Part 29
In these subjects and my way of viewing them, I suppose that ten years ago, before our war with Spain, I was ahead of the times, at least in my own country, and to some extent helped to turn thought into present channels; much as to my exposition of sea power has been credited a part of the impulse to naval development which characterizes to-day. Immediately after the Spanish War I seemed to some, if I may trust their words, to have done a bit of prophecy; while others laid to my door a chief share in the mistaken direction they considered the country to be taking. Of course, I was pleased by this; I have never pretended to be above flattery judiciously administered: but, while confident still in the main outlook of my writing, I know too well that, when you come to details, prediction is a matter of hit or miss, and that I have often missed as well as hit in particulars. "It is all a matter of guess," said Nelson, when tied down to a specific decision, "but the world attributes wisdom to him who guesses right." This is less true of the big questions and broad lines of contemporary history. There insight can discern really something of tendencies; enough to guide judgment or suggest reflection. But I am now sixty-seven, and can recognize in myself a growing conservatism, which may probably limit me henceforth to bare keeping up with the procession in the future national march. Perhaps I may lag behind. With years, speculation as well as action becomes less venturesome, and I look increasingly to the changeless past as the quiet field for my future labors.
THE END
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Worcester, quoting from _Falconer's Marine Dictionary_, defines "Grommet" as "a small ring or wreath, formed of the strand of a rope, used for various purposes."
[2] J. R. Soley, _The Blockade and the Cruisers_, 1883. Scribner's, _Navy in the Civil War_.
[3] This statement when written rested on my childhood's memory only. A few months later there came into my hands a volume of the publications of the British Navy Records Society, containing the Recollections of Commander James Anthony Gardner. 1775-1814. Gardner was at one time shipmates with Culmer, who it appears eventually received a commission. By Gardner's reckoning he would have been far along in the forties in 1790. The following is the description of him. "Billy was about five feet eight or nine, and stooped; hard features, marked with the small-pox; blind in an eye, and a wen nearly the size of an egg under his cheek-bone. His dress on a Sunday was a mate's uniform coat, with brown velvet waistcoat and breeches; boots with black tops; a gold-laced hat, and a large hanger by his side like the sword of John-a-Gaunt. He was proud of being the oldest midshipman in the navy, and looked upon young captains and lieutenants with contempt."
[4] The _Navy Register_ of 1842 shows the number appointed in 1841 to have been two hundred and nineteen.
[5] That is, within a quarter of a point on either side of her course. A "point" of the compass is one-eighth of a right angle; e.g., from North to East is eight points.
[6] _Naval Letters of Captain Percival Drayton._ Edited by Miss Gertrude L. Hoyt. 1906. Pages 10, 3, 4.
[7] The anchoring chains pass from inboard through the hawse-holes to the anchor. When left bent on soundings, the sea, if rough, will rush through them copiously. To prevent this in part, conical stuffed canvas bags were dragged in from outside. These were called "jackasses."
[8] Acknowledgment is here due to Mr. Thomas G. Ford, once a professor at the Naval Academy, cordially remembered by the midshipmen who knew him there in the fifties. His article is in the issue of the _Naval Institute Proceedings_ for June, 1906, which has just reached me. He attributes his information to the late Admiral Preble, almost the only American officer within my time who has had the instincts of an archaeologist.
[9] Perhaps it is better to explain that there are three watches from 8 P.M. to 8 A.M.; the two watches into which the crew were divided had on alternate nights one watch, or two watches, on deck. This sybarite was foretasting two watches below.
[10] On referring to the file of the _Times_, I find that the forecast concerning Vicksburg occurred in the issue of July 1st. "It is not improbable we may hear that General Grant has been obliged to raise the siege of Vicksburg." It is surprising to note of how secondary importance the Vicksburg issue appears to have been thought at the time.
[11] Rhodes's _History of the United States_, vol. v., p. 99.
[12] I have here used the expression "harakiri," because so commonly understood among English--speaking readers. A Japanese correspondent has informed me that it is never used among the Japanese, with the signification we have attached to it. The proper word is "Seppuku."
[13] _Official Record of the Union and Confederate Navies_, Series I., iii., p. 722.
[14] Since this was written, I have been told by one of the officers of the _Iroquois_, Lieutenant--now Rear-Admiral--Nicoll Ludlow, that many years afterwards he saw the story of the _Cayalti's_ captain, told by himself, in the _Overland Monthly_, of San Francisco. He had been allowed to go ashore to get provisions, and of course did not return.
[15] 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 property," so called, would exempt from attack the maritime commerce of belligerents.
[16] "Is not patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?"--Johnson to the Earl of Chesterfield.