We
may not even yet know enough of the sea fight in the Straits
of Tsushima to be able to describe it in detail; but we do know
that at least some of the Russian ships were defeated or destroyed
by a combination of Japanese ships against them.
Looking back at the tactics of the Trafalgar epoch, we may see
that the history of them confirms the experience of earlier wars,
viz. that victory does not necessarily fall to the side which
has the biggest ships. It is a well-known fact of naval history
that generally the French ships were larger and the Spanish much
larger than the British ships of corresponding classes. This
superiority in size certainly did not carry with it victory in
action. On the other hand, British ships were generally bigger
than the Dutch ships with which they fought; and it is of great
significance that at Camperdown the victory was due, not to
superiority in the size of individual ships, but, as shown by
the different lists of killed and wounded, to the act of bringing
a larger number against a smaller. All that we have been able to
learn of the occurrences in the battle of the japan Sea supports
instead of being opposed to this conclusion; and it may be said
that there is nothing tending to upset it in the previous history
of the present war in the Far East.
I do not know how far I am justified in expatiating on this point;
but, as it may help to bring the strategy and tactics of the
Trafalgar epoch into practical relation with the stately science of
which in our day this Institution is, as it were, the mother-shrine
and metropolitical temple, I may be allowed to dwell upon it a
little longer.
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