Steam has, of course, put all this class of manoeuvring long out of date, though as long as naval warfare endures on this earth the main principle of attempting to take the enemy at a disadvantage must always remain. In the early days of ironclads there were various theories as to the best fighting-formations. There were advocates of "line ahead", that is to say, each ship following the other in "Indian file"; of "line abreast", in which ships advanced like a line of soldiers in "extended order", and which necessitated that each ship should have a very powerful "right ahead" fire; and various group formations. At the battle of Lissa, in 1866, practically the only fleet engagement during the ironclad period prior to the Chino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, the victorious Austrians attacked the Italian fleet in a wedge-shaped formation; but they intended to use their rams and to fight at absolutely close quarters, a procedure which in the present days of long-range guns of tremendous power and extraordinary accuracy would be almost, if not quite, impossible. The ram, moreover, is now practically obsolete. In the naval actions in the Far East, to which reference has been made, the generally adopted battle-formation was that of "line ahead", the first of those explained above, and the ideal manoeuvre was considered to be what was known as "crossing the T"--that is to say, to get one's line of ships into such a position with regard to the enemy's line that, while his represented the perpendicular part of the "T", one's own would be in the place of the horizontal line forming the top of the letter: in fact, to be in the same relative position as were the enemy's fleet at Trafalgar to our advancing lines. With modern guns and gunnery the whole fleet could concentrate on and smash up the leading ships one after the other, those following in rear not being able to do very much to assist them. Obviously it is the object of every fleet commander to avoid being caught in this way. If he sees the enemy's line are steering so as to cross his course at right angles, he will alter course to one parallel to theirs. If within range, broadsides will doubtless be exchanged while passing, but each opposing line will then try to turn and cross the enemy's "T" for him by passing in rear of his line. Both will be awake to this manoeuvre, so that if the manoeuvre continues on normal lines the battle will resolve itself into two curved lines of ships chasing each other round the circumference of a circle.