[Illustration: BATTLESHIP.]
The second kind is Cruisers, made up of Armoured Cruisers and Light
Cruisers, the Armoured being the bigger and stronger, the Light being
the smaller and faster, and both being too small for the line of
battle. Cruisers are used in at least a dozen different ways. They
scout. They attack and defend oversea trade. They "mother" flotillas
("little fleets") of destroyers, which are much smaller than
themselves. They attack and defend the front, flank, and rear of the
great lines of battle, clearing off the enemy's cruisers and destroyers
and trying to get their own torpedoes home against his larger vessels.
They are the eyes and ears, the scouts and skirmishers, the outposts
and the watchdogs of the Fleet--swift, keen, sinewy, vigilant, and able
to hit pretty hard.
Thirdly come Destroyers. This was the way in which they got their
name. Navies had small gunboats before torpedoes were used. Then they
had torpedo-boats. Then they built torpedo-gunboats. Finally, they
built boats big enough to destroy gunboats, torpedo-boats, and
torpedo-gunboats, without, however, losing the handy use of guns and
torpedoes in vessels much smaller than cruisers.
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