5 DECEMBER 1914, Page 15

We much regret to record the death of Rear-Admiral A.

T. Mahan, the famous American naval writer. Born in 1840, be entered the United States Navy in 1856. He took part in blockades during the Civil War, but for the most part his cares was unadventurous. In 1887 be began to deliver his first course of lectures before the Naval War College, and it was these lectures which became in their revised form the wonderfully illuminating book, The Influence of Sea Power on History. This book has not only determined thought on the importance of sea power all over the world ; it has influenced the naval policy of all the Great Powers. No other writer has ever caught and fixed the significance of sea power as Mahan did. He showed that its influence is always there, even in the most unlikely circumstances.