chiefs, accident alone can confer an advantage on either of them. Where equal weights are tried on accurate scales one cannot force up the other, but this evenness of power is rarely met in war by land or sea. The knowledge that it existed would probably prevent an appeal to arms between nations, since no decisive result could be hoped for. It is needless to insist that superior numbers make the task of concentrating comparatively easy, unless counterbalanced by a great inferiority in speed. Speed is the quality which an admiral will wish his fleet to possess, in order that he may have the power to choose his point of attack. The swifter of two forces, otherwise equal, Speed.can always get ahead of its opponent, and then by turning inwards bring the leading ship of the force it is attacking into a curve of fire. The leader of the slower fleet can avoid the danger by also turning inwards. By so doing he will keep the assailant on his beam, opposite his side. Then the two fleets will tend to swing round in two circles having a common centre, the swifter going round the outer circumference and the slower round the inner. As the difference in length of these two lines would be always great and perhaps immense, the less speedy fleet could easily avoid the risk of being headed. On the other hand the outer fleet will be in a concave formation, and therefore able to bring all its guns to bear on the same point, while the inner fleet will be in a convex line, so that it will be unable to bring the guns of both van and rear to bear on the same mark. The advantage is obvious, but it may perhaps be easily exaggerated. The swifter fleet on the larger circle can in theory concentrate all its fire on one point, but all its ships will still be under fire, and in practice it is found very difficult to make men neglect the enemy who is actually hitting them, and apply their attention entirely to another. Moreover the ships on the outer circle, having the larger line to cover, cannot allow themselves the same margin of steam-power to make good loss of speed by injury from shot. A fleet would not go at its maximum rate of common speed in action. A blow on the water-line might fill part of the ship’s watertight compartments and reduce her speed. She must be able to make good the loss by putting on a greater pressure of steam, which she would not be able to do if already going at her maximum rate. In actual battle very much will depend on the respective skill of the gunnery. The swifter fleet might well find its superiority neutralised by the crippling of two or three of its leading ships. In such an action as this it will be, if not impossible, at least exceedingly difficult to give orders by signal. An admiral will therefore have to direct by example, which he cannot do except by placing his flag-ship at the head of the line. In that place he will be marked out as a target for the enemy’s concentrated fire. He may indeed decide to direct the battle by signal from outside the line. Yet the difficulty he will find in seeing what is happening, as well as the difficulty the captains will find in seeing the signals, will always be so great, that in all probability the admirals of the future, will, like Nelson, be content to lay down the general principles on which the battle is to be fought, and trust the captains to apply them as circumstances arise. A large measure of independence must needs be allowed to the captains in the actual stress of battle. Ships must be placed at such a distance apart as will allow them room to manœuvre so as to avoid collision with their own friends. The interval cannot be less than 800 yds. When the length of the vessels themselves is added, it will be seen that a line of twelve vessels will stretch six miles. Modern powder is nominally smokeless, and it certainly does not create the dense bank of smoke produced by the old explosives. Yet it does create a sufficient haze to obscure the view from the van to the rear of an extended line. The movements must be rapid, and there will be little time indeed in which to take decisions. The torpedo may not be used during the actual battle. Its part will be to complete the destruction or enforce the surrender of a beaten enemy, and to cover retreats.
The submarine and submergible vessel were brought into prominence by France in the hope that by diminishing the value of battleships they would reduce the superiority of the British navy. The example of France was followed by other powers, and particularly by Great Britain; but their value as weapons of war is necessarily a matter of speculation.
Bibliography.—Naval strategy can hardly be said to have been dealt with at all till Captain Mahan published his Influence of Sea Power on History. The tactics of the ancient world are only very briefly dealt with in the De re Militari of Vegetius, in book iv. Vegetius was much copied and read in the middle ages, and was translated in 1284 by Jean de Meung, one of the authors of the Roman de la Rose. His translation is printed, together with the verse paraphrase of Priorats, in the Anciens Textes français. Naval tactics are dealt with in the treatise of Leo VI. the Tactician, and his son Constantine VII., or perhaps Constantine VIII., printed in Meursius’ Opera Omnia, vol. vi. They were emperors of the Macedonian dynasty. The tactics of the medieval galleys are described, with references to authorities, both by A. Guglielmotti in Marine Pontificia, and by Admiral Jurien de la Gravière in Les Derniers jours de la marine à rames (1885). The chief writers on the tactics of the sailing fleets were French. At the head of them, in time and in merit, must be put Paul Hoste, whose folio on Naval Evolutions appeared in 1697. Hoste was a Jesuit who was secretary to the Count of Tourville. Hoste’s treatise was translated into English and published in Edinburgh in 1834 with numerous and excellent illustrations by Captain J. D. Boswall, A Treatise on Naval Tactics. Captain Boswall also made use of the passages relating to naval tactics in the History of the Art of War by J. G. Hoyer, an officer in the Prussian army (1797–1800). Another excellent French treatise is Le Manœuvrier of Bourde de Villehuet (1765), translated into English in 1788 under the title of The Manœuvrer, or Skilful Seaman. Particular attention is due to the Essay on Naval Tactics by Mr Clerk of Eldin, first published in a collected form in 1804, but known in parts since 1780. Clerk was original in speculation and lucid in exposition. A French treatise, L’Art de la guerre sur mer, by the Vicomte de Grenier (1787), was less famous or influential, but was able and original. An exhaustive collection of “Fighting Instructions” and other material necessary to an intelligent understanding of the naval tactics of sailing fleets is the Fighting Instructions 1530–1816, edited by Mr Julian S. Corbett for the Navy Record Society (1905). Admiral Ekin’s Naval Battles (1824) has some passages of value. It is comparatively easy to give authorities for the warfare of galleys and sailing ships. The case is altered when we have to deal with the tactics of steam fleets. Vast quantities of speculation have been written in every country which possesses a fleet, but, no test having been applied on a sufficient scale till the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, little of it can be said to possess approved authority. The facts of such wars as there have been are collected in Captain Mahan’s Life of Farragut (1893) and Lessons of the War with Spain (1899), and in Mr H. W. Wilson’s Ironclads in Action, 1855–1895. A standard work on evolutions and formations is Elementary Naval Tactics, by Captain Wm. Bainbridge Hoff of the United States navy, first published in 1894, but reprinted since with enlargements. The Naval Warfare of Admiral P. H. Colomb is a collection of historical examples meant to illustrate the principles of naval strategy for application in modern conditions. The third edition, revised and corrected, with additions, appeared in 1899. (D. H.)
NAWAB, a Mahommedan title for a native ruler in India,
answering to the Hindu raja. Nawab originally means a deputy,
being the honorific plural of the Arabic naib, and it was applied
to a delegate of a supreme chief, the viceroy or governor under
the Great Mogul, e.g. the nawab of Oudh. From this use it
became a title of rank, without office, and is now sometimes
conferred by the British government on Mahommedan gentlemen
for distinguished service.
NAWABGANJ, the name of three towns of British India.
(1) The most important is the headquarters of Bara Banki
district in the United Provinces, on the Oudh and Rohilkhand
railway, 17 m. E. of Lucknow; pop. (1901) 14,478. It has
a considerable trade in sugar and cotton goods. It was the
scene of a victory by Sir Hope Grant during the Mutiny. (2) A
town in Malda district, Eastern Bengal and Assam, on the
Mahananda near its junction with the Ganges, a centre of river
trade; pop. (1901) 17,016. (3) A town in Gonda district,
United Provinces, on the Bengal and North-Western railway;
pop. (1901) 7047.
NAWANAGAR, or Jamnagar, a native state of India, in
Kathiawar, within the Gujarat division of Bombay, situated on the south of the Gulf of Cutch. Area, 3791 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 336,779, showing a decrease of 11% in the decade due to famine. Estimated revenue, £170,000; tribute, £8000. The chief, whose title is Jam, is a Jareja Rajput of the same clan as the rao of Cutch. Prince Ranjitsinjhi (b. 1872), well known in England as a cricketer, was educated at the Rajkumar College,
