3

Written in April-May
1886, and never since
revised. A. T. M.

Fleet Battle Tactics.

It is trite to say that in approaching the study of Naval War-
fare under present conditions, we have before us a problem that is
not one wholly new, but also one as to which we have to guide us
little or no practical information, on which to base any certain
conclusions.

We have three recognized weapons, the familiar Gun, Ram and Tor-
pedo; familiar in name, but save one, most unfamiliar in use, in place
of the one with which our forefathers had to trouble themselves;
for as to boarding, when it came to that, the hour for science was
over and that of simple brute force was begun.

Of our three weapons we have experience in the use of one, the
Gun; experience I mean, to a greater or less extent, under the actu-
al condition of use at sea; although there is doubtless a tendency
on the part of many of us to choose, for our little expenditures of
ammunition, conditions of wind and weather which will favor a good
target report. Still we must all have had forcibly impressed upon
us the fact that our guns are on a very restless platform, and must
have imbibed a certain indifference to the wonderful accuracy of
modern guns at very long ranges. Their great advantage to us lies
in the flatness of their trajectory at moderate ranges, in the in-
crease of the point blank and low elevation ranges. There is lack
ing to our service experimental knowledge of the comparitive accu-
racy of guns fired nearly in the fore andaft line in a sea way;