If we knew our fleet to be the weaker, but if we did not believe it to be so much the weaker as to force it to seek safety in flight, our natural plan would be that of Napoleon’s in Italy in 1797—­to keep our force together, and to hurl it against detached parts of the enemy’s force, whenever possible.  This plan might not be difficult of execution, if the enemy were accompanied by his train of auxiliary and supply ships; since such ships are vulnerable to almost any kind of attack, have almost no means of defense whatever, and therefore require that a part of the fighting force of the main body be detached to guard them.  Whether the enemy would have his train quite close to him, or a day’s steaming behind, say 240 miles, we should not, of course, know.

How could we ascertain?

If the enemy came along with no scouts ahead, and if we happened to have some scouts located along his line of advance, these scouts faster than his ships, and so heavily armed as not to fear to venture near, our scouts might proceed along the flank of the enemy in daylight, pass along his rear, go entirely around him, and then report to our commander-in-chief by wireless telegraph exactly what craft of all kinds comprised the force, what formation they were in, the direction in which they were steaming, and the speed.  Such information would be highly appreciated by our commander-in-chief, as it would enable him to decide what he had better do.  If, for instance, the scouts reported that the enemy fleet were steaming at a speed of 10 knots an hour, and that the train was proceeding behind the fighting fleet without any guards of any kind around them, our commander-in-chief might decide to keep just out of sight until after dark, and then rush in with all his force of heavy ships and torpedo craft, and destroy the train entirely.

But suppose the enemy fleet should advance with a “screen” consisting of a line 10 miles long of, say, 50 destroyers, 50 miles ahead of the main body; followed by a line of, say, 10 battle cruisers, 25 miles behind the destroyers; and with destroyers and battle cruisers on each flank—­say, 20 miles distant from the main body.  How could our scouts find out anything whatever about the size, composition, and formation of the enemy—­even of his speed and direction of advance?  The purpose of the “screen” is to prevent our ascertaining these things; and each individual part of the screen will do its best to carry out that purpose.  All the vessels of the screen and of the main body will be equipped with wireless-telegraph apparatus and a secret code, by means of which instant communication will be continuously held, the purport of which cannot be understood by our ships.  Any endeavor of any of our scouts to “penetrate the screen” will be instantly met by the screen itself, out of sight of the enemy’s main body; and the screen cannot be penetrated in the daytime, unless we can defeat those members of the screen that try to hold us off.  Now, inasmuch as all the considerable naval Powers of Europe have many battle cruisers, and we have no battle cruisers whatever, and no scouts of any kind, except three inefficient ones (the Birmingham, Chester, and Salem) the degree of success that we should have penetrating the screen in the daytime can be estimated by any lawyer, merchant, or schoolboy.