The life of Admiral Mahan, naval philosopher, Rear-Admiral United States Navy ...

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Introduction

This work is the overflow of an English Iieart full of admiration for an American who by force of character overcame well-nigh insuperable obstacles and, as the result of years of strenuous work and skilful application of his superb mental powers, earned for himself in the eyes of the world the highest distinction yet accorded a naval philosopher.

My primary motive in undertaking so serious a responsibility is threefold. I am eager to perpetuate the memory of a great American ; and in so doing to bring one step nearer together the people of his country and of mine ; and at the same time repay, even if in limited measure, the debt of gratitude I owe to America for priceless opportunities in days gone by. Le temps passe, Vamitii reste. I also must pass on, but I should like this work to carry a message of lasting friendship to the earnest and hospitable people of the great Republic of the West.

Haply, moreover, a word here or there may, like a good deed in a naughty world, shine through impending gloom and carry a message of hope or comfort, of encouragement, inspiration, or good cheer to some soul distraught. As a shameless optimist in the throes of his first literary effort, the author craves the indulgence of his readers.

Without the friendly co-operation of the Admiral's family, who placed unreservedly at my disposal all the correspondence and other available material in their viii INTRODUCTION

possession, this review of the life of Alfred Thayer Mahan could not have been written.

I have striven to make it " a faithful portrait of a soul in its adventures through life," resisting the while a very natural temptation to mix the colours with an over-abundance of rose-water. As research and analysis gradually revealed the true character of the man, the task became a labour of love. Rarely perhaps have been found such commanding gifts of intellect allied with so genuine a modesty.

Mahan has been described as "the greatest writer America has yet produced." What is greatness ? Webster says that he is great who is " extraordinary in genius or accomplishments." Of the vast number who aspire to literary fame, few, alas ! become known outside the limits of the^little circle in which they move. Seldom does an echo of their earnest voices reach 'the ears of the listening world. Mahan' s masterpieces not only won instant recognition in the navies and among the statesmen of all lands, but have for years successfully withstood the matured judgment of the most eminent authorities in the intellectual hierarchy of the twentieth century. In truth a supreme test of " extraordinary accomplishment.' '

In contradistinction to the lives of many famous literary men — such, for instance, as Longfellow or Sir Walter Scott — Mahan' s career does not lend itself to voluminous biographical treatment. Owing to his exceptionally reserved and retiring nature he did not seek the personal acquaintance of the interesting and distinguished personalities of his day, nor did he correspond, except to a very limited extent, with leaders of thought or makers of history either at home or abroad. Among his papers are but few letters suitable for publication, other than those which have been herein reproduced or referred to. Apart from his writings and lectures and a few religious addresses and news-

INTRODUCTION ix

paper interviews, he made no public pronouncements of significance. For so notable a man his circle of associates was remarkably small, even among naval officers, and the number of his intimate friends was even more limited. With the exception of Admiral Sir Bouverie Clark there seems to have been no one to whom he freely disclosed his views on matters of public moment, and even in his correspondence with him Mahan seldom departed from chatty discussion of current political events and references to family affairs and his own state of health. Few words of serious self-revelation seem to have escaped him.

On account of his innate and intense dislike of publicity, the incidents of his daily life were not such as to furnish material for graphic description ; neither did he disclose himself in memorable utterances to friend or foe. So far as can be ascertained, he kept no diary after the age of twenty-eight, and apparently did not to any appreciable extent read current literature or comment upon it publicly. Such characteristics do not make for that kind of personal popularity which is apt to invite the confidences of men of note and bring about occurrences worthy of record. Except for a brief period in England, his association with men and women of distinction was extremely limited ; and even there the intercourse was entirely unsought and seemingly was dropped after his return to America.

Mahan won the respect of all who knew him well. The religious side of his nature was the most pronounced, and towards the latter part of his life may be said to have been an open book from which all might read ; but even in this regard he was habitually reticent. Apart from this religious aspect, the chief interest of Mahan' s life for the great mass of humanity centres round his three great masterpieces, in which he reveals the historic secrets of naval power — a revelation which the dramatic incidents of the world-wide conflict, now

X INTRODUCTION

happily brought to a victorious close, stamp as one of the most momentous in the annals of warfare.

I gladly avail myself of this welcome opportunity to express my sincere and grateful thanks to Mrs. Mahan and the members of her family for their invaluable and sympathetic assistance, as well as to the Hon. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy ; the Hon. William Redfield, late Secretary of Commerce ; the Hon. Franklin Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy ; Dr. Edwin Wiley, Librarian of the Naval War College, Newport ; Admiral Sims ; the late Mr. Theodore Roosevelt ; Admiral Bradley Fiske ; Dr. F. G. Brathwaite ; Admiral Count Togo ; Miss Mahan ; Admiral EarlBeatty; Mrs. Vernon-Mann; the Right Hon. Arthur Balfour ; Mr. Clive Bayley ; Admiral Sir Bouverie Clark ; Admiral Oman ; Commodore Parker ; Senator Lodge ; Mr. J. Herbert Johnston and Mr. George G. Hall, executors of Mr. Loyall Farragut ; Mr. Samuel Ashe ; Admiral Eberle ; Commander Ravenscroft ; Mr. Charles Stewart Davison ; the Editor of the Daily Mail ; Lieutenant Lemuel Hillman ; Mr. James Barnes ; Admiral Goodrich ; Mr. William Alexander ; Mr. Robert Bridges ; the members of the House and Library Committees of the University Club, New York ; the ladies who have deciphered and transcribed my manuscripts ; and all others who have so kindly helped me and contributed towards the successful launching of the ship " Life of Admiral Mahan."

Given that Marcus Aurelius rightly claims that a man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself^ then indeed is Alfred Thayer Mahan worth, not only to his own country but to the world at large, more than readily lies within the compass of mere words to convey.

Charles Carlisle Taylor.

London, May 1920.

Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER

I. Heredity and Environment i/II. Early Naval Career ■'/hi. The Inspiration . ^^IV. Naval War College • V. Sea Power .

Chapter I Heredity And Environment

All men are born equal in the sight of God and before the law ; but as touching this earthly pilgrimage, from the moment they first see the light of day, inherited predisposition toward mental, moral, and physical excellences and imperfections, mightily influenced by environment, separates, classifies, and brands them, elevating one and debasing another, until each year of their lives but widens the gulf which inexorably divides them.

Alfred Thayer Mahan was born on September 27 in the year 1840, at West Point on the Hudson.^ His father, Dennis Hart Mahan, who was Professor of Civil and Mihtary Engineering at the West Point Mihtary Academy, was born of Irish parentage in New York in 1802, shortly after the arrival of his father and mother from Ireland, and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in the parish of St. Peter's in Barclay Street. At an early age his parents moved to Norfolk, Virginia, and he became a Virginian at heart, remaining, however, a staunch supporter of the Union in the stormy days which were to come. In a memoir read before the National Academy of

1 Mahan's birthplace, West Point on the Hudson, while within the boundaries of the State of New York, is not upon its territory, having been ceded to the Federal Government for the purposes of the United States Military Academy.

2 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT [chap, i

Sciences, General Henry L. Abbott records that Professor Mahan was one of the most kind and affectionate of men, distinguished for his old-fashioned politeness and high sense of duty, and that he taught his children to observe scrupulous courtesy toward others and to avoid the use of any language approaching slang in his presence. He was a man of highly nervous disposition, had little sympathy with idleness and stupidity, but was withal of a kindly nature and genial humour. His letters to his son are full of sound advice and lofty ideals. He ends one dated in 1858 with these words : " Stand up to your work bravely, My Dear Boy, and always in the tone of a high-minded honourable Christian gentleman, and then let the consequences take care of themselves. Your own reputation will be unsullied."

His son recounts that on one occasion his father warned a friend not to persist with a proposal which, in his opinion, would make a lifelong and powerful enemy of one of the members of a board on which they were both sitting. Subsequently, however, his father voluntarily assumed the disagreeable duty he had advised him to shun, and thereby brought upon himself a lifelong hostility from which he protected his friend. There is little doubt from whom his son Alfred acquired, in part at least, his courteous and genial manner and his profound sense of duty.

The development of Alfred Thayer Mahan * presents a curious illustration of the eccentricities of hereditary influence and of early environment. He was the son of a man who was born of Irish Catholic parents and christened a member of the Roman Catholic Church ; a man, moreover, whose earliest associations, especially those in connection with the war of 1812, influenced him strongly against England. This prejudice was

1 Mahan pronounced his name Ma-han' : both a's as in " fan," and the accent on the last syllable.

ALFKED THAYER MAHAN, AGE 17.

1840] PROTESTANT INFLUENCES , 3

probably enhanced by his preference for the French, and because of a cordial friendship with Lafayette and his family, by whom he was hospitably entertained in Paris.

In this anti-English atmosphere was young Mahan brought up, but several circumstances arose which contributed to offset these early influences. His grandmother Mahan died when his father was but a few years old. His grandfather then married a Protestant, and his father grew up in that faith and subsequently married Mary Helena Okill, daughter of an Englishman and of Mary Jay, a descendant of the great Huguenot family of that name which had fled from persecution in France under Louis XIV. Thus it was that Alfred Thayer Mahan first became a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It may be said that he was onehalf Irish and one-quarter English, the remaining quarter coming of French- American stock. Here is an opinion of himself as expressed in his own words : "As far as I understand my personality, I think to see in the result the predominance which the English strain has usually asserted for itself over others."

He has also left on record that the experiences of life and subsequent reading and reflection modified, and in the end entirely overcame, his early anti-English prepossessions.^ In a letter to his sister written from Yokohama in 1868, when he was twenty-eight years old, he recounts in these words his first practical experience of British folk : " Are not the English a wonderful people ? They alone of all civilised people keep troops here, and their transports, not only here, but all

1 A generation earlier, Audubon, the renowned American naturalist, who, coming of French stock, was similarly prepossessed against the English of his day, also married the daughter of an Englishman, and Lucy Bakewell's warm-hearted and gentle disposition descended to her granddavighters, the Misses Eliza, Lucy, and Annie Audubon, whose unfailing kindness and generous hospitahty the author ever holds in grateful and affectionate memory. 2

4 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT [chap, i

over the world are going and coming. Capetown, Aden, Bombay, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Yokohama, everywhere is to be seen their red-coated soldiery — and to them not only their own merchants but those of all other nations owe safety at times. Truly they may boast that the sun never sets upon their flag," recalling Daniel Webster's : " Whose morning drumbeat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England."

Mahan's father, Dennis Hart Mahan, graduated head of his class at West Point in 1824 and practically spent his life there. He was the author of a number of text-books on Military Engineering, and died in 1871 after a distinguished career. His son records the fact that the spirit of the profession was strong in him and that he never knew a man of more strict and lofty military ideas. The elder Mahan knew, personally, nearly all the distinguished generals, both Confederate and Northern, in the Civil War, for most of them had been his pupils.

Young Mahan spent his boyhood at West Point, ^ where amongst his earliest personal recollections were the great Southern General Robert E. Lee, then Superintendent of the Academy, and McClellan, at that time a junior engineer officer. When he was twelve years old his father sent him to a boarding-school at Hagerstown, Maryland. At fourteen he entered Columbia College, making his home with his uncle, the Rev. Milo Mahan, who was then Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the General Theological Seminary in New York, and who strongly influenced his religious life.

He received his second name from General Sylvanus Thayer of distinguished memory, whose monument

1 Lord Kitchener recommended the West Point MiUtary Academy to the AustraUan authorities as a model for their new military college, as ho considered it the best in the world.

1856] CHOICE OF CAREER 5

at West- Point bears the inscription : " Father of the United States Mihtary Academy."

As a boy he had revelled in stories of naval life, including the reminiscences of naval officers, particularly those which abounded in Colbourn's United Service Magazine. This probably influenced him in choosing a naval career, despite the disapproval of his father, who felt that his son would succeed better in civil life. With this Mahan himself agreed in after-life.^ His father, however, did not wish to oppose his son arbitrarily in his choice of a career, so he sent him to Washington with letters of introduction to Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, and other personal friends, with the result that within a few months he was nominated for an appointment at the Naval Academy at Annapolis by Ambrose S. Murray, who represented in Congress the West Point District.

On the way home from Washington Mahan visited an old friend of the family in Philadelphia, who threw cold water on his project, which he said he hoped would fail, because he considered the Navy a profession with little prospect, and proceeded to quote Dr. Johnson's " No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail ; for being in a ship is being in jail with the chance of being drowned." To this the old gentleman added on his own account that in a ship-of-war you ran the additional risk of being killed. Somewhat disconcerting for the young Admiral-to-be ; notwithstanding which on September 30, 1856, Alfred Thayer Mahan was launched on his naval career as acting midshipman a few days after his sixteenth

1 " My entrance into the Navy was greatly against my father's wish. I do not remember all his argtmients, but he told me he thought me much less fit for a military than for a civil profession, having watched me carefully. I think myself now that he was right ; for, though I have no cause to complain of unsuccess, I believe I should have done better elsewhere." — From Sail to Steam.

6 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT [chap, i

birthday, in accordance with the provisions of the following letter of appointment :

" Navy Department,

" Sir,

" You are hereby appointed an Acting Midshipman in the Navy of the United States from the 30th September, 1856, to join the 3rd class.

" If, after the course of attendance at the Naval Academy prescribed by the Revised Regulations approved January 25th, 1855, you shall satisfactorily pass the graduating examination, you will receive from the Academic Board the ' Certificate of Graduation ' referred to in the 5th section of the 6th Chapter of the above Regulations, which shall entitle you to a warrant as a Midshipman in the U.S. Navy, bearing the date of the certificate. If, however, you shall fail to obtain such certificate, you will be dropped from the list.

" Enclosed is a copy of the requisite oath, which, having taken and subscribed, you will transmit to the Department with your letter of acceptance, in which you will state your age.

" I am, respectfully, etc.,

" Chas. Welsh, " Acting Secretary of the Navy.

" Acting Midshipman Alfred Thayer Mahan, of the 10th Congressional District of New York, " U.S. Naval Academy, AnnapoUs."

Chapter II Early Naval Career

Naval ScHool F<randed October lOfb. 1845

JAMES K. POLK.

President of tHe U. States

GEO. BANCROFT.

Secretary of the Navy.

The original tablet commemorating the founding of the Naval Academy.

The boy Mahan had not only absorbed the fascinating sea-stories of Marryat and Fenimore Cooper, but had studied them, moreover, with such appreciative intelligence that on his arrival at the Naval Academy at Annapolis he found himself in congenial surroundings and a familiar atmosphere in the charming spot that a couple of centuries ago was named in memory of good Queen Anne, and which has since witnessed the sturdy development of countless budding naval commanders destined to handle the fighting ships of Uncle Sam's mighty fleet now in process of rapid evolution.^

Of the many fine buildings which add to the charm of

^ The author has the very pleasantest recollections of the Naval Academy, of its courteous Superintendent, Admiral Eberle, of Commander Ravenscroft of the Naval Institute, the smart military bearing of the cadets, and the beautiful grounds and noble buildings. Above all, the Naval Academy impresses a visitor as an institution worthy in spirit and proportion of the powerful Navy of which it is at once the portent and the embryo.

the Naval Academy, perhaps the most notable, with the possible exception of the giant Bancroft Hall of granite, capable of housing three thousand midshipmen, is Mahan Hall, a picture of which is reproduced in this chapter. It is dedicated to the memory of Admiral Mahan, and in addition to an immense lecture-hall, the ceilings and walls of which are adorned by trophies captured at sea by the American Navy in bygone days, it boasts on the upper floor a splendid naval library. It is crowned by a clock tower in which the hours are struck in " bells " as at sea.

Dr. Allan Westcott, of the United States Naval Academy, tells us in his admirable Mahan on Naval Warfare that, in his last year at the Naval Academy, in a class of twenty, Mahan stood first in seamanship, physics, political science, and moral science, third in naval tactics and gunnery, fourth in " steam engine," and fifth in astronomy and navigation, and that the year before he had excelled in physics, rhetoric, and Spanish. He was then in his twentieth year. On this solid foundation, aided by industry and natural gifts, he developed those rare analytical powers which were to become so conspicuous a feature of his mental equipment in later years. One of his class-mates became a lifelong friend. This was the Hon. Samuel Ashe, LL.D., who is now Clerk of the United States District Court at Raleigh, North Carolina. In a description of early days at the Naval Academy, contributed to the South Atlantic Quarterly^ July 1919, under the title of Memories of Annapolis, Mr. Ashe tells us :

" In 1856 Alfred Mahan entered my class — a year advanced — and at once began to share its highest honors. He was the most intellectual man I have ever known. He had not only a remarkable memory but also capacity to comprehend, and a clarity of perception that rendered him distinguished among men of intelligence. He and I became affectionate friends, and

.fMf! :aM. ■

1859] INTELLECTUAL AMBITIONS 9

our friendship lasted through hfe. We were correspondents until his death — although in these later years our letters were desultory. In the rotunda at Washington is a painting, the Landing of the Pilgrims. Miles Standish's wife, Rose, is represented leaning over his shoulder. Her face was painted from that of Admiral Mahan when a boy, and it is a remarkable presentation of his lineaments as he was when he entered the Academy. " When we were starting on our cruise in the summer of 1858 the subject of naval heroes came up ; and Mahan mentioned to me that the day for gaining distinction through feats of personal daring, as in the case of Decatur, was passed, but that he proposed to win renown in his profession through intellectual performance. He was not apt as a sailor-man, for we boys were taught the handiwork of seamen ; but he had another vision ; and his subsequent career is a remarkable illustration of the realisation of young dreams."

About this time Mahan was described as " very good-looking and the smartest man in his class."

He spent three years at the Naval Academy, graduating second in his class in the summer of 1859. The usual course was four years, but owing to his father's skilful training he was able to jump the lowest class and gain admittance to a class already a year in existence, a feat which later on made for promotion, and was said at the time to have been the only case of the kind on record. He ascribed it partly to a morbid fondness for registers and time-tables, which in this instance led to the discovery that an appointee might enter any class for which he could pass the examinations. Of forty-nine in Class " 55 Date " but twenty graduated. To the man who beat him for first place, William Briggs Hall, was publicly presented a sword of honour inscribed, " For the highest academic merit." This doughty opponent, after resigning from the Navy and fighting with the Confederate forces in the Civil War, eventually became a Major of Engineers and Adjutant-

General of the Egyptian forces, rendering conspicuous service to the Khedive of Egypt, to whom he was recommended by General Sherman.

Among those of Class " 55 Date " who survived the hostilities of 1861 to 1865 may be found the names of Admiral George Collier Remey, Admiral Norman Farquhar, Commander Roderick McCook, and Commander Samuel Dana Greene, the hero of the iron-clad Monitor.

In his recollections of naval life, published in 1907 under the title of From Sail to Steam, Mahan lingers with engaging touch on conditions of life at the Naval Academy in those young days, and quaintly describes his early experiences at sea, all of which were with sailing-vessels. The practical knowledge thus gained was of priceless value to him twenty years later in analysing the details of the strategy and tactics employed by Nelson and other famous commanders in the great naval battles of the world.

He tells us, among other recollections, that hazing was unknown in his day at the Naval Academy, being looked down upon by the members of his class as beneath the dignity of young naval gentlemen ; although, after the war had removed the restraining influence of the senior midshipmen, it became as unhappily notorious as it was at the Military Academy. He recounts, too, the transformation that has, since his early days, taken place for the better in respect of drinking habits in the Navy, due partly, among the lower ranks at any rate, to the abolition of flogging which occurred about 1849 ; and he picturesquely describes the distinctive character of the snowy cotton sails of American sailing-ships which, prior to the Civil War, " literally whitened every sea." Mahan deplored the possession of clumsy fingers. Beyond a few elementary " bends," he never fathomed the mysteries of knotting and splicing, and admitted that

1860] REMINISCENCES 11

before such a masterpiece as a " turk's-head " he merely bowed in reverence.

Among other comments of interest in his reminiscences he states that, in his opinion, the critics who of late years have called in question the accuracy of the usual version of the attack at Trafalgar are mistaken, but admits that their arguments may deserve some justification by reason of the inexact nautical phraseology of that day.' He gives a glowing description of the magnificent comet of 1858, the hke of which astronomers assert no human eye will behold for two thousand years to come. Mahan confirms the impression that at the opening of hostihties in 1861 the preservation of the Union was the impelling motive of those who fought for the North, the abolition of slavery being a secondary issue, although the existence of slavery was no doubt the primary cause of the war. Throughout his writings he referred to the war between the North and South as the War of Secession and not as the Civil War. In the following words he affords us a glimpse of his boyhood's home training on the slavery question :

" As my boyhood advanced the abolition movement was gaining strength, to the great disapprobation and dismay of my father, with his strong Southern and Union sympathies. I remember that when Uncle Torri's Cabin came out, in my twelfth year, the master of the school I attended gave me a copy ; being himself, I presume, one of the rising party adverse to slavery. My father took it out of my hands, and I came to regard it much as I would a bottle labelled ' Poison.' In consequence I never read it in the days of its vogue, and I have to admit that since then, in mature years, I have not been able to continue it after beginning. The same motives, in great part, led to my being sent to a boarding-school in Maryland, near Hagerstown,

1 A comparatively modern topic for discussion in the light of the divergence of opinion still existing between adherents of ^schylus and Herodotus as to the details of the battle of Salamis, 480 B.C.

which drew its pupils very largely, though not exclusively, from the South. The environment would be upon the whole Southern."

He throws a little sidelight into one aspect of his mental personality by admitting that he agreed with the wisdom of the adage, Never contrive an opportunity ; his experience of life having justified him in awaiting rather than contriving occasions. He also confesses to a lifelong horror of keeping servants waiting, the outcome of a realisation of the truth of the maxim that " punctuality is the politeness of kings." He calls to mind the curious fact that during his first year at the Academy the United States Government began to coquette with the title " Admiral," which at that time was supposed to have some insidious connection with monarchical institutions, as illustrated by the remonstrance of a worthy member of his crew, who exclaimed : " Call them Admirals ! Never ! They will be wanting to be dukes next." Subsequently the Government compromised on " Flag-officer," an obvious misnomer. Since that day, however, broadminded counsels have prevailed, and to-day an Admiral is an Admiral in the American Navy.

Mahan records his preference for Marryat as a naval story-writer. He explains that Marryat had lived the naval life as no other sea-author had, and consequently his characters were true to life, whereas he found that Fenimore Cooper caricatured rather than reproduced Hfe.

In From Sail to Steam occurs one of the isolated instances in which Mahan makes any reference to his religious beliefs. In a description of the Jewish population of Aden, he says : " I am without anti-Semitic feeling. That Jesus Christ was a Jew covers His race for me." Discussing the effects of climate and environment, he asks the debatable question : " Does beer

1860] REMINISCENCES 13

taste as good in America as in England ? " and in reply expresses the opinion, " I think not, unless perhaps in Newport, Rhode Island." ^

Referring to a native ceremony in Muscat and his expected attendance with his Captain, there is a characteristic touch of the real Mahan in his concluding remark : " As it called for full uniform, I begged off." Commenting upon his experiences in the East, he pays this tribute to the beneficent influence of Great Britain upon the destinies of mankind :

" An impression which accumulates upon the attentive traveller following the main roads of maritime commerce is the continual outcropping of the British soldier. It is not that there is so much of him, but that he is so manywhere : in our single voyage, at places so apart as Cape Town, Aden, Bombay, Singapore, Hong Kong. Although not on our route (nevertheless linked to the four last named by the great ocean highway between East and West, consecutive even in those distant days before the Suez Canal), he was already in force in Gibraltar and Malta ; since which he is to be found in Cyprus also and in Egypt. He is no chance phenomenon, but an obvious effect of a noteworthy cause ; an incident of current history, the exponent, unconsciously to himself, of many great events."