The Naval Manceuvres came to an end last Saturday. Though
the work done has not been of a very sensational kind, or of a nature which makes it largely understood by the public, it is believed by the experts to have been exceptionally useful. The object of the Admiralty was to practise our commanders in what are known as tactical exercises,—to teach them, that is, the duties of ships when forming part of a fleet. The only problem set by the Admiralty was as follows. Two fleets were placed in the Atlantic at positions unknown to each other, and instructed, by means of their scouts and cruisers, to find each other and effect a junction. According to the Times, however, the experiment was marred by separating the fleets by not more than one hundred miles. The result was that they found each other in six hours, and effected a junction in twelve. The operation, however, tested the speed and endurance of the cruisers, and, according to the writer in the Times, they emerged from the test with credit. The capacities of the new torpedo-boat destroyers were also tested, but the results of the experiment have not been made known by the Admiralty. Rightly or wrongly, they have thought it advisable to regard them as confidential.
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