One proposal would replace much of the seagoing navy with small gunboats transported to threatened points by horse and carriage. The scheme promised economical local defence without funding expensive ships and permanent crews. In practice, it could not provide the endurance, concentration, or sea control of a balanced fleet. The later British attack on Washington supplied a pointed test of that assumption. The plan links institutional reluctance to spend with the operational weakness exposed in wartime.
Notable Point · 24:17-24:44
Mobile gunboats promise coastal defence on the cheap
The proposal to move single-cannon boats by horse and carriage captures the procurement thinking that left the United States without a balanced fleet.