Excerpt from The Keel: The Story of Initial Training in the United States Navy

Early in the seventeenth century Sir Walter Raleigh observed that Whosoever commands the sea, commands the trade; who soever commands the trade. Of the world, commands the riches of the world and, consequently, the World itself.

That principle is as true today as it was centuries ago. Nothing of major import has occurred, not even the advent of the modern aircraft, to lessen the importance of sea power and sea trade to our national defense and prosperity.

The day has not been reached, nor ever will be reached, when control of the seas of the world can be exercised solely by shore-based aviation, guided missiles, and the atom bomb. Control of the sea can be exercised effectively only by forces which travel the sea and can remain at sea for long periods of time.

Sea forces and sea-based air forces - in other words, sea power - furnishes the only effective control of the sea. Sea power has a mobility which land power can never have. What ever the weapons used, aircraft carriers (highly mobile air fields) can be moved at high speed to the most favorable points for attack on enemy targets. Whatever the weapons used, large ground forces can be transported rapidly by naval means to selected coastal points and landed against opposition. The mere threat of such attacks at unpredictable points would im mobilize large enemy forces held in reserve to meet them, thus forcing, the enemy to effect a wide dispersion. Dominant sea power, therefore, in the hands of the United States and its Allies, would deny to an enemy the ability to attack us from the sea while conferring on us the ability to launch a seaborne attack at any selected point or time.

The continued vital importance of sea power is clearly evi dent. When the oceans of the world are no longer required for the transport of men and goods, then and only then can the United States afford to dispense with a Navy.

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