but when, against the warnings of her Admirals, she laid up her battleships and "proceeded at haphazard, without such a centre," thus "risking the loss of her communications," to disperse her frigates to prey upon the enemy's merchant shipping,[1] she lost that supremacy with consequences disastrous and disgraceful to herself. A Dutch fleet under de Ruyter appeared in the Nore, advanced unopposed up
- ↑ "This form of strategy is termed 'commerce destroying'—a great misnomer; for it is precisely the result which is not secured by the methods adopted. . . . It is a cheap method of making war, and, to all but those who probe to the root of matters, specious; hence adherents to its doctrines are always to be found."—Gold Medal Prize Essay for 1908, " The Command of the Sea: What is it?" by Major A. B. N. Churchill, Journal Royal United Service Institution, April 1909.
Admiral Mahan also condemns "commerce destroying" in his great work, Influence of Sea Power on History. And General Bronsart von Schellendorff, in his Duties of the General Staff of the German Army, p. 552, writes: " A fleet which endeavoured to carry out its duties by destroying the enemy's commerce without considering the general situation would violate the most important principle of strategy—that the main force should be kept concentrated to deal with the most dangerous opponent."
