For my purposes, small boats comprise what Sir Julian Corbett called "the flotilla." In his analysis of naval tactics at the dawn of the 20th century, Some Principles of Maritime Strategy , 1 Sir Julian said a navy had three mutually exclusive, mutually reinforcing components: the battle fleet, which destroys the enemy fleet; cruisers, which raid enemy commerce and protect friendly commerce; and a flotilla of small craft in large numbers, which fight for control of narrow seas.
Coastal waters became the province of small combatants at the beginning of the 20th century with the perfection of the mine and torpedo. It was unsafe for a battle fleet to enter an enemy’s coastal waters and subject itself to attacks by torpedo boats, submarines, and defensive mines. Writing in 1898, Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov, Imperial Russia’s greatest naval thinker, with droll insight said: