Roosevelt's twenty-ship argument for naval preparation before war

Roosevelt uses the blockade to argue that a country with a long coastline needs a fighting navy ready before war begins. He contrasts the glory of individual frigate victories with their limited ability to defend commerce and coastal towns. His counterfactual is that twenty capable ships of the line would have made the blockade impossible and averted enormous commercial losses. National resources cannot immediately replace missing ships or inadequate training once fighting has started. The analogy is a prize fighter whose strong constitution cannot compensate for failing to prepare. His use of 'battleships' for ships of the line and 'cruisers' for frigates is interpreted as a way of making the argument familiar to an early-twentieth-century audience.