The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-01-04
Meaning of Cruise.

Captain A. T. Mahan tells in the Scientific Ameri-
can of the meaning of the Pacific cruise of the Amerl
fleet He says:
81 hold it be impossible that fleet under a COM
petent commander-in-chief and competent captains
not to mention the admirable junior staff of our
navy of highly trained officers in the prime of life
make the proposed voyage once, with the
advantages of peace without being better fitted to
repeat the operation in No amount of care
full Encouragement in office takes the place of
doing the thing itself 1t is surely safe generali-
zation that no complicated scheme of action, no
invention, was ever yet started without giving rise
to difficulties which anxious care had failed fore
see. If challenged to point the most useful les
the fleet may gain, may be not unsafe to say
Its surprises, the unexpected If trust press
reports surprise has already begun in the home ports
The fleet apparently has not been able to get ready
as soon as contemplated If so, it will be small
gain to the Government to know the several bitches
each small, but cumulative.
I'm my estimation, therefore, the matter stands
thus: In the opinion of Sir Charles Dilke-than
whom | know no sounder authority because while
non-professional he has been for generation most
accurate observer and apprecative student of mill
tary and naval matters-the United States navy
stands second in power only to that of Great Britain;
but is not strong enough be divided between the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Both are part of
mon country; BOTH therefore, equally entitled to
defense 1t follows inevitably that the fleet should
be always ready not only in formulated plan but by
acquired experience, to proceed with the utmost
Notwithstanding to the definition of mobility be-
fore suggested-from coast to the other, as need
ed. That facility obtained both coasts are defended
in a military sense By this | do not mean that an
enemy may not do some flying injury-serious in
ury-but that large operation against the coasts
of the United States prosper, unless the enemy
commands the sea- and that he cannot do, to any
effect, if within three months a superior United
States force can appear Rodestvensky took longer,
but could he have smashed Togo, as Togo did him,
what would have been the situation of Japan for all
the successes of the preceding fourteen months? Evi
IDENTIFY, however, the shorter the transit from the
Pacific to the Atlantic the greater will be the power
of the fleet for good, just it would have been bet
ter if Rodjestvensky -assuming his success-had
come before Port Arthur fell, better still, before
its fleet was destroyed Such mobility be
CURED only by familiarity with the ground and
with the methods to be followed, such Nelson by
personal experience had of the Mediterranean and of
he West Indies of the facilities they offered and
he obstacles they presented. Such knowledge is
gained only by practice. 1t is demon
rable therefore, that the proposed voyage is in the
highest degree PRACTICAL not only advisable, but inn
erative Nor should it be single spasm of action,
tut recurrent procedure; for admrals and cap
aims go and come, and their individual experience
With them. Why not annual?"