France has ten dreadnaught battle-ships, on paper, but no dreadnaught cruisers, and is said to have had difficulty in officering the ships that she has. Moreover, of the ten dreadnaughts six are only what are called half-dreadnaughts and only three of the others are ready for service. Russia is practically without a fleet, though she has four battle-ships and fourteen cruisers in the Baltic and four battle-ships and two cruisers in the Black Sea. Next year she expects to have ready for use in the Baltic four new dreadnaughts. Naval warfare has been so far from our thoughts these many years, its terms have become so unfamiliar that it is worth dwelling for a while on the different types of ships and showing their special uses and their special tasks in battle. Most important of all, with their supremacy unassailed by any of the newly invented types, are the battle-ships or ships of the line. They are called _of the line_ because that is their natural position in battle, the position that renders the fire of their guns most effective. This does not mean that their bows are to be all in a line, though that position may sometimes have to be adopted; but rather that they are to string out, one behind the other at stated intervals, so as to be able to fire a vast broadside often miles in length. It may be that the line must be slanting or again that the position must be constantly changed as new exigencies arise. The ruling idea, of course, is to strike the right balance between the amount of surface presented as a target for the enemy’s guns and the ability to keep up the most effective running fire. All this is diligently practised in time of peace in the so-called maneuvers. The utmost exactness of calculation is required, for the nearer together the ships the more effective is their fire; indeed the great distinction between modern naval encounters and those of former times lies in this team work, if we may call it so. The great dreadnaughts, with their turbine engines and carefully adjusted steering apparatus, are much more manageable and can be brought much closer to one another than was the case with old-fashioned battle-ships. The distance between the bow of one ship and the stern of the next one is reckoned in practise at a hundred yards or less; one can see what an advantage it is to have the eight ships of a squadron all of about the same size and speed. This idea has been carried so far in the German fleet that, even after the superiority of the turbine engine had been demonstrated the ships required to complete a squadron were built in the old style. Single encounters like those which make up such thrilling pages in history are not likely often to occur again, and if they do, will not come to boardings and to hand-to-hand conflicts. [Illustration: For Raising Sunken Submarines] [Illustration: The Second Squadron Passing the Friedrichsort Light] [Illustration: H. M. Cruiser _Breslau_]