noise, and rapid vibrations of the engines are intense. Cooking seems
to be out of the question, and it is said that if food were well
cooked few would be able to appreciate it. To obtain necessary rest
under these conditions, added to the rapid motions of the boat, is
most difficult." Larger boats are to be built; but the factor of loss
of speed in rough weather will remain, unless the size of the
torpedo-cruiser is increased to a point that will certainly lead to
fitting them with something more than torpedoes. Like fire-ships,
small torpedo-cruisers will delay the speed and complicate the
evolutions of the fleet with which they are associated. (1) The
disappearance of the fire-ship was also hastened, we are told, by the
introduction of shell firing, or incendiary projectiles; and it is not
improbable that for deep-sea fighting the transfer of the torpedo to a
class of larger ships will put an end to the mere torpedo-cruiser. The
fire-ship continued to be used against fleets at anchor down to the
days of the American Civil War; and the torpedo-boat will always be
useful within an easy distance of its port.

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1. Since the above was written, the experience of the English autumn
manoeuvres of 1888 has verified this statement; not indeed that any
such experiment was needed to establish a self-evident fact.
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A third phase of naval practice two hundred years ago, mentioned in
the extract quoted, involves an idea very familiar to modern
discussions; namely, the group formation. "The idea of combining
fire-ships with the fighting-ships to form a few groups, each provided
with all the means of attack and defence," was for a time embraced;
for we are told that it was later on abandoned. The combining of the