needed strong merchant marine to dominate world trade, protected by Navy based in distant ports and colonies, organized around very large "capital" ships able to fight surface battles against concentrated enemy fleets in distant waters, not rely on privateers or blockades or coastal gunboats and forts
Naval War College to train officers of "Blue Water" navy
Navy willing to embrace new ideas, 1888 competition for a "submarine torpedo boat" - 1
Hagan, Kenneth. American Gunboat Diplomacy and the Old Navy, 1877-1889. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1973, and This People's Navy: The Making of American Sea Power. New York: Free Press, 1991. Subjects: United States -- History, Naval. CL Book Stacks 359.00973 H141t.
Gray, Edwyn. The Devil's Device: Robert Whitehead and the History of the Torpedo. Rev. and updated edition. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1991. 310 p.: ill.; bibliographical references (p. 293-299) and index. V855.W5 G7 1991 (my thanks to Rod Greenhalgh for recommending this book).
