Germany is likely to attempt to break it and to bring about a great naval battle at the earliest opportunity. But that opportunity may not come so very soon. Reventlow, speaking indeed of a hypothetical war, declares that such a blockade may last a year or longer. Germany has too much at stake to risk her small but excellent fleet before the tactical moment has come. Will her Zeppelins help her to victory? That is the question that all are asking now. They are but fragile toys in a stormy sea, but, with circumstances in their favor, may achieve wonderful results. When it does come to the battle on the high seas into which Germany will surely force England, we shall see modern tactics put to their supreme test, for only by tactical superiority can Germany hope to win. In an old-fashioned battle in which the ships rushed at each other pellmell, or in one in which the rival fleets simply lie to and pound each other she would be sure to lose. A modern battle is much more a game of skill in which the victory is not to the strongest but to the cleverest. In a modern battle the ships are ever and always moving. Not that the maneuvers are necessarily complicated, but there goes on the whole time a constant thrust and parry. There are different kinds of encounters. First there is the running fight, in which the two fleets, the vessels one behind the other, run in the same direction, firing all the while. Here the strength of the ships, the power of the guns and the quickness of the gunners play the decisive part. The more turrets, funnels, engine-rooms and stearing gear put out of commission, so much the better. The so-called passing fight, where the fleets run not in the same but in opposite directions, is apt to be preferred by a fleet that is numerically weaker. The agony is less prolonged and escape is easier. Then there is the circular fight, in which the fleets are like great serpents trying to catch one another’s tails. The circular fight can follow directly after the passing fight when the fleets have not been seriously crippled. But the crown and acme of all fleet maneuvers is the so-called crossing of the T.