Naval gazing

摘要

Ever since HG Wells' The War of the Worlds, in which HMS Thunderchild engages Martian tripods off the Essex coast, the world's navies have fired the imaginations of science fiction writers. Perhaps this is no great surprise. The ocean dramas played out in human history, from Actium to Lepanto, from Jutland to Midway, offer tales of individual bravery and genius, of empires crushed and born, of cruel fate and blind luck played out on an empty expanse, far from the ambiguities of occupation and collateral damage. Further, they are tales of men marshalling their knowledge of engineering in a race to develop more powerful war machines, from longship to aircraft carrier. All of man's talent for inventive destruction, for myth making and drama, can be found in the centuries of struggle to rule the waves, and this has proved ripe for retelling within the ocean of space.