion, 150-2 ; President 
 Wilson's formula, 154 ; Admiral 
 Sims defines, 157 ; see Appendix 
 
 Freeman, Edward, 40 
 
 Free Trade, M.'s views on, 182 
 
 Fremantle, Admiral Sir Edmund, 
 45 
 
 From, Sail to Steam, 10, 12, 19 
 (note), 23, 71 ; pviblished, 123, 
 124; 178 ; estimate of Pitt, 234 ; 
 commerce destroying, 236; 246 
 (note), 256 (note), 259 
 
 Future in Relation to Am^erican 
 Naval Power, The, 161, 336 
 
 Gailor, Bishop, 263 
 
 General Board of the Navy, ques- 
 tion immunity private property 
 at sea, 148, 149 ; opinion of, 
 150-2 ; advocates close rela- 
 tions with England, 151, 152; 
 establishment of, 167, 168 
 
 Genius, definition of, 112 
 
 George V, H.M. King, 62; as 
 Master of Trinity House, 72 
 
 German Emperor, 107 ; " devotir- 
 ing " telegram to Poultney 
 Bigelow, 131 ; admirer of M., 
 132 ; champions growth of 
 Navy, 132 ; message to Kruger, 
 186 
 
 German people violate stipula- 
 tions Hague Conference, 94, 97, 
 144; 156 
 
 Germany violates Hague conven- 
 tions, 94, 97, 144 ; maritime 
 vulnerability, 146 ; desirous 
 extending colonies, 151 ; sub- 
 marine piracy, 154 ; psychology 
 of, 155 ; British Navy sole 
 power to control, 172 ; force 
 alone prevented plunder of 
 civilised world, 173 ; menace 
 of, 181, 182 ; inevitable tenden- 
 cies of, 190, 191 ; African terri- 
 tory, 197 ; Roosevelt's feelings 
 towards, 204 ; M.'s views, 204— 
 
INDEX 
 
 34^ 
 
 206 ; possible heir to Holland 
 
 and Dutch colonies, 205 ; M.'s 
 
 warnings, 213, 214 ; despotism, 
 
 221 ; responsibility for war, 281, 
 
 282 
 Gibraltar, Governor of, entertains 
 
 M., 77 
 Giddings, Prof. Franklin H., 280 
 Gladstone, W. E., 46 
 " Go," signal to British fleet, 141 
 "God or chance," 266 
 Goodrich, Admiral Caspar, x, 29, 
 
 45, 78 ; extols M.'s Sea Power 
 
 in its Relations to the War of 
 
 1812, 125, 137, 138 
 Grasse, Admiral de, 231, 232, 233 
 
 (note) 
 Graviere, Admiral Jurien de la, 
 
 235 (note) 
 Greene, Commander Samuel Dana, 
 
 10, 24 
 Greene, Sir W. Graham, 291 
 Greer, Bishop David H., 266, 271 
 Guadaloiipe, 197 
 Guild, Ciu-tis, 280 
 Oidf and Inland Waters, The, 23, 29 
 Gulf of Mexico, 134 ; strategic 
 
 features of, 191, 192 
 Gurney, 185 
 
 Hague Conference 1899, 94-101 ; 
 
 poison gases, 94-7 ; Monroe 
 
 doctrine, 97, 98 ; M.'s logic, 99, 
 
 100; 145; see Bibliography 
 
 Hague Conference, Second, 145, 
 
 149 
 Hague War Regulations violated 
 
 by Germans, 144 
 Hale, Senator, 230 
 Halifax, 41 
 Hall, George G., x 
 Hall, William Briggs, 9, 10 
 HalVs International Law, mari- 
 time capture, 152, 153 (note) 
 Halsey, Francis W., on M.'s style, 
 
 253 
 Hamilton, Admiral Sir Vesey, 64 
 Hamley, Sir Edward Bruce, 26 
 Hannav, David, criticises M., 254, 
 
 255 " 
 Hannibal, inability to use sea 
 
 power, 25 ; 49 
 Harbord, Colonel James G., 172 
 Harper & Brothers, 123, 124 
 Harper'' s New Monthly, 112 
 Harrison, President, new era for 
 
 American Navy, 162 
 Hart, Albert Bushnell, 280 
 
 Harvard confers LL.D., 107 ; 263 
 
 Harvest Within, The, 126, 259, 28& 
 
 Hatfield House, 73 
 
 Hawaii, 204 
 
 Hay, Hon. John, 63, 147, 194, 195;. 
 
 Life of, "257 (note) 
 Hazing, 10 
 
 Herbert, Secretary, 33, 34 
 Higginson, Captain Francis J., 91, 
 
 92 ; complimentary letter from,. 
 
 136 
 Hillman, Lieut. Lemiael, x 
 History of the Consulate and Em- 
 pire, Thiers' s, 49 
 History of France, Henri Martin's,. 
 
 27 
 History of Rome, Mommsen's, 26, 
 
 27 
 History of the United States, M.'s 
 
 intention to write, 283 
 Hogue, H.M.S., 293 
 Holder, Lieut. -Colonel A., 106 
 Holls, Fredk. W., 94, 98 
 Hood, Admiral, 232 
 Hornby, Admiral Sir Geoffrey 
 
 Phipps, 26, 45, 46, 63 
 House in the Wood, The, 94 
 Howe, Admiral Lord, 65, 65 (note) 
 Howland, William B., 278 
 Hunt, Secretary, vigorous naval 
 
 policy, 161 
 Hunter, John W., 280 
 
 Imperial Democracy, 182 
 
 Independent, The, 277 
 
 Influence of Sea Power upon the 
 French Revolution and Em,pire, 
 The, helps save War College, 34 ; 
 publication of, 49 ; opinion of 
 Sir John Laughton, 49 ; other 
 opinions, 50-2, 53 ; Chesney 
 Gold Medal, 104; 165; opinion 
 oi Athena:um, 194; 211, 292 
 
 Influence of Sea Power vpon His- 
 tory, The, lectures the necleus 
 of, 39 ; publication, 45 ; recep- 
 tion of, 45-7 ; question of origin- 
 ality, 47, 48 ; compared with 
 Influence Sea Power French Re- 
 volution, 49 ; opinion of War 
 Department, 51; 101 ; Chesney 
 Gold Medal, 104; 113; Ad- 
 miral Fiske on, 130 ; " de- 
 voured " by Kaiser, 155 ; dawn 
 of new era, 162; 211, 242 (note) ; 
 fascinating, 253 ; world-wide 
 influence, 286, 287 ; 292 ; see 
 Bibliography 
 
^50 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Inside of the Cup, The, M.'s 
 criticism of, 263 
 
 Interest of America in Inter- 
 national Conditions, 127 ; warn- 
 ing to Britain, 140; 154, 191 ; 
 predictions about the late war, 
 208-10 ; see Bibliography 
 
 Interest of America in Sea Power, 
 Present and Future, 112, 114; 
 translated into Japanese, 116; 
 effort to awaken public opinion, 
 165 ; Sydenham Clarke's 
 
 criticisms of, 201 ; Anglo- 
 American re-union, 215 ; see 
 Bibliography 
 
 International Law, 146 ; mari- 
 time capture, 152, 153 (note) ; 
 197-9 
 
 Irish vote, 305 
 
 Iroquois, steam-sloop, 18 
 
 Isthmus of Panama, 191 
 
 Italy, M. predicts abandonment 
 of Triple AUiance, 209, 214 
 
 -Jamaica, strategic value, 191 ; 
 
 dramatic history, 192 
 James Adger, U.S.S., 15, 17 
 James, William, 27, 65 (note) 
 Jane's Fighting Ships, opinion of 
 
 new American Dreadnoughts, 
 
 164 (note) 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 221, 221 (note), 
 
 222 
 Jeune, Sir Francis (afterwards 
 
 Lord St. Helier), entertains M., 
 
 73 ; on M. and command of the 
 
 sea, 135 
 Johnson, Prof. Emory, 280 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 5 ; on 
 
 friendship, 178; 245, 273 
 Johnston, J. Herbert, x 
 Jomini, 26, 27, 49, 57 (note), 65 
 
 (note), 130, 235 
 Jones, Inigo, 102, 103 (note) 
 Jordan, Dr. David Starr, 280 
 Justiciable and non-justiciable, 
 
 197, 198, 203, 204 
 Jutland, battle of, 155 
 
 Kaempffert, Waldemar, 280 
 
 Kaneko, Hon. Kentaro, writes 
 preface to Japanese translation 
 of M.'s Interest of America in Sea 
 Power, Present and Future, 116, 
 117 
 
 Keppel, Admiral Sir Henry, 62 
 
 JCimberley, Earl of, 68 
 
 Jiipling, Rudyard, 41 
 
 Kitchener, Lord, commends West 
 
 Point Military Academy, 4 ; 155 
 Kittelle, Commander Sumner E., 
 
 U.S.N., 150, 167 
 Knight, Admiral Austin Melvin, 36 
 Kobe and Osaka, treaty ports, 
 
 opening of, 18 
 Kruger, Paul, message from 
 
 Kaiser, 186 ; M.'s estimate of, 
 
 189 
 
 Labouchere, Henry, 99 
 
 Lafayette, General, 3 
 
 La Perouse-Bonfils, 27 
 
 Latin- Americans, M.'s views on, 
 182, 183 
 
 Laughton, Sir J. K., vi, 26, 41, 45, 
 49, 93 ; influence of the Sea 
 Power books, 135 ; on M., 300 
 
 League of Nations, 174 (note), 175 
 
 Leigh, Dr. A. Austen, Vice- Chan- 
 cellor, Cambridge University, 
 70 
 
 Leslie's Magazine, 112, 277, 279 
 
 Lessons of the War with Spain, 92, 
 112; Puerto Rico, 192, 193; 
 see Bibliography 
 
 Lei'ant, sloop-of-war, 14 
 
 Life of Doctor Sanderson, The, 302 
 
 Life of Farragut, 53, 54, 78 
 
 Life of General Grant, 54 
 
 Life of George Herbert, The, 302 
 
 Life of Napoleon, 248 
 
 Life of Nelson, The, 78-87 ; 6,000 
 copies sold, 84 ; eulogies of, 81- 
 84 ; M.'s ambitions concerning, 
 87 ; 104, 112 ; worth shipload of 
 treaties, 206; 211 ; praised by 
 Spectator, 252 ; criticised by 
 David Hannay, 254, 255 ; 292, 
 302 ; see Bibliography 
 
 Lion,B.M.S., 164(note) 
 
 Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 83, 
 127 
 
 Little, Captain McCarty, 32, 57 
 (note), 75 
 
 Little Navyites routed by M., 305 
 
 Liverpool Philomathic Society, 
 47, 251, 296 (note) 
 
 Livy, 49 
 
 Lloyd George, David, 218 
 
 Lodge, Senator Henry Cabot, x, 
 59, 117, 196; Monroe doctrine, 
 197 ; on arbitration treaties, 
 199 ; battleships, 200 ; Japan- 
 ese question, 200 
 
 London, M.'s liking for, 303 
 
INDEX 
 
 351 
 
 Long, Secretary, eulogises Naval 
 War Board, 89 ; 103, 104; story 
 about M., 201 ; 223 (note) 
 
 Lord Mayor of London, 63 
 
 Loreburn, Lord, 145 
 
 Lotos Ckib, 282 
 
 Louis XIV, 249 
 
 Low, Hon. Seth, 94 ; illustration 
 facing 96 ; eulogy of M., 101 
 
 Luce, Admiral Stephen B., 24, 25, 
 28, 28 (note), 29, 31, 44, 45, 59, 
 108 
 
 McCalla, Admiral Bowman H., 
 letter of appreciation, 165, 166 
 
 Meaellan, General, 4, 189 
 
 McClure's, 112, 206 
 
 McCook, Commander Roderick, 
 10 
 
 Macedonian, U.S.S., 17 
 
 McGill University confers LL.D., 
 107 
 
 McKinley, President, 201 
 
 Madison, President James, 221, 
 221 (note), 222 
 
 Mahan, Admiral Alfred Thayer : 
 birth, 1 ; Irish Catholic grand- 
 parents, 1 ; pronunciation of 
 name, 2 (note), 297 (note) ; be- 
 comesProtestant, 3; admiration 
 for the English people, 3 ; goes 
 to school at Hagerstown, Md., 4; 
 goes to Columbia, 4 ; revels in 
 stories of naval life, 5 ; sees 
 Jefierson Davis, 5 ; nominated 
 for Naval Academy, 5 ; ap- 
 pointed acting midshipman, 6 ; 
 goes to Annapolis, 7 ; his 
 standing in class, 8 ; intellec- 
 tual qualities, 8 ; sits for paint- 
 ing of Rose Standish, 9 ; jumps 
 one year's class, 9 ; his fond- 
 ness for registers and time- 
 tables, 9; Class" 55 Date," 9; 
 hazing, 10 ; clumsy fingers, 10 ; 
 opinion of usual version of 
 attack at Trafalgar, 11 ; comet 
 of 1858, 11 ; not allowed to 
 read Uncle Toni's Cabin, 11 ; 
 the wisdom of never contriving 
 an opportunity, 12 ; on keeping 
 servants waiting, 12 ; the 
 manywhere British soldier, 13 ; 
 appointed to U.S. frigate Con- 
 gress, \4:; promoted lieutenant, 
 15 ; serves on U.S.S. James 
 Adger, 15 ; active service 
 U.S.S. Pocahontas, South Atlan- 
 
 tic Blockading Squadron, 15 ;. 
 suggests construction of 
 "mystery ship," 15 ; first lieu- 
 tenant Macedonian, 17 ; or- 
 dered to Seminole, West Gulf 
 Blockading Squadron, 17 ; on 
 ■ staff of Admiral Dahlgren, 17 ; 
 sends his savings to Southern 
 officers, 17; serves on Mwscoota,. 
 18 ; tropical fever, 18 ; pro- 
 moted lieutenant-commander, 
 1 8 ; ordnance duty, Washington 
 Navy Yard, 18 ; appointed to 
 steam-sloop /rog'wois, 18; " Ma- 
 han's Valley," 18 ; commands- 
 gunboat Aroostook, 18; returns 
 home by way of India, 18 ; six 
 months' leave in Europe, 18 ; 
 the awakening, 19, 20 ; leisure ta 
 write, 21 ; promoted comman- 
 der, 21 ; commands Wasp, 21 ; 
 shore duty, 21 ; commands- 
 steam -sloop Wachusett, 21; 
 marriage, 21 ; family life, 22^ 
 23 ; in a new world of thought, 
 23 ; military ideas, 23 ; his 
 first book, 23 ; influence of 
 Mommsen's History of Rome, 25; 
 accepts Luce's invitation, 25,. 
 29, 30 ; his lack of qualifica- 
 tions, 26 ; the plan formed, 26 ;; 
 exhaustive research, 26, 27 ; 
 arrival at War College, 30, 31 ; 
 overcomes all opposition, 31 ; 
 he saves the College, 34, 35 ; 
 President of the College, 38 ; 
 the first lectures, 38, 39 ; sent 
 to Puget Sound to select Navy 
 Yard site, 38, 38 (note) ; adop- 
 tion of term " Sea Power," 42 ; 
 conception of original lectures,. 
 42, 43, 44 ; publication of The 
 Influence of Sea Power upon 
 History, 45 ; instant recogni- 
 tion, 45 ; translations into 
 foreign languages, 45 ; tributes 
 from many distinguished men, 
 45-7 ; claim to originality, 47, 
 
 48 ; process of his literary evo- 
 lution, 48 ; publishes The Iiv- 
 fluence of Sea Power upon the 
 French Revolution and Empire, 
 
 49 ; opinions of Sir J. Laugh- 
 ton, 49, 50; W. O'Connor 
 Morris, 50 ; the London Times, 
 
 50 ; U.S. War Department, 51^ 
 52 ; the lessons of his master- 
 pieces, 52 ; again appointed 
 
552 
 
 INDEX 
 
 President of Naval War College, 
 53 ; publishes Life of Admiral 
 Farragut, 53 ; applies for ex- 
 tension of shore leave, 57, 68 ; 
 refused, 57 ; appointed to com- 
 mand of Chicago, 61 ; invita- 
 tion from Earl Spencer, 61 ; 
 dines with Viceroy of Ireland, 
 61 ; invited to dinner by Queen 
 Victoria, 61 ; meets the Prince 
 of Wales, the Duke of York, 
 and others, 62 ; entertained at 
 Havre, 63 ; kindness of Mr. 
 Schiff's family, 63 ; Sampson 
 Low dinner in his honour, 63 ; 
 public banquet, 63 ; enter- 
 tained by Royal Navy Club, 64, 
 65 ; Oxford, degree of D.C.L., 
 66-8; Cambridge, degree of 
 LL.D., 70-2 ; Corporation of 
 Trinity House invites to meet 
 Prince of Wales, 72 ; courtesy 
 of Lord Rosebery, 72, 73 ; 
 dinner and ball at Buckingham 
 Palace, 73 ; lion of the London 
 season, 74 ; his name men- 
 tioned for Chair Modern His- 
 tory, Cambridge, 75 ; writes 
 Life of Nelson, 79 ; method of 
 writing biography, 79, 80 ; 
 lectures on Nelson, 80 ; reviews 
 of Life of Nelson, 81, 82 ; letter 
 from Lord Nelson, 82, 83 ; 
 appointed to Naval War Board, 
 ■88 ; cables suggestions naval 
 strategy, 88, 89 ; travels in- 
 cognito from Italy, 89 ; recom- 
 mends undivided responsibility 
 adviser on naval affairs, 89, 90 ; 
 ■on Sampson-Schley controversy, 
 90 ; reports on Naval War 
 Board, 93 ; delegate to first 
 Hague Conference, 94 ; attitude 
 on poison gases, 94-7 ; em- 
 barrasses Mr. White, 100 ; tri- 
 bute from Seth Low, 101 ; 
 naval strength and peace, 101 ; 
 awarded Chesney Gold Medal, 
 102-6 ; his service to Great 
 Britain, 106 ; retires after 
 forty years, 107 ; special duty 
 at Naval War College, 107 ; 
 Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dart- 
 mouth, and McGill confer 
 degrees, 107 ; President Ameri- 
 can Historical Association, 107; 
 honorary member of literary 
 .societies, 107, 108 ; birthday 
 
 congratulations, 108 ; reorgani- 
 sation of Navy Department, 
 108 ; on National Defence, 109 ; 
 lectures at Naval War College, 
 111 ; detached from official 
 duty, 111 ; contribiites articles 
 to numerous magazines, 112; 
 publication of The Interest of 
 America in Sea Power Present 
 and Future, Lessons of the War 
 with Spain, The Problem of 
 Asia, Retrospect and Prospect, 
 Some Neglected Aspects of War, 
 Naval Administration and War- 
 fare, Armaments and Arbitra- 
 tion, 112, 113; invited to 
 write for Atlantic Monthly, 113 ; 
 Japanese and other translations, 
 114; Senator Lodge's opinion, 
 117 ; publishes Types of Naval 
 Officers, 117 ; and The Story of 
 the War in South Africa, 118; 
 German translation thereof, 
 118; French translation of 
 The Interest of America itt Sea 
 Power, 119; produces From 
 Sail to Steam, 123 ; The Har- 
 vest Withi}i, 126 ; Major Opera- 
 tions of the Navies in the War 
 of Am,erican Independence, 126 ; 
 The Interest of America in 
 International Conditions, 127 ; 
 and Naval Strategy, 127; 
 lectures in Boston, 126 ; French 
 translation of Naval Strategy, 
 127 ; " Buy more Mahan," 128 ; 
 showed how sea power over- 
 came Napoleon, 130 ; gives 
 enemy England's whole system 
 of peace, 131 ; books translated 
 into German, 132 ; influence 
 upon German Emperor, 131, 
 132 ; upon foreign navies, 133 ; 
 upon British naval policy, 133 ; 
 tributes from distinguished men, 
 134-5 ; regeneration of British 
 Navy traced to, 135, 136 ; pen- 
 sion for widow, 137 ; $1.20 de- 
 ducted from pay, 137 ; doctrine 
 of concentration, 138 ; world- 
 wide influence, 138, 139, 140, 
 141 ; warning Britain, 140, 141 ; 
 warns President danger immu- 
 nity private property at sea, 
 145-7 ; on British political 
 parties, 146 ; Germany's vul- 
 nerability at sea, 146 ; Anglo- 
 American community of inter- 
 
INDEX 
 
 353 
 
 ests, 147 ; Anglo-Saxon civlisa- 
 "tion saved, 159, 160 ; influence 
 begins to be felt, 162 ; defini- 
 tion of Monroe doctrine, 165 ; 
 efiorts to stimulate increase of 
 American Navy, 1 65 ; his share 
 in establishment General Board, 
 167, 168 ; Admiral Sims's tri- 
 bute, 169, 170 ; his great part 
 in creation of American Navy, 
 171 ; peace views, 172, 173, 175, 
 176 ; advocated strong Ameri- 
 can Navy, 175 ; in British Navy 
 best hope for peace, 176 ; 
 warns posterity, 176 ; shyness, 
 178 ; friendship with Admiral 
 Sir Bouverie Clark, 178-89 ; a 
 staiuich Republican, 180 ; im- 
 pressions of Democratic Party, 
 180, 181 ; anti-Home Ruler, 
 181 ; disapproves of Liberal 
 Government, 181 ; no sym- 
 pathy with Anglo- Japanese 
 alliance, 181 ; no use for the 
 Turk, 181 ; the menace of Ger- 
 many, 181 ; his common sense, 
 182; on free trade, 182 ; on the 
 Latin-American, 182, 183 ; 
 praises British Transport Service, 
 
 186 ; eulogises British officer, 
 
 187 ; as statesman, 190-207 ; 
 his foresight, 190 ; his warnings, 
 190 ; Gvilf of Mexico and Carib- 
 bean Sea, 191, 192 ; apprecia- 
 tion of Roosevelt, 194 ; high 
 praise from Athenceum, 194 ; 
 on Channel tunnel, 196 ; on 
 Monroe Doctrine and Arbitra- 
 tion Treaties, 197, 198 ; on 
 international law, 197-9 ; 
 Sydenham Clarke's criticisms, 
 201-3 ; " incapable of advo- 
 cating wrongdoing," 203 ; on 
 Germany and the Monroe Doc- 
 trine, 204-6 ; qualities of a 
 statesman, 207 ; as prophet, 
 208-14 ; predicts details of late 
 war, 209, 214 ; lack of sym- 
 pathy with Germany, 208 ; pre- 
 dicts surrender German fleet, 
 209 ; importance mercantile 
 marine, 210 ; unceasing advo- 
 cate of more battleships, 210 ; 
 Admiral Sims not in agreement, 
 212, 213 ; warnings about Ger- 
 many, 213, 214 ; his share in 
 winning war, 143, 160, 177, 214 ; 
 sound judgment, 214 ; Anglo- 
 
 American re-union, 215-17, 223, 
 224, 227 ; message to America, 
 228-44 ; fearless accuracy, 231 ; 
 on commerce destroying, 236 ; 
 immunity private property, 
 237 ; appreciation of British, 
 ■237 ; on sea power in American 
 Civil War, 241, 242 ; a public 
 benefactor, 244 ; literary traits, 
 245-56 ; neology, 247 ; hand- 
 writing, 247 ; a purist, 250 ; 
 style reflects character, 251 ; 
 criticised by David Hannay, 
 254-5 ; inelegancies, 255 ; one 
 of Forty Immortals, 255 ; his 
 priceless message to mankind, 
 256 ; greatest writer America 
 has produced, 256 ; religious 
 convictions, 257-71 ; literary 
 beauty of the Bible, 257 ; prone- 
 ness to ill-temper, 258 ; trusted 
 by all, 258 ; spiritual beliefs, 
 259 ; generosity, 260, 261 ; 
 brass tablet to, 260 ; extols 
 Hope, 261, 262 ; Revision of 
 Prayer Book, 263 ; supports 
 foreign missions, 264 ; Seamen's 
 Church Institute, 264, 265 ; 
 " best informed man upon war,' ' 
 264; his spiritual message, 269 ; 
 irreproachable conduct, 271 ; 
 promoted Rear-Admiral, 272 ; 
 physical vitality, 273 ; his Long 
 Island home, 273, 274 ; lucra- 
 tive offers, 274, 277-9 ; " muz- 
 zled," 275 ; ajjpeals from 
 " muzzling order," 275, 276 ; 
 tribute to British fleet, 281 ; Ger- 
 many's reponsibility for war, 
 281, 282 ; his favourite clubs, 
 282 ; waning strength, 284 ; 
 peaceful end, 284-95 ; funeral, 
 285 ; goodness and humility, 
 285 ; obituary notices, 286-92 ; 
 apprehensions shovild Germany 
 prevail, 294 ; his place in his- 
 tory, 296 ; opinion of, 297, 
 298 ; no orator, 298 ; cause 
 of lack of recognition, 298 ; 
 natural literary tendencies, 298; 
 a sound strategist, 299 ; devo- 
 tion to duty, 299 ; world-en- 
 compassing mind, 299, 300 ; 
 physique and appearance, 300 ; 
 his voice and eyes, 300 ; 
 strength of character and shy- 
 ness, 301 ; indifference to dress, 
 301 ; as husband and father, 
 
354 
 
 INDEX 
 
 301 ; friend, 302 ; surf bath- 
 ing and bicycling, 303 ; sound 
 common sense, 303 ; opposed 
 to female suffrage, 303 ; 
 lucidity and sincerity, 304 ; 
 absent-mindedness, 304 ; essen- 
 tially a teacher, 306 ; no monu- 
 ment to his memory, 306 ; 
 mental distress about German 
 Navy, 306 
 Mahan, Mrs. Alfred Thayer, vii, 
 X ; her marriage, 21 ; source of 
 encouragement to her husband, 
 22 ; her children, 22 ; question 
 of pension, 137 ; 166, 243 
 types hiisband'sMSS.,247; 271 
 home in Long Island, 273, 274 
 tribute from British Ambassa- 
 dor, 283 
 Mahan, Master Alfred Thayer, 22 
 Mahan, Commodore Dennis Hart, 
 
 22 
 Mahan, Prof. Dennis Hart, 1, 2, 4 
 Mahan, Miss Ellen Evans, 22 
 Mahan, Major Frederick, 22, 60 
 Mahan, Miss Helen Kuhn, 22 
 Mahan, Miss Jane Leigh, x, 23 
 Mahan, Lvle Evans, 22 
 Mahan, Rev. Milo, 4, 266 
 Mahan Hall, Annapolis, 8, illus- 
 tration facing 8 
 Mahan on Naval Warfare, Dr. 
 
 Allan Westcott, 8, 154 
 Mahan, U.S. destroyer, 306 
 
 (note) 
 Mahan's Counsels to the United 
 States, Sydenham Clarke's 
 criticisms, 201-3 
 Major Operations of the Navies in 
 the War of American Indepen- 
 dence, 126, 272 
 Malta, 193 
 
 Manila, battle of, 162, 223 (note) 
 Manning, Dr. William Thomas, 219 
 Marcus Aurelius, x, 175 
 Marengo, Napoleon's charger, 103 
 Margin of naval strength, 130-43 
 predominating influence of, 130 
 M.'s responsibility for, 130 
 saves France, 141, 142 ; saves 
 the world, 142, 143 
 Marine engineering, effect of M.'s 
 
 books, 305 
 Marine Rundschau, M.'s lack of 
 
 sympathy with Germany, 208 
 Maritime commerce, M. studies 
 • trade statistics, 27; 133, 144, 
 146, 237 
 
 Mame, battle of the, 141, 142 
 
 Marryat, Captain Frederick, 7, 12^ 
 
 Marshall, General W. L., 109 (note) 
 
 " Marshmere," 185 (note), 273, 
 274 
 
 Marston, R. B., 42. 48, 83, 84, 119, 
 196, 292, 293 ; M.'s last letter 
 to, 293, 294 
 
 Martinique, 191, 197 
 
 Maxse, L. J., editor National 
 Review, 119-23 
 
 Mercantile marine, its supreme 
 importance, 209, 210 ; Frank 
 BuJlen on British, 210 (note) 
 
 Merrimac, iron-clad, 14 
 
 Milford Haven, Admiral the Mar- 
 quess of, 66 
 
 Minakami, M., translates into 
 Japanese The Interest of 
 America in Sea Power, 116 
 
 Mississippi, mouth of, 191 
 
 Mississippi, U.S.S., 164 (note) 
 
 Mona Passage, 191 
 
 Monitor, iron-clad, 10 
 
 Monroe doctrine, M.'s interven- 
 tion at Hague Confererice, 97- 
 9 ; American declaration, 99 ; 
 M.'s definition of, 165, 173; 
 non - justiciable, 173 ; M.'s 
 views, 197, 198 ; impossible to 
 arbitrate, 204; M. on, 204-6; 
 origin of, 220, 221 ; 241 
 
 Monroe, President, 221, 221(note), 
 222 
 
 Moody, Hon. Wm. H., 108 (note) 
 
 Moore, Prof. John Bassett, 284, 
 284 (note) 
 
 Morley of Blackburn, Viscoiuit, 61 
 
 Morning Post, The (London), 
 appreciation of M., 208 ; eulogy 
 of M., 287, 288; 299 
 
 Morris, William O'Connor, 50, 53, 
 248 
 
 Morton, Hon. Paul, 108 (note) 
 
 Murphy, Major Grayson, 219 
 
 Murray, Congressman Ambrose S., 
 5 
 
 Muscoota, U.S.S., 18 
 
 Napoleon the Great, M. studies, 
 26, 27, 49, 50 ; cause of down- 
 fall, 130, 169; 193, 306 
 
 National Review, 112, 119-23 
 
 Naval Administration and Warfare, 
 90, 108, 112; see Bibliography 
 
 Naval and Military Museum, 102, 
 103 
 
INDEX 
 
 355 
 
 Naval History Society library, 
 New York, 92 
 
 Naval War Board, Washington, 
 88-93 ; M. appointed to, 88 ; 
 see Bibliography 
 
 Naval War College, Newport, 
 establishment of, 24, 28, 29 ; 
 arrival of M., 30 ; his efforts to 
 save, 31 ; 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 
 38, 39, 53, 169 
 
 Naval Strategy, 127, 128 ; French 
 translation, 127 ; warning to 
 Britain, 140 ; impregnability 
 of Dardanelles, 211 
 
 Navies, American : 7, 7 (note), 35 ; 
 expenditures, 140 ; indifference 
 towards, 161 ; birth of the new 
 Navy, 161 ; dawn of new era, 
 162 ; condition in 1903, 163 ; 
 naval programme of 1916, 163 ; 
 new battleships and cruisers, 
 163, 164; takes second place, 
 164 (note) ; Jane's opinion of 
 new ships, 164 (note) ; Naval 
 War Budget, 164 (note) ; in- 
 fluence of General Board, 167 ; 
 M.'s great part in creation of, 
 
 171 ; eulogy of, 223. British : 
 margin of strength over that of 
 Germany, 130 ; expenditures, 
 140 ; saves France, 141, 142 ; 
 and the world, 142, 143 ; lesson 
 to Central Military Powers, 142, 
 143 ; 151 ; effective blockade by, 
 156 ; benefits America, 156 ; 
 Admiral Sims on, 157 ; Queen 
 Elizabeth and Lion, 164 (note) ; 
 sole power to control Germany, 
 
 172 ; best hope for peace, 176 ; 
 Transport Service Boer War, 
 186 ; a deterrent from war, 190 ; 
 predominant influence of, 208 ; 
 M. approves strategy, 280 ; M.'s 
 tribute to, 281 ; predominance 
 of, 294. German : inferior 
 strength to that of Britain, 130 ; 
 translations of M.'s books on 
 every warship, 132 ; expendi- 
 tures, 132, 140 ; growth in- 
 fluenced by M., 133 ; Admiral 
 Sims on, 157 ; M. predicts sur- 
 render of, 209, 214 ; created by 
 Influence of Sea Power upon 
 History, 286 ; M.'s mental dis- 
 tress about, 306. Japanese : 
 117, 133; expenditures, 140; 
 defeat of Russian fleet, 211, 
 212 
 
 24 
 
 Navy as a Fighting Machine, 
 The, 132, 168 (note) 
 
 Navy Department, reorganisa- 
 tion of, 108, 337 ; announce- 
 ment of M.'s death, 292 
 
 Navy League ■ of Great Britain, 
 syiVipathy of, 289 
 
 Navy Records Society, expres- 
 sion of appreciation, 291 
 
 Nelson, Admiral Lord, 50, 78-87 ; 
 M. writes Life of, 79 ; M. lec- 
 tures on, 80 ; Nelson the in- 
 comparable, 85 ; presentiment 
 of death, 85 ; cotirted death at 
 Trafalgar, 188; 193, 233 
 
 Nelson and his Biographers, 255 
 (note) 
 
 Nelson, Lord (the late Peer), 73, 
 82, 83 
 
 Neutrals, prejudicial to effective 
 blockade, 159, 159 (note) 
 
 New American Navy, The, 89 ; M. 
 demolishes Secretary of War, 
 201 
 
 Newberry, Truman H., 149 
 
 Newel, Hon. Stanford, 94 
 
 Newport, Rhode Island, 13, 13 
 (note) 
 
 New York Press, eulogy of M., 240 
 
 Nineteenth Century, 201 
 
 Noel, Admiral of the Fleet Sir 
 Gerard, 45 
 
 North American Review, 112 ; 
 Anglo-American re-union, 215; 
 263 
 
 North Sea, 138, 141, 157 
 
 Offa, King of Mercia, 41 
 
 Offence and defence compared, 
 
 187 
 Oman, Admiral Joseph Wallace, 
 
 X, 53 (note) 
 Organisation, 218 
 Oriental Association of Tokyo, 
 
 114, 115, 116 
 Oxford, 66-70, 71 
 
 Page, Walter Hines, 226 
 
 Paine, Ralph, 223 
 
 Panama Canal, M.'s article in 
 Century, 203 
 
 Parker, Commodore, x, 35 (note) 
 
 Peace won by sea power, 177 ; will 
 be preserved by, 177; cooperation 
 American and British navies, 
 175, 176, 217 ; raw materials. 
 
356 
 
 INDEX 
 
 176 (note) ; in British Navj^ best 
 hope, 176 ; Canada a hostage 
 for, 220 
 
 Pears, Sir Edwin, 185 
 
 Peloponnesian War, 49 
 
 Peninsular War, Napier's, 23 
 
 Pennsylvania, Dreadnought, 164, 
 164 (note), 165 
 
 Pensacola, 191 
 
 Perrin, W. G., 291 
 
 Persians, 274 
 
 Peterborough, Bishop of, 68 
 
 Philippines, 197 
 
 Phillimore, Admiral Sir Augustus, 
 46 
 
 Pilgrims Society, 226 
 
 Pitt, WiUiam, 35, 49, 233 ; M.'s 
 estimate of, 234 
 
 Poison gases, M.'s attitude on, 
 94-7 ; Germany introduces, 94, 
 97 
 
 Polk, President James K., 7 
 
 Pollock, Sir Frederick, on Life of 
 Nelson, 206 
 
 Porter, Admiral, 29 
 
 Portland, Maine, 230 
 
 Private property at sea subject 
 to capture, 144-59 ; opinion of 
 Sir Julian Corbett, 144, 153, 
 164 ; M. warns President, 145- 
 147 ; Elihu Root on immunity, 
 148, 149 ; subject submitted to 
 General Board, 149 ; traditional 
 policy of United States, 150; 
 General Board endorses M., 
 150 ; Charles Stewart Davison 
 on, 145 (note). Appendix ; M. 
 on, 158, 237 
 
 Problem of Asia, 112, 207, 223; 
 see Bibliography 
 
 Pronunciation of Mahan, 2 (note), 
 297 (note) 
 
 Prussianism, 156, 306 
 
 Puerto Rico, strategical import- 
 ance of, 192, 193 ; 197 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, H.M.S., 164 (note) 
 
 Radstock, Lord, 73 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 41, 208 
 Ravenscroft, Conmiander G. M., 
 
 X, 7 
 Raw materials influence for peace, 
 
 175 (note) 
 Redfield, Hon. William C, x 
 Reed, Senator, 230 
 Religion, definition of, 270, 271 
 
 Remey, Admiral George Collier, 
 10 
 
 Retrospect and Prospect, 17, 112, 
 119 ; see Bibliography 
 
 Rhodes, James Ford, tribute to 
 M., 291 
 
 Richard, Dr. Ernst, 280 
 
 Rivojrre, Ensign, translates Naval 
 Strategy into French, 127 
 
 Roberts, Lord, 46, 62 ; wishes M. 
 to write military history, 63 ; 
 158 ; writes to Mahan, 187, 188 ; 
 on Boers as tacticians, 188 
 
 Rochambeau, General, 18, 231, 
 232 
 
 Rodgers, Admiral Raymond T., 
 tribute to M., 290 
 
 Rogers, Mrs., 37 
 
 Roosevelt, Hon. Franklin, x 
 
 Roosevelt, Hon. Theodore, x, 36, 
 45 ; appeals for shore service 
 for M., 59 ; 78, 79 ; appointed 
 Naval War Board, 88 ; Roose- 
 velt Rough Riders, 88 ; ap- 
 points M. member of Commis- 
 sion on Reorganisation Naval 
 Department, 108 ; and Com- 
 mission on Naval Defence, 109 ; 
 popularity of 109, 1 10 ; letter 
 of appointment to members of 
 Commission, 110, 111 ; opinion 
 of M., 139 ; feelings towards 
 England, 203, 204 ; the '" one 
 man." 204, 204 (note) ; warned 
 by M. danger immxuiity private 
 property at sea, 145-7 ; replies 
 to M., 147, 148 ; eulogises M., 
 171, 174, 193, 194 ; M.'s appre- 
 ciation of, 194 ; on Alaskan 
 boundary, 203 ; on coolie im- 
 migrants, 203 ; Anglo-Ameri- 
 can arbitration, 224, 225 ; 
 Senatorial apprehension, 229, 
 230 ; 243, 245 ; gives M. free 
 hand, 277 (note) 
 
 Root, Hon. Elihu, on immvmity 
 private property at sea, 148, 
 149 ; 199 
 
 Rosebery, Earl of, 72, 73 
 
 Rothschild, Lord, 73 
 
 Royal Navy Club of 1765 and 
 1785, 64, 65, 66 
 
 Royal United Service Institxition, 
 102-6 ; awards Chesney Gold 
 Medal, 103-5 ; elects M. honor- 
 ary member, 106 ; 300 
 
 Rubens, 102 
 
 Russia, predicted weakness of, 209 
 
INDEX 
 
 357 
 
 Saigo, Count, Japanese Minister 
 of the Navy, 116 
 
 St. Loe (or St. Lo), Captain G., 41 
 
 St. Heller, Lord, see Jeune 
 
 St. Kitts, 232 
 
 St. Thomas, 191 
 
 St. Thomas's Episcopal Church, 
 Washington, 285 
 
 St. Vincent, Admiral Lord, 50 
 
 Saints, battle of the, 233 
 
 Salamis, battle of, 11 (note) 
 
 Salisbury, Marquess of, 72 ; en- 
 tertains M. at Hatfield, 73 ; 298 
 
 Sampson, Admiral William T., 17, 
 29, 45 
 
 Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 
 give dinner in honour of M., 63 ; 
 request opinion Channel tunnel, 
 195 ; see Marston 
 
 Sandys, Dr., Public Orator, Cam- 
 bridge, 71 
 
 Santa Lucia, 191 
 
 Santiago, battle of, 162, 201 
 
 Santo Domingo, 191 
 
 Saumarez, Lord de, 135 
 
 Schley, Admiral, 45 
 
 Schroeder, Admiral Seaton, 167 
 
 Schwartz, General C, 118 
 
 Scott, Dr. James Brown, 237 
 
 Scott, Sir Percy, 293 
 
 Scribner's Magazine, 90, 112, 282 
 
 Scudder, Horace E., invites M. to 
 write for Atlantic Monthly, 113 
 
 Sea, the, nature's highway, 216 ; 
 potent factor in national pros- 
 perity, 228 ; American indiffer- 
 ence towards, 229 
 
 Seamen's Church Institute, 264, 
 264 (note) 
 
 Sea of Japan, battle of, 211, 212 ; 
 M.'s Reflections on, 211 ; Ad- 
 miral Sims not in agreement, 
 212, 213 
 
 Sea Power, ix, 20, 27, 40,41, 48, 52; 
 in the Pacific, 117 ; overcame 
 Napoleon, 130 ; British Sea 
 Power saves France, 141, 142 ; 
 lesson of, to Central Military 
 Powers, 142, 143 ; won peace, 
 and will preserve it, 177 ; M. pre- 
 dicts success of, 209, 214 ; Ad- 
 miral Beatty on, 226 ; in 
 American Civil War, 241, 242 ; 
 sovereign virtue of, 287 ; sea 
 power and M., 297 
 
 Sea Power and Freedom, 132 
 
 Sea Power in its Relations to the 
 War of 1812, 57, 124, 125, 126, 166 
 
 Sea Power in the Pacific Ocean, 
 Japanese translation of The 
 Interest of America in Sea Power, 
 117 
 
 Seeley, Prof. Sir John, 75 
 
 Seminole, U.S.S., 17 
 
 Se'rata, Admiral, 267 
 
 Servia, 282 
 
 Shakespeare, 41, 41 (note), 187 
 
 Sheldon, Gilbert, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, 68 
 
 Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 68 
 
 Shepherd, Prof. William R., 280 
 
 Sherman, General, 10, 17, 28 
 
 Sicard, Admiral Montgomery, 
 88 
 
 " Silent Pressure, The," 194 (note) 
 
 Sims, Admiral William S., x ; in- 
 fluence of M.'s doctrines, 133 ; 
 tribute to British Fleet, 157 ; 
 defines Freedom of the Seas, 
 157 ; tribute to M., 168-70 ; 
 bom vmder British flag, 170 ; 
 differs with M. on A.B.G. ships, 
 212, 213 ; description of, 223 
 
 Single-ship combats, ineffective- 
 ness of, 234-6 ; lesson for 
 Englishmen, 235 (note) 
 
 Sleicher, John A., 279 
 
 Sloane, Prof. William Milligan, 
 tribute to M., 129 
 
 Smith, Rev. Ernest, 285 
 
 Soley, Prof., 32 
 
 Som,e Neglected Aspects of War, 
 112, 153, 191 ; see Bibliography 
 
 Sonnets of this Century, 248 
 
 South Africa, coolie immigrants, 
 203 
 
 South America, German ambitions 
 in, 151, 205 
 
 South Atlantic Quarterly, 8 
 
 Spanish-American War, 88-93 ; 
 non- justiciable, 173 
 
 Spectator, The, eulogy of M.'s Life 
 of Nelson, 252 
 
 Spencer, Earl, First Lord of the 
 Admiralty, gives dinner in 
 honour of M., 61 
 
 Sperry, Admiral Charles S., 109, 
 167 
 
 Spirit of Missions, The, 264 
 
 Spring-Rice, Cecil, British Am- 
 bassador, tribute to M., 283 
 
 Stanley of Alderley, Lord, 73 
 
 Stevens and Brown, 281 
 
 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 246 
 
 Stewart, Admiral Sir William 
 Houston, 65 
 
358 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Stockton, Admiral Charles H., 22, 
 
 37, 107; congratulates M., 161, 
 
 162 ; appreciation of M., 268 
 Story of the War in South Africa, 
 
 118 ; German translation, 118 ; 
 
 Admiral Clark's help, 180 ; 
 
 British Transport Service, 186; 
 
 189 ; see Bibliography 
 Straight Deal or The Ancient 
 
 Grudge, A, 137 (note) 
 Strait of Florida, 191 
 Style, definition of, 255, 256 
 Submarine piracy, 154 
 Suez Canal, 193 
 Swift, Admiral WilUam, 167 
 Swinburne, Admiral William T., 
 
 167 
 Sydenham, Lord, see Clarke 
 
 Taylor, Austin, tributes to M., 
 47, 251, 252, 296 
 
 Taylor, Commander H. C, Presi- 
 dent War College, 35 ; saves 
 College, 36 ; initiates establish- 
 ment General Board, 167 ; 167, 
 168 
 
 Teck, Duke of, 72 
 
 Tennyson, 41 
 
 Thatched House Tavern, St. 
 James's Street, 102 
 
 Thayer, General Sylvanus, 4 
 
 Thayer, William Roscoe, 257 
 (note) 
 
 Thiers, 49 
 
 Thomson, James, poet, 88 
 
 Thucydides, 40 
 
 Times, The (London), 46, 50, 292 
 
 Times, The New York, 84 ; 
 eulogy of M., 101 ; on M.'s 
 style, 253 ; on his death, 286 
 
 Tirpitz, Admiral von, builder of 
 German Navy, 132 
 
 Togo, Admiral Count, x ; tribute 
 toM., 115 
 
 Tracy, Secretary, initiative of, 34, 
 162 
 
 " Trafalgar," 82 
 
 Trafalgar, battle of, 11, 33, 65 
 (note) ; model of, 103 ; 155 ; 
 Nelson courts death, 188 
 
 Trask, Katrina, 207 
 
 Trinity Church, Old New York, 
 tribute to M. in Parish Record, 
 288 
 
 Trinity House, Corporation of, 
 invites M. to meet Prince of 
 Wales, 72 
 
 Triple Alliance, 191 ; M. predicts 
 
 Italy's secession from, 209 
 Triple Entente, 191 ; M. predicts 
 
 Italy's conversion to, 209 
 Troude, Aimable Gilles, French 
 
 Admiral, 65 (note) 
 Truth, pen-picture of M., 99 
 Turk, the, M.'s views on, 181, 184, 
 
 185, 305 
 Twentieth - Century Christianity, 
 
 263 
 Tyndall, Prof., tribute to M., 135 
 Types of Naval Officers, 118 
 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin, 11 
 
 Undaunted, H.M.S., 287 
 
 United States Naval Institute, 
 eulogy of M., 135 ; regenera- 
 tion of British Navy traced to 
 him, 135 ; Proceedings of, 212, 
 237 
 
 University Club, New York, x, 
 282 
 
 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 264 
 Vanderlip, Frank, 280 
 Venezuela incident, 183, 202 
 Vernon-Mann, Mrs., x, 301 
 Victoria, H.M. Queen, 62, 73 ; 
 
 speaks kindly of M.'s books, 73 ; 
 
 disciplines Kaiser, 186 
 Victory of June 1, Lord Howe's, 
 
 65, 65 (note) 
 Victory, the, 188 
 
 Wachusett, steam-sloop, 21, 25, 
 29, 179 
 
 Wainwright, Admiral Richard, 
 109 (note), 167 
 
 Wales, Prince of (afterwards 
 King Edward VII), M. invited 
 to meet, 62, 72 ; expresses wish 
 that M. should attend Levee, 74 
 
 Wales, Edward, Prince of, on 
 Anglo - American tmderstand- 
 ing, 224 
 
 Walker, Admiral, 29, 45 
 
 Walton, Izaak, 302 
 
 War of Independence, the naval 
 factor, 231 ; superior strength 
 of French and Spanish fleets, 
 231 ; Washington's foresight, 
 231, 232 ; motive of French 
 Government, 233 
 
INDEX 
 
 359 
 
 War of 1812, 234-6 ; sterile out- 
 come of, 234 ; lesson for 
 Englishmen, 235 (note) ; erro- 
 neous impression of, 236 
 Warburton, Frank, 265 
 Wars of the French Republic, 
 
 Jomini, 49, 65 
 Washburn, Prof. H. C, 237 
 Washington, George, letters to 
 Lafayette and Rochambeau, 
 231, 232, 233 (note) ; 239 
 Wasp, U.S.S., 21 
 Welsh, Hon. Charles, 6 
 Wemyss, Admiral, 223 
 West Indies, Germany's ambi- 
 tions in, 151 
 West Point, 1, 1 (note), 2, 2 (note) 
 Westcott, Dr. Allan, 8, 154 
 Wetherspoon, General W. W., 
 
 109 (note) 
 Whitaker's Almanack, 220 (note) 
 White, Hon. Andrew D., Presi- 
 dent American delegation First 
 Hague Conference, 94 ; poison 
 gases, 95, 97 ; Monroe doctrine, 
 98, 99 ; embarrassed by M.'s 
 dispassionate logic, 100, 158, 159 
 White, Arthur Silva, 216 (note) 
 White, Hon. Henry, American 
 
 Embassy, 86, 87, 243 
 Whitehead torpedo, 103 (note) 
 Whitney, Secretary William C, 
 33, 38, 38 (note), 63 
 
 Wiley, Dr. Edwin, x,-35 (note) 
 William of Orange, 249 
 Williams, Dr. Talcott, 280 
 Wilson, General James Grant, 54 
 Wilson, President, freedom of the 
 
 seas, 154; question of war, 217 ; 
 
 2i8 ; muzzling order, 275 
 Windward Passage, strategic 
 
 value of, 191, 192 ; 211 
 Winslow, Admiral Cameron M., 
 
 109 (note) ; on origin of General 
 
 Board, 167, 168 
 Wister, Owen, Congress ignorant 
 
 of M., 137 (note) 
 Woods, Dr. H. G., President of 
 
 Trinity, Oxford, 66, 67 
 World Missionary Conference, 264 
 World's Work, 112 
 Wren, Sir Christopher, 68 
 
 Yale confers LL.D. on M., 107 
 Yates, Captain Arthur, 32 
 Yellow Peril, M. warns posterity, 
 
 176 
 York, Duke of (afterwards King 
 
 George V), "M. invited to meet, 
 
 62, 72 
 Yorktown, 231, 232, 233, 239 
 Yucatan Channel, 191 
 
 Zeppelins, M.'s prediction, 214 
 
 Printed by Hazeil, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England. 
 
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