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PART TWO

THEORY OF NAVAL WAR

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CHAPTER ONE

THEORY OF THE OBJECT--
COMMAND OF THE SEA

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The object of naval warfare must always be directly or indirectly either to
secure the command of the sea or to prevent the enemy from securing it.

The second part of the proposition should be noted with special care in
order to exclude a habit of thought, which is one of the commonest sources
of error in naval speculation. That error is the very general assumption
that if one belligerent loses the command of the sea it passes at once to
the other belligerent. The most cursory study of naval history is enough to
reveal the falseness of such an assumption. It tells us that the most
common situation in naval war is that neither side has the command; that
the normal position is not a commanded sea, but an uncommanded sea. The
mere assertion, which no one denies, that the object of naval warfare is to
get command of the sea actually connotes the proposition that the command
is normally in dispute. It is this state of dispute with which naval