Four Modern Naval Campaigns

by William Laird Clowes

Excerpt from Four Modern Naval Campaigns

The most interesting, because the most momentous, questions which present themselves for study by a patriotic Briton are those which bear upon the future of the Empire on the sea. No one can foretell exactly what a naval war between powers of the first importance will be like, or what surprises it may bring forth yet we all know that, if Great Britain be a party to that war, the issue must be decisive of her fate. Either she must maintain, and indeed increase, the glories of her naval past by coming triumphantly out of the contest, or she must lose everything that now gives her a unique position in the world. There is, therefore, no study so vital to the welfare of the Empire as the study of the modern art of naval warfare; for only by study can a man become a master of that art; and only by producing masters of that art in the day of need can Britain hold her own upon the ocean. Ships, guns, and men will not avail unless there be brains behind them.

294 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2013

About the author

Sir William Laird Clowes FKC (1 February 1856 – 14 August 1905) was a British journalist and historian whose principal work was The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, a text that is still in print. He also wrote numerous technical pieces on naval technology and strategy and was also noted for his articles concerning racial politics in the Southern United States. Despite having trained as a lawyer, Clowes had always preferred literature and writing, publishing his first work in 1876 and becoming a full-time journalist in 1879. For the services rendered in his career, Clowes was knighted, awarded the gold medal of the United States Naval Institute and given a civil list pension.[1] He died in Sussex in 1905 after years of ill-health.

Source: Wikipedia