U. S. NAVAL INSTITUTE, ANNAPOLIS, MD.

Prize Essay, 19171

COMMERCE DESTROYING IN WAR

By CAPTAIN L. A. COTTEN, U. S. Navy

Motto: Easy methods; inconsiderable results.

The science of war as we know it to-day, like all other sciences, is the result of progressive development. As war implements changed by successive stages from the clubs and stones of savagery to the high-power guns of to-day the method of using these implements necessarily changed also, but the object of war has constantly remained the same, namely the reduction of one's opponent to such a state of impotence, actual or prospective, that he considers it the part of wisdom to submit to the will of his enemy.

Since war ceased to be a general mêlée in which one savage tribe fell upon another and fought by brute force until one was exterminated or enslaved, man has been more and more seeking to employ his brains as an aid in fighting. Many have reaped the advantage of more effective weapons or a more effective use of their weapons, but many more have striven in vain for a short cut to success in war-some patent nostrum by which victory could be won without taking and giving the hard blows that make war so disagreeable.

In the early ages of human development, sea-borne commerce was practically non-existent, but, so soon as civilization reached the era of colonization, it quickly became an important part of the economic life of the countries that faced the sea, and consequently of great importance in war.

A merchant vessel on the high-seas is particularly helpless to resist force, and furthermore constitutes, with her cargo, a con

'Essay received by U. S. Naval Institute, December 30, 1916. Published without change.

centrated form of wealth. The sea offers no facilities for concealment, and the lanes of maritime commerce converge in certain localities on account of physical features, as islands, straits or smaller seas, making the location of merchant ships fairly simple. Seeing this, some seeker for success-in-war-without-fighting evolved the idea of commerce destroying as the long-sought short cut to easy, economical and successful war.

He argued in this way. We will build ships of less cost than heavy men-of-war, and send them out to prey upon this helpless maritime wealth of our enemy. These ships will infest the regions in which his merchant ships converge, and by capturing or destroying them we will bring him to the verge of bankruptcy, at the same time enriching ourselves at his expense. This reasoning seemed plausible, and this means of winning war on the sea appeared to be both simple and economical, and straightway there arose a school of adherents, both naval and civilian, though it must be said that it always appealed with more force to those who direct the conduct of war than to those who actually have to execute it. In any case, from that day to this, most maritime wars have seen commerce destroying used with varying degrees of insistence.

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That great student of naval history, Admiral Mahan, said: There are certain teachings in the school of history which remain constant," and it would seem to be not without interest to see what lessons the school of history contains on commerce destroying in war, with special attention to its final result and its association with victory or defeat. Such lessons should be of particular interest at this time, when commerce destroying is being undertaken on an extensive scale and a new instrument, the submarine, is being employed in its service.

A survey of the history of commerce destroying will necessarily have to be very brief to be compassed in reasonable space, but even so, we may be able to deduce something therefrom of value to our country and of interest to ourselves. Such a survey may be divided logically into two parts, i. e., commerce destroying in former wars and commerce destroying in the present war. By handling the subject in this way we may more accurately gauge the present by the known results of the past, and after all, such a survey can have real value only in so far as it leads to a clearer understanding in the momentous present.