"For the imperfections of the present volume I can only plead that I hope it may prove to be a first edition, and that further studies and the publication of more detailed information may enable me at some future time to complete, or at least to elaborate, the biography of a great man in whom the whole world is interested.
The modest and retiring life which Admiral Togo has hitherto lived has made it difficult for the biographer to collect many picturesque incidents relating to his early years. But modesty is one of the greatest of virtues, and that he has always exhibited this virtue in so conspicuous a manner seems to be one of the elements which make the greatness of his character.
The Beginnings of Japan's Naval History
If we were writing an account of the naval history of Great Britain, we should probably choose as our starting-point the history of the Spanish Armada and its signal overthrow in the sixteenth century.
This choice of a starting point would not imply that there is to be found no sea-fighting in English records of an earlier date. An island- kingdom like England must always have been both vulnerable and defensible along her coastlines and harbors, and Englishmen have all through their history been fighters on the sea. But the Spanish Armada first demonstrated to Englishmen the prime importance of a standing fleet as a permanent wall of defense, and the creation of the British Navy was the logical outcome of the defense hastily organized against the fleets of Spain, in spite of the fact that the civil troubles, which, in England, followed so soon after the destruction of the Armada, interposed some years between the recognition of the need and the creation of the Navy…"
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