Project Gutenberg's How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves, by W.H.G. Kingston

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Title: How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves
       Updated to 1900

Author: W.H.G. Kingston

Release Date: November 15, 2007 [EBook #23496]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RULE THE WAVES ***




Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves, updated to 1900, by W.H.G.
Kingston.

________________________________________________________________________

This is a history of the British Navy, originally written by Kingston,
but as he had died many years before 1900, and as it was felt that this
book ought to go up to that year, it was edited and re-issued by the
friends of Kingston, in particular by Henty.

It is a serious book, yet it is an easy one to read.  It is also a very
interesting book, that all British boys and girls, even now, more than a
hundred years after the book was published, would do well to read.

One thing of special interest is that today's naval families, families
that have traditionally sent sons to a distinguished career in the Navy,
can look back, and read of the exploits of their forbears.

On the other hand, because of the very large numbers of names in the
book it would probably not make a good audiobook, and we have not tried
it.

________________________________________________________________________

HOW BRITANNIA CAME TO RULE THE WAVES, UPDATED TO 1900, BY W.H.G.
KINGSTON.



CHAPTER ONE.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Rome was not built in a day, nor has the glorious British Navy attained
its present condition except by slow degrees, by numerous trials and
experiments, by improvements gradually and cautiously introduced, and by
the employment of a vast amount of thought, energy, and toil.  We are
apt to forget when we see an elaborate machine, the immense quantity of
mental and physical exertion it represents, the efforts of the united
minds perhaps of many successive generations, and the labour of
thousands of workmen.  I propose briefly to trace the progress which the
British Navy has made from age to age, as well as its customs, and the
habits of its seamen, with their more notable exploits since the days
when this tight little island of ours first became known to the rest of
the world.

Some writers, indulging in the Darwinian theory of development, would
make us believe that the ironclad of the present day is the legitimate
offspring of the ancient coracle or wicker-work boat which is still to
be found afloat on the waters of the Wye, and on some of the rivers of
the east coast; but if such is the case, the descent must be one of many
ages, for it is probable that the Britons had stout ships long before
the legions of Cassar set their feet upon our shores.  I am inclined to
agree with an ancient writer who gives it as his opinion that the
British were always a naval people.  "For," says he, in somewhat quaint
phraseology, "as Britain was an island, the inhabitants could only have
come to it across the ocean in ships, and they could scarcely have had
ships unless they were nautically inclined."  The same writer asserts
that the Britons had vessels of large size long before the invasion of
the Romans, but that they either burnt them to prevent their falling
into the hands of the invaders, or that they were destroyed by the
Romans themselves, who then, adding insult to injury, stigmatised the
people as mere painted barbarians, whose sole mode of moving over the
waters of their coasts and rivers was in wicker baskets covered with
hides--the truth being, that these wicker-ribbed boats were simply the
craft used by the British fishermen on their coasts or streams.  How
could the hordes that in successive ages crossed the German Ocean have
performed the voyage unless they had possessed more efficient means of
conveyance than these afforded?  I must, therefore, agree with the
aforesaid ancient writer that they had stout ships, impelled by sails
and oars, which were afterwards employed either in commercial or
piratical enterprises.  The Britons of the southern shores of the island
possessed, he says, wooden-built ships of a size considerably greater
than any hide-covered barks could have been.  It is very certain that
many hundred years before the Christian era the Phoenicians visited the
coasts of Cornwall and Devonshire, and planted colonies there, which
retain to the present day their ancient peculiarities and customs, and
even many names of common things.  It is probable that these colonists,
well acquainted as they were with nautical affairs, kept up their
practical knowledge of shipbuilding, and formed a mercantile navy to
carry on their commerce with other countries, as well as ships fitted
for warfare to protect their ports from foreign invasion, or from the
attacks of pirates.

Many English nautical terms at present in use are clearly of Phoenician
origin.  Davit, for instance, is evidently derived from the Arabic word
_Davit_, a crooked piece of wood, similar in shape to that by which the
boats of a vessel are hoisted out of the water and hung up at her sides.
The word Caboose was the name given by the Phoenicians to the temple
dedicated to the god of fire, whom they worshipped, built on the decks
of their vessels; when a purer faith was introduced, it being found
convenient to cook dinners in the no longer sacred _Caboose_, the name
being retained, Blackie the cook took the place of the officiating
priest.  Caboose is at the present day the name of the kitchen-house on
the deck of a merchant-vessel.  Many other terms even now used by
seafaring people are derived directly or indirectly from the same
far-distant origin, as are several of the customs observed at the
present day.  I may mention some of them by-and-by.

SHIPS OF THE ANCIENTS.

The ancient Greeks and other Eastern nations had ships of considerable
size many hundred years before the Christian era.  The earliest mythical
stories describe long voyages performed by vessels of far more
complicated structure than the simple canoe.  The ships engaged in the
Trojan war each carried a hundred and twenty warriors, which shows that
at the period referred to they could not have been of very small
dimensions.  Although they might have been open, they had masts and
sails, and were propelled by rowers sitting on benches, while the oars
were fastened to the sides of the ship with leathern thongs.  Some were
painted black, others red.  When they arrived at their destination, the
bows were drawn up on shore; or when on a voyage, they at night anchored
by the stern, with cables secured to large stones.  At an early period
they had round bottoms and sharp prows.  We hear of ships with three
ranks of rowers, called triremes, B.C. 700, and long before that time
biremes, or ships with two ranks of oars, had been introduced.  In the
time of Cyrus, long sharp-keeled war-ships were used, having fifty
rowers, who sat in one row, twenty-five on each side of the ship.  About
B.C. 400, the practice of entirely decking over ships was introduced;
Themistocles induced the Athenians to build a fleet of two hundred sail,
and to pass a decree that every year twenty new triremes should be
built.  The Greeks even at that period, however, seldom ventured out
into the open sea, steering in the daytime by headlands or islands, and
at night by the rising and setting of different stars.

The Greeks possessed ships of war and merchant-vessels.  That a
war-galley was of large size may be inferred from the fact that she
carried two hundred seamen, besides on some occasions thirty Epibatoe--
literally, marines, trained to fight at sea.  These war-vessels moved
with wonderful rapidity, darting here and there with the speed of a
modern steam-vessel.  The ordinary war-ships were triremes, or had three
banks of oars.  The merchant-vessels or transports were much more bulky,
had round bottoms, and although rowers were employed on board, yet they
were propelled chiefly by their sails.  After the time of Alexander,
vessels with four, five, and even more ranks of rowers became general,
and ships are described with twelve and even thirty ranks of rowers and
upwards--but they were found of no practical use, as the crew on the
upper benches were unable to throw sufficient power into the immensely
long oars which it was necessary to employ.

Fully B.C. 500, the Carthaginians invented the quadremes, and about B.C.
400, Dionysius, first tyrant of Syracuse, whose ambition was to create a
powerful navy, built numerous vessels of the same description, unused
till that time by the Greeks.  The rowers in these ships, with numerous
banks of oars, could not have sat directly one above another, as some
suppose; but the feet of those on the upper tier must have rested on the
bench or thwart on which those immediately below them sat.  Thus the
tiers of oars were probably not more than two feet, if so much, one
above another; and supposing the lowest tier was two feet above the
water, the highest in the quadremes could not have been more than ten
feet, and even then the length of the oar of the upper tier must have
been very great, and it must have required considerable exertion on the
part of the rower to move it.  The most interesting part, however, of an
ancient ship to us at the present day was the beak or rostra.  At first
these beaks were placed only above water, and were formed in the shape
of a short thick-bladed sword, with sharp points, generally three, one
above another, and inclining slightly upwards, so that they might rip
open the planks of the vessels against which they ran.  They were
sometimes formed in the shape of a ram's head fixed to the end of a
beam; and hence in modern days we have adopted the name of rams, which
we give to ships of war built on the same principle.

After a time these beaks were fixed on to the bow of the ship below the
water, and were thus still more dangerous to other ships, when they
could strike an antagonist on the side.  The bow of a ship was generally
ornamented by the head of some animal, such as a wild boar or a wolf, or
some imaginary creature placed above the rostra.  On both sides of the
prow were painted eyes, such as are seen on the bows of boats and
vessels in the Mediterranean at the present day.  The upper part of the
prow was frequently ornamented with a helmet covered with bronze.  The
steersman or pilot was looked upon as the chief in rank among the crew,
and after him there came an officer whose duties were similar to those
of the boatswain, as he had the care of the gear and command over the
rowers.  The stern or puppis, from which we derive the term poop, was
elevated above the other parts of the deck, and here the helmsman had
his seat, sheltered by a shed frequently adorned with an image of the
tutelary deity of the vessel.  Sometimes he had a lantern hanging in
front of him, probably to enable him to see the magic compass, the use
of which was kept secret from the rest of the crew.  A circular shield
or shields also ornamented the stern.  Behind the helmsman was placed a
slight pole on which flew the dog-vane, to show the direction of the
wind.  In the centre of the ship was a raised platform on a level with
the upper part of the bulwarks, on which in battle the soldiers took
their stand to hurl their darts against the enemy.

The quadremes and quinqueremes carried from three to four hundred
rowers, and a ship belonging to Ptolemaeus Philopater is described as
carrying four thousand rowers.  From the surface of the water to the top
of the prow was forty-eight cubits, or seventy-two feet, and from the
water to the top of the stern fifty-three cubits, or nearly eighty feet;
she had thus sufficient room for forty ranks of rowers, and the oars of
the uppermost rank were thirty-eight cubits or fifty-seven feet long,
the handles of which were weighted with lead, so as to balance the outer
part, and thus render the long oars manageable.  The lower parts of the
holes through which the oars passed were covered with leather.  Till the
invention of the rudder, vessels were steered by two large oars, one on
either side of the stern, with very broad blades.  Ships were also
furnished with long poles, by which they could be shoved off the ground.
The triremes were fitted with two masts, and so were even smaller
vessels; the larger had three masts, the largest of which was nearest
the stern.  They were usually of fir; and the head of the lower mast,
which is at present called the top, was in the shape of a drinking cup.
Some of these tops were of bronze; the largest held three men, two in
the next, and one in the smallest; and breast-works ran round them to
defend the occupants from the darts of the enemy.  They were also
furnished with tackles for hoisting up stones and weapons to hurl at the
foe.  Above the main-mast was a top-mast or topgallant-mast, called the
distaff; the yards were hoisted up much as in the present day, and were
secured by parrels or hoops to the mast.  They were fitted with
topping-lifts and braces.  Each mast carried two square sails, and in
after days the Romans introduced triangular sails.  Though they
generally ran before the wind, they were also able to sail on a wind,
though probably not very close-hauled.

Ships were supplied with weather-boards, or broad belts of canvas, to
keep out the sea, and were surrounded, also, by lines of ropes one above
another, to prevent the seamen from being washed overboard.  Sometimes
these breast-works were made of skins or wicker-work, and in bad weather
were raised to a considerable height above the bulwarks.  It is said
that Anacharsis, upwards of 500 B.C., if he did not invent, greatly
improved the form of anchors, which were already made of iron.  The
anchor had generally two flukes or teeth, and was then called bidens;
but sometimes it had only one.  We use the same terms as the ancients,
to cast anchor or weigh anchor, whence the latter term is equivalent to
set sail.  Each ship had several anchors; that in which the Apostle Paul
sailed, we know, had four, and others had eight.  The largest and most
important anchor was denominated "the last hope," hence, when that
failed, arose the expression "the last hope gone."  A buoy was used
fixed to the anchor by a rope, to show the spot where it lay.

The Romans possessed no war fleets till the year B.C. 260, when a fleet
of triremes was built to oppose the Carthaginians.  Many of them having
been sent to the bottom, however, by the quinqueremes of that people,
the Romans built a hundred of the latter-sized ships from the model of a
Carthaginian vessel wrecked on the coast of Italy.  The Romans must have
had very large merchant-vessels to enable them to transport the enormous
monoliths from Egypt which they erected in Rome.  These vast stones,
also, could not have been got on board and brought up the Tiber without
considerable mechanical appliances.

The construction of their ships differed but slightly from that of the
Greek vessels; they had turrets on the decks of their larger men-of-war,
and employed a variety of destructive engines; so that in battle the
soldiers on board fought much as they did when standing on the walls of
a fortress.  Of one thing I am sure, that no correct drawings of ancient
ships have come down to us, if any such were really made; those on
medals, cameos, and such as are painted on walls, are probably as far
removed from the reality as a Thames barge is from a dashing frigate.
They give us, certainly, the different parts of the ship, and from them
we may form a pretty correct idea of what a ship really was like.
Certain it is, however, that ships were built of prodigious size, and if
not equal to a line-of-battle ship of late days, they must have been as
large as, if not larger than, the _Great Harry_, and probably quite as
well able to encounter as she was the boisterous seas.  Long before the
Christian era, ships boldly struck across the Mediterranean, and even
passing through the Pillars of Hercules, coasted along the shores of
Iberia and Gaul, and thence crossed over to Britain, or coasted round
the African continent.

Advanced as the ancients were in architectural knowledge, there is every
reason to suppose that they were equally capable of building ships to
answer all their requirements, either for war or commerce.  They were
probably thus not only of great size, but well built, and were certainly
finished and ornamented in an elegant and even a magnificent manner, far
superior to that of many ages later.  The mistaken notion as to the size
of the ships of the ancients arises from the supposition that because
merchantmen of the present day are smaller than men-of-war, that they
were so formerly--the reverse, however, being the case.  Men-of-war were
generally long, narrow vessels, constructed for speed, to carry only
fighting men, with a small quantity of provisions; whereas merchantmen
were built of considerable beam and depth to stow a large quantity of
cargo.  A Phoenician vessel was able to afford accommodation to 500
emigrants, with provisions for a long voyage, besides her crew, while
her masts were formed of the cedars of Lebanon.

NAUTICAL CUSTOMS DERIVED FROM THE ANCIENTS.

Among the best-known customs of the ocean is the ceremony that takes
place when ships cross the line.  That, however, like many others of
olden days, is getting somewhat into disuse.  Few of those who have
witnessed it, probably, have suspected that its origin dates as far back
as the times of the Phoenicians.  As the ship approaches the imaginary
band which encircles the globe, a gruff voice hails her from alongside,
and demands her name and nation, whence she is from, and whither she is
bound.  These questions being answered, she is ordered to heave to, when
no less a person than old father Neptune himself, with his fair wife
Amphitrite, and their attendant Tritons, climb up over the bows, and
take possession of the fore-part of the deck.  Neptune generally wears a
crown formed out of a tin saucepan, with a flowing beard, a wig of
oakum, and a robe composed of some gay-coloured petticoat-stuff, stored
up for the occasion, or a piece of canvas, with curious devices painted
on it, while he carries in his band a trident, made out of a harpoon or
a boat-hook.  The fair Amphitrite, who is more commonly known on board
as Bill Buntline, the boatswain's mate, is habited, like her lord, in
the gayest of gay attire, with a vast profusion of oakum locks, and bows
of huge proportions, although it must be confessed that she has very
little to boast of in the way of feminine delicacy or personal beauty,
while the Tritons are at all events very odd-looking fish.

The captain, surrounded by his officers, with the passengers behind him,
stands on the poop, and a spirited conversation, not altogether
destitute of humour, generally takes place between him and Neptune--when
the monarch of the main demands that every one on board who has not
before crossed that portion of his watery realm where the ship then
floats, shall be brought before him.  None, whatever their rank, are
excused.  Those who at once consent to pay tribute are allowed to escape
without undergoing any further ceremony, but those luckless wights who
refuse or have not the wherewithal to pay are instantly seized on by the
Tritons, lathered with pitch and grease, shaved with a rusty hoop, and
soused over head and ears in a huge tub, while from all quarters, as
they attempt to escape from the marine monsters, bucketfuls of water are
hove down upon them.  Uproar and apparent confusion ensues; and usually
it requires no little exertion of authority on the part of the captain
and officers to restore order.

We might suspect, from the introduction of the names of Neptune and
Amphitrite, that this curious and somewhat barbarous custom must have a
classical origin.  There can be no doubt that it is derived from those
maritime people of old, the Phoenicians.  Ceremonies, to which those I
have described bear the strongest similarity, were practised by them at
a very remote period, whenever one of their ships passed through the
Straits of Gibraltar.  That talented writer, David Urquhart, in his
"Pillars of Hercules," asserts that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians
possessed a knowledge of the virtues of the loadstone, and used it as a
compass, as did the mariners of the Levant till a late period.

The original compass consisted of a cup full of water, on which floated
a thin circular board, with the needle resting on it; this was placed in
a small shrine or temple in front of the helmsman, with a lantern
probably fixed inside to throw light on the mysterious instrument during
the night.  The most fearful oaths were administered to the initiated
not to divulge the secret.  Every means, also, which craft could devise
or superstition enforce was employed by the Phoenicians to prevent other
people from gaining a knowledge of it, or of the mode by which their
commerce beyond the Straits of Hercules was carried on, or of the
currents, the winds, the tides, the seas, the shores, the people, or the
harbours.  A story is told of a Phoenician vessel running herself on the
rocks to prevent the Romans from finding the passage.  This secrecy was
enforced by the most sanguinary code--death was the penalty of
indiscretion; thus the secret of the compass was preserved from
generation to generation among a few families of seamen unknown to the
rest of the civilised world.  The ceremonies, especially, were kept up,
though in a succession of ages they have undergone gradual alterations.

The lofty shores which form the two sides of the Straits of Gibraltar
were known in ancient days as the Pillars of Hercules.  Here stood the
temple of the god, and hither came the mariners before launching forth
on the more perilous part of their voyage, to pay their vows, and
probably to bind themselves by oaths to conceal the secrets to be
revealed to them.  Perhaps in all cases the temple on shore was not
visited, but, at all events, the oaths were administered to the seamen
on board, ablutions were performed, and sacrifices offered up.  The
introduction of Christianity did not abolish these observances, and
through the ignorance and superstition of the mariners of those seas
they were for century after century maintained, though the motive and
origin were altogether forgotten.

A traveller, who wrote as recently as the seventeenth century, describes
a ceremony which took place on board a ship in which he was sailing,
when passing through the straits.  Just as the two lofty headlands were
in sight on either side of the ship, an old seaman came forward with a
book, and summoning all those whose names he declared not to be
registered in it, made them swear that they in future voyages would
compel their fellow-seamen to perform the same ceremonies in which they
were about to engage.  Behind him appeared a band of veteran seamen
dressed up in a variety of fantastic costumes, with a drum and other
musical instruments.  These forthwith seized on all whose names were not
registered as having before passed through the straits, and dragging
them forward, thrust them into tubs, and soused them thoroughly with
water.  No one was altogether exempt, but those who had before passed
were allowed to escape a like process by the payment of a fine.

These same mariners, when they extended their voyages to the southern
hemisphere, very naturally postponed the ceremony which they were in the
habit of performing on passing the straits, till they crossed the line.
They also, not altogether abandoning classical allusions, changed the
name of their _dramatis personae_.  Hercules, who had no connection with
the ocean, whatever he might have had to do with the Straits of
Gibraltar, had to give place to Neptune, the long-honoured monarch of
the main, and Amphitrite was introduced to keep him company.  We
recognise in the duckings, the sacrificial ablutions, and in the shaving
and fining, the oaths and the penalty.

When the hardy seamen of Great Britain first began to steer their ships
across the line, they were undoubtedly accompanied by pilots and
mariners of the Mediterranean.  These, of course, taught them the
ceremonies they had been in the habit of performing.  The English, as
may be supposed, made various additions and alterations suited to their
rougher habits and ideas, and what at one time probably retained
somewhat of the elegance of its classical origin, became the strange
burlesque it now appears.

Another nautical custom still in vogue is also derived from remote
antiquity.  At the present day, with doubtful propriety, in imitation of
the rite of baptism, we christen a ship, as it is often called, by
breaking a bottle of wine on her bows as she glides off the stocks.  The
custom is of thoroughly heathen origin.  A similar ceremony was
practised by the ancient Greeks when they launched a ship.  We ornament
our vessels with flags; they decked theirs with garlands.  At the moment
the ship was launched forth into the deep the priest of Neptune raised
to his lips a goblet of wine, and after quaffing from it, he poured the
remainder out as a libation to his deity.  The modern Greeks still
perform the ceremony much in the manner of their ancestors.  Clearly,
the custom we have of breaking a bottle of wine is derived from the
libations of the ancients.  In most instances, at the present day, the
ship is named at the moment she is launched by a young lady, who acts
the part of the priest or priestess of old.

Of late years a religious service is usually performed at the launch of
a man-of-war.  The heathen libation is not, however, omitted, and the
whole ceremony presents a curious jumble of ancient and modern forms
suited to the tastes of the day.  Still we are bound heartily to pray
that the gallant sailors who will man the stout ship may be protected
while in the performance of their duty to their country; and, still
more, that they may be brought to a knowledge of the Gospel.

The Greeks invariably gave feminine names to their ships, choosing,
whenever possible, appropriate ones; while the less courteous Romans
bestowed masculine names on theirs.  Though we may not have followed the
Greek rule, we to the present day always look upon a ship as of the
feminine gender.

The mariner's compass, the most important instrument used in navigation,
demands further notice.  The magnet, or loadstone, was known to the
ancient Greeks many centuries before the Christian era.  The legend
runs, that one Magnes a shepherd, feeding his flocks on Mount Ida,
having stretched himself on the ground to sleep, left his crook, the
upper part of which was made of iron, lying against a rock.  On awaking,
and rising to depart, he found, when he attempted to take up his crook,
that the iron adhered to the rock.  Having communicated this
extraordinary fact to some neighbouring philosophers, they called the
rock after the name of the shepherd, Magnes, the magnet.

The Chinese, of still more ancient date, so their traditions affirm,
discovered a mountain rising out of the sea possessing an intensity of
attraction so great that the nails and iron bands were drawn out of
their ships, causing their immediate wreck.  Those sea-arabs whom we
call Phoenicians had, at a very early date, made use of their knowledge
of the property of the loadstone to turn towards the North Pole; though,
like many other discoveries, as I have just mentioned, it was kept a
profound secret among a select few, and concealed from the public by
having an air of religious mystery thrown over it.  Lumps of loadstone
formed into balls were preserved in their temples, and looked upon with
awe, as possessing mystic properties.  With these round stones the point
of a needle was rubbed, as often as it required fresh magnetising.

I have already described the compass used by the Phoenicians, and how,
long after Islamism had gained the ascendency, it was possessed by their
descendants.  At length the secret was divulged, and it came into
general use among the mariners of the Mediterranean in the tenth and
eleventh centuries.  Its original form was unaltered for nearly four
centuries, when, in 1502, Flavio Gioja of Positano, near the town of
Amalfi, on the coast of Calabria, a place celebrated for its maritime
enterprise, improved upon the primitive rude and simple instrument by
suspending the needle on a centre, and enclosing it in a box.  The
advantages of his invention were so great that his instrument was
universally adopted, and hence he gained the credit of being the
inventor of the mariner's compass, of which he was only the improver.

Long before the compass was used at sea, it had been employed by the
Chinese to direct the course of their caravans across the desert.  For
this purpose a figure, placed in a waggon which led the caravan, was so
constructed that the arm and hand moved with perfect freedom, the
magnetic needle being attached to it; the hand, however, pointed to the
south, the negative end being fixed in it.  The Chinese also used a
needle which was freely suspended in the air, attached to a silken
thread, and by this means they were able to determine the amount of the
western variation of the needle.  It is possible that both the Chinese
and Arabs discovered the magnetic powers of the loadstone, although the
latter in their long voyages may have allowed the knowledge they
possessed to have been drawn from them by the astute Chinese; or, _vice
versa_, the Arabs may have obtained the knowledge which the Chinese
already possessed, and kept it secret from the western nations.  We all
remember the wonderful adventures of Sinbad the Sailor, as narrated in
the Arabian Nights--how the ship in which he sailed was attracted by a
magnetic mountain, which finally drew all the iron bolts and nails out
of her.  Now it happens that the author places Sinbad's mountain in the
same part of the world in which the Chinese say their magnetic mountain
exists.  Ptolemy, in his geography, also describes a magnetic mountain
existing in the Chinese Seas.  We may therefore, I think, come to the
conclusion, that the mariner's compass was known to the ancients long
before the Christian era, and that although disused for centuries, the
knowledge was never altogether lost.



CHAPTER TWO.

EARLY ENGLISH SHIPS (FROM A.D. 600 TO A.D. 1087.)

We Englishmen undoubtedly derive a large portion of our nautical spirit
from our Saxon ancestors, the first bands of whom came to the shores of
our tight little island under those sea-rovers known as Hengist and
Horsa, invited by the helpless Britons to defend them from the attacks
of the savage Picts and Scots.  The enemies of the gallant heroes I have
named were apt to call them pirates; but as might made right in most
sublunary affairs during those dark and troubled ages of the world's
history, they looked upon the roving commissions they had given
themselves as perfectly honourable and lawful, and felt no small amount
of contempt for the rest of mankind who chose to stay at home at ease by
their firesides, while they were ploughing the ocean in search of
plunder and glory.  I suspect that they had a strong preference for the
former.

After the Saxons had driven the ancient inhabitants of the island out of
the more fertile portions of the country, and had made themselves,
according to their notions, pretty comfortable in their new homes; they,
in a little time, in their turn, were sadly pestered by foreign
invaders.  These were the Danes.  Those hardy sons of the North, still
more wild and fierce than the Saxons, and still less scrupulous in their
proceedings, pleased with the appearance of the country which they had
come over to look at, settled themselves in every nook and corner of Old
England in which they could haul up their ships, and find a resting
place for their feet.  I cannot help feeling a great respect for those
old sea-kings.  They were heathens, and we must judge of them by the
light which they possessed, and not by any standard acknowledged in the
present civilised world.  Bold, enterprising, and sagacious, their own
country confined and barren, they looked on the wide ocean as the only
worthy field for the employment of their energies.  They loved it for
itself, too; they were born on it, or within the sound of its surges;
they lived on it, they fought on it, and it was their wish through life
to die on it, as if only on its boundless expanse their free spirits
could be emancipated from this mortal coil.  This same spirit still
exists and animates the breasts of the officers and men of our navy, of
our vast mercantile marine; and, though mentioned last, not certainly in
a less degree of the owners of the superb yacht fleets which grace the
waters of the Solent, of the Bay of Dublin, of Plymouth Sound, of the
mouth of the Thames, and indeed of every harbour and roadstead round our
shores.  No people, unless animated by such a spirit, would go to sea
simply for the love of a sea-life as do our yachtsmen.  We may depend
upon it that they are the lineal descendants of those old sea-rovers,
somewhat more civilised and polished certainly, differing as much in
that respect, it is to be hoped, from their remote ancestors as do their
trim yachts, which will go nine knots or more within four and a-half
points of the wind, from the tubbish-looking sturdy craft of the Danes,
which had no idea of sailing any way except dead before the gale.

There was something barbarously grand in the notion of the old Norse
kings which induced them, when worn out with age and fatigue, to sail
forth into mid-ocean, and then, lighting their own funeral pile, to
consume themselves and the stout ship they loved so well in one
conflagration.  Seriously, however, we must not forget that they were
influenced by a very terrible and dark superstition, and be thankful
that we live in an age when the bright beams of Christianity have
dispelled such gross errors from this part of the globe.  I cannot help
fancying that the late Lord Yarborough, that chief of true yachtsmen,
had somewhat the same feeling I have been describing, refined and
civilised of course, when, his vessel, the _Kestrel_, being in Malta
harbour, he found death approaching, and ordered her to be got under
weigh, to stand out to sea, that he might breathe out his spirit
surrounded by that element on which he had so long made his home, and in
which he so truly delighted.

The tribes, now so closely united, which make up the British race, were
the most maritime people of their time, and it is not, therefore,
surprising that we should now possess strong nautical propensities.  The
Normans, it must be remembered also, who afterwards conquered England,
were descended from the same bold sea-rovers, though, having paid sundry
visits to Paris, where they learned to write poetry, to sing, and to
dance, with many other accomplishments, they had wonderfully improved in
civilisation since the days of their ancestors, of whom I have been
speaking.  Still the same enterprising spirit animated their bosoms,
afterwards to shine forth with splendour, when their descendants became
the leaders of numberless exploring expeditions to all parts of the
world, and of the victorious fleets of Old England.

There is no doubt, as I have shown, that the English possessed trading
vessels, if not also ships, built exclusively for war, from a very early
period.

The first regular war-fleet, however, which we hear of was one built by
our great King Alfred, to protect his dominions from the attacks of the
Danes.

He designed a ship from the model of those used by the Greeks, Romans,
and Carthaginians, similar to the Maltese galley employed down to a very
recent date in the Mediterranean.  His ships are said to have been twice
as large as any vessels of war used by other nations at that period.
They were large galleys, propelled by sixty oars, with a deck above that
part where the rowers sat.  On the deck stood the fighting men and
mariners, who managed the sails, for they had masts and sails as well as
oars.  There were besides probably small towers or breast-works at the
stern and bow to contribute to their means of attack and defence.  These
ships were built of well-seasoned materials, commanded by experienced
officers, whom the king had collected from all quarters, and manned by
expert seamen.  The commanders were ordered to go forth in quest of the
Danes, to attack wherever they encountered them, and to give no quarter;
orders which were strictly obeyed, and which for the time were most
efficacious in clearing the coast of pirates.  In consequence of the
ease with which the ships were moved through the water, and from their
being always able to keep the weather-gauge, as likewise from the
strange appearance which they presented to their enemies, Alfred's
commanders were not afraid of attacking twice or thrice their own number
of the enemy, and invariably came off victorious.  Indeed they had
nearly the same advantage over the Danes which a steamer at the present
day has over a fleet of Chinese junks.  Alfred, it is said, caused
surveys to be made of the coasts of Norway and Lapland, and sent out
ships to the polar regions in search of whales.

I have met with an old writer, who describes a far more remarkable
achievement than any of these.  He was a monk, of course, and his
knowledge of geography we may suspect was rather limited, when he tells
us that in the reign of Alfred a voyage was performed to the Indies by
the way of the north-east--that is to say, round the north of Asia--
under the command of a certain monk, Swithelm, who, as his reward, was
made Bishop of Sherburn.  The mission was undertaken to aid the
Christians of a place called Saint Thomas, on the continent of India,
and we are assured that the curiosities which were brought back, and are
fully described, are exactly like the productions found in India, when
it became more fully known.  The expedition, if it ever took place, must
have proceeded down the African coast and round the Cape of Good Hope.
If so, the seamen of Britain, with a monk as their commander, succeeded
in an enterprise which, having been totally forgotten, immortalised
Bartholomew Diaz as the discoverer of the Stormy Cape full six centuries
afterwards.  We must not place more faith in the narrative than it
deserves, but one thing is certain, that if any long or perilous voyages
were performed, the prints of ships pretending to be those of the days
of King Alfred found on tapestries, old illustrated histories and other
works are not slightly incorrect.  When a boy, I used very strongly to
suspect that if a ship had ever been built after the model of the prints
exhibited in the History of England, she would either, as sailors say,
have turned the turtle directly she was launched, or have gone boxing
about the compass beyond the control of those on board her; but as to
standing up to a breeze, or going ahead, I saw that that was impossible.
I have since discovered, with no little satisfaction, when examining
into the subject, that the verbal descriptions of the ships of those
days give a very different idea to that which the prints and tapestry
work do, which so offended my nautical instincts.

Large substantial vessels, we may depend on it, existed in those days,
and though encumbered with much top hamper, and rigged only with square
sails, they did not carry the high towers nor the absurdly cut sails
which they are represented to have done in all the illustrated histories
I have seen.  The celebrated galleys of King Alfred are described by an
old writer as very long, narrow, and deep vessels, heavily ballasted on
account of the high deck on which the soldiers and seamen stood above
the heads of the rowers.  Of these rowers, there were four to work each
oar, and as there were thirty-eight oars on a side, there must have been
upwards of three hundred rowers to each vessel.  Whether these vessels
had more than one mast is uncertain.  From their want of beam they would
have run much risk of turning over had they attempted to sail except
directly before the wind.  They moved with great rapidity; and in an
engagement off the Isle of Wight, they ran down the Danish vessels in
succession till the whole fleet of the enemy was either sunk, driven on
shore, or put to flight.

The navy of England still further increased during the reign of Alfred's
immediate successors, till, in the time of King Edgar (A.D. 957), it had
reached the number of three thousand six hundred ships at least, "with
which," as say his chroniclers, "he vindicated the right claimed in all
ages by the sovereigns of this island to the dominion of the seas
(meaning the seas surrounding England), and acquired to himself the
great title of _The Protector of Commerce_."

This navy was divided into three fleets, each of twelve hundred sail,
which he kept in constant readiness for service, one on the eastern
coast, another on the western, and a third on the northern coasts of the
kingdom, to defend them against the depredations of the Danish and
Norman pirates, and to secure the navigation of the adjacent seas;
which, that he might the more effectually do, he, every year after the
festival of Easter, went on board the fleet on the eastern coast, and
sailing westward with it scoured the channel of pirates; and having
looked into all the ports, bays, and creeks between the Thames' mouth
and Land's End, quitted this fleet and sent it back, and going on board
the western fleet did the like in those parts, as also on the coasts of
England, Scotland, and Ireland, and among the Hebrides or Western
Islands, where being met by the northern fleet, he went on board the
same, and came round to the Thames' mouth.  Thus encompassing all his
dominions, and providing for the security of their coasts, he rendered
an invasion impracticable, and kept his sailors in continual exercise.
This he did for the whole sixteen years of his reign.

May our rulers ever possess the wisdom of Alfred, the greatest of
England's kings, and by the same means preserve inviolate the shores of
our native land.

It would have been well for Old England had all its monarchs imitated
the excellent example set by King Edgar, and had never allowed any
decrease in the naval establishment.  Let the present generation do as
he did, with the modifications changed times and circumstances have
introduced, and then, although we may not be able correctly to troll
forth "_Hearts of oak_ are our ships," we may sing truly--

  "Iron coats wear our ships,
  Lion hearts have our men;
  We always are ready;
  Then steady, boys, steady;
  We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again."

King Edgar appears to have been the last great naval sovereign of the
Saxon race.  When his son Ethelred, by the murder of his brother Edward,
came to the throne, his navy was so neglected that the Danes made
incursions with impunity on every part of the coasts of England, and in
the year A.D. 991, they extorted no less a sum than 10,000 pounds from
that wicked monarch, or rather from his unfortunate subjects (who,
depend upon it, had to pay the piper), as the price of their forbearance
in refraining from levying a further amount of plunder.

This circumstance might have served as a strong hint to the English of
those times to keep up the strength of their navy, but it does not
appear to have had any such effect; and even that wise monarch, Canute
the Great, had only thirty-two ships afloat.  We find, however, that
when Harold, son of Earl Godwin, was striving to maintain his claim to
the crown of England (A.D. 1066), he fitted out a numerous fleet, with
which he was able to defeat his rivals.  Now, as we are elsewhere told
that one of these rivals alone had a navy of three hundred sail, his
must have been of considerable magnitude.  After his death, at the
battle of Hastings, his sons and several of his chief nobility escaped
in the remnant of their fleet to the coasts of Norway, and gave no
little annoyance to the Norman Conqueror, William.

It must be remembered that the Duke of Normandy, as he was then styled,
had, to bring over his army, nine hundred transports; but he burnt them
when he landed, to show his own followers, as well as the Saxons, that
he had come to die or to conquer.

Such is a very brief account of the navy of England up to the time of
the Norman Conquest.

It is more easy to describe what the ships of those days were not like
than to give an exact description of them.  Certainly the ships
represented on tapestry, on seals, or on coins are very unlike any piece
of naval architecture which ever had existence.  Every seaman knows how
impossible it is for an ordinary landsman to draw anything like a
faithful representation of a ship, however picturesque a production the
thing might appear to him.  We are bound, therefore, to look with grave
suspicion on the performances of the draughtsmen of those early days;
who had but a poor idea of drawing the objects they had constantly
before their eyes.

Our artist has given a fair representation, I suspect, of what a ship
was in those early days.  She probably had another mast aft, and some
more head sail of a square shape.  What are called fore and aft sails
were not generally used till comparatively modern times.  She looks as
if she really was fitted to cross the channel, to carry a number of men,
and even to contend with heavy seas.  The tall masts, heavy rigging, and
large tops, on which a number of men could stand and fight, had not then
been employed on these northern seas.

I have hitherto spoken only of the war-ships of those early days.  There
were, however, merchant-ships which traded to far-distant shores.  They
were probably good wholesome craft, of somewhat tub-like form, of about
the size of a vessel of the present day of one hundred to one hundred
and fifty tons, rigged with two or three big sails, with one bank of
oars, and manned by a hardy and numerous crew, who patiently waited for
the coming of a fair wind before they ventured to make sail; and who,
though generally addicted to hugging the shore, yet at times ventured to
stand out into the boundless ocean, guided alone by the stars.  The
mercantile marine was encouraged in every way by the wiser sovereigns of
the Saxon race, as the nursery of those stout seamen who would prove the
best bulwarks of their country against foreign invasion.

We now come to a fresh epoch in the history of Old England; but as no
writer of those days has thought fit to enlighten us as to naval
affairs, our knowledge of them is meagre and unsatisfactory.

Literature, in that iron age, was chiefly confined to monastic cells; we
hear of bishops becoming warriors, and leading their armies to battle on
the field, and it is recorded that there were other monks besides
Swithelm who took to the profession.  Probably some sailors, after
growing weary of cutting throats on the high seas, and other acts of
piracy, assumed the easy and dignified position of monks, and endowed
their monasteries with their wealth; but then it may be questioned
whether they were likely to have been able to read, much less to write.

William of Normandy had, for some time, too much to do on shore in
keeping his new subjects in order, to attend to affairs afloat; but he
at length was compelled to build and fit out a fleet to defend his
kingdom from the attacks of the Danes, instigated by the sons and
followers of Harold.  He, after much consideration, hit upon a new plan
for raising a fleet, and it is a point of history worthy of
recollection.  He exempted five of the principal ports of the kingdom
from all taxes, impositions, or burdens, on condition that each should
fit out, man, and support a certain number of vessels for a certain
period.  They were Dover, Romney, Sandwich, Hastings, and Rye, and were
thence called the Cinque Ports.

Though others were afterwards added, the name has ever since been
retained.  It appears by Doomsday Book that Dover, Romney, and Sandwich,
severally, were to provide _twenty_ vessels each, with _twenty-one_ men,
provisioned for _fifteen_ days at their own charge.  After that time the
crews were to be supported by the Crown.

Another document states that, besides the twenty men, there is to be a
master of the mariners, who is to receive sixpence a-day, a constable,
who is to receive a like sum, and each mariner threepence a-day.  These
five ports, with other smaller ones attached to them, provided in all 57
ships, 1187 men, and 57 boys, one boy being on board each ship.  These
boys were called gromets.  A gromet is now the name given to a ring of
rope used sometimes to slide up and down the mast, and I conclude,
therefore, that the duty of these boys was to swarm up the mast, and set
and furl the lighter sails.

In the reign of King John (A.D. 1217), Herbert of Burgo, the captain of
Dover, hearing of an invasion intended by Lewis the Elder, son of the
King of France, in favour of the discontented barons, assembled in the
king's name forty tall ships from the Cinque Ports, and took, sunk, and
discomfited eighty sail of Frenchmen in a gallant engagement on the high
seas.  These ports did great service under Henry the Third and Edward
the First.  Among other brave deeds, they fitted out one hundred sail,
and encountered two hundred sail of Frenchmen with such success, that
they effectually ruined the navy of France.  Many years happily passed
before that country recovered the loss of her men and ships.  I will
give a fuller account of this action further on.  Numberless are the
tales of a like description to be told.

Besides the twenty-three mariners which these warships of the Cinque
Ports carried, there were on board a considerable number of fighting
men, knights, and their retainers, armed with bucklers, spears, and bows
and arrows.  They also used slings and catapults, and perhaps
stink-pots, like those employed by the Chinese at the present day, as
well as other ancient engines of warfare.  That ships of war were
capable of holding a considerable number of men, we learn from the
well-known account of the death of the brave young Prince William, son
of Henry the First.  When crossing the channel from Normandy, in an
attempt to make his ship get ahead of that of his father, he kept too
close in with the shore, and consequently ran on a rock called the
Shatteras.  He might have been saved; but hearing that his sister, the
Countess of Perche, still remained on board, he ordered the boat in
which he was escaping to put back to rescue her.  On arriving alongside,
so large a number of people jumped into the boat, that she was swamped,
and all were lost.  On this occasion two hundred people perished, only
one, the ship's butcher, escaping to the shore, and through him the sad
tidings were known.  Now, if we turn to any old illustrated History of
England, we shall find, probably, a print professing to describe this
very event.  Yet, on examining it, we shall see that the vessel is not
large enough to carry twenty people, much less two hundred.  The artists
either made their sketches from river barges, or row-boats, or drew a
ship from one they saw at a distance, and having altered and adorned her
to suit their own fancies afterwards, put a crew on board, utterly
forgetful of the proper proportions between the ship and the men.

In the reign of the son and successor of William the Conqueror, William
the Second, called Rufus, the first great crusade against the Saracen
possessors of the Holy Land was commenced, in the year 1095.  To aid in
that extraordinary expedition, a large fleet was fitted out in England,
and placed under the command of the Earl of Essex.  The ships, as they
had a long voyage to perform, and a number of armed men and provisions
to carry, must have been of considerable size.  As the use of the
mariner's compass was unknown to them, they must have coasted round the
shores of France, Portugal, and Spain, before they entered the
Mediterranean.

The Atlantic in those days was not likely to be more tranquilly disposed
than it is at present, and thus the mariners must have been expert and
brave, and the ships well found, or they would not have performed the
voyage in safety.  We know that the Crusaders had horses, but they
probably were transported from the neighbouring shores of the
Mediterranean, and any favourite war-steeds which came from England were
conveyed across France.  Neither Henry the First nor Stephen, from A.D.
1100 to 1135, maintained a navy, properly so-called, but on the few
occasions that they required ships, they hired them of the merchants,
called on the Cinque Ports to supply them, or had them built for the
purpose.

Probably all vessels in those days carried oars, or long sweeps, to
assist them in calms, and in going in and out of harbours; but many
craft of considerable burden depended solely on oars for moving at all.
There appears to be much difference of opinion as to how these oars were
worked when there were several tiers, and I therefore return to the
subject already touched on in the first chapter.  It is most probable
that there was one space, or between decks, devoted entirely to the
rowers.  This space was fitted with a succession of rows of benches one
higher than the other, but not one above another.  That is to say, that
the bench immediately higher than the first was placed in the interval
between it and the one behind it, so that the rowers sitting on this
higher bench had their feet pressed against the bench below them, others
on the tier above having their feet on their bench.  As the tiers were
higher and higher in the vessel's sides, the oars would be longer and
longer, and would project far beyond the lower ones; indeed, they would
become sweeps, and probably the inner part of each would extend
completely across the vessel, and thus the upper oars on the same tier
would not be opposite to each other.  The lowest tier would perhaps be
pulled only by one or two men, and as the tiers rose in height, and
consequently the oars in length, more men would be added.  Then, again,
the lower tiers would have many more oars than the upper, and
consequently even more men would be seated on the lower than on the
upper benches.  This, I think, is the best solution as to the difficulty
regarding the mode in which the rowers of a large galley were placed.
The hold and the deck immediately below the rowers was thus left for
cargo and stores, and perhaps for sleeping-places, while the deck and
forecastle, and aftercastle or poop above them, were free for working
the sails and for righting.  The officers, and perhaps the crew, slept
under the poop and forecastle, and in other buildings on deck, as is the
case on board many vessels at the present day, only the forecastles and
poops were more like those of a Chinese junk than of any modern European
craft.

Henry the Second, in the year 1171, collected or built a fleet of four
hundred ships of great size, for the purpose of carrying over his troops
for the conquest of Ireland, which country he annexed to the English
crown.  These ships, as no enemy was to be encountered on the ocean,
were merely transports.

Richard the First, of the Lion Heart, who began to reign 1189, fitted
out a fleet, which, when assembled in the port of Messina in Sicily, in
the year 1189, ready to carry his army to the shores of the Holy Land,
consisted of sixteen capital ships of extraordinary burden (occupying
the position of three-deckers), one hundred and fifty ordinary ships of
war, and fifty-three galleys, besides vessels of less size and tenders.
In his passage to Acre, known also as Ptolemais, he encountered a huge
vessel of the Saracens, laden with ammunition and provisions, bound for
the same place which was then besieged by the Christian army.  She was
called the Dromunda, and her size was enormous.  Though she appeared
like some huge castle floating on the sea, Richard ordered his galleys
to attack her, and as they approached, they were received by showers of
missiles, Greek fire, and other horrible combustibles.  It was no easy
task to board so lofty a ship, but the king urged on his men, some of
whom, jumping overboard, swam to the rudder, to which they secured
ropes, and thus gained the power of steering her.  The most active now
climbed up her sides, but were driven back by the overwhelming number of
her defenders.  The galleys were next ordered to try the effect of their
beaks; retiring to windward, and setting all their sails, as well as
working away with their oars, they bore down on the Dromunda with such
force and velocity, that their iron beaks pierced the sides of the
monstrous ship, which instantly began to sink, and out of fifteen
hundred officers and men who composed her company, the whole, with the
exception of fifty-five, were drowned.  These latter were chiefly
officers, none of the common men being received on board the galleys.

It is very evident that the art of shipbuilding must have made
considerable progress in that part of the world, when a ship of such a
size could be constructed.  The Dromunda could scarcely have been less
in size than a fifty-gun ship in Nelson's day.

We here see the effect produced by rams, much in the way it is proposed
to employ them in modern warfare.  There will, however, be this
difference in a naval battle of the future, that both sides will be
provided with these formidable implements of warfare.  Before Richard
reached Acre a fierce naval engagement had taken place between the
besiegers and the besieged.  The latter came out of port with their
galleys two and two, preserving a similar array in their advance.  The
Crusaders prepared to receive them, moving to a distance, so that they
should not be denied free egress.  The Crusaders then disposed their
ships in a curved line, so that if the enemy attempted to break through
they might be enclosed and defeated.  In the upper tiers the shields
interlaced were placed circularly, and the rowers sat close together,
that those above might have freer scope.  The sea being perfectly calm,
no impediment was offered to the blows of the warriors or the strokes of
the rowers; advancing nearer to each other, the trumpets sounded on both
sides, and mingled their dread clangour.  First, they contended with
missiles, but the Crusaders more earnestly plied their oars, and pierced
the enemy's ships with the beaks of their own.  Soon the battle became
general; the oars became entangled, and the combatants fought hand to
hand.

There was one English galley which, through the rashness of the crew,
got close alongside an enemy, who set her in flames with their Greek
fire.  The Saracens on this rushing in at all parts, the rowers leaped
into the sea, but a few soldiers remained through desperation.  Those
few overcame the many, and retook their half-burned ship.  The weapons
used were swords, axes lances, arrows, and other missiles, as well as
engines for casting large stones; and both Saracens and Christians
employed that burning oil commonly called the Greek fire, which is said
to consume both flint and iron.  It was the invention of the seventh
century, and was long used with terrific effect by the Greeks, who
called it the liquid fire.  It is supposed to have been composed of
naphtha, pitch, and sulphur, with other ingredients.  It was propelled
in a fluid state through brazen tubes from the prows of vessels and from
fortifications, with as much facility as water is now thrown from the
fire-engine; igniting the moment it was exposed to the air, when it
became a continuous stream of fire, carrying with it torture and
destruction.  Water increased its power, and it could only be
extinguished by vinegar or sand; while, in addition to its other
horrors, it emitted a stifling smoke, loud noise, and disgusting stench.
Tow dipped in it was fastened to the heads of arrows, which thus became
carriers of unquenchable flame.  It was kept in jars or large bottles.
It was probably introduced into England before the time of Richard the
First, for in 1195 a payment was made by the king for carrying Greek
fire and other implements from London to Nottingham.

Fire-ships were, indeed, of far earlier date than the days of Richard
the First.  We find them in use among the Tyrians in the time of
Alexander the Great.  It is related that at the siege of Tyre, when a
mole was being constructed to join that city to the continent, the
inhabitants, having loaded a large ship heavily by the stern with sand
and stones, for the purpose of raising her head out of the water, and
having filled her with all sorts of combustible matter, they drove her
violently with sails and oars against the mole, when they set fire to
her, the seamen escaping in their boats.  The mole being in a great
measure built of wood, with wooden towers on it, was by this device
utterly destroyed.  Thus we see that the Tyrians invented and
successfully employed fire-ships before the Christian era.  We are apt
to consider many other discoveries modern which were known to the
ancients.  For instance, an Italian author, some three centuries ago,
describes a ship weighed in his time out of the lake of Riccia, where it
had lain sunk and neglected for above thirteen hundred years.  It was
supposed to have belonged to Trajan.

He observed, he says, "that the pine and cypress of which it was built
had lasted most remarkably.  On the outside it was built with double
planks, daubed over with Greek pitch, caulked with linen rags, and over
all a sheet of lead, fastened on with little copper nails."

Here we have caulking and sheathing together known in the first century
of the Christian era; for, of course, the sheet of lead nailed over the
outside with copper nails was sheathing, and that in great perfection,
the copper nails being used instead of iron, which, when once rusted in
the water by the working of the ship, soon lose their hold, and drop
out.

Captain Saris, in a voyage to Japan in the year 1613, describes a junk
of from eight to ten hundred tons burden, sheathed all over with iron.
As in the days of the Plantagenets the country had not the advantage of
possessing a Board of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, nor, indeed,
any office in which the records of the ships built, altered, rebuilt, or
pulled to pieces were kept, or, indeed, any naval records whatever, we
are without the means of ascertaining what special improvements were
introduced either in shipbuilding or in the fitting or manning of ships
during each particular reign.  Indeed, for several centuries very slow
progress appears to have been made in that art, which ultimately tended
to raise England to the prosperous state she has so long enjoyed.



CHAPTER THREE.

THE NAVY IN THE DAYS OF THE PLANTAGENETS--FROM A.D. 1087 TO A.D. 1327.

William Rufus, in 1087, had scarcely a vessel which deserved the name of
a ship of war.  The trade of the country, however, was carried on by
small craft, of which there were great numbers; there remained also some
of the transports of former years, but William when expecting the
invasion of his kingdom by his brother Robert, found to his sorrow that
he possessed no ships of sufficient size to compete with those of the
Normans.  Being unwilling to weaken his land forces by sending them on
board such ships as he possessed, he engaged all the large
trading-vessels of the country, and invited mariners to embark in the
transports.  He gave commissions, also, to all the traders to sink,
burn, and destroy every Norman vessel they could meet with, and offered
considerable rewards for every successful action.  Besides this, he
published proclamations inviting all private persons to fit out vessels
on their own account, encouraging them with the promise of similar
rewards.  Numbers of traders accepted the commission, and the sea
swarmed with privateers.  They were of small size, but were manned by
bold seamen, who encouraged one another by their numbers.  Robert, who
was aware that the English had no fleet, not expecting any resistance at
sea, thought only of loading his transports with as many men as they
could carry.  His ships were therefore ill-prepared for action, being
overloaded with men, and he little expected any opposition from the
small ships of the English.

The latter, meantime, obtained exact intelligence of the movements of
the Normans, while they kept secret their own forces and plans.  The
Normans at length sailed, and had no time to laugh at the smallness of
the English ships before they began to quake at their numbers.  The
latter bore down upon them like a pack of hounds on a stag, and,
encouraged by the promised rewards, fought with the greatest fury.  In
vain the Normans attempted to fly; they were overtaken and overpowered
by the multitude of their assailants.  The number that perished by the
sword and drowning was astonishing; those who attempted to escape were
overtaken, and shared the fate of the others; and but few got back to
Normandy with the news of their defeat.  Never was a sea-fight in which
personal courage was more nobly exhibited; never a more complete
victory, nor ever, apparently, slighter means of obtaining it.

The Normans called the English pirates, but they were properly
privateers, and the original armament to which they were united, though
a poor one, was a royal force.  William punctually paid the promised
rewards.

People were generally too pleasantly employed in those mediaeval days in
knocking their neighbours on the head, or in storming and demolishing
their castles, and other similar pastimes on shore, to attend to any
subject so unromantic as shipbuilding or navigation.

Still the monarchs of the Plantagenet race had ships of their own; but
their chief notion of keeping up a navy was by laying taxes on the
sea-ports, on commerce, and on the fisheries, thus crippling the surest
means by which a fleet could be maintained.  The chief naval events of
the intermediate reigns have been described in the preceding chapter.

John, we are told, had a naval establishment of ships and officers, with
certain boards for its government.  He had not many vessels, however, as
he chiefly depended on the Cinque Ports to furnish him with ships, while
he laid an embargo on merchant-vessels in case of necessity; and turned
them into ships of war.  He must have had a great notion, however, of
keeping up the dignity of England on the ocean, as he passed an
ordinance that all ships should lower their topsails to the English
flag; a custom which was preserved for many centuries.  Foreigners,
however, did not always show themselves willing to conform to the
custom, and it was more than once the cause of quarrels between England
and other nations.  Still, even at the present day, English men-of-war
do not salute foreign ships in that or any other way, unless the latter
pay the compliment to them first, or at the same time.

Philip Augustus of France having attacked his ally, the Earl of
Flanders, the king fitted out a numerous fleet, which he placed under
the command of the Earl of Salisbury, giving him directions to destroy
rather than to capture any of the enemy's ships.  The Earl of Salisbury
observed his instructions, and followed the movements of the enemy,
waiting for an opportunity to bear down upon them.  The French ships,
amounting to more than nine hundred sail, moved slowly over the sea, he
watching them vigilantly, and bearing the reproaches of his officers,
who thought him deficient in courage.  On the third day a slight storm
having thrown the French fleet into confusion, the earl bore down upon
them.  The winds had so terrified the French that they were in no
condition to stand before a furious enemy.  The English, who were far
better sailors, were in high courage, and so furiously assaulted the
French ships that in a short time upwards of a hundred were sunk, many
more running on shore, while scarcely forty got back to the ports of
France.

Another important action, before-mentioned, occurred in this reign.
Prince Louis, afterwards Louis the Eighth, to whose father Pope Innocent
had made a liberal present of England without consulting its
inhabitants, had set sail from Calais at the head of a large army,
convoyed by eighty large ships of war.  Hubert de Burgo, with a great
baron, Philip D'Albiney, as his lieutenant, assembled all the ships they
could from the Cinque Ports, though the whole did not amount to more
than half that of the French fleet.  The latter was under the command of
Eustace the monk, who had formerly been in the pay of John, but had
lately transferred his services to Louis.  The English ships were armed
with strong beaks, like those of the Roman galleys, and their mode of
attack consisted, as of yore, in charging the vessels of the enemy, and
endeavouring to pierce their sides with their iron rams.  They were
impelled chiefly by oars, but also carried sails, to enable them to bear
down with greater speed on the enemy; hence the importance of obtaining
the weather-gage.  The two fleets came in sight of each other in the
Straits of Dover, on the 24th of August, 1217.  The English admirals
having by their skilful manoeuvres obtained the weather-gage, bore down
on the enemy with irresistible force.  In addition to other means of
offence, they had brought on board a number of barrels of unslaked lime;
on nearing the enemy they poured water on the lime, so as to slake the
whole mass, and the smoke thus created being borne by the wind into the
faces of the French, prevented them from seeing the operations of the
foe till it was too late to avoid them.  The English boarded, their
first endeavour being to cut away the rigging and halliards of the
French ships, when the masts and sails went over the side.  Most of the
French knights, preferring death to imprisonment, leaped overboard.
Throwing their grapnels on board, the English made a furious onslaught
on the enemy, the crossbow-men and archers, under Sir Philip D'Albiney,
discharging their bows and arrows, did immense execution.  Out of the
whole fleet, fifteen only escaped.  De Burgo's great aim, however, was
to obtain possession of the traitor Eustace, and diligent search being
made, the quondam ecclesiastic was found in the hold of one of the
captured vessels, when he was immediately killed.  The French fleet was
put to flight, the crews of those which escaped landed on the Kentish
coast.  The victory prevented Louis from obtaining further
reinforcements from France, and showed the English barons, who had
hitherto adhered to his cause, that it would be hopeless to attempt the
subjugation of England.  They, therefore, at once made their peace with
the king, and Louis was glad to get off by renouncing all claim to the
English crown.  We now come to the long reign of Henry the Third, A.D.
1216.  Frequent expeditions were fitted out on his demand by the Cinque
Ports, and by other maritime towns, while merchant-vessels were
occasionally pressed into his service to carry him and his troops over
to France.  The king himself also possessed a fleet of some importance,
one of his ships carrying, besides the commander and officers and the
regular fighting men, fully thirty mariners.  Many merchant-vessels of
the present day of eight or nine hundred tons, do not carry a larger
crew.  In those days we read that a number of piratical vessels, both
British and of other nations, scoured the ocean, and committed great
depredations both along the coast and on the peaceable merchantmen who
sailed up and down it.

The great object of the commander of a fleet in those days was to gain
the weather-gage, then to bear down under all sail in order to strike
the broadsides of the enemy's ships; when the one generally attempted to
board the other, if not to throw stink-pots into their antagonists'
vessels, or what were called fire-works, a sort of hand grenades; and
sometimes slaked lime to blind the foe with the vapour.  With this
object in view the admiral manoeuvred his fleet for hours together,
rowing and sailing.  As guns, when they first came into use, carried no
great distance, they were not fired till ships got close together.
Ships in action very frequently caught fire and blew up, and sometimes
locked in a deadly embrace, were destroyed together.  Trumpeters had an
important part to play, not only to make signals, but to create as much
noise as possible.  The good ship called the _Matthew Gonson_, of the
burden of three hundred tons, whereof was owner old Master William
Gonson, paymaster of the king's navy, fitted out at this time for a
voyage to the islands of Candia and Chio to bring back wine and other
produce, besides the hundred men of her company, had six gunners and
four trumpeters.  Probably men-of-war had many more such musicians.

Edward the First, A.D. 1272, ordained various laws and ordinances for
the government of his navy, which was now, though still furnished
chiefly by the maritime ports, better organised than hitherto.  He
claimed, also, the right of England to the sovereignty of the narrow
seas, asserting that from time immemorial it had been undisputed.  About
the year 1290, the pennant used at the present day by all ships
commissioned by officers of the Royal Navy was first adopted.

In the reign of Edward the Second no important maritime event occurred,
though squadrons were occasionally sent away on various services.

It is only by examining carefully into the details given by historians
of the naval combats which took place in those ages, that we can hope to
form a correct guess as to the size and construction of a ship, and the
method of manoeuvring her.  We are now coming to a very important epoch
in naval matters, the reign of Edward the Third. 1327, when the
mariner's compass was discovered, or rather became known in Europe, and
cannon were first introduced on board ships.

Edward gained the title of "The King of the Sea," and raised the naval
glory of England to a higher pitch than it had ever before attained by
his many victorious combats on the ocean.  The greatest naval engagement
which occurred during the middle ages was that known as the battle of
Sluys, when Philip the Sixth sat on the throne of France.  The English
fleet consisted of only 260 ships fit for warfare.  The French, whose
fleet amounted to no less than 400 sail, lay securely, as they thought,
in the harbour of Sluys.  Edward embarked on board the cog _Thomas_,
commanded by Richard Fyall, and attended by several noblemen.  A cog was
a craft larger than those usually designated ships--the cog _John_,
which is spoken of, had a crew of eighty-two men, and probably she
carried besides a considerable number of knights and soldiers.  Many
ships of the English fleet must have been of small size.  Froissart says
that the French fleet consisted of 140 large ships, besides hanquebos
with 35,000 men on board, Normans, Picards, and Genoese.  The masts of
so numerous an assemblage of vessels, as they were seen in the harbour
of Sluys, resembled rather a forest than a fleet.  Of these ships,
nineteen were remarkable for their enormous size.  Besides other
implements of warfare, quantities of large stones were stored in the
tops and also in small boats hoisted to the mast-heads, to be hurled on
the assailants.  The French had secured their ships together by chains,
to prevent the English from breaking through them.  Among the ships in
the leading rank was the _Christopher_, full of Genoese archers, with
the _Edward, Katherine, Rose_, and other large cogs which had formerly
been captured from the English.

Edward had perfect confidence in the valour and prowess of his seamen
and men-at-arms, and, notwithstanding the superiority of the enemy in
numbers, he resolved to open a passage through them.  Having ordered all
his ships to be in readiness, he placed the strongest in the front, and
filled those which were at each end of the line with archers.  Also
between every two ships of archers he placed one filled with
men-at-arms.  He likewise ordered another line to be formed on the side,
as a body of reserve, and filled those ships also with archers, that
they might be ready to support or relieve any most requiring aid.

The English fleet approaching the haven of Sluys in the manner
described, found the French already lying in order of battle, in three
divisions, waiting for them.  The English having gained the advantage of
the wind and sun by their dexterity and management, the king ordered the
signal for engaging to be given.  The Normans, perceiving the English to
tack as they did to get the wind, thought that they were taking to their
heels, and began to triumph.  But they soon found out their mistake,
and, being able seamen and brave combatants, prepared for the fight.
They began the battle by advancing with the _Great Christopher_, and,
with a vast noise of trumpets and other instruments, attempted to break
the line, to come at the ship in which they supposed the British king to
be.  They were received with a general shout, and during continual
huzzas the English poured such showers of arrows from their long bows
into the enemy's ships as soon covered their decks with dead and wounded
men, and put the whole fleet into general consternation.  The _Great
Christopher_ was taken in the beginning of the battle, and all who were
in her were either killed or made prisoners.  The English, on this,
filled her with archers, and sent her to annoy the Genoese ships, which
formed part of the French fleet.  And now death and destruction appeared
on every side in their most terrible array.  The very air was darkened
with arrows, and the hostile ships rushing together, the men-at-arms
engaged in close fight.

The English, taking advantage of the confusion into which they had put
the French at the beginning of the fight, soon boarded them with the
help of their grappling-irons, and pursuing their good fortune, obtained
a complete victory, though a most bloody one, as their loss amounted to
4000 men killed and wounded.  Great numbers of the French sailors
desperately threw themselves into the sea, and submitted to a certain
death rather than abide the repeated showers of English arrows; what
also might have contributed more to this desperate resolution was that,
on board the ships captured in the heat of battle, no quarter was given.
The engagement lasted from eight in the morning till seven at night.
The loss on the French side was enormous, 230 of their ships being
captured; only about 30 having escaped.  According to the Frenchmen's
account of the battle, they lost two admirals, Bauchet, who was killed
in action, and De Kernel, who was taken prisoner.  King Edward behaved
during the whole action with the most inimitable courage and conduct;
regarding neither danger nor fatigue, he was always present where the
battle raged the hottest.

During the night thirty French ships, endeavouring to escape, were
attacked by the English, and on board of one of them, the _James of
Dieppe_, after she had been engaged the whole night with the Earl of
Huntingdon, 400 dead bodies were found.  Certain old writers remark that
the rostrum or beak used by the Romans could not have existed in the
English ships, nor was the manoeuvre employed by which one ship attempts
to break the oars of another.  From this they conclude that the English
fleet must have consisted of high-sided ships, worked chiefly by sails.
Probably, however, they had oars also.

It is said that nearly 30,000 men were killed in this memorable battle.
So apparently irretrievable was the disaster to the French that none of
King Philip's counsellors had the courage to inform him of what had
occurred.  At length they bethought them of employing the court fool to
communicate the disastrous intelligence.  Accordingly, that dignified
individual took an opportunity of remarking to the king that he
considered the English arrant cowards.

"Why so, Master Wisdom?" asked Philip.

"Why does your Majesty ask? because they had not the courage to leap
into the sea and be drowned as our brave Frenchmen did the other day,
when your Majesty's ships went to the bottom."

In 1350 the warrior king, on board his cog _Thomas_, led his fleet to
attack the Spaniards, who had ventured into the British Channel; he was
accompanied by Edward, the Black Prince, and numerous great personages,
with nearly four hundred knights.  The king, attired in a black velvet
jacket and beaver hat, took post on the bow of his ship, eagerly looking
out for the enemy.  As they did not appear, to beguile the time he
caused his minstrels to play a German dance, and made Sir John Chandos,
who had recently introduced it, to sing with them.  From time to time,
however, he looked aloft at the man stationed in the top of the mast to
announce the approach of the Spaniards.  At length they were seen,
numbering forty large ships, denominated carricks; strong and handsome
were they to behold--each mast was adorned with rich standards and
banners, and their tops filled with soldiers and missiles.  They,
however, it was evident, wished to avoid an action, but the king,
leading his fleet, stood down upon them till he reached a heavy ship,
when, reckless of consequences, he ordered the helmsman to lay her
aboard.  So violent was the blow that the masts of the cog _Thomas_ went
over the side, the men in the top were drowned, and the ship sprang a
dangerous leak.  The Spaniard sheering off, Edward grappled another
enemy; but now the cog _Thomas_ sinking, the king and his crew took
possession of the prize.  In her he pushed into the thickest of the
fight.  The Prince of Wales' ship, also nigh to sinking, had grappled
her huge adversary, when the Earl of Lancaster arriving and shouting,
"Derby to the rescue!" boarded and obtained possession of the Spaniard,
throwing all who resisted into the sea.  Scarcely had the prince and his
followers got on board the prize, when his own ship foundered.  Sir
Robert de Namur having grappled with a huge ship was carried by her out
from among the fleet; the two combatants were rapidly leaving the rest
of the ships astern, when Sir Robert's valet, Hannekin, bravely cutting
the halliards of the principal sail, the English, taking advantage of
the confusion, boarded and drove the Spaniards into the sea.  Thus the
Spanish fleet was completely beaten, and twenty-six large ships
captured.

The British seem to have been as prone in those days as at present to
seek for victory by laying the enemy on board and trusting to the
strength of their own arms.  At present, instead of battle-axes and
clubs, or spears, or two-handed swords they have a fondness for their
cutlasses and pistols.  In the days, before Britannia could loudly roar
with her thunder, naval combats were carried on with all the noise and
hubbub the men on either side could create with their voices, as also
with the braying forth of trumpets and beating of gongs and drums, in
the hope of thus striking terror into the hearts of their enemies.  How
great is the contrast between such a naval engagement as has been
described and one at the present day.  In solemn silence the crews
grimly stand at their guns, stripped generally to the waist.  Not a
sound is heard, not a word spoken, except perhaps one hearty cheer, a
response to the captain's brief address.  Slowly and steadily the
hostile fleets approach each other till the signal is given to commence
the deadly strife, and then in a moment, like fierce monsters awakened
from sleep, they send from their cannons' mouths a quick succession of
terrific roars, fire, and smoke, which laugh to scorn all the trumpet
braying and shouting of our ancestors.

After the famous battle of Crescy, King Edward laid siege to Calais with
a fleet of 738 ships, having on board 14,956 mariners, each of whom
received 4 pence per diem.  Of these ships, no more than 25 belonged
actually to the king.  The latter carried about 419 seamen only, which
was not more than 17 seamen to each ship.  Some, however, had 25 seamen,
and others less.  Many of the ships furnished by the maritime ports were
larger than the king's.  The total cost of the war, which lasted one
year and 131 days, was 127,101 pounds, 2 shillings 9 pence, for even in
those romantic days people could not knock each other on the head free
of all charge, it must be remembered.  The mention of that 127,101
pounds 2 shillings 9 pence also shows that their accounts must have been
kept with most praiseworthy exactness.

Only great nations, to whom victory has generally been awarded by the
God of battles, can afford to talk of their defeats.  Though in most
cases successful, Edward's arms met with a severe repulse before
Rochelle, to the relief of which place he had sent forty ships, under
the young Earl of Pembroke.  "They were encountered by a French squadron
of forty sail of capital ships," we are told, "besides thirteen able
frigates, well manned, and commanded by four experienced officers.  The
earl was taken prisoner, and nearly every ship was captured or sunk."
Though employed by France, they were Spaniards, supplied by the King of
Castile.  In addition to the large number of men-at-arms on board the
Spanish ships, whose weapons were crossbows and cannon, large bars of
iron and lead were used.  The Spaniards bore down upon the small English
ships with loud shouts and great noise; the English shouted in return,
but were unable to climb up the lofty sides of the Spaniards.  In the
first day of the battle the Spaniards lost two barges, and the next day
the earl's ship was attacked and captured by four large Spanish ships
full of soldiers, while most of his fleet were either taken or
destroyed.

Our national pride will make us examine narrowly to discover the cause
of this disaster.  In the first place, the earl, though brave, was
inexperienced; then some of those forty French ships were larger than
the forty English ships, and the able frigates were quick rowing
galleys, full of men-at-arms, who must have done much mischief.  The
French on this occasion also made use of balistas and other machines for
throwing bars of iron and great stones, to sink the English ships.  They
had also in another way got ahead of the English, for they had provided
themselves with cannon, which the latter had not as yet got.  This was
the first naval engagement in which such engines of destruction were
employed.

History is read by the naval and military man, and indeed by any one, to
very little purpose, unless facts like these are not only carefully
noted, but duly acted on; unless we take warning by the errors and
neglects of our predecessors.  It is not only necessary to be well-armed
in appearance, but to be as well armed in reality, as those are with
whom we may possibly be called to fight.  It is wise not only to adopt
new inventions likely to be of service, but if possible to have them
already in use before they are adopted by our enemies.  The gun of those
days was a thick tube of wood, bound together with iron hoops, and
probably could send a shot of three or four pounds little more than two
or three hundred yards with very uncertain aim.  What a contrast to the
"Woolwich Infant" of the present day, with its shot of several
hundredweight, whizzing for five miles or more through the air, with
almost a certainty of hitting its object at the termination of its
journey.



CHAPTER FOUR.

SHIPS AND COMMERCE TO THE REIGN OF HENRY THE SEVENTH--FROM A.D. 1327 TO
A.D. 1509.

In the early part of the reign of Edward the Third, the French
introduced cannon on board their ships, chiefly in consequence of which
his fleet, under the young Earl of Pembroke, as I have described, was
defeated before Rochelle.  He took care, however, that this should not
again occur, and by the year 1338 he appears to have introduced them on
board most of his ships, and by the end of his reign no ships of war
were without them.  Their employment, of course, effected a great change
in naval warfare, but a far greater revolution was about to take place
in the whole system of navigation, by the introduction of the mariner's
compass.  I have before stated that if not discovered it was at all
events improved by Flavio Gioja, of Amain, in the kingdom of Naples,
about A.D. 1300.  It was soon discovered that the needle does not point,
in all places, truly to the North Pole, but that it varies considerably
in different degrees of longitude, and this is called the variation of
the needle.  It has also another variation, called the declination, or
dip.  The cause of these phenomena is still utterly unknown.  The means
of steering with almost perfect accuracy across the pathless ocean, gave
a confidence to mariners, when they lost sight of land, which they had
never before possessed, and in time induced them to launch forth in
search of new territories in hitherto unexplored regions.  The English
were, however, too much occupied with foreign wars or domestic broils to
attend much to navigation.  We hear of a certain Nicholas of Lynn, a
friar of Oxford, who, A.D. 1360, just sixty years after the use of the
compass became known, sailed in charge of certain ships to visit and
explore all the islands to the north of Europe.  He, it is said,
returned and laid before King Edward the Third an account of his
discoveries in those northern regions, but what they were or what
benefit resulted from them, history does not tell us.  Father Nicholas's
knowledge of navigation was probably somewhat limited and not very
practical, and it is just probable that his voyage was not so extensive
as it was intended to be; but that, having the pen of a ready writer, he
drew on his imagination for a description of the countries he was
supposed to have surveyed.  At all events, we hear of no voyage
undertaken at the sovereign's instigation till nearly two centuries
later.

In the reign of Edward the Third, the Island of Madeira is said to have
been discovered by a certain Lionel Machin, a citizen of London.  The
young citizen had been paying court to a lady, Arabella Darcy, whose
father indignantly refused his suit; and not without reason, if we may
judge of his character by his subsequent conduct.  He collected a band
of rovers and pursued the fair Arabella, who had gone to live in the
neighbourhood of Bristol.  He had fixed his eyes on a ship ready
prepared for sea, the crew of which were on shore.  Securing the lady,
he carried her on board the ship, cut the cables, and made sail to the
southward, without leave of the captain or owners.  He met with due
punishment, for, having made the then unknown island of Madeira, and he
and Arabella having landed, the ship was driven to sea by a gale,
leaving the two alone.  She soon died of starvation, and when his
companions ultimately returned, they found him in a sinking state, and
buried him by the hapless damsel's side.  A Portuguese captain hearing
from the English pirates of the discovery of the island, sailed thither,
and took possession of it in the name of his sovereign, Don John, and
the infant Don Henry.

This account of Machin's adventures is doubted by many, but at all
events it must be said that it is very much in accordance with the style
of doing things in those days.  Richard the Second began to reign A.D.
1377.  Although probably no improvement took place in shipbuilding
during his reign, it is not altogether destitute of nautical exploits.
The maladministration of Government at the latter period of his
grandfather's life, left the people in a discontented state, and this
induced the French to make a descent on the English coast with a fleet
of fifty ships, commanded by the Admiral de Vienne.  They plundered and
burnt Rye in Sussex, levied a contribution of a thousand marks on the
inhabitants of the Isle of Wight, and finished off by burning Plymouth,
Dartmouth, Portsmouth, and Hastings.

They were sufficiently long about these proceedings to enable the Abbot
of Battle to fit out a fleet, with which he met them off Winchelsea, and
completely defeated them.  Their example was, however, followed by a
body of Scotch pirates, who, with a number of ships under a Captain
Mercer, ravaged the east coast of England.  The Government, occupied
with the coronation of the king, paid no attention to these insults.

Indignant at this state of things, a wealthy and truly patriotic citizen
and merchant of London, John Philpot, at his own expense, fitted out a
fleet manned by a thousand men, and set sail in person in quest of the
pirate.  He succeeded in coming up with him, and in bringing him to
action, when he not only completely defeated him, but made him prisoner,
capturing his entire fleet, as well as retaking all his English prizes,
and fifteen richly-laden French and Spanish vessels.  On his return,
instead of being thanked, the gallant Philpot was tried for a
misdemeanour, but so entirely did he succeed in vindicating his
character, and so evident were the services he had rendered to the
public, that he ultimately received the thanks and honours which were
his due.

These circumstances should be borne in mind, for people of the present
day are apt to fancy that the shores of Old England, since the time of
the Danes perhaps, have ever been free from insult and annoyance,
whereas we see that our neighbours across the channel have managed,
whenever they have had the opportunity, without being so very seasick,
to effect a very considerable amount of both one and the other.

A fleet, also, was sent to take possession of Cherbourg, which had been
mortgaged by the King of Navarre to the English.  The expedition was
under the command of Philip and Peter Courtray.  It was, however,
encountered by a far superior Spanish squadron, which the English
attacked with great fury, but Philip Courtray was severely wounded, and
his brother Peter, who was taken prisoner with a number of knights and
gentlemen, was never again heard of, numbers also losing their lives.
While a large fleet under the Duke of Lancaster sailed to retrieve the
loss, and was laying siege to Saint Malo, the French were ravaging the
coasts of Cornwall.  While, also, the Duke of Buckingham was in France,
a fleet of French and Spanish galleys sailed up the Thames as far as
Gravesend, which they plundered and burnt, as well as other places on
the Kentish shore.  Leaving the Thames, they sailed along the west
coast, plundering and burning as they went.  They were, however, met by
a west country fleet, fitted out to attack them, and pursued to the
Irish coast, where many were captured, and their prizes retaken.  Still
a sufficient force escaped to plunder and burn Winchelsea on their
return.

On the accession of Charles the Sixth to the throne of France, he
resolved to put in execution a scheme formed by his father to drive the
English out of France by invading England itself.  For this purpose, he
purchased of various nations a fleet of 1600 sail to carry across an
immense army which he had raised for the purpose.  To defend his
kingdom, Richard raised an army of 100,000 men, horse and foot, and
equipped a fleet, placed under the command of the Earls of Arundel and
Nottingham.  Portsmouth and Plymouth fitted out small fleets of
privateers, which sailed up the Seine, and made many prizes.  Although
there was no general engagement, the French fleet were cut off in
detail, and in consequence of the strenuous efforts made by the English,
the intended invasion was abandoned.

Henry the Fourth began to reign A.D. 1399.  The French, in 1402, sent a
fleet to assist Owen Glendowyr with an army of 12,000 men.  They put
into Milford Haven, and plundered the neighbourhood; but a fleet fitted
out by the Cinque Ports, under Lord Berkley and Harry Percy, arrived
there in time to capture fourteen of them before they had time to make
their escape.

The principal admiral in this reign was Admiral Beaufort.  He was styled
Admiral of all the King's Fleet, both to the north and west; and among
many other offices, he held those of Constable of Dover Castle and
Warden of the Cinque Ports.

The fifth Henry, with whose name the famous victory of Agincourt over
the French will ever be associated, began to reign A.D. 1413.  He was so
much occupied with his wars in France for the greater part of his reign,
that he paid but little attention to naval affairs beyond obtaining the
transports necessary to convey his armies across the channel.  While he
was carrying on his conquests in France, part of the French fleet came
over and blockaded the English ships collected at Portsmouth and
Southampton, and made an attempt to land on the Isle of Wight.  They
were, however, driven back with loss.  Henry had, in the meantime, taken
possession of Harfleur on the Seine.  He was besieged by the French both
by land and sea.  The king accordingly despatched his brother the Duke
of Bedford with a fleet of 500 ships, containing 20,000 men, to the
relief of the town.  They found the enemy's fleet, in which were several
large Genoese carracks, lying before the haven of Harfleur, and pressing
the siege with all possible vigour.  As no relief could be given to the
town without forcing a passage through the French fleet, an engagement
was unavoidable.  The English began the attack, and though the French
maintained the fight for some hours, they gave way at last, and were
totally defeated.  Five hundred vessels were taken or sunk, together
with five of the Genoese carracks, and nearly 20,000 men are reported to
have been killed.  The whole English fleet entered the port in triumph,
and carried a seasonable relief to the town.

Another important naval battle was fought during Henry's reign.  Before
he commenced his great and successful expedition to Normandy, which
province he regained for the crown of England, after it had been lost
for 215 years since the reign of King John, he despatched the Earl of
Huntingdon with a fleet of about 100 sail to scour the seas, that his
transports might cross without molestation.  At this time the Duke of
Genoa had, in consequence of a treaty made with France, supplied the
French government with a squadron, consisting of eight large carracks,
and as many galleys, which had on board 600 crossbow-men, under the
command of John Grimaldi.  These had united with the French fleet,
consisting of 100 tall ships, and commanded by the Bastard of Bourbon.
The Earl of Huntingdon speedily came up with the united fleets of France
and Genoa at the mouth of the Seine.  The engagement was long and
desperate; the Genoese sustained the brunt of the engagement, their
ships being larger and better formed than the French.  One carrack
especially, commanded by Lawrence Foglietta resisted the attacks of
seven English ships.  The English ships, it appears, were furnished with
stages, which could be let down on the decks of the vessels they were
attacking, so as to form a bridge across into them.  Foglietta's ship
was at length disengaged from her enemy by the dexterity of a sailor,
who cut the cordage with which the stage had been secured to her side.
Notwithstanding, however, all the efforts of the Genoese, who are in
this instance their own historians, the French and they were completely
defeated.  John de Franguemont, the son of the vice-admiral, was slain,
the Bastard of Bourbon was taken prisoner, and four, if not six, of the
Genoese carracks fell into the hands of the English.  On board of the
carracks was a sum of money, the wages of the whole fleet for three
months, the English accounts say for six months.  They also assert that
three carracks were taken and three sunk.  This was a great victory, and
it is evident that the enemy were numerically superior to the victors.
This is the only account I have met with in which mention is made of
stages or bridges used by the English to enable them to board the ships
of the enemy.  The carracks spoken of were undoubtedly large and
powerful ships compared to those in general use at that period.  The
Genoese were at that time, and for long continued, the first maritime
people in Europe, and from their shipwrights and seamen, as well as from
the captured ships, the English obtained many of the improvements which
were soon afterwards brought into the art of shipbuilding in England.

Henry died on the 31st of August, 1422, aged thirty-three years, worn
out with the fatigues of his late campaign in Normandy.  He had reigned
nine years, five months, and eleven days.

I have before me a curious history in verse relating to navigation and
nautical affairs, written during the reign of Henry, entitled _De
Politia conservativa Maris_.  The author, in his preface, urges the
importance of England maintaining the dominion of the channel.

  "The true process of English policy,
  Of utterward to keep this regne in
  Of our England, that no man may deny,
  Nor say of sooth but it is one of the best,
  Is this that who seeth south, north, east, and west,
  Cherish merchandise, keep the Admiralty
  That we be masters of the narrow sea.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Who can here pass without danger and woe?
  What merchandise may forby be ago?
  For needs him must take trewes every foe:
  Flanders, and Spain, and other, trust to me
  Or else hindered all for this narrow sea."

The whole poem is very curious, and full of information respecting the
commerce of England in those days.  It shows us how extensive it had
already become, and how much alive the British merchants were to its
importance, although the monarchs and chief nobles, madly engaged in
civil wars or foreign conquests, did their utmost to destroy it, instead
of endeavouring to protect and improve it.  The more we study history,
the more we shall be convinced that England owes her present greatness
and prosperity to the enlightened energy and perseverance of her
merchants and manufacturers, and the seamen of the mercantile marine.

Without them her brave armies and navies could not have been created or
maintained, nor won the renown which England proudly claims.

"From Spain," says our poetical author, "we import figs, raisins, wine,
dates, liquorice, oil, grains, white pastil soap, wax, iron, wool,
wadmolle, goat-fell, kid-fell, saffron, and quicksilver.

"From Flanders, fine cloth of _Ypre and Curtike_, fine cloth of all
colours, fustian, linen cloth; for which England returns wool and tin.

"From Portugal, always in unity with England, we obtain wine, osey, wax,
grain, figs, raisins, honey, cordmeynes, dates, salt, hides.

"With Bretaigne we deal in salt, wine, crest cloth, and canvas; but this
is only of late years, for the Bretons were noted pirates, and greatly
interrupted the navigation of this kingdom, both by taking the
merchant-ships and plundering and burning the towns on the sea-coast,
till Edward the Third granted letters of reprisal to the inhabitants of
Dartmouth, Plymouth, and Fowey, which obliged the Duke of Bretaigne to
sue for peace and engage for the future good behaviour of his subjects."

Here we have an example of the advantage of allowing people who possess
the sinews of war to take care of themselves.  We may depend on it they
will, in most instances, give a good account of their proceedings.

The same principle may be applied to our larger colonies at the present
day, and we may have little fear that if attacked they will maintain
their independence, and the honour of the British name.

"We trade with Scotland for felts, hides, and wool in the fleece; and
with Prussia, High Germany, and the east countries for beer, bacon,
almond, copper, bow-staves, steel, wax, pelt ware, pitch, tar, peats,
flax, cotton, thread, fustian, canvas, cards, buckram, silver plate,
silver wedges, and metal.

"From Genoa we import most of the articles which we now procure from
Africa, and which come in large ships called carracks, such as cloth of
gold, silk, black pepper, and good gold of _Genne_ (Guinea)."

Our author does not at all approve of the articles which were imported
from Venice and Florence.  They were very similar, in some respects, to
those which now come from France, and without which, most undoubtedly,
we could do very well.

  "The great gallies of Venice and Florence
  Be well laden with things of complacence,
  Allspicery and of grocer's ware,
  With sweet wines, all manner of chaffare;
  Apes and japes, and marmusets tailed,
  Nifles and trifles that little have availed,
  And things with which they featly blear our eye,
  With things not enduring that we buy;
  For much of this chaffare that is wastable,
  Might be forborne for dear and deceivable."

On the death of his father, August, 1422, the unfortunate Henry the
Sixth, when not a year old, was proclaimed King of England and heir of
France, and when eight years of age he was crowned both in London and
Paris.  No improvements in naval affairs were introduced during his
inglorious and disastrous reign.  The chief battle at sea was fought by
a fleet under the command of the famous king-maker, the Earl of Warwick.
In the Straits of Dover he encountered a fleet of Genoese and Lubeck
ships laden with Spanish merchandise, and under the convoy of five
carracks.  Of these he captured six, and sunk or put to flight
twenty-six more, took numerous prisoners, and slew a thousand men, while
his prize-money amounted to 10,000 pounds, an enormous sum in those
days, when the whole revenue of England did not exceed at one time 5000
pounds.

The Earl of Warwick was soon afterwards, with his fleet, instrumental in
dethroning Henry, and placing Edward of Lancaster on the throne, under
the title of Edward the Fourth.  It was not, however, till the victory
of Tewkesbury placed the crown securely on his brows that Edward was
able to turn his attention to naval affairs.  In the year 1475, having
resolved to make war on France, he collected at Sandwich five hundred
flat-bottomed vessels, in which he purposed to carry his army across the
channel.  He succeeded, indeed, in transporting them to the French
coast, but the King of France suing for peace, and undertaking to pay a
large tribute to England, he returned home.  By similar means he brought
the King of Scotland to submission.  He granted many privileges to
merchants trading to foreign countries, and encouraged commerce by every
means in his power.

It is scarcely necessary to allude to the reign of his son, poor young
Edward the Fifth, who had worn the crown but two months, when it was
grasped by his uncle, Richard the Third, who was crowned at Westminster
on the 5th of July, 1483.

When threatened with an invasion of England by the Earl of Richmond, he
kept a powerful fleet in readiness to defend the shores of his kingdom.
On hearing, however, that the earl had been driven off the coast, he
very unwisely laid up most of his ships, and disbanded the greater part
of his army.  On discovering this, the sagacious earl immediately
embarked all the forces he could collect in a few transports, and,
landing at Milford Haven, gained the battle of Bosworth, which placed
the crown of England on his head, and in which Richard lost his life.

Since old Nicholas of Lynn's expedition to the northern regions of the
world in the reign of Edward the Third up to this period, no voyages of
discovery had been performed under the patronage of Government; and
probably but little, if any, improvement had taken place in marine
architecture.  A new era was about to commence, which was to see the
establishment of England's naval glory.  Other European nations were at
that time far in advance of our country as regarded all affairs
connected with the sea.  It was a period rife with maritime adventure
and enterprise.  Men began to perceive that there were other
achievements more glorious than those which the sword could accomplish,
more calculated, at all events, to bring wealth into their coffers.

It was now that the ardent, bold, and sagacious spirit of Columbus
devised the scheme for reaching India by the west, which resulted in the
discovery of a new world.  In 1485, having fully instructed his brother
Bartholomew in his intended project, he sent him to England in order
that he might apply to Henry, under the belief that the king would at
once embrace his proposals.  Unfortunately, he fell, it is said, into
the hands of pirates, who stripped him of all he had; and on his
reaching England in poverty he was attacked with a fever, which caused a
still further delay.  When he recovered he had to raise funds for his
purpose by making and selling maps, and thus it was not till 1488 that
he was in a condition to present himself before the king.  He was,
however, then well received, and an arrangement was made by which
Christopher Columbus was to proceed on a voyage of discovery under the
flag of England.  Circumstances occurred to prevent the accomplishment
of this plan, and Henry lost the glory he would have gained as the
supporter of one of the greatest and truest heroes who has ever figured
on the page of history.  This honour was reserved for Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain, who, on the 17th of April, 1492, signed the articles
of agreement with the Genoese navigator at the little town of Santa Fe,
in the kingdom of Grenada.

The squadron prepared for this expedition, which was to prove of such
mighty importance to the world in general, consisted but of three
vessels, carrying in all but 120 men.  I will describe them, as they
give us some idea of the vessels of that period, and which were
considered fit, by the mariners of those days, to contend with the
stormy winds and waves they would in all probability have to encounter
on so long a voyage.  There was, first, the admiral's ship, called by
him the _Santa Maria_, a carrack, or a ship with a deck.  The second was
the _Pinta_, commanded by Martin Alonso Pincon; and the third the
_Minna_ of which Viconte Yannes Pincon was master.  These two were
carvels, which are described as open vessels without decks.  I suspect,
however, that they must have been nearly, if not entirely, decked over--
in fact, that they were what are now called flush-decked vessels, while
probably the carrack was a frigate-built ship, or, at all events, a ship
with a high poop and forecastle.  Supposing the carrack to have earned
sixty men, and the carvels thirty each, how could all the necessary
stores, provisions, and water have been stowed away for those thirty,
unless in a vessel of good size? or how could they have been protected
from wet unless below a deck?

Carvels were strongly built craft, and we still speak of a vessel being
carvel, or ship-built.  I therefore do not hold to the idea that the two
consorts of Columbus's ship were little better than open boats, but
believe that they were stout, well-formed vessels, not so utterly
unworthy of the great sovereigns who sent forth the expedition.  Right
honoured was the little town of Palos, whence it sailed on Friday, 3rd
August, 1492.

Henry, although he had lost this great opportunity of increasing his
renown, wisely perceived that in no way could he more effectually gain
the respect of his subjects and consolidate his power than by affording
every encouragement to naval enterprise, and to the extension of
commerce.  He therefore gladly listened to a proposal to search for
certain lands said to exist in the north-west, made by John Cabot, a
Venetian by birth, settled at Bristol.  A commission, signed in 1496,
was granted to him and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sanctius,
who were skilful in navigation and cosmography.

The record is as follows:--"The King, upon the third day of February, in
the thirteenth year of his reign, gave licence to John Cabot to take six
English ships, in any haven or havens of the realm of England, being of
the burden of 200 tons or under, with all necessary furniture; and to
take, also, into the said ships, all such masters, mariners, and
subjects of the King as might be willing to go with him."

The expedition sailed early in the year 1497, and reached the coast of
Labrador, Newfoundland, in June of the same year.  There is some doubt
whether the father, John, was alive at that time, so that the more
celebrated Sebastian has the credit of the discovery.  At all events, he
performed several successful voyages in the same direction, and made
many important discoveries.  Thus, though the Spaniards claim the honour
of being the discoverers of the middle portion of the great continent of
America, there can be no doubt that the English were the first visitors
to its northern shores, where many millions of their descendants are now
established.

Henry, with his usual sagacity, saw the advantage of having a fleet of
ships exclusively fitted for war, instead of drawing off those which
might be well calculated for the purposes of commerce, but were not,
from their construction, suited to stand the brunt of battle.  He could
not but perceive, besides this, that by employing the merchant-vessels,
as had before been done, for the purposes of fighting, he crippled the
merchants in their commercial pursuits, and prevented them from
supplying him with the sinews of war.  He desired also to have a
permanent fleet ready, should war break out, to protect the coasts of
his kingdom from foreign invasion.  The first ship he built was called
the _Great Harry_.  She cost 14,000 pounds.  She had four masts, a high
poop and forecastle, in which were placed numerous guns, turning inboard
and outwards.  She had only one tier of guns on the upper-deck, as ports
were not used in those days.  She was, however, what would now be called
frigate-built.  She was burnt by accident at Woolwich in 1553.  The
_Great Harry_ may properly be considered the first ship of what is now
denominated the Royal Navy.  There is a model of her in Somerset House,
and there are numerous prints of her which give a notion of what she was
like.  Few seamen of the present day, I fancy, would wish to go to sea
in a similar craft.  I certainly used to doubt that such a vessel could
have ventured out of harbour at all, till I saw the Chinese junk which
was brought to the Thames all the way round from China, and which, in
appearance and construction, is not very dissimilar to what, from her
model, the _Great Harry_ must have been, except in point of size.  She
probably did not measure much less than 1000 tons; she must have been,
therefore, about the size of a modern frigate.



CHAPTER FIVE.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROYAL NAVY OF ENGLAND--FROM A.D. 1509 TO A.D. 1558.

No sovereign of England was ever proclaimed with more universal joy than
was Henry the Eighth, when, at the age of eighteen, he succeeded to the
throne of his father, A.D. 1509.  Tyrant and despot as he became at
home, he did not neglect the interests of commerce, while he maintained
the honour of England abroad.  He made very great improvements in the
work his father had commenced.  By his prerogative, and at his own
expense, he settled the constitution of the present Royal Navy.  An
Admiralty and Navy Office were established, and commissioners to
superintend naval affairs were appointed by him.

Regular salaries were settled for admirals, vice-admirals, captains, and
seamen, and the sea-service at this time became a distinct and regular
profession.

In 1512, Henry, having entered into a league with Spain against France,
fitted out a fleet under the command of Sir Edward Howard, Lord High
Admiral, and by an indenture, dated 8th of April of that year, granted
him the following allowance:--For his own maintenance, diet, wages, and
rewards, ten shillings a-day.  For each of the captains, for their diet,
wages, and rewards, eighteenpence a-day.  For every soldier, mariner,
and gunner, five shillings a-month for his wages, and five shillings for
his victuals, reckoning twenty-eight days in the month.  But the
admiral, captains, officers, and men had also further allowances, under
the denomination of dead shares.  I doubt whether the naval officers and
men of the present day would be satisfied with a similar amount of pay.
Certainly the mariners of those days had more dangers and hardships to
encounter than have those of the present time under ordinary
circumstances.  That year Henry's fleet consisted of forty-five ships,
of which the largest was the _Regent_, of 1000 tons; the two next in
size being the _Sovereign_ and the _Mary Rose_, of about 500 tons each.

The Regent and Cordelier.

War was now declared against France, and the English fleet put to sea
under the command of Sir Edward Howard.  It carried a considerable body
of land forces, under the command of the Earl of Dorset, which were
landed at the Port of Passages, in Spain.  Afterwards, being reinforced
by a number of stout ships, the admiral sailed for Brest, in the hopes
of encountering the French.  Sir William Knevet had command of the
_Regent_, and Sir Charles Brandon, who had sixty of the tallest yeomen
of the Guard under him, commanded the _Sovereign_.  The fleet arrived
off Brest just as the French fleet, consisting of thirty-nine sail, was
coming out of the harbour.  On seeing the enemy, Sir Edward made the
signal for an immediate engagement.  Scarcely was the signal seen, than
the _Regent_ and the _Cordelier_, the latter being the largest ship in
the French navy, attacked each other as if by mutual consent.  The
_Cordelier_, it is said, carried 1200 soldiers.  Undoubtedly her
commander hoped to carry the English ship by boarding.  In the course of
the action, when locked in a deadly embrace with their grappling-irons,
another English ship threw into the _Cordelier_ a quantity of
combustibles, or fire-works, as they were called, and set her on fire.
In vain the crew of the _Regent_ endeavoured to free their ship from her
perilous position.  The magazine of the _Cordelier_ was reached, and she
and the _Regent_ went up into the air together.  In the _Regent_, Sir
William Knevet and 700 men were lost, and in the _Cordelier_, Sir Pierce
Morgan, her captain, and 900 of her crew are supposed to have perished.
After this dreadful catastrophe the action ceased; the French,
horror-stricken, hurriedly making their way into Brest.  The ships,
also, of both parties, had received considerable damage.

Although cannon had been employed on board ships since the time of
Edward the Third, this was probably one of the first sea-fights in which
they were used by both parties on board all the ships engaged.  Even on
this occasion the combatants seem to have trusted more to their
battle-axes and swords than to their artillery.  The French give a
different account of this battle.  They say that an English ship having
discharged a quantity of fire-works into the _Cordelier_, she caught
fire, when her Breton commander, finding that the conflagration could
not be extinguished, and determined not to perish alone, made up to the
English admiral and grappled her, when they blew up into the air
together.  On this the two fleets separated by mutual consent.

The following year another fleet of forty-two men-of-war, under the
command of the Lord High Admiral, sailed for Brest, when the French
squadron was found at anchor, protected by batteries on shore, and a
line of twenty-four hulks chained together across the harbour's mouth.
The admiral, however, making a feint with his boats, drew the enemy down
to the shore, when he ran up past the batteries, and ravaged the country
round the town.  The French had been waiting the arrival of six galleys
from the Mediterranean, under Monsieur Pregent.

I cannot refrain from giving the first account I have met with of what
may properly be called a cutting-out expedition.  While the English
fleet were at Brest, Monsieur Pregent arrived on the coast with six
galleys and four foists, and, apprehensive of being attacked by the
enemy, he entered the Bay of Conquet, which was the nearest place to
Brest.  He here placed his squadron between two rocks, on which he
mounted cannon and threw up a breastwork.  Notwithstanding the
advantageous position of this squadron, the Lord High Admiral resolved
to attack it.  He had two galleys in his fleet.  He went on board one of
these, and entrusted the other to Lord Rivers.  He had, besides, only
two large barges and two boats.  With these, on the 20th of April, he
boldly ventured into the Bay of Conquet to attack the French galleys.
He no sooner came abeam of the galley commanded by Monsieur Pregent,
than, ordering his vessel to be lashed alongside, he boarded her sword
in hand, followed only by Don Carroz, a Spanish cavalier, and seventeen
of his men.  He appeared at first to be gaining the day; but, by some
accident, his galley swinging loose, he and his followers, deprived of
all succour, were so hard-pressed by the enemy that they were driven
headlong into the sea.  Lord Ferrers, who had during this time been
engaging the enemy without success, seeing the admiral's galley fall
off, retreated.  When, however, Lord Howard was missed, a flag of truce
was sent to the French commander, who replied that only one seaman had
escaped death, and that the admiral and the rest of his companions had
been forced overboard.  After this the English fleet returned home.  In
a short time Monsieur Pregent, flushed with success, ravaged the coast
of Sussex; but was driven away by Sir Thomas Howard, who succeeded his
brother as Lord High Admiral.  In the year 1514, the ever-active Pregent
again paid the Sussex coast a visit, and burnt Brighthelmstone, as
Brighton was then called.  In return for this compliment, Sir John
Wallop was sent with a fleet to the coast of Normandy, where he burnt
twenty-one towns and villages.  In consequence of the energetic and
summary way in which he carried out his system of retaliation, those who
have imitated him have been said to "wallop" the enemy.  To replace the
_Regent_ destroyed in the terrible way above described, the king built a
ship at Erith in 1515, and called her the _Henri Grace de Dieu_.  She
was of 1000 tons burden, and manned with 301 mariners, 50 gunners, and
349 soldiers.  Up to that period, when ships were to be manned in a
hurry, soldiers were sent on board to do the duty of seamen as best they
could, and generals were turned into admirals at very short notice.
However, it would be more correct to say that the fighting was done
chiefly by soldiers, and consequently that military officers went to
command them, while the ships were navigated by professional seamen, who
had their own sea-officers, though generally of an inferior grade, over
them.  A vestige of this custom still remains in the Royal Navy.  On
board every ship, besides the captain and his lieutenants, there is a
sailing-master, who has also his mates or assistants, who have especial
charge of the navigation of the ship.  Formerly the captain and his
lieutenants were not of necessity seamen.  Now, they are so by
profession, though they still retain a remnant of their military
character.  In time, probably, the last representative of the
master-of-the-mariners, as he was called, will disappear from the
British navy--it being the duty of the lieutenants to attend to the
navigation of the ship, as they do now to the management in every other
respect.

One of the wisest acts of Henry the Eighth was making the sea-service a
regular profession--though long after his time ships, and even fleets,
were commanded by men who had hitherto lived and fought only on shore.
About the year 1545 port-holes were generally introduced on board the
larger ships.  Before that time the guns were fought over the bulwarks,
or were alone placed on the forecastle, and the aftercastle, which
latter portion of the ship is now called the poop.  This word _poop_ is
evidently derived from the Latin _puppis_, as originally the after-part
of a ship was called by the Romans, and thence the name was given to the
ship herself, a part being taken for the whole.  The ports were,
however, placed not more than sixteen inches from the water, so close,
indeed, as greatly to peril the ship.  It was in consequence of this
faulty construction that the _Mary Rose_ of sixty guns, one of the
largest ships in the British navy, heeling over to a squall while
encountering the French at Spithead, was capsized, when her captain, Sir
George Carew, and upwards of 500 of his men, perished in the waves.  As
late as the year 1835, Mr Deane, by means of his ingenious invention,
the diving-bell, was enabled to recover several guns, parts of the
wreck, and some stone-shot of the _Mary Rose_.

Ships generally carried but few guns.  A writer, describing a battle
which took place off the Isle of Wight, and which lasted two hours, when
upwards of ninety ships were engaged, speaks of 300 shot being fired, to
prove how desperate was the contest.  I have before me an account of the
battle in which the _Mary Rose_ was lost, not, as the French say, in
consequence of their fire, but because it was attempted to keep her
ports open when a considerable sea was running, and a strong breeze had
suddenly sprung up.  The French king had sent over a large fleet to
annoy the English coasts.  Henry, hearing of the expedition, hurried
down to Portsmouth to hasten the equipment of 100 sail, which he had
ordered to be got ready.  The French appearing, the English sailed out
to Saint Helen's to meet them.  A squall came on, and the _Mary Rose_
foundering, the _Great Harry_ which was attacked by the French
row-galleys, bore the brunt of the action.  The French quickly retired,
though they attempted to make a lodgment on the Isle of Wight, but were
compelled to return to their ships.  The English are described as using
pinances, which are vessels of great length and little beam, moving very
rapidly, and fitted both with sails and oars.  We hear, also, that the
_Carracon_ the ship of the French Admiral, was destroyed by fire before
the fleet left their coasts.  She is described as appearing like a
castle among the other ships of the fleet, and so strong that she had
nothing to fear at sea but fire and rocks.  It is stated that she had
100 brass cannon on board; but as she was not more than 800 tons burden,
they must have been very small ones.  Still, it is certain that she was
the stoutest ship possessed by the French.

From a French account of one of the attacks made on the English fleet
before Portsmouth, we ascertain the character of the galleys employed by
the French.  We are told that they were worked by oars, and we read that
so many galley-slaves were killed.  It is said, also, that "the galleys
had all the advantage of working that they could desire, to the great
damage of the English, who, for want of wind, not being able to stir,
lay exposed to the French cannon, and being so much higher and bulkier
than their galleys, hardly a shot missed them; while the galleys, with
the help of their oars, shifted at pleasure, and thereby avoided the
danger of the enemy's artillery."  The same writer says that, later in
the day, "the violence of the wind, and the swelling of the sea, would
deprive us of our galleys."  We thus see at once that these galleys,
though from their lightness easily manoeuvred in smooth water, were
unfit to buffet with the winds and waves.  They were probably similar to
the galleys I have before described, and which for centuries were in use
in the Mediterranean.

Another writer says: "A gale arising, the French galleys were in danger,
the English ships bearing down upon them with full sail, a danger from
which they escaped purely by the skill and experience of their
commanders, and the intrepidity of the _Prior of Capua_, who exposed his
galley with undaunted courage, and freed himself from danger with equal
address."  The title of Prior of Capua sounds oddly enough when applied
to a naval commander.  From these accounts it would appear that the
English ships were more powerful than those of the French, and were
better calculated to stand the brunt of battle than to chase a nimble
enemy, as the French seem to have been.  The larger ships in the British
navy were at that time fitted with four masts, like the _Henri Grace de
Dieu_.

Though the yards and sails were unwieldy, the rigging heavy, and the top
hamper prodigious, we find that they were tending towards the form they
had assumed when Howe, Jervis, and Nelson led our fleets to victory.

They had short stout masts, a vast number of shrouds to support them,
and large heavy round tops on which a dozen men or more could stand.
The sterns were ornamented with a profusion of heavy carved-work, and
they had great lanterns stuck up at the taffrail, as big, almost, as
sentry-boxes, while the forecastle still somewhat resembled the building
from which it took its name.  This vast amount of woodwork, rising high
above the surface of the water, was very detrimental to the sailing
qualities of ships, and must have caused the loss of many.  What sailors
call fore-and-aft sails had already been introduced, and we hear
constantly of ships beating to windward, and attempting to gain the
weather-gage.  In those days a great variety of ordnance were employed,
to which our ancestors gave the odd-sounding names of cannon,
demi-cannon, culverins, demi-culverins, sakers, mynions, falcons,
falconets, portpiece-halls, port-piece-chambers, fowler-halls, and
curthalls.  These guns varied very much in length and in the weight of
their shot.  When a ship is spoken of as carrying fifty or sixty guns it
must be understood that every description of ordnance on board was
included, so that a very erroneous idea would be formed, if we pictured
a ship of sixty guns of those days as in any way resembling in size a
third, or even a fourth-rate at the end of the last century.  An old
author says: "By the employment of Italian shipwrights, and by
encouraging his own people to build strong ships of war to carry great
ordnance, Henry established a puissant navy, which, at the end of his
reign, consisted of seventy-one vessels, whereof thirty were ships of
burden, and contained in all 10,550 tons, and two were galleys, and the
rest were small barks and row-barges, from eighty tons down to fifteen
tons, which served in rivers and for landing men."

Stone-shot had hitherto been used both at sea and on shore, but about
the middle of the century they were superseded by iron shot.  About the
same period matchlocks were introduced on board ships.

An Act was passed in this reign encouraging merchants to build ships fit
for men-of-war, such ships being exempt from certain duties, the owners
also receiving from the king, when he required them, twelve shillings
per ton a-month.

Henry the Eighth established an Office of Admiralty, with a Navy Office,
under certain commissioners; and appointed regular salaries, not only
for his admirals and vice-admirals, but for his captains and seamen.
This established the system, pursued with various alterations, for the
maintenance of the Royal Navy.  These regulations and appointments
encouraged the English to consider the sea as a means of providing for
their children, and from this time forward we have a constant series of
eminent officers in the Royal Navy, many of them noblemen of the first
distinction.  Among the most celebrated in this reign were Sir Edward
Howard, his brother Sir Thomas Howard, afterwards Earl of Surrey, Sir
William Fitzwilliams, afterwards Earl of Southampton, and John Russell,
first Earl of Bedford.  The most eminent navigator in the reign of
Edward the Sixth was Sebastian Cabot, son of John Cabot, who, under
Henry the Seventh, discovered Newfoundland.  Nothing was done concerning
trade without consulting him; he was at the head of the merchant
adventurers, and governor of a company formed to find out a passage by
the north to the East Indies.  Among the regulations for the government
of the fleet destined for the voyage to Cathay were several which show a
considerable amount of worldly wisdom and sound so quaint, that I am
tempted to quote a few of them.  Clause 22--"Item--not to disclose to
any nation the state of our religion, but to pass it over in silence
without any declaration of it, seeming to bear with such laws and rites
as the place hath where you shall arrive."  Item 23--"Forasmuch as our
people and ships may appear unto them strange and wondrous, and theirs
also to ours, it is to be considered how they may be used, learning much
of their nature and dispositions by some one such person whom you may
first either allure or take to be brought on board your ship."  Item
24--"The persons so taken to be well entertained, used, and apparelled,
to be set on land to the intent he or she may allure others to draw nigh
to show the commodities; and if the person taken may be made drunk with
your beer or wine, you shall know the secrets of his heart."

Under the judicious management of Sebastian Cabot, the Russian Company
was established, though their charter was not granted till the year
1555.  Among other discoverers and navigators Captain Wyndham merits
notice, having opened up a trade with the coast of Guinea.  Both he and
his companion Pintado died, however, of fever, forty only of his crew
returning to Plymouth.  Captain Richard Chancellor is another able
navigator of this reign.  He sailed with Sir Hugh Willoughby in the
service of the company, at the recommendation of Cabot.  He made several
voyages to Russia; in the last, he parted with Sir Hugh Willoughby, who,
putting into a port to winter, was, with all his crew, frozen to death.
His ship was found riding safe at anchor by some Russian fishermen, and
from a journal discovered on board it was found that the admiral and
most of his fellow-adventurers were alive in January, 1554.

During Henry the Eighth's reign the infamous slave-trade was commenced
by Mr William Hawkins of Plymouth, father of the celebrated Sir John
Hawkins.  He, however, evidently did not consider the traffic in the
light in which it is now regarded.  In his ship, the _Paul_, of
Plymouth, he made three voyages to the Brazils, touching at the coast of
Guinea, where he traded in slaves, gold, and elephants' teeth.  At that
time the English, considering themselves lords paramount at sea,
insisted that ships of all other nations should strike their flags in
presence of their fleets.  Even when William Lord Howard, Mary's high
admiral, went with a fleet of twenty-eight men-of-war to await the
arrival of King Philip, who soon after appeared in the channel, escorted
by one hundred and sixty sail, the Spanish flag flying at his main-top,
the English admiral compelled him to lower it, by firing a shot before
he would salute the intended consort of the Queen.  This determination
of the English to maintain the sovereignty of the seas was the cause
hereafter of many a desperate naval engagement between themselves and
the Dutch, who disputed their right to the honour.

Henry died A.D. 1547.  No great improvements were made in navigation
during his reign, but the encouragement he gave to shipbuilding, and the
establishment of a permanent Royal Navy, contributed much to enable
England to attain that supremacy on the ocean which she has ever since
maintained.

During the early part of Edward the Sixth's reign the navy of England
was employed chiefly in operations against the Scotch, but in 1550 the
French formed a plan to capture Jersey and Guernsey, which they
surrounded with a large fleet, having 2000 troops on board.  The
inhabitants held out stoutly, and gained time for Captain (afterwards
Sir William) Winter to arrive to their succour.  Though he had but a
small squadron, so hastily did he attack the French, that he captured
and burnt nearly all their ships and killed a thousand men, the rest
with difficulty escaping to the mainland.

Mary's reign is a blank, as far as most achievements were concerned,
and, had the miserable queen obtained her wishes, the ships of England,
and all the English hold dear, would have been handed over to the tender
mercies of Philip and the Spaniards.



CHAPTER SIX.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH--FROM A.D. 1558 TO A.D. 1603.

When Elizabeth came to the throne, she, without loss of time, took
measures to restore the navy, which had been allowed to fall into decay
during the reign of her wretched sister Mary.  Timber was stored up for
building, numerous pieces of brass cannon cast, and gunpowder, which had
hitherto been brought from abroad, was manufactured at home.  She raised
the wages of seamen, increased the number of naval officers, and
augmented their salaries, giving also encouragement to foreigners
skilled in shipbuilding to repair to her ports and construct strong
ships, both for war and commerce.  The fortresses in the Isle of Wight
and other parts were increased, and scarcely had she governed four days
when Vice-Admiral Malyn was ordered to sail, with as many ships as were
fit for sea, to protect trade and to defend the channel.

She, of course, took these steps by the advice of Cecil, who likewise
directed Sir Thomas Gresham to send over coin from Holland, and to
purchase arms and munitions of war.  Cecil was thoroughly cognisant of
the designs of the Spaniards, and he had soon a proof of their
perfidious intentions.  A squadron under the command of Sir John Hawkins
had been driven into the port of Saint Juan d'Ulloa in the Bay of
Mexico, and was suddenly attacked by a Spanish fleet, the commander of
which had just before been professing his friendly intentions.  Sir John
suspected treachery in consequence of observing that the Spaniards were
shifting arms from one ship to another, planting and levelling their
cannon from their ships towards an island on which some of the English
had landed.  The master of one of the ships being sent to the Spanish
admiral, he was seized; and, causing the trumpet to be sounded, the
Spaniards set on the English on all sides.  The men on shore being
dismayed at the unexpected onset, fled, and endeavoured to recover their
ships, but the Spaniards, landing in great numbers, slew most of them
without quarter.  Several of the English ships were destroyed--the
_Minion_ and _Judith_, with a small bark of fifty tons, alone escaping.
The crews underwent incredible hardships, though they at length found
their way to England.  The English captured on the island by the
Spaniards were afterwards thrown into the Inquisition, where they
remained shut up asunder in dungeons for a year and a-half.  Three were
afterwards burnt; others were condemned to receive two and three hundred
blows on horseback with long whips, and to serve in the galleys for many
years; and others were confined in monasteries, dressed in the S. Benito
or fool's coats.  One of them, Job Hartob, after enduring captivity for
twenty-three years, escaped, and reached England.  So enraged were the
nation at this treachery of the Spaniards, that it was with difficulty
they could be restrained from breaking the peace with that perfidious
nation.

A further cause of dissension arose in consequence of a convoy of
vessels, bound from the coast of Biscay for the Low Countries with a
large quantity of money on board, being chased by French pirates, having
taken shelter in Plymouth, Falmouth, and Southampton.  The queen, being
informed that the money was on the merchants' accounts, and that the
Duke of Alva would certainly seize it to enable him to carry on the war,
made bold to borrow the sum.  This brought matters to a crisis;
reprisals were made by Spain, and the English seized many Spanish and
Flemish ships.  The English on this, with incredible alacrity, fitted
out vessels, and fell upon all merchant-ships belonging to the
Spaniards.  Spain, it was now known, was preparing a formidable force
for the invasion of England; but the queen and her ministers,
unintimidated by the boasts of the Spaniards, omitted no precautionary
measures to defeat Philip's plans.  In 1587, a fleet under Sir Francis
Drake was despatched to Cadiz.  The admiral here forced six galleys,
placed for the guardianship of the port, to shelter themselves under the
cannon of the castle; and then, having burnt upwards of a hundred ships
laden with ammunition and provisions, he sailed for Cape Saint Vincent,
where he surprised some forts, and destroyed all the fishing craft he
could fall in with.  From thence, appearing off the mouth of the Tagus,
he challenged the Spanish admiral, Santa Cruz, to come out and fight;
but the Spaniard, obeying his master's orders, allowed Drake to burn and
destroy every vessel he could find, rather than hazard an engagement.
The King of Spain, hoping to frighten the English, published in every
country in Europe a full account of the armada he was preparing for the
subjugation, as he hoped, of England.  For three years had Philip been
making the most mighty efforts to fit out a fleet with which he hoped to
humble the pride of the queen of that "tight little island," who had
dared to refuse his hand, and to enslave her heretical subjects.  The
Most Happy Armada, for so he had styled it, consisted of 134 sail of
towering ships, of the total burden of 57,868 tons; on board of it wore
19,295 soldiers, 8450 sailors, 2088 slaves, and 2830 pieces of cannon.
In addition to the foregoing, there were galleys, galliasses, and
galleons stored with 22,000 pounds of great shot, 40,000 quintals, or
hundredweights of powder, 1000 quintals of lead for bullets, 10,000
quintals of match, 7000 muskets and calivers, 1000 partisans and
halberds, besides double-cannon and field-pieces for a camp on
disembarking, and a great many mules, horses, and asses, with six
months' provisions of all sorts.  To this may be added a large band of
monks, with racks, thumbscrews, chains, whips, butchering knives, and
other implements of torture, with which it was proposed to convert the
English from the error of their ways, and to bring them to the true
faith as expounded by the pope and his pupil Philip.

The larger of these ships measured from 1000 to 1200 tons, they carried
50 guns, about 180 mariners, and 300 soldiers.  A still larger number
measuring from 600 to 800 tons, and carrying from 30 to 40 guns, with
crews of about 100 seamen, and 300 soldiers.  There was a fleet of
pataches and zabras, a considerable number of which measured no more
than 60 tons, and carried 8 guns and 30 seamen.  The galliasses must,
however, have been ships of great bulk, as they carried 50 guns, and
crews of about 120 men, with a still larger number of soldiers, besides
which they each had about 300 slaves for working their oars.  The
galleys also carried 50 guns and about 230 slaves.  This fleet was
divided into ten squadrons, each commanded by an experienced officer.
The pataches are more commonly called carvels.  Besides the Dominicans,
Franciscans, Flagellants, and Jesuits, there were on board many hundred
persons of the best families of Spain; some maintained by the king, with
their servants, and those belonging to the duke's court.

This vast armada was followed by a fleet of tenders, with a prodigious
quantity of arms on board, intended to put into the hands of those whom
it was expected would rise on their reaching the shores of our own land.
The command of this mighty squadron, generally known as the Spanish
Armada, was given to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and under him was Don
Martinez de Recaldo, an experienced admiral, who managed the affairs of
the fleet.  The reports of the enormous preparations made by the
Spaniards for the destruction of everything they held dear naturally
caused the greatest anxiety, if not consternation, among the English,
but the nation was true to itself.  The queen and her ministers, in no
way daunted at the mighty preparations for their enslavement, vigorously
prepared for resistance, taking all the measures wisdom could dictate
and their means would allow for repelling the invaders.  The country
flew to arms; every county raised a body of militia; the sea-ports were
fortified, and a system of signals arranged so that troops could be
brought to the point where they were required with the greatest possible
speed.  Orders were also given that, should the enemy land, the whole
country round should be laid waste, so that the Spaniards might find no
food except what they brought with them.  The regular army was disposed,
a part along the southern coast, another near Torbay, under the command
of the Earl of Leicester, while a third, under the leading of Lord
Hunsdon, was destined to guard the queen's person.  The English
Government, not misled by the assurances of the Spanish minister that
his master's wish was to remain at peace, took care to keep themselves
well informed of the proceedings of the Spaniards, and of the time the
Armada was likely to be ready to put to sea.

Offers had been made by Philip to conclude a treaty, and a meeting was
held between his envoys and the English commissioners in April near
Ostend.  The Spaniards, however, purposely squandered away the time,
hoping to stop the preparations of the English while their own were
going forward, and at length fixed on Brouckburg in Flanders as the
place for concluding a treaty of peace.  Before the time agreed on had
arrived, the Spanish Armada had sailed from the Tagus.  The pope having
blessed the fleet which was to be engaged in the pious office of
subjugating the heretics of England, it was named the Great, Noble, and
Invincible Armada, the terror of Europe.

The English fleet was placed under the command of Lord Howard of
Effingham, who had, however, only seventeen ships of war actually
belonging to the queen.  The largest of these, the _Triumph_, was of
1100 tons, carried 500 men, and was commanded by Sir Martin Frobisher.
The next in size was the _White Bear_, also with a crew of 500 men,
commanded by Lord Edmund Sheffield.  The third in size was the _Ark_,
the admiral's flag-ship, of 800 tons, commanded by Raleigh.  Of the same
size was the _Victory_, carrying the flag of Sir John Hawkins, the
rear-admiral, with a crew of 400 men.  There were two others of 600
tons, the _Elizabeth Bonaventure_ and the _Hope_.  There were six of 500
tons, two of 400 tons, another of 360 tons, while the rest ranged from
30 to 120 tons.  To these were joined twelve hired ships and six
tenders.  The city of London provided sixteen ships, twice the number
demanded, with four store-ships; the city of Bristol, three; Barnstaple,
three; Exeter, two, and a tender and stout pinance; Plymouth, seven
stout ships, equal to the men-of-war.  Sixteen ship were under Lord
Henry Seymour.  The nobility and gentry and commons of England furnished
forty-three ships; the merchant adventurers, ten; to which may be added
a fly-boat and Sir W. Winter's pinnace, making in all 143 ships.

Of these ships, thirty-two were under the command of Sir Francis Drake,
and several of them were of 400 tons burden; but the greater number were
not of more than 200 tons.  The largest London ship was only of 300
tons, but the greater number were above 100 tons, and the smallest of 60
tons.  Lord Henry Seymour's ships were mostly under 150 tons, the
largest being only 160.  Altogether the number of their crews did not
amount to more than 15,000 men, but they were one and all gallant tars,
resolved to fight and conquer, and fearless of danger.  Sir Francis
Drake, with fifty sail, had been stationed at Plymouth, and here the
Lord High Admiral, with a large part of his fleet, joined him on the
23rd May, when Sir Francis was made his vice-admiral.  Hence, with about
ninety ships, the fleet sailed up and down between Ushant and Scilly,
waiting for the arrival of the Armada, which had sailed, as has been
said, on the 1st June.  A tremendous storm, which compelled the English
to run into harbour, had, however, dispersed the Spaniards, and driven
them back with some damage into port.  Shortly afterwards a report
reached England, circulated probably by the Spaniards themselves, that
the whole of their fleet had been weather-beaten, and that they would be
unable to proceed to sea till the next year.  This was actually believed
by the English Government, who ordered the Lord High Admiral to send
back four of his largest ships into port; but Lord Howard, alleging how
dangerous it was to be too credulous, retained the ships, observing that
he would rather keep them at his own charge than expose the nation to so
great a hazard.

The wind coming from the north, on the 8th of June Lord Howard sailed
towards Spain, looking out for the Armada; but the wind changing to the
south, and he seeing that it would be favourable to the Spaniards,
returned towards England, lest they might slip by and reach the coast
before him.  On the 12th he arrived at Plymouth, where the whole fleet
was assembled, waiting for the enemy, and on the 19th of June--

  "'Twas about the lovely close of a warm summer's day.
  There came a gallant merchant-ship, full sail to Plymouth Bay.
  Her crew hath seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's isle,
  At earliest twilight, on the wave, lie heaving many a mile;
  At sunrise she escaped their van, by God's especial grace,
  And the tall _Pinta_, till at noon, had held her close in chase."

This tall ship was commanded by Captain Thomas Fleming, who had been
stationed on the look-out to the eastward.  The wind blowing almost
directly into the sound, it was scarcely possible for the English fleet
to put to sea; at length, however, by dint of warping, the admiral's
ship and six more got out of the haven, and by daylight, on the 20th,
sixty others joined him; with these he sailed, and when off the
Eddystone caught sight of the enemy to the westward.  Notice of the
appearance of the Armada was spread far and wide throughout the land.

  "Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea;
  Such night in England ne'er had been, nor ne'er again shall be.
  From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay,
  That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day;
  For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly war-flames spread,
  High on Saint Michael's Mount it shone, it shone on Beachy Head.
  Far on the deep the Spaniards saw, along each southern shore,
  Cape beyond cape in endless range, those twinkling spots of fire."

Onward came the Armada in perfect order, forming a crescent, the horns
of which were seven miles apart, the concave part to the rear.
Formidable, indeed, from their size and number, did they appear, like so
many floating castles, such as had never in the world's history sailed
over the surface of the deep.  The English captains were eager for the
attack, but Lord Howard wisely checked their ardour, pointing out the
enormous size of the enemy's ships, which also being full of troops,
they could hope to do nothing with by boarding.  Had, indeed, the
Spaniards ventured to attack the English on that day, it would have been
difficult to escape from them.  Having wisely waited till the following
morning, Sunday, the 21st of June, the admiral was joined by the rest of
the fleet, which had got out of the sound, and had, moreover, the wind
in its favour.  The battle commenced at nine o'clock in the morning,
when Lord Howard attacked a Spanish ship commanded by Don Alfonso de
Lara.  Lord Howard pressed in upon her, tore her hull with his
broadside, and brought her to the verge of sinking.  Drake, Hawkins, and
Frobisher attacked, also, the rearmost of the Spanish ships, commanded
by Recaldo, the vice-admiral, ship engaging ship, till the Spaniards
were so disabled that they took to flight, and were received into the
main body.  The British seamen, elated by their success, pressed on more
and more boldly, till, darkness coming on, the Lord High Admiral, by
signal, ordered them to desist.  About midnight the English saw a large
ship in the centre of the Spanish fleet blow up.  As it proved
afterwards, she had on board a large amount of treasure, which was moved
before she was deserted to another ship, commanded by Don Pedro Vargas.
It coming on to blow hard at night, this ship sprang her foremast, and
falling astern, was attacked and captured by Sir Francis Drake.  Besides
the treasure, several persons of distinction were found on board, the
first Spanish prisoners made on this occasion.  The ship was sent into
Dartmouth, where the plunder of the vessel was divided among the
sailors.

A ship which had been destroyed was fallen in with the next day, having
fifty men on board cruelly burnt, and vast numbers dead.  In the evening
Sir Francis Drake was induced to sail in pursuit of several ships he saw
in the south-west, but which proved to be German merchant-vessels; and
it was evening of the next day before he could rejoin the fleet.  Next
morning, the two fleets having manoeuvred for some time to gain the
weather-gage, about noon the Spaniards at length bore down on a number
of the London vessels; but the Lord High Admiral sending a
reinforcement, rescued his ships, and nearly took the vice-admiral.  So
high were the sides of the Spanish ships that their shot generally flew
over the heads of the English, and did little damage; while scarcely a
shot from the ships of the latter missed its aim.  After the fleets had
engaged for some time, the wind shifted to the south-south-west.  On
this Lord Howard led his fleet to the attack of the Armada.  One of his
ships, the _Triumph_, pushing too far, was surrounded by the Spaniards;
but the admiral, with six other vessels, bore down to her assistance,
having given orders to his captains not to fire a gun till within
musket-shot.  The _Triumph_ was rescued, and the Spaniards driven back,
miserably shattered.

About this period one William Cox, captain of a little pinnace called
the _Violet_, belonging to Sir William Winter, behaved valiantly against
the enemy, but his gallant little craft was sunk, and he was killed by a
great piece of ordnance.  As an old author writes on this occasion:
"Also the _May Flower_ of London, a name known to fame, performed an
honourable part.  Never, indeed, was seen so vehement a fight; either
side endeavouring to bring about the destruction of the other.  For
albeit the musqueteers and arquebusiers were in either fleet many in
number, yet could they not be discerned or heard by reason of the roar
of the greater ordnance that followed so thick one upon another, and
played so well that day on either side that they were thought to be
equal in number to common arquebusiers in a hot skirmish.  The battle
was not only long, but also near at hand--within half a musket-shot--and
that to the great advantage of the Englishmen, who, with their ships
being, as was aforesaid, excellent of sail and of steerage, yet less a
great deal than the Spanish ships, and therefore more light and nimble,
fought not according to their manner otherwise, to board them, but
keeping themselves aloof at a reasonable distance, continually beat upon
the hull and tackling of the enemy's ships, which, being a good deal
higher, could not so easily beat the English ships with their ordnance.
Thus in the space of one day, with the loss only of one small ship and
less than a hundred men on the part of the English, was the so-called
Invincible Armada utterly beaten and nearly destroyed--though to the God
of battles must truly be ascribed the victory, for the power of the
elements more than man's strength, caused the destruction of the larger
number of the Spanish ships."

At evening the engagement ceased, by which time several of the enemy's
ships had been taken, among them a Venetian ship of large size and
force.  The next day, for want of ammunition, the English were unable to
renew the attack; but the Spaniards, not knowing this, did not attempt
to molest them.  It had been intended, on the night of the 24th, by Lord
Howard, to attack the Armada in the dead of the night, but the wind
failing he was disappointed in his object.  On the 25th, a vast galleon,
dropping behind, was captured by Sir John Hawkins after a desperate
resistance.  Several galliasses, sent by the Spanish admiral to the
rescue of the galleon, were nearly taken.  The persevering English, in
their small vessels, continued their assaults on the vast ships of the
enemy, never failing to inflict considerable damage on them.  In the
meantime, more powder and shot were brought on board to enable them to
carry on their assaults.  On the following day the admiral determined,
however, to allow the Armada to proceed towards the Straits of Calais,
where another fleet, under Lord Henry Seymour and Captain Winter, lay in
wait for them.  Thus the Armada sailed forward till the English saw them
anchor before Calais, on the 27th of July.  Here, being joined by the
before-mentioned squadron, the Lord High Admiral found himself in
command of nearly 150 stout ships, and, bearing down on the enemy,
anchored at a short distance from them.  The Spanish admiral had
anchored in the hopes of being joined by the Duke of Parma, but the
fleets of Holland and Zealand blockaded him in the ports of Dunkirk and
Niewport, and he dared not sail out.  Seeing that the Spanish ships lay
very close together, Lord Howard planned a new method for their
destruction.  Eight of the least valuable vessels being fitted out as
fire-ships, and having their guns loaded, were conducted towards the
Spaniards by Captains Young and Prowse, who, in the most undaunted
manner, firing the trains as they got close to the Spaniards, retired.
As the burning ships bore down upon them, the Spaniards, struck with
dismay, cut their cables, and put to sea.  The largest galliasse in the
fleet ran on shore, and was captured by the boats of the squadron, after
all her fighting men had been killed--the slaves at the oars alone
escaping.  Several thus ran on the shoals on the coast of Flanders.

The greater number were attacked fiercely by the English, who disabled
many of their ships.  The Earl of Cumberland sent a large galleon to the
bottom, another was sunk by the Lord High Admiral, and two other vessels
by Drake and Hawkins.  Another large galleon, the _Saint Matthew_, was
captured by the Dutch, as was the _Saint Philip_, after in vain
endeavouring to escape, having been driven by the English towards
Ostend.

One of the most gallant of the English commanders was Captain Robert
Cross, who, in a small vessel, sunk three of the enemy; while the
Spaniards fled whenever they were attacked--indeed, the whole engagement
this day was more a pursuit than a battle.  On the 31st of July, the
Spaniards, who had attempted to regain Calais Roads, were driven towards
the coast of Zealand, when, the wind favouring them just as they were
almost on the shoals, their admiral came to the resolution of returning
home round the northern end of the British Isles, and making all sail,
they steered the course proposed, throwing overboard their horses and
mules, and everything that could impede their progress.  Lord Howard,
leaving Lord Henry Seymour with a squadron to assist the Dutch in
blockading the Duke of Parma, sent Admiral Winter with another into the
narrow seas to guard the coast, while he himself pursued the Spaniards.
Many more were lost in their hurried flight; some were wrecked on the
coast of Scotland, and others on the Shetland and Orkney Islands.  Those
who landed in Scotland were brought to Edinburgh, to the number of 500,
where they were mercifully treated; but nearly thirty ships were cast
away on the Irish coast, where nearly all their crews, to the number of
several thousands, who escaped drowning, were put to death by the
inhabitants.  About fifty-four ships alone of this mighty Armada
returned to Spain, and of those who had embarked upwards of 20,000 men
had perished.  Not a family in Spain but had lost a relative, though
King Philip, in a vain endeavour to conceal his rage and disappointment,
forbade any persons to wear mourning.

The encouragement given to maritime adventure raised up a host of
gallant seamen and explorers, whose names became renowned for their
exploits, and who carried the flag of England into all quarters of the
globe.  Perhaps of these the most celebrated was Sir Francis Drake, who,
having performed numerous daring exploits in the West Indies, sailed
round the world, and returned to England, his ship laden with the booty
he had taken from the Spaniards; good Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who, after
making many discoveries, sank with all his crew off the coast of
Newfoundland; Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir John
Hawkins, and a host of others.

Among other expeditions was one intended for the South Seas, under the
command of the Earl of Cumberland, who, at his own charge, fitted out
three ships and a pinnace--namely, the _Red Dragon_, of 160 tons and 130
men; the _Clifford_, of 30 tons and 70 men; and the _Rose_ and the
_Dorothy_.  Having touched on the African coast, they crossed over to
South America, where they took two Portuguese ships, one of which had
forty-five negroes on board, while the only riches in the other, besides
slaves and friars, were beads and other spiritual trinkets, and the
furniture designed for a new monastery.  Several other prizes were made,
when, without attempting to reach the Pacific, they returned to England.
While numerous English vessels were cruising on the coasts of Old
Spain, and destroying its trade and navigation, Thomas Cavendish was
despatched with a small squadron to do the like on the coast of New
Spain.  He carried out his instructions, crossing the South Seas to the
Philippines, and afterwards visiting China, having taken on his way many
of the ships of the enemy.

To Sir John Hawkins the navy is indebted for the institution of that
noble fund the Chest at Chatham, to which, also, Sir Francis Drake
contributed considerably.  Elizabeth, determined to retaliate on the
Spaniards, fitted out a fleet in the following spring of 146 sail, which
destroyed Corunna and Vigo, as well as the Castle of Cascacs at the
mouth of the Tagus, and captured sixty large ships.  In 1590 the queen
allotted 8790 pounds a-year for the repairs of the Royal Navy; a sum
which would go but a short way at the present day in building a single
ship.

About this time the telescope was invented by Janssen, a spectacle-maker
of Middleburgh, in Zealand.  Hearing of it, Galileo immediately
constructed his first _very_ imperfect instrument, which magnified only
three times.  Further experiments enabled him to construct another with
a power of eight, and ultimately, sparing neither labour nor expense, he
formed one which bore a magnifying power of more than thirty times.
With this instrument, he commenced that survey of the heavenly bodies
which rendered his name famous as the first of astronomers.  In the
reign of Charles the Second, in 1671, Sir Isaac Newton constructed his
first reflecting telescope, a small ill-made instrument, nine inches
only in length--valuable as it was, a pigmy in power compared to Lord
Rosse's six-feet reflector of sixty feet in length.  Torricelli, the
pupil of Galileo, invented the barometer.

In 1591 the first voyage to the East Indies was undertaken by Captain
Lancaster, in three ships.  One was sent back with invalids, another was
lost with all on board, and the crew of the captain's ship mutinied
while he was on shore on an uninhabited island, and ran off with her,
leaving him and his companions for three years, till they were rescued.

Among the brave admirals of this period, one of the most gallant was Sir
Richard Grenville, who, after serving his country for many years, sailed
in the _Revenge_ as Vice-Admiral to Lord Admiral Howard, in 1591, in
search of the Spanish West India merchant-fleet, with a squadron of six
men-of-war, six victuallers, and a few pinnaces.  The English squadron
was at anchor near the island of Flores, when the admiral received
intelligence of the approaching Spanish fleet.  He was in no condition
to oppose the Spaniards, for, besides being greatly inferior in numbers,
nearly half the men were disabled by the scurvy, a large proportion of
whom were on shore.  The admiral immediately weighed and put to sea, and
the rest of his squadron followed his example.  Sir Richard Grenville,
however, remaining to receive the sick men, was the last to weigh.  The
admiral and the rest of the fleet with difficulty recovered the wind,
but Sir Richard, not being able to do this, was advised by his master to
set his mainsail and coast about, trusting to the sailing of his ship.
As the Spanish squadron was already on his weather-gage, Sir Richard
utterly refused to fly from the enemy, declaring that he would rather
die than dishonour Her Majesty's ship, persuading his company that he
would pass through the two squadrons in spite of them.  Standing for the
Spaniards, he compelled several of them to spring their luff, who thus
fell under the lee of the _Revenge_.  Meanwhile, as he was engaging
those nearest to him, an enormous Spanish ship, the great _San Philip_,
of 1500 tons, being to windward, and bearing down upon him, becalmed his
sails, so that his ship could neither make way nor feel the helm.  This
enormous ship now laid the _Revenge_ aboard; while she was thus
becalmed, the ships under her lee luffing up, also laid her aboard, one
of them the Spanish admiral's ship, mighty and puissant, two on her
larboard, and two on her starboard side.  The fight, which began at
three o'clock in the afternoon, continued very terrible all that
evening.  The great _San Philip_, however, having received the broadside
of the _Revenge_, discharged with cross-bar shot, shifted herself with
all diligence from her sides, utterly misliking her first entertainment.
The Spanish ships were filled with companies of soldiers, in some 200,
in others 800, while the _Revenge_ had no soldiers, besides the
mariners, but the officers' servants and a few volunteers.  After a long
interchange of broadsides, and small shot, the Spaniards attempted to
board the _Revenge_, hoping by the multitudes of their armed soldiers
and musqueteers to force her, but were repulsed again and again, and
driven back into their own ships or into the sea.  In the beginning of
the fight a victualler, the _George Noble_, of London, after receiving
some shot, fell under the lee of the Revenge, and asked Sir Richard what
he commanded him to do.  Sir Richard bade him save himself, and leave
him to his fortune.  After the fight had continued without intermission
while the day lasted and some hours of the night, many of the English
were slain and wounded, the great galleon had been sunk, while terrific
slaughter had been made on board the other Spanish ships.  About
midnight Sir Richard was struck by a musket-ball; while the surgeon was
dressing his wound, he was again shot in the head, the surgeon being
killed at the same moment.

The first ships which had attacked the _Revenge_ having been beaten off,
others took their places, so that she had never less than two mighty
galleons by her sides, and before morning she had fifteen other ships
assailing her; and so ill did they approve of their entertainment that
by break of day they were far more willing to hearken to a composition
than again to attack her.  But as the day increased, so did the gallant
crew decrease; no friends appeared in sight, only enemies, saving only
one small ship called the _Pilgrim_, commanded by Jacob Widdon.  He
deserves to be handed down to fame, for he hovered near all night in the
hopes of helping the admiral, but in the morning, bearing away, was
hunted like a hare among many ravenous hounds; but, happily, he escaped.

By this time all the powder of the _Revenge_ except the last barrel was
spent, her pikes broken, forty of her best men slain, and the most part
of the rest hurt.  At the commencement she had had but a hundred free
from sickness, and ninety lay in the hold upon the ballast.  By this
hundred was sustained all the volleys and boardings of fifteen ships of
war.  Sir Richard finding himself helpless, and convinced that his ship
must fall a prey to the enemy who now circled round him, proposed to the
master-gunner, whom he knew to be a most resolute man, to expend their
last barrel of powder by blowing up the ship and sinking her, that
thereby the Spaniards might lose the glory of a victory.  The
master-gunner readily consented, and so did divers others, but the
captain and master were of another opinion, alleging that the Spaniards
would be ready for a compromise, and that there were many valiant men
yet living who might do their country acceptable service hereafter--
besides which, as the ship had already six-feet of water in the hold,
and three shot-holes under water, which were so weakly stopped that by
the first working of the ship she must needs sink, she would never get
into port.  Sir Richard refusing to hearken to these reasons, the
captain went on board the ship of the Spanish admiral, Don Alfonso
Bacan, who promised that the lives of all should be preserved, that the
ship's company should be sent to England, the officers to pay a
reasonable ransom, and in the meantime to be free from the galleys or
imprisonment.

From the report which the admiral received, no one showed any
inclination to return on board the _Revenge_, lest Sir Richard should
blow himself and them up together.  On this news being returned, the
greater part of the crew, the master-gunner excepted, drew back from Sir
Richard, it being no hard matter to dissuade men from death to life.
The master-gunner finding himself and Sir Richard thus prevented and
mastered by the greater number, would have slain himself with the sword,
had he not by force been withheld, and locked into his cabin.  The
Spanish admiral then sent many boats on board the _Revenge_, the English
crew, fearing Sir Richard would still carry out his intention, stealing
away on board the Spanish ships.  Sir Richard, thus overmatched, was
sent unto by Don Alfonso Bacan to remove out of the _Revenge_, the ship
being marvellous unsavoury, filled with bodies of dead and wounded men,
like a slaughter-house.  Sir Richard answered that he might do with his
body as he list, for he esteemed it not.  As he was carried out of the
ship he swooned; on reviving again, he desired the ship's company to
pray for him.

Don Alfonso used Sir Richard with all humanity, and left nothing
unattempted that tended to his recovery, highly commending his valour
and worthiness, and greatly bewailing the danger wherein he was, while
he admired the resolution which had enabled the English admiral to
endure the fire of so many huge ships, and to resist the assaults of so
many soldiers.  During the fight two Spanish captains and no less than a
thousand men were either killed or drowned, while two large ships were
sunk by her side, another sunk in the harbour, and a fourth ran herself
on shore to save her crew.  Greatly to the regret of the Spanish
admiral, the gallant Sir Richard died three days after the action; but
whether he was buried at sea or on shore is unknown.  His last memorable
words were: "Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet
mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do,
fighting for his country, queen, religion, and honour, my soul willingly
departing from this body, leaving behind a lasting fame of having
behaved as every valiant soldier is in duty bound to do."

A storm coming on soon afterwards, the _Revenge_, as had been expected,
went to the bottom, while fifteen Spanish men-of-war were cast away, as
were many of the merchantmen; so that of the whole fleet, which
originally amounted to upwards of a hundred, seventy were lost.  While
the English sailors were scattered among the Spanish fleet, they
received a visit from a traitor, one of the Earl of Desmond's family,
who endeavoured to persuade them to serve the King of Spain, but in most
cases without success.  In 1592 an expedition was fitted out by Sir
Walter Raleigh, consisting of several queen's ships and some of his own,
with which he intended to attack Carthagena and other places in the West
Indies; but as he was about to sail, he was superseded in the command by
Sir Martin Frobisher, the queen wishing to retain him in England.  Sir
Martin was directed to proceed only to the coast of Spain, where he
captured a large Portuguese carrack, which, to escape the English, ran
on shore, and was burned by her people after the goods had been landed;
but the English following made themselves masters of a large part of the
booty and of the town of Santa Cruz.  After waiting patiently for some
weeks, another still larger carrack, called the _Madre de Dios_ hove in
sight.  Though the Portuguese fought bravely to defend her, she was
captured in the space of an hour and a-half.  On going on board, the
English, after hunting about for plunder, each man with a lighted candle
in his hand, a cabin was entered in which there was a quantity of
powder.  The carrack was set on fire, and had it not been for the
courage of Captain Norton, both the plundered and the plunderers would
have been blown together into the air.  The carrack, which was brought
home in safety, was larger than any man-of-war or merchantman belonging
to England.  She was of 1600 tons burden, and measuring from the
beak-head to the stern, on which was erected a large lantern, she was
165 feet in length.  Her greatest beam was 46 feet 10 inches.  On
leaving Cochin China she had drawn 31 feet of water, but on her arrival
at Dartmouth she drew only 26.  She had seven decks--one main or
sleeping, three close decks, one forecastle, and a spar deck of two
floors.  The length of her keel was 100 feet, and of the main-mast 121
feet; the main-yard was 106 feet long.  She carried between 600 and 700
persons, and considering the length of the voyage, the large amount of
provisions can be calculated.  She carried fully 900 tons of cargo,
consisting of jewels, spices, drugs, silks, calicoes, quilts, carpets,
and colours, as also elephants' teeth, porcelain vessels and china,
cocoa-nuts, hides, ebony, bedsteads of the same, cloths made from the
rinds of trees, probably of the paper-mulberry tree; the whole valued at
not less than 150,000 pounds sterling.  This shows that a
merchant-vessel of those days was not much less in size than an East
Indiaman of late years.

On the death of Elizabeth, the navy consisted of forty-two ships--two
only, however, of a thousand tons each, though there were several of 800
and 900 tons; but the greater number were much under that size, being of
about 400 tons and less.  The larger ships carried 340 mariners, 40
gunners, and 120 soldiers.

A sketch of the history of privateering, which, during the reign of
Elizabeth, grew into vast proportions, must not be omitted.  The fearful
atrocities committed by the Spaniards on the inhabitants of the Low
Countries naturally created the utmost horror in the breasts of the
Protestants of England against them.  Large numbers of the Dutch and
Flemish escaping to England from their persecutors, and spreading
everywhere the account of the barbarities their countrymen had endured,
further increased this feeling, till it extended over the length and
breadth of the land, but especially among the people of the sea-ports,
where many of the fugitives took up their abodes.  When, therefore, an
English shipowner, Clark by name, proposed fitting out a squadron of
three ships to cruise against the merchant-vessels of that nation, who,
in their bigoted zeal, had vowed to stamp out the Protestant faith, not
only in the countries subject to their rule, but in England herself,
there was no lack of volunteers.  Those who were not influenced by
religious feelings, were so by the hope of filling their pockets with
Spanish gold.  When Clark's squadron, after a cruise of six weeks,
returned into Newhaven with eighteen prizes, their cargoes valued at
50,000 pounds, applications from all quarters were made to the queen for
letters of marque which would enable ships legally to carry on war
against the enemy.

At the period of Elizabeth's accession, owing to the treachery as much
as to the supineness of her predecessor, of the Royal Navy which had
been created by Henry the Eighth, only twenty-three vessels of war, few
of them of more than 600 tons burden, remained.  There was one only of
800, one of 700, a few being above 200, while the remainder were sloops
or other small craft.  The Government had therefore to depend chiefly on
private ships in the war with France, and the expected struggle of far
greater magnitude with Spain.  Numerous English subjects had also
suffered from the Spanish Inquisition, and Englishmen of rank and wealth
considered that they were justified in retaliating on the authors of the
cruelties practised on their own countrymen.  From every port and river
vessels fitted out as traders went forth heavily armed to plunder on the
high seas any of the ships of the common enemy of mankind with which
they could fall in.  At first the bold privateersmen confined themselves
to the narrow seas, pouncing down upon any Spanish ship which approached
their shores, either driven in thither by the wind, or compelled to seek
shelter by stress of weather.  Many a trader from Antwerp to Cadiz
mysteriously disappeared, or, arriving without her cargo, reported that
she had been set upon by a powerful craft, when, boats coming out from
the English shore, she had been quickly unladen, her crew glad to escape
with their lives.  The Scilly Islands especially afforded shelter to a
squadron of vessels under Sir Thomas Seymour, who, sailing forth into
the chops of the channel, laid wait for any richly-laden craft he might
happen to espy.  Among other men of rank who thus distinguished
themselves were the sons of Lord Chobham.  Influenced by that hatred of
Roman abominations which had long been the characteristic of their
family, Thomas Chobham, the most daring of the brothers, had established
himself in a strongly-fortified port in the south of Ireland, from
whence, sailing forth with his stout ships, he attacked the Spaniards on
their own coasts.  Coming in sight of a large ship in the channel, laden
with a cargo valued at 80,000 ducats, and having on board forty
prisoners doomed to serve in the galleys, he chased her into the Bay of
Biscay, where, at length coming up with her, he compelled her to strike,
when he released the prisoners, and transferred the cargo to his own
ship.  The Spaniards declare that he sewed up all the survivors of the
crew in their own sails and hove them overboard; but as the story rests
on no better authority than that of the Spaniards themselves, we may be
excused from giving it credence.  The stories of the cruelties practised
by the Spaniards on their prisoners are too well authenticated to be
doubted.  The men who could be guilty of one-tenth part of the horrors
they compelled their fellow-subjects in the Netherlands to endure, or
those inflicted on the hapless Indians of America, were capable of any
conceivable cruelty.

Petitions upon petitions poured in on the queen from those whose
fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons had been put to death, or were
still groaning in the Spanish Inquisition, or in other prisons, both in
the old and new worlds.  Dorothy Seely, whose husband was among them,
entreats that she and the friends of such of Her Majesty's subjects "as
be there imprisoned, inflicted, and tormented beyond all reason, may be
allowed to fit out certain ships for the sea at their own proper
charges, and to capture such inquisitors or other papistical subjects of
the King of Spain as they can take by sea or land, and to retain them in
prison in England with such torment and diet as Her Majesty's subjects
had suffered in Spain."

To strengthen this petition, it is stated "that not long since the
Spanish Inquisition executed sixty persons of Saint Malo, in France,
whereupon the Frenchmen, having armed and manned their pinnaces, lay in
wait for the Spaniards, and took a hundred and beheaded them, sending
the Spanish ships to the shore with the heads, leaving in each ship only
one man to relate the cause of the revenge--since which time the Spanish
Inquisition has never meddled with those of Saint Malo."

Froude tells us that one of the French rovers, commanded by Jacques
Leclerc, called by the Spaniards Pie de Palo--"timber leg"--sailed from
Havre, and captured a Portuguese vessel worth 40,000 ducats, as well as
a Biscayan ship laden with iron and wool, and afterwards chased another
papist ship into Falmouth, where he fired into her and drove her on
shore.  The captain of the Spaniard appealed for protection to the
governor of Pendennis, but the governor replied that the privateer was
properly commissioned, and that without special orders from the queen he
could not interfere.  Pie de Palo then took possession of her as a
prize, and afterwards anchored under shelter of Pendennis, waiting for
further good fortune.  As it was the depth of winter, and the weather
being unsettled, five Portuguese ships, a few days later, were driven in
for shelter.  Ascertaining the insecurity of their position, they
attempted to escape to sea again, but Pie de Palo dashed after them and
seized two of the five, which he brought back as prizes.  Philip
complained to the English Government of the robberies committed on his
subjects, and attempts were made to put a stop to these proceedings.  A
few of the rovers were captured, but were very quickly set at liberty
again, and the privateers swarmed everywhere in still increasing
numbers.  In truth, Cecil, who knew perfectly well what were the
ultimate aims of Philip, had no wish to damp the ardour and enterprise
of his countrymen.

Not content with the booty they obtained in the narrow seas, the
privateers, often in large fleets, boldly traversed the ocean in search
of Spanish argosies in the West Indies and on the Spanish main.  Drake,
Hawkins, and Cavendish were among the foremost in these enterprises.
Whatever may be thought of their proceedings at the present day, their
example tended to foster that courage, perseverance, and indifference to
danger characteristic of British seamen.

The King of Spain having granted letters of reprisals to his subjects,
especially to cruise in the Levant and the Mediterranean, the Turkey
merchants fitted out five stout ships with letters of marque, to provide
for their defence--the _Royal Merchant_, the _Toby_, the _Edward
Bonadventure_, the _William_, and the _John_.  While up the Levant they
were informed that the Spaniards had fitted out two fleets, one of
twenty and another of thirty galleys, to intercept them.  On this, Mr
Williamson, captain of the _Royal Merchant_, was chosen admiral, and the
commander of the _Toby_, vice-admiral.  As they were sailing between
Sicily and the African coast, they descried seven galleys and two
frigates under Sicilian and Maltese colours, in the service of Spain,
the admiral of which ordered the pursers of the English ships to repair
on board his galley.  One alone, Mr Rowet, accompanied the messenger.
He was received in a haughty manner by the Spanish admiral, who insisted
on the surrender of the English ships.  On Mr Rowet's return, the
Spaniard signified his resolution by firing at the English, which was
immediately returned, when the engagement began.  The five English
merchant-vessels, though heavily laden, maintained an obstinate fight
for five hours, and so shattered were the Spanish ships-of-war, that the
admiral first, and then two others, were obliged to haul off, scarcely
able to keep above water.  The remainder not having men enough to man
their guns, soon after followed his example.  The English lost but two
men in this engagement, but their cargoes were too valuable to run any
risk by pursuing the enemy; they therefore made the best of their way to
England, where they arrived in safety, having, by favour of a thick fog
and a brisk easterly wind, escaped the other Spanish squadron, which had
waited for them off the Straits of Gibraltar.

The instructions in the articles of war drawn up by the Lord High
Admiral, to be observed by the captains and crews of the ships of the
Royal Navy, prove that it was expected that the seamen of those days
should be pious and well-conducted men.  They were to be openly read at
service time, twice every week.

"Imprimis, That you take special care to serve God by using common
prayers twice every day, except urgent cause enforce the contrary; and
that no man, soldier, or other mariner do dispute of matters of
religion, unless it be to be resolved of some doubts, and in such case
that he confer with the ministers."

"Second, Item, you shall forbid swearing, brawling, and dicing, and
such-like disorders as may breed contention and disorders in your
ships."

"Five, All persons, whatsoever, within your ship shall come to the
ordinary services of the ship without contradiction."

"Sixth, You shall give special charge for avoiding the danger of fire,
and that no candle be carried in your ship without a lantern, which, if
any person shall disobey, you shall severely punish.  And if any chance
of fire or other dangers (which God forbid) shall happen to any ship
near unto you, then you shall, by your boats and all other your best
means, seek to help and relieve her."

"Eighth, You shall give order that your ship may be kept clean daily and
sometimes washed, which, with God's favour, shall preserve from
sickness, and avoid many other inconveniences."

"Fifteenth, Every captain and master of the fleet shall have a special
regard that no contention be found betwixt the mariners and the
soldiers."

"Nineteenth, No captain or master shall suffer any spoil to be made
aboard any ship or barque that shall be taken by them or any of their
companies, because the rest of the company have interest in everything
that shall be taken."

"Twenty-second, The watch shall be set every night by eight of the
o'clock, either by trumpet or drum, and singing the Lord's Prayer, some
of the Psalms of David, or clearing of the glass."

"Twenty-sixth, No person shall depart out of the ship wherein he is
placed into another without special leave of his captain."

"Twenty-eighth, No person whatsoever shall dare to strike any captain,
lieutenant, master, or other officer, upon pain of death; and
furthermore, whatsoever he be that shall strike any inferior person, he
shall receive punishment according to the offence given, be it by death
or otherwise."

Most of these articles are still in force; but the first, excellent as
they are, have unhappily too often been set at nought by officers and
men.



CHAPTER SEVEN.

JAMES THE FIRST--FROM A.D. 1567 TO A.D. 1625.

As James the First was totally unacquainted with nautical affairs,
having possessed no fleet when King of Scotland, disputes constantly
arose respecting the honour of the flag, which the English claimed, and
this induced the famous Hugo Grotius to write a treatise, in which he
endeavoured to prove the futility of their title to the dominion of the
sea.  England, however, still maintained her right to be saluted by the
ships of all other nations, and the learned Selden supported the
English, asserting that they had a hereditary and uninterrupted right to
the sovereignty of the seas, conveyed to them by their ancestors in
trust for their latest posterity.  During this period numerous colonies
were settled, and the commerce of England extended in all directions by
her brave navigators.  The navy was not neglected, twenty ships being
added by the king, and 50,000 pounds voted for the maintenance of the
fleet.  In the year 1610 the largest ship of war yet constructed in
England was built by order of the king, and called the _Prince_.  Her
keel was 114 feet, her cross-beam was 44 feet in length.  She carried
sixty-four pieces of great ordnance, and she was of the burden of 1400
tons.  She was double built, and adorned most sumptuously within and
without with all manner of curious carving, painting, and rich gilding,
being in all respects the greatest and goodliest ship that ever was
built in England.  Raleigh's remarks to Prince Henry on the subject are
worthy of note, though it appears his advice was not followed.  He
recommended that the intended vessel should be of smaller size than the
_Victory_, in order that the timber of the old ship might serve for the
new.  "If she be bigger," he remarks, "she will be of less use, go very
deep to water, and be of mighty charge (our channels decaying every
year), less nimble, less manageable, and seldom to be used.  A
well-conditioned ship should be, in the first instance, strongly built;
secondly, swift in sail; thirdly, stout sided; fourthly, her ports ought
to be so laid that she may carry out her guns in all weathers; fifthly,
she ought to hull well; sixthly, she should stay well when boarding or
turning on a wind if required."  He then continues: "It is to be noted
that all ships sharp before, not having a long floor, will fall rough
into the sea from the billow, and take in water over head and ears; and
the same quality of all narrow-quartered ships to sink after the tail.
The high charging of ships is that which brings many ill qualities upon
them.  It makes them extremely leeward, makes them sink deep into the
seas, makes them labour in foul weather, and ofttimes overset.  Safety
is more to be respected than show or niceness for ease.  In sea-journeys
both cannot well stand together, and, therefore, the most necessary is
to be chosen.  Two decks and a-half is enough, and no building at all
above that but a low master's cabin.  Our masters and mariners will say
that the ships will bear more well enough; and true it is, if none but
old mariners served in them.  But men of better sort, unused to such a
life, cannot so well endure the rolling and tumbling from side to side,
where the seas are never so little grown, which comes by high charging.
Besides, those high cabin-works aloft are very dangerous, in that they
may tear men with their splinters.  Above all other things, have care
that the great guns are four feet clear above water when all loading is
in, or else those best pieces are idle at sea; for if the ports lie
lower and be open, it is dangerous; and by that default was a goodly
ship and many gallant gentlemen lost in the days of Henry the Eighth,
before the Isle of Wight, in a ship called the _Mary Rose_."

These remarks show how attentively Raleigh had studied the subject of
shipbuilding and, undoubtedly, during his time great improvements were
made in the construction of ships of the Royal Navy.  A large East India
ship of 1200 tons was also built at Woolwich, and was the first trading
ship of that size launched in the kingdom.  The king called her the
_Trade's Increase_.

In 1622 the first established contract for victualling the Royal Navy
was made, and every man's allowance settled.  It appears not to have
differed greatly from that served out at the present day, except that on
Friday fish, butter, and cheese were served out; showing that the Romish
custom of what is called fasting on Friday had not been abolished.  The
king also gave annually 30,000 pounds worth of timber from the royal
forests for the use of the navy.

The Dutch and other nations had, up to this time, been in the habit of
fishing in English waters, but, though the pusillanimous king would not,
of his own accord, have interfered for fear of giving offence, so great
an outcry was raised by the people, that he was compelled to issue a
proclamation prohibiting any foreigners from fishing on the British
coast.  Though in terms it appeared general, it was in reality levelled
only at the Dutch.  They yielded, and obtained by treaty permission to
fish, on payment of certain dues.  The nation at large gaining a voice
in the management of public affairs, discovered also that vast abuses
existed in the administration of the navy, as the large sums granted by
Parliament were squandered, the brave commanders were unemployed, and
cowardice trusted with the highest offices; and that frauds, corruption,
neglect and misdemeanours were frequent and open.  Numberless petitions
were sent to the sovereign, and a committee of inquiry was appointed;
the alleged offences were strictly examined into, some of the culprits
were discharged, others fined, and way made for better officers.  The
Royal Navy being thus placed on a more respectable footing, the spirit
of enterprise was encouraged among private persons, and trade once more
flourished.

Considerable progress was made by the East India Company, and, in 1610,
Sir Henry Middleton sailed with a larger fleet than had ever before been
despatched to that part of the world.  On landing at Mocha, Sir Henry
was treacherously attacked during an entertainment to which he had been
invited, when many of his people were killed, and he and the rest made
prisoners.  After remaining six months in prison, he and some of his
people escaped and regained their ships; then, returning to the town, he
threatened to reduce it to ashes unless the remainder of the English
were released and a heavy ransom paid him.  On this the English were set
at liberty, and the sum was paid.  He afterwards encountered a large
fleet of Portuguese, who, attempting to impede his progress, he sank
some and captured others.  Several Portuguese ships were captured, and
seventeen Arab vessels also fell into the hands of the English.  On his
voyage home, seized with a mortal illness, he died, honoured and
lamented.

About the same time Captain Hudson, who had already performed three
voyages to the north, again sailed in search of a north-west passage;
but his mate, Ibbott, fearing the dangers they would have to encounter,
formed a conspiracy.  Hudson, and those who adhered to him, were set on
shore, and perished miserably.

In 1611 the East India Company sent out another fleet under Captain
Hippin, and the following year a second under Captain Saris, who reached
Japan.  By judicious conduct, and the due administration of bribes to
many persons nearest the emperor, he succeeded in establishing a trade
for the English with Japan, returning home with a very profitable cargo.

In the year 1611 the Muscovy Company despatched two vessels to commence
the whale fishery.  On board these vessels went three Biscayans who were
accustomed to the business.  Having set sail late, they had only time to
catch one whale, but from it were made seven tons of oil.  The rest of
the crew having observed the manner in which the Biscayans performed the
work, became thorough masters of the operation.  Though this
commencement was but small, it led to great results, and from
henceforward there was no want of people ready to enter into the
undertaking.

In consequence of the account given by those who were wrecked in the
_Sea Venture_ on the Bermudas, a colony was sent out, and the hitherto
desolate islands were peopled by English settlers.

One of the most gallant exploits of this period was performed by Captain
Best, who sailed in command of a fleet sent out by the East India
Company.  After remaining for some time at Surat, he caught sight of a
vast fleet of Portuguese, numbering no less than 240 vessels.  Having
beaten off a number of them that attacked him, he continued his course.
They, however, having repaired damages, the whole fleet came in search
of him.  As they bore down under a cloud of sail, threatening his
destruction, he was advised by one of the Sultan's principal officers to
fly.  Best replied that he would advise that to the Portuguese, and,
weighing anchor, stood out to meet the enemy.  The shore was crowded
with natives eager to witness the engagement.  It ended, after four
hours, as the other had done.  The Portuguese, after receiving immense
damage, sailed away as fast as they could, and Captain Best returned and
anchored in the harbour, amid the shouts of the people.  The account of
the engagement was everywhere told among the natives, and the courage of
the English magnified to the highest.  After touching at Achin, and
renewing his friendship with the people, in the succeeding year, he
arrived in England, rich in his lading, more in honour.

In the year 1613 the Muscovy Company sent out seven stout ships to catch
whales.  They were followed by several Dutch, Flemish, and French ships,
and half-a-dozen English interlopers.  The Company's ships gathering
into a body, ordered the others, in the name of the King of England, to
depart from the coast, the fishery of which he had appropriated to his
own subjects.  The Dutch sending a taunting answer, the English replied
with their cannon, compelling their rivals to take their departure, and
the English private ships to fish for them.  With this help, they made a
good return.

In 1614 the celebrated pirate Sir Andrew Barton, with two ships, laid
the coasts of England and Scotland under contribution.  Two ships of
war, under the command of Sir William Monson and Sir Francis Howard,
were sent out to effect their capture.  One of them was taken off
Sinclair Castle, the seat of the Earl of Caithness.  Sir Andrew for long
managed to keep at a distance from his pursuers, having friends in
various places, especially in Ireland, who gave him assistance.  Among
others was a certain Mr Cormat, who treacherously betrayed the Scotch
pirate into the hands of Sir William Monson.  His ship was captured, and
he, with two or three of his officers, executed.

Considerable progress at this period was made in the science of
navigation.  In the year 1624 Mr Gunter, professor of astronomy at
Gresham College, Cambridge, published his scale of logarithms, sines,
etcetera, and invented the scale which has since gone by his name.

No darker stain rests on the memory of James than that of his judicial
murder of Sir Walter Raleigh.  Influenced by his evil councillors, the
pusillanimous king offered up the gallant seaman as a sacrifice to the
revengeful Spaniards, or rather to their ambassador, Gondomar.  Cheerful
to the last, the noble Raleigh bade farewell to all around him; then,
taking the axe, he felt along upon the edge, and smiling, said to the
sheriff, "This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all
diseases."  On being asked which way he would lay himself, he placed his
head on the block, observing, "So that the heart be right, it is no
matter which way the head lieth."

Some lines written on Sir Walter's death thus finish:--

  "I saw in every stander-by
  Pale death; life only in thine eye.
  The legacy thou gavest us then
  We'll sue for when thou diest again.
  Farewell! truth shall this story say,
  We died, thou only livedst that day."

Such was the end of the great Sir Walter Raleigh, once so highly in
favour with Queen Elizabeth, and, next to Drake, the great scourge and
terror of the Spaniards.

The Algerines were then, as they were for many years afterwards, the
pests of the ocean.  Their chief cruising ground was in the Straits of
Gibraltar.  Numerous English merchantmen fell into their clutches.  The
same determined spirit, however, which has since been exhibited by
British seamen, existed in those days, and induced, on several
occasions, the captives to make gallant efforts to effect their escape.
Among these instances two are especially worthy of note.

The _Jacob_, of Bristol, was entering the straits when she was pounced
upon by an Algerine and captured.  The pirates took all the crew out of
her with the exception of four, and sent thirteen of their own people on
board to bring her to Algiers.  Four of the captives, knowing the
terrible slavery to which they would be subjected should they reach
Algiers, resolved to attempt the recapture of their vessel.  Happily for
them, on the fifth night after they had been taken, a heavy gale sprang
up.  While the Algerine captain was assisting his followers to shorten
sail, two of the English, who had been liberated that they might lend a
hand, coming suddenly upon him hove him overboard.  Having got hold of a
rope which was towing astern, he had almost regained the deck, when one
of the Englishmen drove him back with the pump-handle, the act being,
fortunately, unobserved during the darkness and confusion by the rest of
the pirates.  This done, they made their way into the master's cabin,
where they found two cutlasses, with which suddenly attacking the
pirates, they drove them from one part of the ship to the other, killed
two, and made a third leap overboard.  The other nine they drove between
decks, when they forced the hatches down upon them.  Making use of two
or three of the Algerines at a time, as they required them for making or
shortening sail, they carried the ship triumphantly into Saint Luca, in
Spain, where the Algerines were sold for slaves.  At the same time the
_Nicholas_, of Plymouth, of 40 tons burden, commanded by John Rawlins,
and the _Bonaventure_ of 70 tons, were bound out together up the
straits.  On the 18th of November they came in sight of Gibraltar, when
they discovered five ships, which they soon perceived to be pirates,
making all sail towards them.  In vain they attempted to reach
Gibraltar; the Algerines coming up with the _Bonaventure_, she was
captured by their admiral, while the vice-admiral soon afterwards
compelled Rawlins to strike.  The same day the admiral put on shore
twelve of the _Bonaventure's_ crew, with some other English captives
before taken, but the vice-admiral ordered Rawlins and five of his men
to be brought on board his vessel, leaving three men and a boy, with
thirteen Algerines, on board the prize.  The following night, during a
storm, the _Nicholas_ was lost sight of.  On the 22nd the vice-admiral,
with Rawlins on board, arrived at Algiers.  A few days afterwards the
_Nicholas_ arrived, when the prisoners were carried to the pacha, who,
having chosen one of them for himself, the rest were afterwards sent to
the market to be sold.  Rawlins was bought by the captain, who took him
at a low price because he had a lame hand, but perceiving that this
rendered him unfit for work, sold him again, with two more of his men,
to an English renegado, John Goodhall, who, with his partners, had
bought the _Exchange_, of Bristol, a ship formerly taken by the pirates,
which at that time lay unrigged inside the mole, and for which they
wanted some skilful seamen.  On the 7th of January, 1622, the ship,
being fitted, was hauled out of the mole.  She carried twelve cast guns,
with a crew of sixty-three Algerines, nine Englishmen, one Frenchmen,
and four Hollanders, all freemen; and for gunners, she had two soldiers,
one an English and the other a Dutch renegado.  Rawlins, from the first
going on board, resolved to attempt regaining his liberty.  For this
purpose he furnished himself with ropes and pieces of iron, and iron
crowbars to secure the scuttles, gratings, and cabins, and when, having
gained over the other Europeans, he hoped, by being masters of the
gun-room, ordnance, and powder, either to blow up their captors or to
kill them as they came out of their cabins.  He first made known his
design to the English, and by degrees won over the four Hollanders, who
offered to join them and gain the assistance of the Dutch renegadoes,
while the English undertook to obtain the assistance of the renegado of
their own nation.  During this time Rawlins, who was acting as
sailing-master, persuaded the Algerine captain to steer to the
northward, though he knew very well that they had already passed the
straits.  On the 16th of February they took an English barque from
Torbay, laden with salt.  With the exception of the mate and two men,
the crew were removed from the prize, and ten Algerines, with the Dutch
and one English renegado, who were all in the plot, were sent on board
instead.  Before they left the _Exchange_, Rawlins assured them that he
would make his attempt that night or the next, and give them a signal by
which they might know when he was about it, advising them to acquaint
the English in the barque with their design, and to steer towards the
English coast.  Next morning the Algerine captain got very much out of
humour in consequence of not seeing the prize; and Rawlins, fearing that
he might return to Algiers, thought it high time to put his plan into
execution.  He had already made the master and crew of the Torbay vessel
acquainted with it; he now told the Algerine captain that there was a
great deal of water below, and that it did not come to the pumps because
the ship was too far by the head.  For the purpose of remedying this an
order was issued to bring four guns astern; two of them were accordingly
placed with their mouths directly before the binnacle.  Rawlins had
already provided himself with sufficient powder, which he obtained from
the gunner, to prime the pieces.  He now assured the captain that in
order to right the ship all hands must work at the pumps.  While this
was doing, two matches were brought, one between two spoons, and the
other in a can, and immediately one of the guns being discharged, the
binnacle was shattered to pieces.  On this signal, all the English
collected together, and having seized such arms as they could lay hold
of quickly cleared the hold, while another party made themselves masters
of the magazine and arms.  The pirates, who were on the poop, now
attacked the English, who, being by this time all armed, compelled them
to cry for quarter.  They were ordered to come down one by one.  So
enraged were the English that several of the pirates were killed, while
others leaped into the sea.  Thus of forty-five Algerines who were on
board, the captain and five more alone were saved.  With these the
gallant Rawlins and his men arrived at Plymouth on the 15th of February,
1622.  The Torbay barque reached Penzance, in Cornwall, having all along
persuaded the Algerines that they were going to Algiers, till they came
in sight of England.  When the pirates were below trimming the salt,
they nailed the hatches down upon them.  Having come to an anchor, they
carried their captives to Exeter.



CHAPTER EIGHT.

CHARLES THE FIRST TO TERMINATION OF COMMONWEALTH--A.D. 1625 TO A.D.
1660.

The unhappy Charles ascended the throne under disadvantageous
circumstances.  His father had left him a heavy debt; the Duke of
Buckingham, his chief minister, was universally hated, and England had
greatly sunk in the estimation of foreign nations.  James had agreed to
furnish the King of France with some ships of war to assist him against
the King of Spain or his allies in Italy.  In pursuance of this
agreement, Captain John Pennington was despatched in the _Vanguard_,
having under him six hired merchant-vessels.  The King of France,
however, being hotly engaged in a war with his Protestant subjects,
intended to make use of the ships for the reduction of Rochelle.
Pennington, on discovering this, immediately wrote to the Duke of
Buckingham declining so odious a service, and requesting leave to return
to England.  Buckingham, in reply, having obtained an order from
Charles, commanded him to employ his ships in such service as the King
of France should direct.  The latter, at the same time, sent a letter to
the English captain, requiring him to take on board a number of French
soldiers, with his admiral, the Duke of Montmorency, and repair before
Rochelle.  This Captain Pennington, with true English spirit, refused to
do; on which the French officer who had brought the letter returned on
board the _Vanguard_ to protest against him as a rebel to his king and
country.  Not content with having once done this, he returned again and
enforced his request by threats and menaces, at which the seamen were so
enraged, that they weighed anchor and set sail, crying out they would
rather be hanged at home than be slaves to the French, and fight against
their own religion.  The _Vanguard_ accordingly returned to the Downs.
On his arrival, the captain sending an express to court with advice of
his proceedings, immediately received a positive order, under the king's
sign-manual, to return and deliver up the ships into the hands of a
French officer at Dieppe.  Having complied with this order, he quitted
the command, and he and all the officers and seamen, both of the
_Vanguard_ and merchant-vessels, left their ships and returned to
England.

The whole nation burned with indignation when they heard that Captain
Pennington's ships had been delivered up to the French and employed
against Rochelle, and demanded their immediate restitution.  The French
king excused himself on the pretence that his subjects, by whom they
were manned, would not now quit them; on which, to appease the people,
the Duke of Buckingham issued commissions of reprisal.  The _Saint
Peter_, of Havre-de-Grace, and other French vessels were on this
captured.  Hearing of this proceeding, the French king not only
absolutely refused to restore the seven ships, but seized on all the
English merchants' property throughout his dominions.  To carry on the
war with Spain a powerful fleet of eighty English and Dutch ships was
fitted out under the command of Cecil, afterwards created Viscount
Wimbleton.  Ten regiments were embarked on board the fleet, under the
Earls of Essex and Denbigh.  They proceeded to Cadiz, when the troops,
having broken into the wine-stores, became so excessively intoxicated,
that had the enemy set on them they must have been put to the sword.
The officers hastened, therefore, their re-embarkation, and the
expedition returned without having effected anything.

In 1627 three expeditions were undertaken, professedly to assist the
people of Rochelle, but, being badly managed, possibly through
treachery, they all failed.  It was while fitting out one of these
fleets that the Duke of Buckingham, then Lord High Admiral, was murdered
by Felton.

A severe action was fought near Ormuz, in the Gulf of Persia, between
four English ships, under the command of Captain John Weddell, and four
Dutch ships, with eight Portuguese galleons and thirty-two frigates.  On
hearing of the approach of the enemy, the English captain told his Dutch
allies that he had resolved, for the glory of God, the honour of his
nation, the profit of the worthy employers, and the safeguard of their
lives, ships, and goods, to fight it out as long as a man was living in
his ship to bear a sword.  To whom the Dutchmen answered that they were
of a like resolution, and would stick as close to the English as the
shirts to their backs; and so in friendly manner each took leave for
that night.  The Dutch the next morning were the first to get into
action.  Friends and foes were now within musket-shot of each other,
when it fell a calm, and the ships of the allies could not work but as
the tide set them.  When the Portuguese were aboard and aboard, they had
a great advantage with their frigates, which often towed them clear one
of another.  Thus they lay four or five hours pelting and beating one
another with their ordnance, while the Portuguese frigates plied the
English and Dutch with their small shot as fast as they could, the
_Royal James_ being forced to keep the barge ahead to pull the ship's
head to and fro.  Thus they fought on till night, several men being
killed, the Dutch having also lost their chief commander.  For several
days the fight lasted.  On one occasion the _James_ singled out a
Portuguese lying by her side with foresail and fore-topsail aback, so
near that a man might quoit a biscuit into her, and fired not less than
five hundred shots before she got clear.  Thus the small squadron kept
the enemy at bay, till scarcely enough powder and shot remained on board
the _Royal James_ for another day's fight.  The English lost 29 officers
and men, and the Dutch about the same number.  The Portuguese, whose
fleet carried 232 guns and 2100 men, had 481 killed.

Another fight in the same locality, in the year 1625, between three
English East India ships, the _Lion_, _Dolphin_, and _Palsgrave_, and
eighteen or twenty Portuguese frigates, under the command of Don Rufero,
ended more disastrously.  The _Lion_, being boarded by both the admiral
and vice-admiral, was dreadfully shattered, and torn in pieces in the
stem, in consequence of the poop blowing up with fifty or sixty of the
enemy on it.  The Portuguese then left her, expecting that she would
sink or burn down to the water's edge, and pursued the _Palsgrave_ and
_Dolphin_, which, however, effected their escape.  The brave crew of the
_Lion_, having put out the fire, succeeded in patching her up
sufficiently to reach Ormuz, where they received every assistance they
required from the Sultan.  They were in hopes of being relieved by other
English ships, when Rufero with his frigates came rowing towards them.
The _Lion_ lay in such a position that she could only bring her
chase-pieces to bear upon the enemy.  So well were they served that they
sank two of the Portuguese frigates before they could board her, and two
more after they were by her side.  So closely were the English then
pressed by Rufero that, unable to open a port in the ship, they were
forced to shoot away ports and all.  In addition to this, the Portuguese
so completely surrounded her by fire-works, that all her masts and sails
caught fire, as well as her upper-deck, which in half-an-hour fell down
on their heads, and drove them from their guns.  On seeing death on
either side, some leaped overboard, and put themselves on the mercy of
the enemy, while the rest set fire to the powder-room, and blew up the
ship.  Those who were received on board the frigates were carried into
Ormuz Island, and the next morning Rufero gave orders to cut off all
their heads, with the exception of one Thomas Winterbrune, whom he sent
with a letter to the merchants at Gambroon.  The rest, twenty-six
persons, were immediately beheaded.  This will give us some idea of the
mode of proceeding between belligerents in those days.  The object of
the Portuguese was to prevent the English and Dutch from interfering
with their trade, and they hoped by such horrible cruelty to intimidate
others from coming out, or else were actuated by a spirit of barbarous
revenge.  In 1626 the wages of seamen in the Royal Navy were increased
to twenty shillings a-month, and of ordinary seamen to fourteen
shillings, besides an allowance to a chaplain of fourpence, to a barber
twopence, and to the Chest at Chatham of sixpence per month.  A clerk
and a keeper of all the king's stores and storehouses at Chatham,
Portsmouth, Deptford, etcetera, were also appointed.

An arbitrary tax having been imposed in the year 1634, by the name of
ship-money, which compelled all the seaport towns to furnish a fleet to
prevent the Dutch fishing on the coast of Britain; it was now extended
throughout the whole kingdom.  The fleet was to consist of 44 ships,
carrying 8000 men, and to be armed and fitted for war; but, as will be
remembered, the unhappy king raised the money, but spent it on other
objects.

In 1637 was laid the keel of the _Royal Sovereign_, of 128 feet, the
first three-decked ship built for the Royal Navy.  From the fore-end of
the beak-head to the after-end of the stern she measured 232 feet, and
she had a beam of 48 feet, while from the bottom of the keel to the top
of the stern-lantern she measured 76 feet.  She carried 30 guns on her
lower-deck, 30 on the middle-deck, 26 on the main-deck, 14 on the
quarter-deck, 12 on the forecastle, and had 10 stern and bow-chasers.
She was of 1637 tons burden; she carried eleven anchors, the largest
weighing 4400 pounds; she had five stern-lanterns, the centre so large
as to contain ten persons upright.  She was built by Peter Pett, under
the inspection of Phineas Pett.

The French, at the same time, began to establish a regular marine,
having fifty ships and twenty galleys in their navy.  And now, for the
first time, was showed their superiority over the Spaniards, on which
Cardinal Richelieu ordered the following motto to be placed on the stern
of the largest: "Even on the main, our Gallic lilies triumph over
Spain."

A fund was now established by the king for the relief of maimed and
shipwrecked or otherwise distressed sailors in the merchant-service, and
for the widows and children of such as should be killed or lost at sea.
To form it, sixpence per month was deducted from the pay of
sea-officers, and fourpence from all sailors' wages from the port of
London.  This fund was placed under the management of the Corporation of
the Trinity House.

In 1640 the first frigate, the _Constant Hardwick_, was built, under the
direction of Peter Pett.  The king added ten more ships to the Royal
Navy, which, at the commencement of the Civil War, consisted of
eighty-two sail.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

We now come to that period when one of the greatest men who ever ruled
England was to raise her to the highest position among the nations of
Europe.

Numerous engagements had taken place between the ships adhering to the
king, chiefly under the command of Prince Rupert, and those of the
Parliament, under Warwick, Dean, Popham, and Blake.  Blake
having finally dispersed Prince Rupert's ships, was appointed
commander-in-chief of the British fleet.  He was at first employed in
reducing the Scilly Islands and various places in the West Indies and
America, which still held out for the king.  On war breaking out with
the Dutch, he was summoned home to take command of the fleet sent
against them.  The Dutch had long been jealous of the commercial
progress made by the English, who everywhere interfered with their
trade, and they only now sought for an opportunity to break with their
ancient allies.  It was not long wanting.  England claiming the
sovereignty of the seas, insisted that the ships of other nations should
strike their flags whenever they met them.  On the 14th May, Captain
Young, the commander of an English man-of-war, fell in with a Dutch
squadron off the back of the Isle of Wight.  The Dutchman refused to
strike his flag, on which Captain Young, without further ado, fired a
broadside upon the Dutch commander's ship, which induced her to haul
down her flag.  This was the commencement of hostilities, which were
long carried on between the two nations--the Dutch, notwithstanding the
gallantry of Van Tromp, De Witt, De Ruyter, and other admirals, being in
most cases defeated by Blake, Penn, and other naval commanders.

Soon after this Admiral Van Tromp put to sea with a fleet of upwards of
forty sail, under pretence of protecting the Dutch trade.  He was met
coming into the Downs by a squadron, when he stated that he was
compelled to put in by stress of weather.  The English commander
immediately sent notice to Blake, who was lying off Dover.  Blake at
once sailed in search of Van Tromp, and on approaching, fired to put the
Dutchman in mind that it was his duty to strike his flag.  Blake
commenced the action with but fifteen ships, and with them, for four
hours, fought the Dutchmen till, late at night, he was joined by the
rest of his fleet.  By this time two Dutch ships had been taken and one
disabled, the English having lost none, when Van Tromp bore away and
escaped.

In the Mediterranean, Commodore Bodley, in command of four English
ships, fought a gallant action against eight Dutch ships, commanded by
Admiral Van Galen.  The Dutchman laid the English commodore's ships
aboard, but having been thrice set on fire, he sheered off with much
loss.  The second ship, which then took her place, was also beaten off,
having lost her main-mast.  Two others next attacked the commodore, but
were defeated; though the English lost a hundred men, killed and
wounded.  The _Phoenix_, an English ship, had meantime boarded one of
the commodore's assailants and carried her, but was in turn boarded and
captured by another Dutch ship, and taken into Leghorn Roads.  Here
Captain Van Tromp took command of the _Phoenix_.  The Dutchmen, thinking
themselves secure, spent their time in mirth and jollity on shore, when
Captain Owen Cox, now serving in Commodore Platten's squadron, hearing
of what was going forward, manned three boats with thirty men in each.
In addition to their weapons, each man was provided with a bag of meal
to throw in the eyes of the Dutchmen.  Captain Cox pulled in during the
night, and got alongside the frigate at daylight.  The boats' crews had
each their appointed work; one had to cut the cables, the second had to
go aloft and loose the sails, while the third closed the hatches and
kept the crew in subjection.  Van Tromp was below, but hearing the
alarm, he rushed out of his cabin, and discharged his pistols at the
English, who were by that time masters of the frigate.  Finding that his
ship was captured, he leaped out of the cabin window, and swam safely to
a Dutch ship astern.  The _Phoenix_ was carried off in triumph, and
reached Naples in safety.  Of course, the Grand Duke of Tuscany
remonstrated, and ordered Commodore Flatten either to restore the
_Phoenix_ or to quit Leghorn; he was determined not to do the former,
and sending to Commodore Bodley, who was lying at Elba with his small
squadron, it was arranged he should come off the port, and draw the
Dutch away.  This he did.  Commodore Van Galen's squadron, at the time
lying off the port to intercept him, consisted of sixteen sail; while,
besides the _Alfred_, of 52 guns, he had only the _Bonaventure_, of 44
guns, the _Sampson_, of 36, the _Levant Merchant_, of 28, the _Pilgrim_
and _Mary_, of 30 guns.  He contrived, however, to let Commodore Bodley
know his position, who attempted to draw the Dutch off, and clear the
way for his squadron.  Van Galen, after chasing for some time,
perceiving Platten's squadron, returned to attack it.  During the action
which ensued, the _Bonaventure_ blew up, while Van Galen lost a leg from
a shot, of which wound he died.  Commodore Bodley's squadron having now
joined, the action became general.  Captain Cornelius Van Tromp, who
attacked the _Sampson_, was beaten off, but she was directly afterwards
destroyed by a fire-ship.  The _Alfred_, the _Levant Merchant_, and
_Pilgrim_ were all overpowered and taken, and the _Mary_ alone effected
her escaped, and joined the squadron of Commodore Bodley.

Another desperate action soon afterwards took place between the Dutch
and the English in the channel, the English having 105 ships, and the
Dutch 104.  The action had lasted about an hour when Admiral Dean, the
second in command, was cut in two by a cannon-shot.  Monk, the
commander-in-chief, seeing him fall, threw a cloak over his body to
conceal it from the seamen.  The ship of Van Kelson, the Dutch
rear-admiral, was blown up after this.  From eleven in the morning till
six in the evening the battle raged, when the Dutch endeavoured to
escape.  Blake joined the English fleet during the night, and pursued
them.  About noon the battle was renewed, and for four hours continued
to rage.  Van Tromp grappled Admiral Penn's ship, the _James_, and
attempted to board, but was repulsed, and was boarded in return.  The
English having driven the Dutchmen below, Van Tromp ordered the deck to
be blown up, when numbers of the boarders were killed, though he
escaped.  His ship was again boarded by the crews of the _James_ and of
another ship, and he would have been captured had not De Witt and De
Ruyter bore down and saved him.  The battle was decisive; eleven Dutch
ships were taken and thirteen hundred prisoners, while seven were sunk,
two were blown up, thus making twenty ships taken and destroyed.

Grand naval engagements were carried on in those days with very little
order or regularity, each ship singling out an antagonist, and attacking
her as opportunities offered.  Even then, however, some of the more
sagacious naval commanders discerned that this was not the wisest plan
for gaining a victory.  Sir William Monson, one of the most skilful
admirals of the period, observes, that the most famous naval battles of
late years were those of Lepanto against the Turks, in 1577, of the
Spaniards against the French, 1580, and the English against the Spanish
Armada, in 1588.  After making various remarks, he continues: "The
greatest advantage in a sea-fight is to get the wind of one another; for
he that has the wind is out of danger of being boarded, and has the
advantage where to board and how to attempt the enemy.  The wind being
thus gotten, the general is to give no other directions than to every
admiral of a squadron to draw together their squadron and every one to
undertake his opposite squadron, or where he should do it to his
greatest advantage, but to be sure to take a good distance of one
another, and to relieve that squadron that should be overcharged or
distressed.  Let them give warning to their ships not to venture so far
as to bring them to leeward of the enemy, for it would be in the power
of the enemy to board them, and they not to avoid it."

The strict ordering of battles by ships was before the invention of the
bowline, for then there was no sailing but before the wind, nor any
fighting but by boarding; whereas now a ship will sail within six points
of thirty-two, and by the advantage of wind, may rout any force that is
placed in that form of battle--namely, that of the Spanish Armada, to
which he is referring.  The Admiralty, however, did not appear to agree
with Sir William Monson, for the following instructions were
issued:--"You are to take notice, that in case of joining battle you are
to leave it to the vice-admiral to assail the enemy's admiral, and to
match yours as equally as you can to succour the rest of the fleet, as
cause shall require, not wasting your powder nor shooting afar off, nor
till you come side by side."

The more sagacious commanders saw, that in order to ensure victory,
something beyond a vast host of ships fighting without order was
necessary, and perceived that the fleet which fought in line was in most
cases victorious.  The fiercest action of this period was fought on the
9th and 10th of August, when the English fleet, under Monk, came in
sight of the Dutch, commanded by Admiral Van Tromp, who had with him
many other celebrated officers, and nearly a hundred ships of war.  Monk
had about the same number of ships, which he drew up in line.  The
English manoeuvred to gain the wind, but Van Tromp, who had it at the
first, kept it with advantage, and drew up his own fleet in a line
parallel to that of the English, when, bearing down upon them, he began
the battle with so great a fury, that many ships were soon seen
dismasted, others sunk, and others on fire.  A spectator, who was on
board a vessel at a distance, describes the scene: "The two fleets were
now enveloped in a cloud of smoke so dense that it was impossible to
form a judgment of the fierceness of the battle otherwise than by the
horrible noise of the cannon with which the air resounded, and by the
mountains of fire which every now and then were seen rising out of the
smoke, with a crash that gave sufficient notice that whole ships were
blowing up.  The battle lasted for eight hours, and was the most hard
fought of any that had happened throughout the war.  The Dutch
fire-ships were managed with great dexterity, and many of the large
vessels in the English fleet were in the utmost danger.  The _Triumph_
was so effectually fired, that most of her crew threw themselves into
the sea, though others remaining behind put out the fire.  Admiral
Lawson engaged Admiral Ruyter, killed and wounded above half his men,
and so disabled his ship, that she was towed out of the fleet.  About
noon Van Tromp was shot through the body by a musket-ball as he was
giving his orders.  This greatly discouraged the Dutch, so that they
began to beat to windward, and to engage only in retreating, having but
one flag still flying.  As the smoke cleared off, the two fleets were
seen in a condition which showed the horrible fury of the conflict in
which they had been engaged.  The whole sea was covered with dead
bodies, with fragments, and with hulls of wrecks, still smoking or
burning.  Throughout the remainder of the two fleets were seen only
dismasted vessels, and sails perforated through and through by
cannon-balls.  The English pursued them, but being afraid of the shoals,
they came to an anchor six leagues off the Texel."  The loss of the
Dutch amounted to 6200 men, including Admiral Van Tromp and Evertzen,
with many other persons of distinction, with twenty-six ships of war
sunk or burnt.  On the side of the English, 7 captains and 500 men were
killed, and 5 captains and 800 men wounded, besides which three of their
ships were destroyed.  Among the English ships were several merchantmen,
and in order to take off the thoughts of their captains from their
owners' vessels and cargoes, Monk sent them to each other's ships, a
scheme which answered perfectly well, no ships in the fleet having
behaved better.  He also, it was said, to save time, issued orders at
the commencement of the fight, that no quarter should be given or taken.
This, however, was not so strictly observed, but that 1200 Dutchmen
were saved from the sinking ships.  On this occasion the Dutch set the
example of fighting in line, though in their case, owing to the
desperate valour of the English, the plan did not succeed as well as it
did on many other subsequent occasions.  Not without difficulty did the
English ships get back to England.  This victory compelled the Dutch to
sue for peace.

It was at this time that the following song is supposed to have been
written, showing the spirit which animated the nation.  It is probably,
as will be seen, the original of "Ye Mariners of England."

  "When gallants are carousing
  In taverns on a row,
  Then we sweep o'er the deep
  When the stormy winds do blow."

"Jack," however, was to have his consolation, for at the end, as we
read--

  "When we return in safety,
  With wages for our pains;
  The tapster and the vintner
  Will help to share our gains.
  We'll call for liquor roundly,
  And pay before we go;
  Then we roar on the shore
  When the stormy winds do blow," etcetera.

The gallant Blake's latest achievement was the capture of numerous
Spanish galleons, after a desperate battle off Teneriffe.  He, however,
did not live to receive the fresh honours Parliament was ready to bestow
on him, as he died on the 17th of August, on board the _George_, just as
she was entering Plymouth Sound.  As Clarendon says of him: "He was the
first to infuse that proportion of courage into seamen, by making them
see by experience what mighty things they could do if they were
resolved, and taught them to fight in fire as well as upon water; and
although he had been very well imitated and followed, he was the first
to give an example of that kind of naval courage which leads to bold and
resolute deeds."

The first duty of the English fleet after the restoration had been
determined on was to bring over Charles the Second, who landed in Kent
on the 23rd May, 1660.



CHAPTER NINE.

CHARLES THE SECOND AND JAMES THE SECOND--FROM A.D. 1660 TO A.D. 1689.

The object of Roman Catholic France was to keep Protestant England
embroiled with Holland, and in the profligate Charles the Second, a
willing instrument was found for carrying out her designs.  War was
declared, and the Duke of York took command of a fleet consisting of 109
men-of-war, and 28 fire-ships and ketches, with 21,000 seamen and
soldiers on board.  The Duke having blockaded the Texel, was compelled
at length for want of provisions to return to England, and immediately
the Dutch fleet sailed out under the command of Baron Opdam, Evertzen,
and Cornelius Van Tromp.  Directly afterwards nine merchant-ships of the
English Hamburgh Company and a frigate of 34 guns fell into their hands.
Opdam at all risks was ordered to attack the English, which he did,
contrary to his own opinion, while his opponents had the advantage of
the wind.  At first the battle appeared tolerably equal, but the Earl of
Sandwich, with the Blue Squadron, piercing into the centre of the Dutch
fleet, divided it into two parts, and began that confusion which ended
in its total defeat.  The Duke of York, who was in the _Royal Charles_,
a ship of 80 guns, was in close fight with Admiral Opdam in the
_Endracht_, of 84 guns.  The contest was severe, the Earl of Falmouth,
Lord Muskerry, and Mr Boyle, second son of the Earl of Burlington,
standing near the duke, were killed by a chain-shot.  In the heat of the
action the Dutch admiral's ship blew up, and of five hundred of his
gallant men, among whom were a great number of volunteers of the best
families in Holland, only five were saved.  A fire-ship falling foul of
four Dutch ships, the whole were burnt.  Shortly afterwards three others
suffered the same fate.  The whole Dutch fleet seemed now to be but one
blaze, and the cries of so many miserable wretches who were perishing
either by fire or water was more frightful than the noise of the cannon.
The English gave their vanquished enemy all the assistance they could,
while with continued fury they assailed the rest.  The English lost but
one ship, while they took eighteen of the largest Dutch ships, sunk or
burnt about fourteen more, killed four thousand men, and took two
thousand prisoners, who were brought into Colchester.  Among them were
sixteen captains.  As the bards of old stirred up the warriors of their
tribe to deeds of valour, so the naval poets of those days wrote songs
to animate the spirits of British tars.  The following lines are said to
have been written on the eve of the battle by Lord Buckhurst, afterwards
Earl of Dorset:--

  I.
  To all you ladies now on land
  We men at sea indite,
  But first would have you understand
  How hard it is to write;
  The muses now, and Neptune too,
  We must implore to write to you.
  With a fa, la, la, la, la.

  II.
  For tho' the muses should prove kind,
  And fill our empty brain;
  Yet if rough Neptune rouse the wind
  To wave the azure main,
  Our paper, pen and ink, and we
  Roll up and down our ships at sea.
  With a fa, la, etcetera.

  III.
  Then if we write not by each post,
  Think not we are unkind,
  Nor yet conclude our ships are lost
  By Dutchmen or by wind,
  Ours tears we'll send a speedier way--
  The tide shall bring them twice a-day.
  With a fa, la, etcetera.

  IV.
  The king, with wonder and surprise,
  Will swear the seas grow bold,
  Because the tides will higher rise
  Than e'er they used of old,
  But let him know it is our tears
  Bring floods of grief to Whitehall stairs
  With a fa, la, etcetera.

  V.
  Let wind and weather do its worst,
  Be you to us but kind,
  Let Dutchmen vapour, Spaniards curse,
  No sorrow shall we find;
  'Tis then no matter how things go,
  Or who's our friend, or who's our foe.
  With a fa, la, etcetera.

  VI.
  And now we've told you all our loves,
  And likewise all our fears,
  In hopes this declaration moves
  Some pity from your tears;
  Let's hear of no inconstancy,
  We have too much of that at sea.
  With a fa, la, etcetera.

Notwithstanding this defeat, the Dutch in a short time were again ready
for battle.  The fight lasted without interruption from three in the
morning till seven in the evening.  The remains of the Dutch fleet made
sail for the Texel, but were not pursued by the duke.  "After the
fight," says Burnet, "a council of war was called to concert the method
of action when they should come up with the enemy.  In that council,
Penn, who commanded under the duke, happened to say that they must
prepare for better work the next engagement.  He knew well the courage
of the Dutch was never so high as when they were desperate.  The Earl of
Montague, who was then a volunteer, and one of the duke's corps, told
him it was very visible that remark made an impression upon him; and all
the duke's domestics said, `He had got near enough--why should he
venture a second time.'  The duchess had also given a strict charge to
all the duke's servants to do all they could to hinder him to engage too
far.  When matters were settled they went to sleep, and the duke ordered
a call to be given him when they should get up with the Dutch fleet.  It
is not known what passed between the duke and Brouncker, who was of his
bed-chamber, and then in waiting, but he came to Penn as from the duke
and said, `The duke orders the sail to be slackened.'  Penn was struck
with the order, but did not go about to argue the matter with the duke
himself as he ought to have done, but obeyed it.  When the duke had
slept, he upon his waking went out upon the quarter-deck, and seemed
amazed to see the sails slackened, and that thereby all hopes of
overtaking the Dutch was lost."  It was not the only occasion on which
James the Second showed the white feather.

Of the unfortunate Dutch officers who escaped, three were publicly shot
at the Helder, four were ordered to have their swords broken over their
heads by the common hangman, and the master of the vice-admiral to stand
upon a scaffold with a halter about his neck under the gallows, while
the others were executed, and he was afterwards sent into perpetual
banishment.  Two more were degraded and rendered incapable of serving
the States more.

Before long the Dutch had their revenge.  Charles being easily persuaded
to lay up his ships and pocket the money voted for their maintenance,
the Dutch, prompted by the French, who promised their assistance,
rapidly fitted out a fleet under Admiral Van Ghendt.  To deceive the
English, he sailed for the Firth of Forth, which he entered, and after
firing away to little purpose for some time, took his departure, and
joined De Ruyter, who with seventy sail of ships appeared in the mouth
of the Thames on the 7th of June, 1667.  A squadron was immediately
despatched up the river, when the fort of Sheerness was burnt and
plundered, though bravely defended by Sir Edward Spragg.  Monk, Duke of
Albemarle, hastening down with some land forces, sank several vessels in
the entrance of the Medway, and laid a strong chain across it; but the
Dutch, with the high tide and strong easterly wind, broke their way
through and burnt the _Matthias_, the _Unity_, and the _Charles the
Fifth_, which had been taken from them.  The next day they proceeded
with six men-of-war and five fire-ships as far as Upnor Castle, but met
with so warm a reception, that they advanced no farther.  On their
return they burnt the _Royal Oak_, and damaged the _Loyal London_ and
the _Great James_.  They also carried off with them the hull of the
_Royal Charles_, which the English twice set on fire, but which they as
often quenched.  Captain Douglas, when the enemy had set her on fire,
having received no command to retire, said it should never be told that
a Douglas had quitted his post without orders, and resolutely continuing
on board, was burnt with his ship, falling a glorious sacrifice to
discipline, and showing an example of no common bravery.

While the Dutch were in the Thames, a large number of their merchantmen,
however, fell into the hands of the English, amply recompensing the
latter for the loss they had sustained.  The gallant action of Captain
Dawes, commanding the _Elizabeth_ frigate, must be mentioned.  Falling
in with fifteen sail of Rotterdam men-of-war, he fought their
rear-admiral, of 64 and five others of 48 and 50 guns, and presently
fought the admiral, of 70 guns, and two of his seconds, yet got clear of
them all.  Shortly afterwards he engaged two Danish men-of-war, of 40
guns each, in which action, after four hours' fight, he was struck by a
cannon-ball, crying with his last breath, "For God's sake! don't yield
the frigate to those fellows."  Soon after, his lieutenant being
desperately wounded, and the master who succeeded him slain, the gunner
took their places, and so plied the two Danes, that they were glad to
sheer off.  The English anchored within a mile of them during the night
to repair damages.  The next morning they expected the Danes again, but
though they were to windward and had the advantage of the current, yet
they would not venture--upon which the English, after having saluted
them with a shot of defiance, bore away for England.

A squadron under Sir Edward Spragg was sent out to punish the Algerines
for their piracies.  He drove many of their ships on shore and burnt
seven, each carrying thirty-four guns.  In the same year, 1670, the
captain and first lieutenant of the _Sapphire_ were condemned to be shot
for cowardice, having run from four sail which they supposed to be
Turkish men-of-war, and also for getting the ship on shore, by which she
was lost, contrary to the opinion of the master and crew, who offered to
defend her.  The sentence was executed on board the _Dragon_ at
Deptford.

The peace of Breda terminated for a time the contest with the Dutch.
War was, however, soon again to break out.  The statesmen Clifford,
Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale, the initial letters of
whose titles gave the name of the Cabal to their ministry, now formed a
scheme for rendering the king absolute; Charles, acting under the
influence of the King of France, who agreed to assist England in
humbling the States-General.  Every slight offence committed by the
Dutch was magnified into a sufficient reason for engaging in a fresh war
with the States, till it at last broke out with great violence.  The
English had formed an alliance with the French, when their united
fleets, under the command of Prince Rupert--the English having sixty
men-of-war and frigates and the French thirty--encountered the Dutch
under De Ruyter, who had about seventy ships.  De Ruyter bearing down
with his fleet in three squadrons prepared to attack the Prince himself,
while Tromp engaged Spragg and the Blue Squadron, the English admiral
having, contrary to the express orders of Prince Rupert, laid his
fore-topsail to the mast in order to stay for him.  The French admiral
had received orders to keep aloof, which he in part obeyed, while owing
to Spragg's too daring conduct Prince Rupert found himself separated
from a large portion of his fleet.  The fiercest engagement was that
between Tromp, in the _Golden Lion_, and Spragg, in the _Royal Prince_.
For long they fought ship to ship, till the _Royal Prince_ was so
disabled, that Sir Edward Spragg was forced to go on board the _Saint
George_, and Tromp quitted his _Golden Lion_ to hoist his flag on board
the _Comat_, when the battle was renewed with incredible fury.  The aim
of the Dutch admiral was to take or sink the _Royal Prince_, but the
Earl of Ossory and Sir John Kempthorne, together with Spragg himself, so
effectually protected the disabled vessel, that none of the enemy's
fire-ships could come near her, though this was often attempted.  At
last the _Saint George_, being terribly torn and in a manner disabled,
Sir Edward Spragg designed to go on board a third ship, but before he
was got six boats' length a shot, which passed through the _Saint
George_, struck his boat, and, though her crew immediately rowed back,
yet before they could get within reach of the ropes the boat sank, and
Sir Edward was drowned.  The fight continued till sunset, when darkness
and smoke obliged them on all sides to desist, the English having all
this time maintained the fight alone against the whole Dutch fleet,
while the French continued to look on at a distance.

The English could not claim this action as a victory, for though the
Dutch carried off no trophies, they had decidedly the best of it.  The
English officers, however, behaved with the greatest gallantry, and had
they not been so shamefully deserted by their pretended allies, would
have won the day.  Prince Rupert highly praised the conduct of the Earl
of Ossory for the way in which he bore down to the rescue of the _Royal
Prince_.  Sir John Chichely and Sir John Kempenthorne, as did many
others, behaved with conspicuous courage, while several commanders of
distinction lost their lives.  The conduct of the gunner of the _Royal
Prince_, Richard Leake--whose son became the famous Sir John Leake--is
worthy of mention.  Before Sir Edward Spragg quitted the ship, she had
lost all her masts, the larger number of her upper deck guns were
disabled, and 400 of her crew, out of 750, were killed or wounded.
While in this disabled condition, a large Dutchman, with two fire-ships,
bore down on her for the purpose of effecting her capture or
destruction.  The lieutenant who had been left in command, believing
that it was hopeless to resist, was on the point of striking, when the
gallant Leake, calling on the crew to support him, took the command, and
so ably fought the remaining guns that both the fire-ships were sunk,
his large assailant compelled to sheer off, and the ship preserved from
capture.

The nation, discovering that England had become the mere tool of France,
loudly cried out for peace with Holland, which was signed in London on
the 9th of February, 1674.  By this treaty it was agreed on the part of
the Dutch that their ships, whether separate or in fleets, should be
obliged, as a matter of right, to strike their sails to any fleet or
single ship carrying the King of England's flag.

Very considerable improvements were carried out in the naval service
during Charles the Second's reign by the influence of the Duke of York.
In 1662 a judge-advocate, John Fowler, was first appointed to the fleet.
In 1663 an established number of seamen was fixed to each ship of war
according to her rate, and servants were at this time first allowed to
the captains and officers.  Under this rating it was usual for officers
to take a certain number of young gentlemen to sea, who, in consequence,
gained the name of midshipmen.  They are often spoken of as captains'
servants or cabin-boys, signifying that they were berthed and messed in
the cabin--not that they had of necessity menial duties to perform.  An
allowance of table-money was first established to the flag-officers; a
Surgeon-General to the fleet was also first appointed by warrant from
the Lord High Admiral.

In 1666, in addition to the complement of men borne on board a ship
bearing the flag of an admiral, fifty men were allowed; to a
Vice-Admiral, twenty; and to a Rear-Admiral, ten.

We have the first instance in this year of gratuities being allowed to
captains in the navy who were wounded in battle.

From the instances already given, it will be seen that the naval
officers of those days possessed a dashing, dauntless courage which no
dangers could subdue.  The following is one among many others.  The
_Tiger_ frigate, commanded by Captain Harman, was lying in the Port of
Cadiz at the same time that a Dutch squadron was there.  De Witt, the
captain of one of the Dutch frigates, was particularly friendly with
Captain Harman; this made the Spaniards insinuate that he dared not
fight the English frigate.  Evertzen, the Dutch admiral, on hearing this
report, told De Witt that he must challenge the English captain to go to
sea and fight him, to support the honour of his nation, and that he
would assist him with sixty seamen and seventy soldiers.  Captain Harman
readily accepted his proposal, and on a day fixed both ships stood to
sea, and began to engage within pistol-shot of each other.  In a short
time the Dutch ship's main-mast was shot away.  Captain Harman, availing
himself of the confusion into which this disaster had thrown the enemy,
boarded and compelled her to surrender, with the loss of 140 men.  The
English had only nine killed and fifteen wounded.

Since the increase of the navy, the Cinque Ports being of less
consequence than formerly, the king granted them a new charter
confirming their ancient privileges, with the addition of some
regulations more suitable to modern times.

As an encouragement for seamen to enter into the navy, a bounty was
given to all who entered on board first and second-rates of six weeks'
pay, and on board of third-rates one month's pay.

In 1673 an order was issued to all commanders of His Majesty's ships of
war that in future they were not to require French ships to strike the
flag or topsail, or salute, neither were they to salute those of the
French king.

In 1673 the oaths of allegiance and supremacy were first administered to
the officers in His Majesty's navy.  The king granted half-pay to
several captains in the navy, according to the rates they commanded, as
a gratuity for their bravery during the war.

The regulating and allotting of cabins to each particular officer was
first established.

For some years merchant-ships had been sheathed with lead, and the
experiment was now tried on the _Harwich_ and _Kingfisher_ ships of war,
as also on several other ships ordered for foreign service.  The
practice was, however, in a few years discontinued.

The Royal Navy was now becoming far larger than it had ever before been.
In 1675 the Parliament granted 300,000 pounds for the building of
twenty large ships of war, one first-rate of 1400 tons, eight
second-rates of 1100 tons, and eleven third-rates of 700 tons.  At the
same time the tonnage and poundage money was applied to the benefit of
the Royal Navy.  The Newfoundland fishery had begun to assume
considerable importance, it being considered especially useful as a
nursery to furnish seamen for the Royal Navy.  Thus in the year 1676,
102 ships were employed, each ship carrying 20 guns, 18 boats, and 5 men
to each boat, making in all 9180 men.

The corsairs which sailed forth from the States of Tunis, Tripoli, and
Algiers, continuing their depredations on English merchant-ships, Sir
John Narborough was in 1675 despatched with a powerful squadron to teach
them better behaviour.  On arriving off Tripoli Sir John sent Lieutenant
Cloudesly Shovel, of whom we now first hear, to open negotiations with
the Dey.  That Oriental potentate, despising Mr Shovel for his youthful
appearance, sent him back with a disrespectful answer.  He had, however,
made a note of everything he saw, and on returning on board he assured
the commodore of the practicability of burning the piratical fleet.  The
night being extremely dark, the commodore despatched Lieutenant Shovel
with all the boats of the fleet to destroy the ships in the mole.
Lieutenant Shovel first seized the guard-boat, then entered the mole,
and burnt four large armed ships, without losing a man.  The Dey,
terrified by these unexpected proceedings of the English, sued for
peace; but, according to time-honoured eastern custom, delayed the
fulfilment of his engagements, on which Sir John sailing in, cannonaded
the town, landed a party of men, burnt some stores, and finally brought
him to terms.  One of the pirate ships carried 50 guns, one 30, one 24,
and another 20 guns.  These powerful rovers were indeed a match for any
ordinary merchant-vessel, and often contended desperately with
men-of-war.  In 1677 the 26-gun ship _Guernsey_, Captain James Harman,
fell in with one of them, an Algerine called the _White Horse_, carrying
50 guns, and 500 men, while the crew of the _Guernsey_ numbered only
110.  A fierce action ensued, when at length the Algerine, taking
advantage of the _Guernsey's_ disabled state, sheered off, these pirates
always fighting for booty rather than for honour.  The gallant Captain
Harman received three musket-balls in his body, and a severe contusion
from a cannon-shot.  He still fought his ship till he sank from
exhaustion, when Lieutenant John Harris took command.  The _Guernsey_ in
the action lost nine killed and many wounded, besides the captain, who
three days afterwards expired.

A still more successful action was fought between the 40-gun ship
_Adventure_, Captain William Booth, and an Algerine ship of war called
the _Golden Horse_, of 46 guns, commanded by Morat Rais, a notorious
Dutch renegado, who had a crew of 508 Moors and 90 Christian slaves.
During the action a stranger hove in sight under Turkish colours; but
night coming on, the Algerine drew off, when Captain Booth, having a
fire-ship in company, gave orders to burn her or the new-comer.
Fortunately, the fire-ship failed to reach either one or other, and in
the morning the stranger hoisted English colours, and proved to be the
40-gun ship _Nonsuch_.  The _Golden Horse_ being dismasted, and 109 of
her crew killed and 120 wounded, and having six-feet of water in the
hold, surrendered.

In the same year a 42-gun ship, Captain Morgan Kempthorne, beat off
seven Algerine corsairs, after they had made several desperate attempts
to board her.  Unhappily the Captain and eight of his crew were killed,
and 38 wounded.

Many other similar gallant actions were fought with the Algerines and
Sallee rovers, who, however, notwithstanding their frequent defeats,
continued their depredations on the commerce of England and other
European countries.  Tangiers had been in possession of the English
about twenty years, but, to save the expense of keeping it up, a fleet
under Lord Dartmouth was sent out to destroy all the works, and to bring
home the garrison.  The destruction of the mole, which was admirably
built, caused much labour, it being necessary to blow it up by
piecemeal.  Its ruins, as well as the rubbish of the town, were thrown
into the harbour to prevent its again becoming a port.

The navy had long been held in high estimation by the English, who were
always ready to grant any sum required for its improvement.  It is
stated that between the years 1660 and 1670 never less than 5000 pounds
a-year was granted for its support.  On the death of Charles the Royal
Navy amounted to 113 sail.

JAMES THE SECOND.

James, on his accession, assigned a stated sum of 400,000 pounds a-year,
to be paid quarterly from the treasury, for the service of the navy.
Four additional commissioners were also appointed for the better
regulating of the docks and naval storehouses, and for the more speedy
repairs of ships of war.  During this time a plan was proposed and
patent granted for making salt water fresh by distillation.  All
captains and officers received orders to despatch perfect copies of
their journals to the Secretary of the Admiralty.  An increased
allowance of table-money was granted in lieu of several perquisites and
advantages they had before enjoyed.

The larger number of the officers and men of the navy were sound
Protestants, who regarded the proceedings of James with jealous eyes;
and thus, notwithstanding his magnificent fleet, Lord Dartmouth could
only muster 17 sail of the line, chiefly third and fourth-rates, 3
frigates, 13 fire-ships, and 3 yachts to oppose the landing of the
Prince of Orange.

On the 12th of December, 1688, James the Second finished his short reign
by abdicating the throne, at which time the navy consisted of 173 sail,
showing that he must have either built or purchased sixty ships.



CHAPTER TEN.

A VIEW OF NAVAL AFFAIRS IN CHARLES THE SECOND'S REIGN.

A.D. 1660 to A.D. 1689.

When great guns or cannon came into use, the old style of fighting at
sea was completely changed.  We hear of them as early as the thirteenth
century, employed in a naval engagement between the King of Tunis and
the Moorish King of Seville.  They were first used on shore by the
English at the battle of Crescy, fought in 1346, and at sea by the
Venetians about the year 1380.  In the reigns of Richard the Third and
Henry the Seventh they were first employed by the English at sea.  They
were not then, however, as now, pointed through port-holes, but were
mounted so as to fire over the bulwarks of the vessel.  In those days,
therefore, ships of war could have had but one armed deck, and were
probably urged by oars as well as by sails.  Port-holes were invented by
Descharves, a French builder at Brest, and the first English ship in
which they were formed was the _Henry Grace de Dieu_, built at Erith in
1515.  She was said to have been of no less than 1000 tons burden, but
as we are ignorant of the mode in which ships were measured for tonnage
in those days, we cannot tell her actual burden.  She must, however,
have been a large vessel, for she had two whole decks, besides what we
now call a forecastle and poop.  She mounted altogether eighty pieces,
composed of every calibre in use; but of these not more than fifty-four,
according to the print before us, were pointed through broadside ports.
The rest were either mounted as bow or stern chasers, or as "murdering
pieces," as they were called, which pointed down on the deck; their
object apparently being, should a ship be boarded, to fire on the enemy.
The calibre of great guns was not in those days designated by the
weight of the shot they discharged.  This was probably from the reason
that the balls were not all made of the same materials.  At first they
were of stone; then those of iron were introduced; and sometimes they
were formed of lead; and, at an early period, hollow iron shot, filled
with combustible matter, were brought into use.  Thus the weight of shot
fluctuated too much to serve for the classification of the gun from
which it was fired.  Ships' guns in those days were known as cannon,
cannon royal, cannon serpentine, bastard cannon, demi-cannon, and cannon
petro.

The _Sovereign of the Seas_ was built at Woolwich Dockyard, in 1637, by
Mr Phineas Pett, and Mr Thomas Haywood was the designer of her
decorations.  She measured, probably, about 1500 tons.  He describes her
as having three flush-decks and a forecastle, one half-deck, a
quarter-deck, and a round house.  Her lower tier had 30 ports which were
furnished with demi-cannon and whole cannon throughout; her middle tier
had also 30 ports of demi-culverins and whole culverins; her third tier
had 36 ports for other ordnance; her forecastle had 12 ports; and her
half-deck 13 ports.  She had 13 or 14 ports more within-board for
murdering pieces, besides a great many loop-holes out of the cabins for
musket-shot.  She carried, moreover, 10 pieces of chase ordnance forward
and 10 right aft.  This first-rate of the seventeenth century would thus
have had 126 guns; in reality, however, these ports right forward and
right aft, as well as those on the forecastle, had no guns, and thus she
actually carried only 100.

About the middle of the seventeenth century the ships of the British
Navy ceased to carry guns of a similar calibre on the same deck.  At the
same time the cumbrous forecastles and aftercastles, which must have
been equally inconvenient both in action and in a sea way, were removed.
The murdering pieces were likewise got rid of, and at the same time, an
English ship of war could fire from her broadside half the number of
guns she carried.

In 1546 Henry the Eighth possessed fifty-eight ships, which were classed
according to their quality; thus there were shyppes, galliasses,
pinnaces, and row-barges.  The galliasse was somewhat like the lugger or
felucca of modern days.  She probably was a long, low, and sharp-built
vessel, propelled by oars as well as sails--the latter not fixed to a
standing yard, but hoisted like a boat's sail when required.  The
pinnace was a small kind of galliasse.

In 1612 we find a list in which the vessels of the Royal Navy were
classed as ships-royal, which measured from 800 to 1200 tons, middling
ships from 600 to 800 tons, small ships from 350 tons, and pinnaces from
80 to 250 tons, divided into rates.  They were six in number, and each
rate consisted of two classes, to which different complements of men
were assigned.  We are not told what were the armaments of the classes.
The division into rates was adopted to regulate the pay of the officers
and seamen, as is the case at the present day.

In 1651-2, we find a list of all ships, frigates, and other vessels
belonging to the States' Navy classified by the guns they carried.  Of
these there were twenty-three classes comprised within the second-rates,
exclusive of two unrated classes--namely, hulks and shallops or
row-barges.  The former were used either to lodge the officers and crews
of vessels undergoing repair, or were fitted with shears to erect or
remove masts.  In the course of a few years after this, sloops, bombs,
fire-ships, and yachts are spoken of as among the unrated classes; but
in the sixth-rate were comprised vessels mounting only two guns.
Towards the end of the century such small craft were classed by
themselves as sloops.

In 1675 fire-ships first appear in a list of the navy.  They were much
used at that time for the purpose of setting fire to the enemy's
vessels.  Mr Pepys, who is the chief authority on naval affairs at this
period, says that the Dutch, in the year 1660, made a present of a
yacht, called _Maria_, to Charles the Second, remarking, "until which
time we had not heard of such a name in England."

About the year 1650 a difference was made between the number of guns and
men carried by ships in war time and in peace time, and in war and peace
abroad.  This difference, it is evident, arose from the inability of a
ship to carry a sufficient amount of provisions for her crew when sent
on a long voyage.  When such was the case it was necessary to reduce
both the number of men and guns, in order to allow room for a sufficient
supply of provisions.  As far as we can judge, a first-rate of the
latter end of the seventeenth century mounted her guns on three whole
decks, a quarter-deck, forecastle, and poop; a second-rate mounted hers
on three whole decks and a quarter-deck; a third-rate on two whole
decks, a quarter-deck, forecastle, and poop; a fourth-rate on two whole
decks and a quarter-deck; a fifth-rate on her first gun-deck, with a few
guns on her quarter-deck; a sixth-rate on a single-deck, with or without
any on her quarter-deck.

There were at that period three-deckers of sixty-four guns, and
two-deckers of only thirty guns.  With regard to the guns themselves,
the demi-cannon was probably a 32-pounder, the cannon petro a
24-pounder, and the basilisk a 12-pounder; the whole culverin an
18-pounder, and the demi-culverin a 9-pounder; the saker a 6-pounder,
and the mignon a 4-pounder.  The smaller guns were called swivels, and
were mounted on upright timbers, having a pivot on which the gun
traversed.  Guns at sea were formerly known by the names of beasts and
birds of prey, till about the year 1685 they were designated by the
weight of the shot they carried.

In 1688 we find mention made of bombs, which were vessels carrying six
or eight light guns, and one or two heavy mortars for the purpose of
throwing shells into a town.  It is said that they were invented by
Reynaud, a Frenchman, and that they were first employed at the
bombardment of Algiers in 1681.

In the year 1714 we find the navy divided into ten classes, ships
carrying 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 guns.  The
first-rate descended no lower than to ships carrying 100 guns; the
second no lower than to those of 90 guns; the third admitted all classes
below and above 60; the fourth between 60 and 50; the fifth between 50
and 30; the sixth comprised all vessels below 50, except sloops, bombs,
etcetera.

By the end of the reign of George the First, ships no longer carried
guns on their poops.

The English style of naming the decks of a ship differs from that of
other nations, and though perfectly understood by her crew, is
calculated to puzzle a landsman.  In a one-decked ship the deck on which
the guns are carried is called the main-deck, while the deck below it,
to which there are no ports, the lower or gun-deck.  Hence the term
gun-room, occupied by lieutenants or gun-room officers; indeed, the
lowest deck of every ship is called the gun-deck.  The quarter of a ship
is that part of the side which lies towards the stern, and hence that
part of the deck is called the quarter-deck, in reference to that
portion of the ship's length over which it originally extended.  The
elevation above it is known as the poop, and the raised deck over the
fore-part of the ship is known as the top-gallant forecastle.  In early
days, as we have seen in the case of the _Great Harry_ and other ships,
and even in later days, both at the fore and after-part of the ship
there were elevated structures, very properly called castles.  In time
these were done away with, but short decks elevated above the main or
chief deck were still retained, as it was found inconvenient for the
seamen when working the ship to descend from one of these elevated decks
and then to be compelled to mount the other to get either fore or aft.
They were connected by a grating or gangway of sufficient width to allow
the crew to pass backwards and forwards.  This gangway was still further
widened; it being strengthened by beams running across the ship, allowed
guns to be carried on it.  The after-part had long been called the
quarter-deck, and the fore-part the forecastle, while the intermediate
part was now known as the gangway.  This name was also applied to the
space left in the bulwarks for entering or leaving the ship.  These
portions of the decks now assumed the appearance of an entire even deck
running fore and aft, but it still retained the names originally
bestowed on it, and its imaginary divisions.  The centre part of the
ship, where the gangway is placed, is also commonly called the waist,
because originally there was no deck.  The deck immediately below this
once-divided deck is always called the main-deck.  In a three-decker the
next is called the middle-deck, and the lowest deck on which guns are
carried the lower-deck.  Below this again is one still lower-deck called
the orlop-deck.  A two-decked ship has no middle-deck, but possesses
only a main and lower-deck, besides the before-mentioned quarter-deck,
gangway, and forecastle.  The deck on which a frigate's single battery
is carried is always called her main-deck, because the sailors are wont
to denominate the upper-deck of every ship carrying guns the main-deck.
In a sloop-ship or corvette the only deck, without any one above it on
which guns are carried, is thus invariably called the main-deck, and, as
has before been said, the one beneath it on which the officers and crew
live, and which has no guns, the gun-deck.  Ships which have their only
gun-deck running fore and aft for the same height all along are called
flush-decked ships.  When the after-part of the deck is raised they are
known as being deep-waisted, as is the case with many merchantmen.  The
highest deck of many men-of-war of all rates is often perfectly level,
but others have a short raised deck, extending from just before the
mizen-mast to the stern, which is called the poop, and in many instances
serves as a cover to the captain's cabin.  When the admiral is on board
he occupies the after-cabins on the upper-deck.  In small men-of-war no
cabins are placed under the poop, nor are they ever under the topgallant
forecastle.  On board merchantmen, however, where the poop is of
sufficient elevation and extent to allow of it, the best cabins are
always placed under it, while the crew are almost invariably berthed
under the top-gallant forecastle.  Of course, speaking of men-of-war, we
are referring to ships as they were till the invention of low-sided
armour-plated craft, which necessitated a great, if not an entire,
change of terms, and the introduction of a considerable number of new
ones.

Line of battle ships, as their name implies, were such as were capable
from their size, strength, and the number of their guns, of entering
into the line of battle and contending with the largest ships of the
enemy.  We first hear of ships appearing in that character in 1691,
forming the British Channel Fleet under Admiral Russell.  As far back,
however, as the year 1614, in a list of the ships of the navy, the line
of battle ships are separated from the others.  They included all ships
from the first-rate to the fourth-rate.  A fleet was now attended by
smaller, swift vessels, whose duty it was to look out for the enemy, and
to perform other detached services.  These vessels were comprised in the
fifth and sixth-rates, and from an early period were denominated
frigates.  In early days a large number of fast-sailing or fast-rowing
vessels, whether intended for war or for carrying merchandise, were
called frigates.  The word friggot or frigat, as it was often written,
derives its origin from a class of long, sharp vessels used in the
Mediterranean, and impelled either by sails or oars, which had a deck,
the topside of which was higher than that of the galley.  It in general
had openings like port-holes, through which the oars passed.  An Italian
describes the fregata as a little vessel with oars, but whence that name
is derived is uncertain.  A species of swift-flying sea-gull is called
by the French a fregate.  We have also the frigate-bird; but the name is
generally supposed to be derived from the ship, which, however, may not
really be the case.  It is very clear that its principal quality was the
power of moving rapidly either with sails or oars.  The French
transferred the fregate of the Mediterranean to the northern shore of
their country, and constructed it with bluffer bows and of a large size,
to contend with the heavy seas of a northern region.  English
merchant-ships of the early part of the sixteenth century are frequently
spoken of as frigates, and in the latter part of the century were often,
as we have seen, hired by the sovereign to serve as ships of war.  As we
know from the accounts we have already given of the early voyages, some
of their ships were denominated frigates.  Thus, one of the ships
serving with Sir Francis Drake is called the frigate _Elizabeth Fownes_,
of 80 guns and 50 men.  The Duke of Northumberland, then Sir Robert
Dudley, towards the close of the sixteenth century, designed a ship to
measure 160 feet in length and 24 in breadth, and constructed to carry a
tier of guns on a single whole deck, besides other guns on two short
decks, resembling the poop and top-gallant forecastle of a modern ship.
He named his vessel a fregata, and her guns were placed exactly as those
of a modern frigate.

He designed at the same time seven distinct classes of ships of war,
which he named the _Galleon, Ranibargo, Galizabra, Frigata, Gallerone,
Gallerata_, and _Passavolante_.  His designs not being accepted, he, in
the year 1594, built a vessel for himself at Southampton, which measured
300 tons and mounted 30 guns--of course, of small calibre.  In her he
made a voyage to India.

Charles the First possessed two frigates, the _Swan_ and _Nicodemus_,
each of 60 tons, 10 men, and 3 guns.  They probably were only used as
yachts.  The Duke of Buckingham, who was Lord High Admiral from 1619 to
1636, ordered some frigates to be built from the model of two called the
_Providence_ and _Expedition_, captured from the Dunkirkers, mounting,
it is supposed, from 20 to 30 guns, the greater number of which were on
a single-deck.  In consequence of seeing a French frigate in the Thames,
Mr Peter Pett took her as his model for building the _Constant Warwick_
in 1649, which was, as he says, the first frigate built in England.  She
was intended as a privateer for the Earl of Warwick, who afterwards sold
her to the king.  She measured somewhat under 400 tons, and mounted 60
guns, consisting of 18 light demi-culverins or short 9-pounders on the
main-deck, 6 light sakers on the quarter-deck, and 2 mignons on the
after-raised deck, which we should now call the poop.

In those days, and for many years afterwards, the English were addicted
to crowding their vessels with guns, and there can be no doubt that
many, like the _Mary Rose_ and others, were in consequence lost;
especially as their lower-deck ports were often not more than three feet
above the water.  The _Constant Warwick_ had afterwards many more guns
placed in her, so that she ultimately rated as a 46-gun ship, when, from
being an incomparable sailer, she became a slug.  Mr Pepys remarks on
this subject, in 1663 and 1664: "The Dutch and French built ships of two
decks, which carried from 60 to 70 guns, and so contrived that they
carried their lower guns four feet from the water, and could stow four
months' provisions--whereas our frigates from the Dunkirk build, which
were narrower and sharper, carried their guns but little more than three
feet from the water and but ten weeks provisions."

Attempts were made to counteract this great defect, but without much
success.  For several years afterwards Mr Pepys still complained that
frigates were unable to stow a sufficient quantity of provisions, or to
carry their guns high enough out of the water to make them safe.

Up to the early part of the eighteenth century it was a general
complaint that ships of war had more guns placed on board than they
could carry--in consequence, that their lower batteries could not be
opened when there was any sea on, and that they sailed and worked
heavily.  It is wonderful, indeed, how British seamen managed to keep
them afloat, as it is worthy of note that those which fell into the
hands of the enemy were nearly always lost under charge of their new
masters.  The English, it was said, employed the best materials and
workmanship on their vessels, but the French greatly surpassed them in
their models.  The English were the first to abandon the flat form of
the stern under the counter, and to introduce the curved instead, by
which greater strength and lightness as well as beauty was obtained.

In 1748 a ship of 585 tons, to carry 28 guns, 9-pounders on the
main-deck and 3-pounders on the quarter-deck, was built; and in 1757
five other vessels, also called frigates, to carry 28 guns, were
constructed of fir instead of oak, of the same size; but one of them was
captured by the French, and the others in about nine years were broken
up as unserviceable.

The first ship which, according to our present ideas, could properly be
considered a frigate, was the _Southampton_, built at Rotherhithe in the
year 1757 by Mr Robert Inwood, according to a draft of Sir Thomas
Slade, one of the surveyors of the navy.  She measured 671 tons, and
mounted 26 12-pounders on the main-deck, 4 6-pounders on the
quarter-deck, and 2 6-pounders on the forecastle.  She thus carried all
her guns on a single whole deck, a quarter-deck and forecastle, the
characteristic of the true frigate.  She was considered a prime sailer
and first-rate sea-boat, and lasted for fifty-six years, and possibly
would have lasted longer had she not gone to pieces on the rocks.

Shortly after this several 36-gun frigates were built.  Each was about
fifty tons larger than the _Southampton_, and carried four guns more,
which were placed on the quarter-deck.

Several French 36-gun frigates captured by the English were found to be
considerably larger.  One, the _Dana_, was of 941 tons; and three French
32-gun frigates averaged about 700 tons, though armed like the
_Southampton_.

About 1779 five frigates of 38 guns, and averaging 946 tons, were
launched.  They were the _Minerva_, built at Woolwich, the _Arethusa,
Latona, Phaeton_, and _Thetis_.  They were first armed with 28
18-pounders on the main-deck and 10 6-pounders, 8 18-pound carronades
and 14 swivels on the quarter-deck and forecastle, and with a complement
of 270 men.  Shortly afterwards the complement was increased to 280 men,
9-pounders were placed on board instead of the sixes, the swivels were
omitted, and carronades substituted.

About the same time frigates of 880 tons, to carry 36 guns, 18 and
9-pounders, were built.

Formerly, as has been seen, a number of small vessels were classed as
frigates.  About the year 1775 they were placed in a different rate, and
those carrying 20 guns had now the name of 20-gun post-ships given to
them, signifying that they were commanded by post-captains.  Afterwards
vessels still called frigates, carrying 24 guns, were also ranked as
post-ships.  The French called vessels of this size corvettes, from the
Italian word corvettore, to leap or bound, from which we have derived
the word curvet.  The French afterwards applied the name to ships of 24
guns.  In order to mount all these guns on a single tier, it was
necessary to increase the dimensions of the ship, and thus she could
carry heavier metal than those ships mounting their guns on a
quarter-deck and forecastle.  The English, following their example,
afterwards called all ships carrying 24, 22, and 20 guns post-ships, and
those carrying 18, 16, and 14, or any less number, ship-sloops, to which
the general term of corvette was afterwards applied.  The English did
not apply the term corvette to brigs, but designated such two-masted
vessels as brigs-of-war, though they are sometimes spoken of as
brig-sloops.

It will thus be understood that a ship that mounts 24 guns at least on a
single-deck, and other guns on a quarter-deck and forecastle, is
properly called a frigate.  When, however, the waist is decked over and
has raised bulwarks with ports in them filled with guns, the vessel
becomes a two-decked ship.

It is necessary to explain the term "flush."  In sea language it means
level, a flush-deck is consequently a level deck extending fore and aft.
Such are all the decks of a man-of-war, except of the upper ones.  Many
merchantmen are also built in the same way, but others rise abruptly a
foot, or two or three feet, towards the stern, the higher part of the
deck becoming the quarter-deck.  Ships thus built are spoken of as
deep-waisted, because the centre part is deeper or lower than the
after-part.  The bulwarks in the same way sink in proportion at the
break of the quarter-deck.  Up to the present day many of the largest
ships-of-war are flush-decked, as are all brigs-of-war and many
corvettes, but a frigate, which must have a quarter-deck and forecastle,
cannot properly be said to be flush-decked, although, in fact, the
gratings or gangway at the waist give her the appearance of being so to
the unsophisticated eye.

Our knowledge of the state of the navy during the reigns of Charles the
Second and his brother is derived chiefly from Mr Samuel Pepys, who was
clerk of the Acts, through the interest of his relative the Earl of
Sandwich, and was ultimately clerk of the treasurer to the commissioners
of the affairs of Tangier, and surveyor-general of the victualling
department.  He spared no pains to check the rapacity of contractors by
whom the naval stores were then supplied; he studied order and economy
in the dockyards, advocated the promotion of old-established officers in
the navy, and resisted to the utmost the infamous system of selling
places, then most unblushingly practised.  During the Dutch war the care
of the navy in a great measure rested upon him alone, and by his zeal
and industry he gained the esteem of the Duke of York, with whom, as
Lord High Admiral, he was in constant intercourse.  Thus from his diary
we can gain a pretty accurate knowledge of the customs of the times in
the naval service, and the way the affairs of the navy were managed.

In an entry of the 4th of June, 1661, he describes a dinner, where the
discourse was on the subject of young noblemen and gentlemen who thought
of going to sea, the naval service being considered as noble as that of
the land.  Lord Crewe remarked that "in Queen Elizabeth's time one young
nobleman would wait with a trencher at the back of another till he come
of age himself;" and he mentioned the Earl of Kent, who was waiting on
Lord Bedford at table when a letter came to that lord announcing that
the earldom had fallen to his servant the young lord; at which he rose
from table and made him sit down in his place, taking a lower for
himself.

It was undoubtedly in this way that many lads of family went to sea to
serve as cabin-boys to captains of distinction, and at the same time to
learn seamanship and navigation.

He gives an amusing account of the sale of two ships at an auction by an
inch of candle.  The auctioneer put them up when the candle was first
lighted, and bidding went on till it was burnt down.  He describes "how
they do invite one another, and at last how they all do cry, and we have
much to do to tell who did cry last.  The ships were the _Indian_, sold
for 1300 pounds, and the _Half-Moone_, sold for 830 pounds."  Of course,
the ships were knocked down to the person who made the last bidding
before the candle was burnt out.

It is no wonder that naval affairs went wrong in those days, when money
was wanting to pay both officers and seamen, and to supply stores and
provisions; indeed, what should have been devoted to the purpose was
fearfully misappropriated.  On the 14th of August, 1661, he says: "This
morning Sir W. Batten and Sir W. Penn and I waited upon the Duke of York
in his chamber, to give him an account of the condition of the navy for
lack of money, and how our own very bills are offered upon the exchange
to be sold at 20 in the 100 loss.  He is much troubled at it, and will
speak to the king and council of it this morning."

The debts of the navy at that time amounted to near 374,000 pounds.  He
tells us that he was "writing a little treatise to present to the duke,
about our privileges in the seas, as to other nations striking their
flags to us."  The English had long claimed the right to have this
honour paid to their flag, though the people of other countries were
naturally inclined to dispute it, and if not the cause was the pretext
of our wars with the Dutch.

On the 25th of January he met Sir Richard Brown, and discussed with him
Sir N. Crisp's project for "making a great sluice in the king's lands
about Deptford, to be a wet-dock to hold 200 sail of ships.  But the
ground, it seems, was long since given by the king to Sir Richard."

On the 14th of March the German Dr Knuffler "came to discourse about
his engine to blow up ships.  We doubted not the matter of fact, it
being tried in Cromwell's time, but the safety of carrying them in
ships; but he do tell us that when he comes to tell the king his secret
(for none but the kings successively and their heirs must know it), it
will appear to be of no danger at all.  We concluded nothing, but shall
discourse with the Duke of York tomorrow about it."

Chaplains were appointed in those days to ships, though several
instances are given which prove that they were not men likely to advance
the interests of religion.  After visiting the yard, he went on board
the _Swallow_ in the dock, "where our navy chaplain preached a sad
sermon, full of nonsense and false Latin; but prayed for the Right
Honourable the principall officers."

Again, he speaks of many rogueries practised.  Among others, on the 4th
of June he went "by water to Woolwich, and there saw an experiment made
of Sir R. Ford's Holland's yarne (about which we have lately had so much
stir, and I have much concerned myself for our ropemaker, Mr Hughes,
who represented it so bad), and we found it to be very bad, and broke
sooner than upon a fair trial, five threads of that against four of Riga
yarne; and also that some of it had old stuffe that had been tarred,
covered over with new hempe, which is such a cheat as hath not been
heard of."

The war with the Dutch had not yet commenced, but there was every
probability of it soon breaking out, though the English fleet was at
that time in a sadly unprepared state.  On the 28th of June, 1662, he
says: "Great talk there is of a fear of a war with the Dutch, and we
have orders to pitch upon 20 ships to be forthwith set out; but I hope
it is but a scarecrow to the world to let them see that we can be ready
for them; though God knows, the king is not able to set out five ships
at this present without great difficulty, we neither having money,
credit, nor stores."

With regard to the stores, he says, on the 21st of July: "To Woolwich to
the rope-yard, and there looked over several sorts of hemp, and did fall
upon my great survey of seeing the working and experiments of the
strength and the charge in the dressing of every sort; and I do think
have brought it to so great a certainty, as I have done the king some
service in it, and do purpose to get it ready against the duke's coming
to towne to present to him.  I see it is impossible for the king to have
things done as cheap as other men."

On the 4th of September he remarks, notwithstanding all their
shortcomings, that the fleet was in a far better condition than in the
days of Queen Elizabeth.  "Sir William Compton I heard talk with great
pleasure of the difference between the fleet now and in Queen
Elizabeth's days; where, in 1588, she had but 36 sail great and small in
the world, and ten rounds of powder was their allowance at that time
against the Spaniards."

He speaks of yachts as pleasure vessels, a name derived from the Dutch,
one of which class of vessels so-called had been presented by them to
the late king.  "By water to Woolwich; in my way saw the yacht lately
built by our virtuosos (my Lord Brunkard and others, with the help of
Commissioner Pett also), set out from Greenwich with the little Dutch
bezan to try for mastery; and before they got to Woolwich the Dutch beat
them half-a-mile (and I hear this afternoon that, in coming home, it got
above three miles), which all our people are glad of."

On the 18th of February, 1663, he says that he finds "the true charge of
the navy" to be "after the rate of 374,743 pounds a-year."

On the 14th of April Sir George Carteret tells him that Parliament "will
call all things in question; and, above all, the expenses of the navy;"
"and into the truth of the report of people being forced to sell their
bills at 15 per cent, losse in the navy."

On the 23rd of May Sir George says that Parliament intend to report
200,000 pounds per annum as the ordinary charge of the navy.

The importance of having wet-docks in which ships could be fitted out
was well understood.  He speaks of finding certain creeks at Portsmouth,
and mentions Commissioner Pett's design to form a wet-dock in Saint
Mary's creek, "which can be done at no great charge, and yet no little
one; he thinks, towards 10,000 pounds;" and that the place is likely to
be a very fit one when the king has money to do it with.

He mentions a letter of Sir William Petty, "wherein he says that his
vessel, which he hath built upon two keels (a model whereof, built for
the king, he shewed me), hath this month won a wager of 50 pounds, in
sailing between Dublin and Holyhead, with the pacquett-boat, the best
ship or vessel the king hath there; and he offers to lay with any vessel
in the world.  It is about 30 ton in burden, and carries 30 men, with
good accommodation (as much more as any ship of her burden), and so any
vessel of this figure shall carry more men, with better accommodation by
half, than any other ship.  This carries also ten guns of about five
tons weight.  In their coming back from Holyhead they started together,
and this vessel came to Dublin by five at night, and the pacquett-boat
not before eight the next morning; and when they come they did believe
that this vessel had been drowned, or at least behind, not thinking she
could have lived in that sea."  He concludes, "I only affirm that the
perfection of sailing lies in my principle, find it out who can."

By his account we find that machines to perform the same service as
torpedoes were thought of in those days.  He tells "Dr Allen," with
whom he had "some good discourse about physick and chymistry, what
Dribble, the German Doctor, do offer of an instrument to sink ships he
tells me that which is more strange, that something made of gold, which
they call in chymistry _aurum fulminans_, a grain, I think he said, of
it, put into a silver spoon and fired, will give a blow like a musquett,
and strike a hole through the silver spoon downward, without the least
force upward."

He gives an amusing account of a trial about the insurance of a ship,
before Lord Chief-Justice Hide.  "It was pleasant to see what mad sort
of testimonys the seamen did give, and could not be got to speak in
order; and then their terms such as the judge could not understand; and
to hear how sillily the counsel and judge would speak as to the terms
necessary in the matter, would make one laugh; and, above all, a
Frenchman, that was forced to speak in French, and took an English oath
he did not understand, and had an interpreter sworn to tell us what he
said, which was the best testimony of all."

On the 3rd of December, 1663, he gives us the satisfactory intelligence
"that the navy (excepting what is due to the yards upon the quarter now
going on) is quite out of debt; which is extraordinary good news, and
upon the 'Change, to hear how our credit goes as good as any merchant's
upon the 'Change is a joyfull thing to consider, which God continue!"

The next day he remarks, "The King of France, they say, is hiring of 60
sail of ships of the Dutch, but it is not said for what design."

On the 22nd of January he went down to Deptford, "and there viewed Sir
William Petty's vessel; which hath an odd appearance, but not such as
people do make of it."

On the 4th of March he "saw several people trying a new-fashion gun,
brought by my Lord Peterborough this morning, to shoot off often, one
after another, without trouble or danger."  This must have been
something of the fashion of a revolver of the present day.

One of the first entries regarding the Dutch war is on the 21st of
November, 1644.  "This day, for certain, news is come that Teddiman hath
brought in eighteen or twenty Dutchmen, merchants, their Bourdeaux
fleet, and two men-of-war to Portsmouth.  And I had letters this
afternoon, that three are brought into the Downes and Dover; so that the
warr is begun: God give a good end to it!"

On the 31st of December he says: "My Lord Sandwich at sea with the fleet
at Portsmouth, sending some about to cruise for taking of ships, which
we have done to a great number."

On the 11th of January, 1665: "This evening, by a letter from Plymouth,
I hear that two of our ships, the _Leopard_ and another, in the
Straights, are lost by running aground; and that three more had like to
have been so, but got off, whereof Captain Allen one; and that a Dutch
fleet are gone thither; and if they should meet with our lame ships, God
knows what would become of them.  This I reckon most sad news; God make
us sensible of it!"

The following remarks show the threatening attitude of the Dutch: on the
12th of January, 1665, "Spoke with a Frenchman, who was taken, but
released, by a Dutch man-of-war, of 36 guns (with seven more of the
king's or greater ships), off the North Foreland, by Margett.  Which is
a strange attempt, that they should come to our teeth; but, the wind
being easterly, the wind that should bring our force from Portsmouth,
will carry them away home."

On the 15th he was called in, with Sir William Penn, to see the king,
"And there Sir W. Penn spoke pretty well to dissuade the king from
letting the Turkish ships go out; saying (in short), the king having
resolved to have 130 ships out by the spring, he must have above 20 of
them merchantmen.  Towards which, he, in the whole river, could find but
12 or 14, and of them the five ships taken up by these merchants were a
part, and so could not be spared.  That we should need 30,000 sailors to
man these 130 ships, and of them, in service, we have not above 16,000;
so that we shall need 14,000 more.  That these ships will, with their
convoys, carry about 2000 men, and those the best men that could be got;
it being the men used to the southward that are the best men of warr,
though those bred in the north, among the colliers, are good for labour.
That it will not be safe for the merchants, nor honourable for the
king, to expose these rich ships with his convoy of six ships to go, it
not being enough to secure them against the Dutch, who, without doubt,
will have a great fleet in the Straights."

At a visit of the Duke of York, he hears, by a letter from Captain
Allen, "First, of our own loss of two ships, the _Phoenix_ and
_Nonsuch_, in the Bay of Gibraltar; then of his and his seven ships with
him, in the Bay of Cales, or thereabouts, fighting with the 34 Dutch
Smyrna fleet; sinking the _King Solomon_, a ship worth 150,000 pounds,
or more, some say 200,000 pounds, and another; and taking of three
merchant-ships.  Two of our ships were disabled by the Dutch
unfortunately falling, against their will, against them--the _Advice_,
Captain W. Poole, and _Antelope_, Captain Clerke.  The Dutch men-of-war
did little service.  Captain Allen, before he would fire one gun, come
within pistol-shot of the enemy.  The Spaniards, at Cales, did stand
laughing at the Dutch, to see them run away and flee to the shore, 34 or
thereabouts, against eight Englishmen at most."

"Captain Allen led the way, and himself writes that all the masters of
the fleet, old and young, were mistaken, and did carry their ships
aground."

"Captain Seale, of the _Milford_, hath done his part very well, in
boarding the _King Solomon_, which held out half-an-hour after she was
boarded; and his men kept her an hour after they did master her, and
then she sank, and drowned about 17 of her men."

He speaks, a few days afterwards, of meeting the owners of the
double-bottomed boat the _Experiment_, which again reminds us of the
plan, at present adopted, to guard ships against the effects of
torpedoes.

On the 17th of April he heard an account of the capture of three
privateers, one of which was commanded by Admiral Everson's son.
Captain Golding, of the _Diamond_, was killed in the action.  "Two of
them, one of 32, and the other of 20 odd guns, did stand stoutly up
against her, which hath 46, and the _Yarmouth_ that hath 52, and as many
more men as they.  So that they did more than we could expect, not
yielding till many of their men were killed.  And Everson, when he was
brought before the Duke of York, and was observed to be shot through the
hat, answered, that he wished it had gone through his head, rather than
been taken.  One thing more is written; that two of our ships, the other
day, appearing upon the coast of Holland, they presently fired their
beacons round the country to give them notice.  And news is brought the
king, that the Dutch Smyrna fleet is seen upon the back of Scotland;
and, thereupon, the king hath wrote to the duke, that he do appoint a
fleet to go to the northward to try to meet them coming home round;
which God send!"

On the 28th he went down the river to visit the victualling ships,
"where I find all out of order."

On the 8th of June he writes: "Victory over the Dutch, June 3, 1665.
This day they engaged, the Dutch neglecting greatly the opportunity of
the wind they had of us, by which they lost the benefit of their
fire-ships.  The Earl of Falmouth, Muskerry, and Mr Richard Boyle
killed on board the duke's ship, the _Royall Charles_, with one shot,
their blood and brains flying in the duke's face, and the head of Mr
Boyle striking down the duke, as some say.  The Earle of Marlborough,
Portland, Rear-Admirall Sansum killed, and Capt. Kerby and Ableson.  Sir
John Lawson wounded, hath had some bones taken out, and is likely to be
well again.  Upon receiving the hurt, he sent to the duke for another to
command the _Royal Oake_.  The duke sent Jordan out of the _Saint
George_, who did brave things in her.  Capt. Jer. Smith, of the _Mary_,
was second to the duke, and stepped between him and Captain Seaton, of
the _Urania_ (76 guns and 400 men), who had sworn to board the duke,
killed him 200 men, and took the ship himself, losing 99 men, and never
an officer saved but himself and lieutenant.  His master, indeed, is
saved, with his leg cut off; Admiral Opdam blown up, Trump killed, and
said by Holmes; all the rest of their admiralls, as they say, but
Everson (whom they dare not trust for his affection to the Prince of
Orange), are killed, we having taken and sunk, as is believed, about 24
of their best ships, killed and taken 8 or 10,000 men, and lost, we
think, not above 700.  A greater victory never known in the world.  They
are all fled.  Some 43 got into the Texell, and others elsewhere, and we
in pursuit of the rest."

On the 16th he goes down to Whitehall, and hears more about the battle.
"Among other things, how my Lord Sandwich, both in his councils and
personal service, hath done most honourably and serviceably.  Jonas
Poole, in the _Vanguard_, did basely, so as to be, or will be, turned
out of his ship.  Captain Holmes expecting upon Sansum's death to be
made rear-admirall to the prince (but Harman is put in), hath delivered
up to the duke his commission, which the duke took and tore.  Several of
our captains have done ill.  The great ships are the ships to do the
business, they quite deadening the enemy.  They run away upon sight of
the prince.  Captain Smith, of the _Mary_, the duke talks mightily of,
and some great thing will be done for him.  Strange to hear how the
Dutch do relate, as the duke says, that they are the conquerors, and
bonfires are made in Dunkirke in their behalf, although a clearer
victory can never be expected.  Mr Coventry thinks they cannot have
lost less than 6000 men, and we not dead above 200, and wounded about
400; in all about 600.  Captain Grove, the duke told us this day, hath
done the basest thing at Lowestoffe, in hearing of the guns, and could
not (as others) be got out, but staid there, for which he will be tried,
and is reckoned a prating coxcombe, and of no courage."

The fleet did not escape the plague, which was at that time raging in
London.  On the 12th of August it appeared at Deptford, on board the
_Providence_ fire-ship, which was just fitting out to go to sea.

At Sheerness, a yard was in course of being laid out to lay provisions
for cleaning and repairing of ships, the most proper place for the
purpose.

On the 19th the fleet came home, "to our great grief, with not above
five weeks dry and six weeks wet provisions, however, must go out again,
and the duke hath ordered the _Soveraigne_, and all other ships ready,
to go out to the fleet and strengthen them.  This news troubles us all,
but cannot be helped."

On the 9th of September, 1665, he meets Sir William Doyly and Evelyn at
supper: "And I with them full of discourse of the neglect of our
masters, the great officers of state, about all business, and especially
that of money, having now some thousands prisoners kept to no purpose,
at a great charge, and no money provided almost for the doing of it."

"Captain Cocke reports as a certain truth that all the Dutch fleet,
men-of-war and merchant East India ships, are got every one in from
Bergen, the 3rd of this month, Sunday last, which will make us all
ridiculous."

On the 14th, however, he says: "A letter from my Lord Sandwich at
Solebay, of the fleet's meeting with about eighteen more of the Dutch
fleet, and his taking of most of them; and the messenger says, that they
had taken three after the letter was wrote and sealed, which being
twenty-one, and the fourteen took the other day, is forty-five sail,
some of which are good and others rich ships."

On the 18th he goes to Gravesend in the bezan yacht, and "by break of
day we come to within sight of the fleet, which was a very fine thing to
behold, being above 100 ships, great and small, with the flag-ships of
each squadron distinguished by their several flags on their main, fore,
or mizen-masts.  Among others, the _Soveraigne, Charles_, and _Prince_,
in the last of which my Lord Sandwich was.  And so we come on board, and
we find my Lord Sandwich newly up in his night-gown very well."

He attends a council of war on board, "When comes Sir W. Penn, Sir
Christopher Mingo, Sir Edward Spragg, Sir Jos. Jordan, Sir Thomas
Teddiman, and Sir Roger Omittance."  Sir Christopher Mings was one of
the bravest admirals of the day.  He was the son of a shoemaker, and had
worked his way up in the sea-service.  He was killed the following year,
June, 1666, in action with the Dutch.  Pepys describes him as "a very
witty, well-spoken fellow, and mighty free to tell his parentage, being
a shoemaker's son."

On the 25th of January, 1666, he writes: "It is now certain that the
King of France hath publickly declared war against us, and God knows how
little fit we are for it."

As an example of the way affairs were managed, he tells us that, viewing
the yard at Chatham, he observed, "among other things, a team of four
horses coming close by us, drawing a piece of timber that I am confident
one man could easily have carried upon his back.  I made the horses be
taken away, and a man or two to take the timber away with their hands."

Still more abominable was the way in which the wages of the unfortunate
seamen were kept back.  On the 7th of October, 1665, he writes: "Did
business, though not much, at the office, because of the horrible crowd
and lamentable moan of the poor seamen that lie starving in the streets
for lack of money, which do trouble and perplex me to the heart; and
more at noon, when we were to go through them, for then above a whole
hundred of them followed us, some cursing, some swearing, and some
praying to us."  He continues: "Want of money in the navy puts
everything out of order; men grown mutinous, and nobody here to mind the
business of the navy but myself."

On the 19th of May, 1666: "Mr Deane and I did discourse about his ship
_Rupert_, built by him, which succeeds so well as he hath got great
honour by it, and I some by recommending him--the king, duke, and
everybody saying it is the best ship that ever was built.  And, then, he
fell to explain to me his manner of casting the draught of water which a
ship will draw beforehand, which is a secret the king and all admire in
him; and he is the first that hath come to any certainty beforehand of
foretelling the draught of water of a ship before she be launched."

On the 4th he describes the fight between the English and Dutch, the
news brought by a Mr Daniel, "who was all muffled up, and his face as
black as the chimney, and covered with dirt, pitch, and tar, and powder,
and muffled with dirty clouts, and his right eye stopped with okum."
The English "found the Dutch fleet at anchor, between Dunkirke and
Ostend, and made them let slip their anchors; they about ninety and we
less than sixty.  We fought them and put them to the run, till they met
with about sixteen sail of fresh ships, and so bore up again.  The fight
continued till night, and then again the next morning from five till
seven at night.  And so, too, yesterday morning they began again, and
continued till about four o'clock, they chasing us for the most part of
Saturday, and yesterday we flying from them."  Prince Rupert's fleet,
however, was seen coming, "upon which De Ruyter called a council, and
thereupon their fleet divided into two squadrons--forty in one, and
about thirty in the other; the bigger to follow the duke, the less to
meet the prince.  But the prince come up with the generall's fleet, and
the Dutch come together again, and bore towards their own coast, and we
with them.  The duke was forced to come to anchor on Friday, having lost
his sails and rigging."

Some days afterwards he continues the description of the fight: "The
commanders, officers, and even the common seamen do condemn every part
of the late conduct of the Duke of Albemarle; running among them in his
retreat, and running the ships on ground; so as nothing can be worse
spoken of.  That Holmes, Spragg, and Smith do all the business, and the
old and wiser commanders nothing."

"We lost more after the prince came than before.  The _Prince_ was so
maimed, as to be forced to be towed home."  Among several commanders
killed in the action was Sir Christopher Mings.

He describes the affection the seamen entertained for those commanders
they esteemed: "About a dozen able, lusty, proper men come to the
coach-side with tears in their eyes, and one of them that spoke for the
rest begun and said to Sir W. Coventry, `We are here a dozen of us, that
have long known and loved and served our dead commander, Sir Christopher
Mings, and have now done the last office of laying him in the ground.
We would be glad we had any other to offer after him, and in revenge of
him.  All we have is our lives; if you will please to get His Royal
Highness to give us a fire-ship among us all, here are a dozen of us,
out of all which choose you one of us to be commander, and the rest of
us, whoever he is, will serve him; and, if possible, do that which shall
show our memory of our dead commander, and our revenge.'  Sir W.
Coventry was herewith much moved, as well as I, who could hardly abstain
from weeping."

"Sir Christopher Mings was a very stout man, and a man of great parts,
and most excellent tongue among ordinary men; and would have been a most
useful man at such a time as this."

He gives a deplorable account of the state of the navy, the neglect of
business by Charles and his brother, and the want of money.  On the 8th
of October, 1665, he writes: "I think of twenty-two ships, we shall make
shift to get out seven.  (God help us! men being sick, or provisions
lacking.)  There is nothing but discontent among the officers, and all
the old experienced men are slighted."

Speaking of the action with the Dutch, he says: "They do mightily insult
of their victory, and they have great reason.  Sir William Barkeley was
killed before his ship taken; and there he lies dead in a sugar-chest,
for everybody to see, with his flag standing up by him.  And Sir George
Ascue is carried up and down the Hague for people to see."

The abominable system of the press-gang was then in full force, and was
carried on with the same cruelty which existed till a much later period:
"To the Tower several times, about the business of the pressed men, and
late at it till twelve at night shipping of them.  But, Lord! how some
poor women did cry; and in my life I never did see such natural
expression of passion as I did here in some women bewailing themselves,
and running to every parcel of men that were brought one after another
to look for their husbands, and wept over every vessel that went off,
thinking they might be there, and looking after the ship as far as ever
they could by moone-light, that it grieved me to the heart to hear them.
Besides, to see poor, patient, labouring men and housekeepers leaving
poor wives and families, taken up on a sudden by strangers, was very
hard, and that without press-money, but forced against all law to be
gone.  It is a great tyranny."

The next morning he went "to Bridewell to see the pressed men, where
there are about 300; but so unruly that I durst not go among them; and
they have reason to be so, having been kept these three days prisoners,
with little or no victuals, and pressed out and contrary to all course
of law, without press-money, and men that are not liable to it."

"I found one of the vessels loaden with the Bridewell birds in a great
mutiny; I think it is much if they do not run the vessel on ground."

He continues: "With regard to the building of ten great ships, none to
be under third-rates; but it is impossible to do it, unless we have some
money."

Sir W. Penn gives his advice as to the mode of fighting at sea: "We must
fight in a line, whereas we fight promiscuously, to our utter and
demonstrable ruin; the Dutch fighting otherwise; and we, whenever we
beat them. 2.  We must not desert ships of our own in distress, as we
did, for that makes a captain desperate, and he will fling away his ship
when there are no hopes left him of succour. 3rd.  That ships when they
are a little shattered must not take the liberty to come in of
themselves, but refit themselves the best they can, and stay out--many
of our ships coming in with very small disableness.  He told me that our
very commanders, nay, our very flag-officers, do stand in need of
exercising among themselves, and discoursing the business of commanding
a fleet; he telling me that even one of our flagmen in the fleet did not
know which tack lost the wind or kept it in the last engagement.  Then
in the business of forecastles, which he did oppose, all the world sees
now the use of them for shelter of men."

He observes that "we see many women now-a-days in the streets, but no
men; men being so afraid of the press."  He speaks of purchasing "four
or five tons of corke, to send this day to the fleet, being a new device
to make barricados with, instead of junke."  The importance of
protecting men against shot was even then, it will be seen, thought of.

On the 10th he goes "to the office; the yard being very full of women
coming to get money for their husbands and friends that are prisoners in
Holland; and they lay clamouring and swearing and cursing us, that my
wife and I were afraid to send a venison-pasty that we have for supper
to-night, to the cook's to be baked."

On the 23rd July Sir W. Coventry talks to him of the "_Loyal London_
(which, by the way, he commends to be the best ship in the world, large
and small) hath above eight hundred men.  The first guns made for her
all bursted, but others were made, which answered better."

Speaking of the late battle, he remarks that "the _Resolution_ had all
brass guns, being the same that Sir John Lawson had in her in the
Straights.  It is to be observed that the two fleets were even in number
to one ship."

Sir W. Coventry "spoke slightingly of the Duke of Albemarle, saying,
when De Ruyter come to give him a broadside--`Now,' says he (chewing of
tobacco the while), `will this fellow come and give me two broadsides,
and then he shall run;' but it seems he held him to it two hours, till
the duke himself was forced to retreat to refit, and was towed off, and
De Ruyter staid for him till he come back again to fight.  One in the
ship saying to the duke, `Sir, methinks De Ruyter hath given us more
than two broadsides.'  `Well,' says the duke, `but you shall find him
run by-and-by,' and so he did, but after the duke himself had been first
made to fall of."

From the accounts he gives of the condition of the navy, it is
surprising that our ships were not everywhere beaten.  On the 20th of
October he writes: "Commissioner Middleton says that the fleet was in
such a condition as to discipline, as if the devil had commanded it; so
much wickedness of all sorts.  Enquiring how it came to pass that so
many ships had miscarried this year, he tells me that the pilots do say
that they dare not do nor go but as the captains will have them; and if
they offer to do otherwise, the captains swear they will run them
through.  That he heard Captain Digby (my Lord of Bristoll's son, a
young fellow that never was but one year, if that, in the fleet) say
that he did hope he should not see a tarpawlin have the command of a
ship within this twelve months"--tarpaulin being the common name applied
to a sailor in those days.

On the 19th: "Nothing but distraction and confusion in the affairs of
the navy."

On the 28th he adds: "Captain Guy to dine with me.  He cries out of the
discipline of the fleet, and confesses really that the true English
valour we talk of is almost spent and worn out; few of the commanders
doing what they should do, and he much fears we shall therefore be
beaten the next year.  He assures me we were beaten home the last June
fight, and that the whole fleet was ashamed to hear of our bonfires.
The _Revenge_ having her forecastle blown up with powder to the killing
of some men in the river, and the _Dyamond_ being overset in the
careening at Sheerness, are further marks of the method all the king's
work is now done in.  The _Foresight_ also and another come to disasters
in the same place this week in the cleaning."

On the 2nd of November he describes the _Ruby_, French prize, "the only
ship of war we have taken from any of our enemies this year.  It seems a
very good ship, but with galleries quite round the sterne to walk in as
a balcone, which will be taken down."

News of the Dutch having been seen off the mouth of the Thames alarms
every one; and on the 24th of March, 1667, he writes: "By-and-by to the
Duke of Yorke, where we all met, and there was the king also; and all
our discourse was about fortifying of the Medway and Harwich; and here
they advised with Sir Godfrey Lloyd and Sir Bernard de Gunn, the two
great engineers, and had the plates drawn before them; and indeed all
their care they now take is to fortify themselves, and are not ashamed
of it."

On the 9th of June he writes: "I find an order come for the getting some
fire-ships presently to annoy the Dutch, who are in the king's channel,
and expected up higher."

The next day: "News brought us that the Dutch are come up as high as the
Nore; and more pressing orders for fire-ships.  We all went down to
Deptford, and pitched upon ships and set men at work, but, Lord! to see
how backwardly things move at this pinch, notwithstanding that by the
enemy being now come up as high as almost the Hope."

Anxiety and terror prevailed in the city, and people were removing their
goods--the thoughtful Mr Pepys making a girdle to carry 300 pounds in
gold about his body.  The alarm is further increased when a neighbour
comes up from Chatham, and tells him that that afternoon he "saw the
_Royal James_, the _Oake_, and _London_ burnt by the enemy with their
fire-ships; that two or three men-of-war come up with them, and made no
more of Upnor Castle's shooting than of a fly; that the Dutch are
fitting out the _Royal Charles_."

Ships were to be sunk in the river, about Woolwich, to prevent the Dutch
coming up higher.

"The masters of the ships that are lately taken up, do keep from their
ships all their stores, or as much as they can, so that we cannot
despatch them, having not time to appraise them, nor secure their
payment.  Only some little money we have, which we are fain to pay the
men we have with every night, or they will not work.  And, indeed, the
hearts as well as the affections of the seamen are turned away; and in
the open streets in Wapping, and up and down, the wives have cried
publickly, `This comes of not paying our husbands; and now your work is
undone, or done by hands that understand it not.'"

Some of the men, "instead of being at work at Deptford, where they were
intended, do come to the office this morning to demand the payment of
their tickets; for otherwise they would, they said, do no more work; and
are, as I understand from everybody that has to do with them, the most
debauched, swearing rogues that ever were in the navy, just like their
prophane commander."

"Nothing but carelessness lost the _Royal Charles_, for they might have
saved her the very tide that the Dutch came up.  The Dutch did take her
with a boat of nine men, who found not a man on board her; and presently
a man went up and struck her flag, and jacke, and a trumpeter sounded
upon her, `Joan's placket is torn;' they did carry her down at a time,
both for tides and wind, when the best pilot in Chatham would not have
undertaken it, they heeling her on one side to make her draw little
water, and so carried her away safe."

"It is a sad sight to see so many good ships there sunk in the river,
while we would be thought to be masters of the sea."

He also examines the chain which had been carried across the river, "and
caused the link to be measured, and it was six inches and one-fourth in
circumference."

He commends the Dutch "for the care they do take to encourage their men
to provide great stores of boats to save them; while we have not credit
to find one boat for a ship."  The English mode "of preparing of
fire-ships," he observes, "do not do the work, for the fire not being
strong and quick enough to flame up, so as to take the rigging and
sails, lies smothering a great while, half-an-hour before it flames, in
which time they can get the fire-ships off safely.  But what a shame it
is to consider how two of our ship's companies did desert their ships.
And one more company did set their ship on fire and leave her; which
afterwards a Feversham fisherman came up to, and put out the fire, and
carried safe into Feversham, where she now is.  It was only want of
courage, and a general dismay and abjectness of spirit upon all our men;
God Almighty's curse upon all that we have in hand, for never such an
opportunity was of destroying so many good ships of theirs as we now
had."

To replace the _Royal Charles_ carried away, a new ship was launched on
the 4th of March, 1668, called the _Charles_; "God send her better luck
than the former."

At a Privy Council which he attended, "to discourse about the fitness of
entering of men presently for the manning of the fleet, before one ship
is in condition to receive them," the king observed, "`If ever you
intend to man the fleet without being cheated by the captains and
pursers, you may go to bed and resolve never to have it manned.'"

At another council he speaks of "a proposition made to the Duke of York
by Captain Von Hemskirke, for 20,000 pounds to discover an art how to
make a ship go two feet for one what any ship do now, which the king
inclines to try, it costing him nothing to try; and it is referred to us
to contract with the man."  He afterwards says that the secret was only
to make her sail a third faster than any other ship.

On the 25th of March, 1669, a court-martial was held about the loss of
the _Defyance_.  The sentence was, "That the gunner of the _Defyance_
should stand upon the _Charles_ three hours with his fault writ upon his
breast, and with a halter about his neck, and so be made incapable of
any service."  The ship was burnt by the gunner allowing a girl to carry
a fire into his cabin.

Whatever our shortcomings in regard to naval affairs, it is pleasant to
believe that they cannot possibly be so great as in the days of Mr
Samuel Pepys.



CHAPTER ELEVEN.

WILLIAM AND MARY--FROM A.D. 1689 TO A.D. 1702.

One of the last acts of James was to send a fleet under the command of
Lord Dartmouth to intercept that of William of Orange, which it was
known was on the point of sailing.  On board the Dutch fleet was Admiral
Herbert, acting as commander-in-chief, though all the officers were
Dutch.  It was hoped that he would win over the English fleet.  As it
proved, both the officers and men of the navy were as ill-affected to
James as were those of the army.  Thus, as an old writer observes, "that
naval force which James had cultivated with so much care, and on which
he depended so much, proved of no use--so difficult a thing is it to
bring Englishmen to enslave England."

The Dutch fleet consisted of about 50 men-of-war, 25 fire-ships, and
near 400 transports and victuallers and other vessels, carrying about
4000 horse and 10,000 foot.  Admiral Herbert led the van of the fleet,
Vice-Admiral Evertzen brought up the rear, and the prince himself was in
the centre, carrying a flag with English colours, and their highnesses'
arms surrounded with this motto, "The Protestant Religion and the
Liberties of England," and underneath the motto of the House of Nassau,
"Je Maintiendrai," "I will maintain."

After being driven back by a storm, the fleet came to an anchor in
Torbay on the 4th of November.  The prince wished to land that day, it
being the one on which he was born and married, and he fancied that it
would look auspicious to the army, and animate the soldiers, but the
general wish was that he should not land till the following, being
Gunpowder Treason day, that their landing on that day might have a good
effect on the minds of the English.  No sooner had the Dutch fleet got
into harbour than a heavy storm sprang up from the westward, which
compelled the English fleet to run into Portsmouth, from which they
could not again issue till William had won the day.  When Lord Dartmouth
was able to leave the port he conducted the fleet to the Downs, and
there holding council of war, it was resolved--first, to dismiss from
their commands all such officers as were known to be papists, and then
to send up an address to his highness setting forth their steady
affection to the Protestant religion, and their sincere concern for the
safety, freedom, and honour of their country.

Not long after this the ships were dispersed, some to the dockyards to
be dismantled and laid up, others to be cleaned and repaired, and such
as were in the best condition for sea were appointed for necessary
services.  The first service in which Admiral Herbert was employed was
to endeavour to intercept the French fleet which had sailed for Ireland
to support the landing of King James.  On the 1st of May, 1689, the
English admiral discovered the enemy's ships at anchor in Bantry Bay;
when the French stood out to sea in a well-formed line of battle to meet
him.  After a warm engagement of some hours the two fleets separated,
when the French, claiming the victory, retired into Bantry Bay, and the
English towards Scilly.  After waiting for reinforcements in the chops
of the channel, none arriving, Admiral Herbert returned to Portsmouth.
Notwithstanding his ill-success, the king, in gratitude for the services
he had before rendered him, created him Earl of Torrington, while
Captains John Ashby, and Cloudesly Shovel were knighted.  In 1690 Sir
Cloudesly Shovel commanded a squadron of six men-of-war, which escorted
the fleet of transports conveying King William's forces to
Carrickfergus, in Ireland.  The Earl of Torrington, when in command of
the combined English and Dutch squadrons in the channel, on the 30th of
June, fell in with the French fleet commanded by the Count de Tourville
between Cherbourg and the Isle of Wight.  The combined fleets amounted
to 56 ships only, while the French possessed 78 men-of-war and 22
fire-ships.  The Dutch and Blue Squadrons being surrounded by the
French, after making a gallant defence, were rescued by the Earl of
Torrington.  After this, finding that no impression could be made on the
French fleet, it was decided in a council of war that it would be wiser
to destroy the disabled ships than, by protecting them, hazard an
engagement.  The _Anne_, of 70 guns, which was dismasted, was forced on
shore and destroyed.  The enemy also attempted to destroy a Dutch 64
which was driven on shore, but her commander defended her with so much
bravery, that he compelled the French to desist, and she, being got off,
arrived safe in Holland.  The earl then retreated into the Thames,
leaving a few frigates to observe and watch the motions of the enemy,
who remained masters of the channel.  In consequence of his conduct, the
earl was brought to a court-martial, but having ably defended himself,
he was unanimously acquitted.  The king, notwithstanding, to appease the
clamours of the nation and the Dutch, took away his commission.

He was succeeded in the command of the fleet by Admiral Russell, who,
greatly owing to the energetic proceedings of Queen Mary, while the king
was absent in Ireland, had, by May, 1691, a squadron of considerable
force, equipped and ready for sea, at his disposal.  So elevated were
the French at their unusual success, that they had the following
inscription engraved on the stern of a new first-rate ship of war named
the _Saint Louis_:--

"I, on the ocean, am the mightiest thing, As on the land, is my
all-potent king."

English men-of-war were ere long, however, to teach them to sing a
different note.  A fleet of ninety-nine sail, including the Dutch ships,
was got ready by May, 1692.  The English fleet was divided into two
squadrons, the Red and the Blue.  Among the ships we find the names of
many which have become famous in naval history.  There were six ships of
100 guns each.  In the Red Squadron there was the _Britannia_, carrying
the flag of Admiral Russell; the _Royal Sovereign_, that of Vice-Admiral
Sir Ralph Delaval; the _London_, that of the rear-admiral, Sir Cloudesly
Shovel; the _Sandwich_, of 90 guns; the _Swiftsure, Hampton Court,
Eagle_, and _Captain_; of 70; the _Ruby, Oxford_, and _Centurion_, of
50.  In the Blue Squadron there were the _Victory_, of 100 guns, with
the flag of Admiral Sir John Ashby; the _Windsor Castle_, with that of
Vice-Admiral Sir George Rooke; the _Neptune_, of 96 guns; the
_Albemarle_ and _Vanguard_, of 90 guns; the _Royal Oak_, of 74; the
_Northumberland, Berwick, Warspight, Monmouth_, and _Edgar_, of 70; the
_Lion_ and _Dreadnought_, of 60--names long known in the British Navy.
Altogether, the English fleet carried 4504 guns, and 27,725 men.  The
Dutch fleet carried rather more than half the number of guns, and less
than half the number of men.  No more powerful fleet had ever yet
ploughed the ocean--it was, probably, immeasurably more so than that
which encountered the Spanish Armada; while the commanders were as
expert and daring as their predecessors, the seamen were infinitely
better trained.

The combined fleet sailed from Spithead on the 18th of May, and stood
across to the coast of France.  The _Chester_ and _Charles_ galleys,
being sent ahead, just at dawn on the 19th, Cape Barfleur bearing
south-west by south, distant about seven leagues, made the signal of the
French fleet being in sight, by firing some guns.  Admiral Russell
thereon ordered his fleet to form a line of battle, and directed the
rear to attack, so that, should the French stand to the northward, they
might the sooner come up and engage.  As the sun rose above the ocean on
that May morning, soon after four o'clock, the enemy were seen standing
southward, forming their line on the same tack as that of the allied
squadrons.  The French admiral, De Tourville, who had till now supposed
that he was about to meet only a portion of the English fleet,
nevertheless considering that their hasty retreat would cause a
confusion which might prove more hazardous than the battle itself,
continued his orders for the engagement, and bore down on the allies.
Admiral Russell on seeing this, annulled the signal for the rear to
attack, and bore away to join the leeward-most ships, and formed a line
ahead in close order of sailing.  The French advanced till within
musket-shot of the English line, when, hauling up to windward, the
_Soleil Royal_, at 11:30 a.m., opened fire upon the _Britannia_.  De
Tourville's object was to cut through the English line, but in
consequence of the light breeze having dwindled to a calm, in bearing up
as he did the French admiral lost his advantage.  The _Soleil Royal_ and
the _Britannia_ thus lay for an hour and a quarter about three-quarter's
musket-shot of each other, the English plying their guns so warmly, that
the Frenchman was in that time dreadfully cut up in his rigging, sails,
and yards; it being evident, also, that he had lost a great many men,
for no effort was being made to repair damages.  So actively did the
English gunners work their pieces, that it was reckoned that during the
whole fight they fired at least three broadsides while the French fired
two.  Captains Churchill and Aylmer who had come up to assist the
admiral, had six of the enemy's largest ships to deal with; while Sir
Cloudesly Shovel, who had got to windward, briskly plied the Count de
Tourville's squadron.  As the day advanced, however, a dense fog came
on, so that in a short time not a ship of the enemy could be seen, and
the English, for fear of injuring their friends, ceased firing.  The
ships which had not yet got into action on account of the calm, had
their boats ahead, and used their utmost endeavours to tow them into the
fight.  The English fire-ships had, however, been put to good use,
having burnt four of the enemy's ships.  The killed and wounded were
already numerous; the _Eagle_ alone having 70 men killed and 150
wounded.  Among the former were Rear-Admiral Carter, and Captain
Hastings of the _Sandwich_.

Night coming on, the darkness, increased by the thick fog, put an end to
the fight for that day.  On the morning of the 10th a portion of the
French fleet was discovered, when, the wind springing up, a general
chase was ordered.  This continued till 4 p.m., when, the wind shifting
to the southward, and the ebb ceasing, both fleets anchored and furled
sails.

On the 21st the fleet anchored near the Race of Alderney, Cape La Hogue,
bearing about south.  Twenty-three of the French ships had anchored
still nearer the Race, and fifteen others about three leagues to the
westward.  The flood-tide setting in strong, a number of the French
ships were observed to be driving; on this Admiral Russell threw out a
signal to Vice-Admiral Delaval to stand inshore and destroy them.  On
following out his directions, he found the _Soleil Royal_ and two others
aground, close to the beach.  Finding, however, that his ships drew too
much water, he sent in three fire-ships, embarking in one of them
himself.  He succeeded in burning two of the three-deckers, but another
fire-ship was sunk by the enemy's shot.  The _Saint Albans_ and _Ruby_
standing in, now attacked a third French ship, when Vice-Admiral
Delaval, observing that her crew had deserted their guns, boarded.  On
finding dead and wounded men alone on her decks, he ordered the latter
to be removed, and then set the ship on fire.

One of the fire-ships, commanded by Captain Fowlis, who was conducting
her against the _Soleil Royal_, was set on fire by her shot, though he
and his crew escaped.  Captain Heath, however, succeeded in burning her
with another fire-ship, in the most gallant manner.  The _Conquirant_
was burnt by Captain Greenaway, and the _Admirable_ by the boats.  The
greater number of the enemy's ships had run in for shelter close to the
shore.  Accordingly, on the 23rd of May, Admiral Russell despatched
Vice-Admiral Rooke with a squadron of men-of-war, frigates, and
fire-ships, and the boats of the fleet, to destroy those ships.  It was
found, however, that the small frigates alone could advance near enough
to effect anything.  The boats, however, gallantly led by Rooke, pulled
in at night and destroyed seven of them, and the next morning, again
pulling in, burnt eight, with several transports and ammunition vessels.
Several of the ships were first boarded, and the French, with their own
guns, driven from their platforms and batteries on shore; and this was
done in sight of the French and Irish camps, which lay ready to invade
England.  Altogether, sixteen sail of the line and numerous transports
were destroyed.  The victory was complete, and the annihilation of the
French fleet entirely dissipating the hopes of James, its effect
contributed greatly to place William the Third on his throne.
Vice-Admiral Rooke, who became one of England's greatest admirals, was
knighted for his gallantry on this occasion.

While some of the ships returned to Spithead, a considerable portion
were stationed in different parts of the channel to watch the French
fleet, and to prevent them making their way either to the eastward or
westward.

Among the gallant men who have contributed to the naval glory of
England, the name of John Benbow must ever be had in remembrance.  His
father, Colonel Benbow, was one of those true-hearted cavaliers who
fought bravely for their king to the last, and having seen one of his
brothers shot by the Parliamentary forces, he made his escape, till an
amnesty being granted, he was able to return and live in private in
England.  His fortune having been expended, he was glad to accept a
small office belonging to the Ordnance, in the Tower.  On the breaking
out of the first Dutch war, the king came to examine the magazines.
Charles, whose memory was as quick as his eye, recognised the veteran,
who had for twenty years been distinguished by a fine head of grey hair.
"My old friend, Colonel Benbow," said he, "what do you here?"

"I have," returned the colonel, "a place of 80 pounds a-year, in which I
serve your majesty as cheerfully as if it brought me in 4000 pounds
a-year."

"Alas!" said the king, "is that all that could be found for an old
friend of Worcester?  Colonel Legge, bring this gentleman to me
to-morrow, and I will provide for him and his family as it becomes me."

Short as the time was, the colonel did not live to claim the royal
promise; for, overcome by the king's unexpected gratitude, sitting down
on a bench, he there breathed his last before his majesty was well out
of the tower.  Whatever might have been the king's intentions, he
thought no more of the old cavalier's family, and the colonel's son,
John, went to sea in a merchant-vessel, and shortly became owner and
commander of a ship, called the _Benbow_ frigate.  No man was better
known or more respected by the merchants upon the Exchange.  The
following anecdote shows his character, and is in accordance with the
spirit of the times in which he lived.  In the year 1688 he was, while
in command of the _Benbow_ frigate, attacked on his passage to Cadiz by
a Sallee rover of far superior force, against which he defended himself
with the utmost bravery.  At last the Moors boarded him, but were
quickly beaten out of his ship again with the loss of thirteen men,
whose heads Captain Benbow ordered to be taken off, and thrown into a
tub of pork pickle.  On reaching Cadiz he went on shore, ordering a
negro servant to follow him with the Moors' heads in a sack.  Scarcely
had he landed when the officers of the revenue inquired of the servant
what he had in his sack.  The captain answered, "Salt provisions for his
own use."

"That may be," answered the officers, "but we must insist upon seeing
them."  Captain Benbow said that he was no stranger there, that he was
not accustomed to run goods, and pretended to take it very ill that he
was thus suspected.  The officers told him that the magistrates were
sitting not far off, and if they were satisfied, the servant might carry
the provisions where he pleased.  The captain consented to the proposal,
and away they marched to the custom-house.  The magistrates, when he
came before them, treated Captain Benbow with great civility, telling
him that they were sorry to make a point of such a trifle, but that
since he refused to show the contents of his sack to their officers,
they were compelled to demand a sight of them.

"I told you," said the captain, sternly, "they were salt provisions for
my own use.  Cassar, throw them down upon the table; and, gentlemen, if
you like them, they are at your service."

The Spaniards were much struck at the sight of the Moors' heads, and no
less so at the account the captain gave them of his engagement, and
defeat of so large a force of barbarians.  They sent an account of the
whole matter to the court at Madrid, and the King of Spain was so much
pleased with it, that he requested to see the English captain, who made
a journey to court, where he was received with much respect, and not
only dismissed with a handsome present, but the king was to write a
letter on his behalf to King James, who, upon his return, gave him a
ship, which was his introduction to the Royal Navy.

He had always been looked upon as a bold, brave, and active commander,
and one who, though he maintained strict discipline, took care of, and
was therefore cheerfully obeyed by, his seamen.  He maintained the same
character in the Royal Navy, and was ever beloved and honoured by his
ships' companies.  As the channel was much infested by French
privateers, a large number of which were fitted out at Saint Malo, it
had been considered advisable to destroy that town and the vessels
within its harbour.  Captain Benbow, with a squadron of twelve ships of
the line, four bomb-galliots, ten or twelve frigates, and several
sloops, having crossed the channel, entered the harbour and came to an
anchor within half-a-mile of the town.  The ships then opened fire, and
continued battering away at the place till four in the morning, when
they were compelled to come out to prevent grounding.  Two successive
days they continued doing the same, firing seventy bombs one day, but
with frequent intermissions, inducing the inhabitants to believe that
they were about to retire.  The captain had, however, prepared a
fire-ship, with which it was intended to have reduced the town to ashes.
This vessel was a new galliot, of about 300 tons.  In the bottom of the
hold were placed above a hundred barrels of powder, covered with pitch,
tar, resin, brimstone, and faggots.  Over this was a row of thick planks
or beams, with holes pierced through them in order to communicate the
fire from above, and upon them were placed 340 carcases filled with
grenadoes, cannon-balls, iron chains, firearms loaded with ball, large
pieces of metal wrapped up in tarpaulins, and other combustible matters.
This craft was sent in before the wind, and was near the very foot of
the wall where it was to be fastened, when a sudden gust of wind drove
it upon a rock, where it stuck, near the place where it was intended to
have blown up.  The engineer, however, had time to set fire to it before
he retired.  It blew up soon afterwards, but the carcases, which were to
have done the greatest execution, being wet, did not take fire; yet the
shock was so terrible, that it threw down part of the town wall, shook
every house in the town, and overthrew the roofs of above 300 which were
nearest.  The capstan, weighing above a ton, was thrown over the wall on
the top of a house, which it beat down.  A similar machine had been used
for blowing up the bridge at the siege of Antwerp in 1585.

In 1694 another expedition, under the command of Sir Cloudesly Shovel,
was sent to the coast of Flanders, for the purpose of destroying the
town of Dunkirk.  Previous attacks had been made on the coast of France
of a similar character.  Mr Meesters, the inventor of some infernal
machines, accompanied the expedition.  He requested that a captain might
be appointed to the command of the smaller craft, and Captain Benbow was
accordingly directed to take command of the bomb-galliots and
fire-ships.  Owing to numerous delays, the French having got notice of
the intended attack, had time to make preparations for defeating it,
which resulted in the loss of several ships.  Dieppe, however, had been
bombarded, when 1100 bombs and carcases were thrown into it with such
success, that the town was set on fire in several places, and the
townsmen and some regiments sent to their assistance had to beat a rapid
retreat.

An infernal machine, such as has before been described, was blown up at
the pierhead.  It made a frightful noise, but did little execution,
occasioned, as was supposed, by the pierhead lying too low.  The fuzee
having gone out, Captain Dunbar, who commanded the vessel, again went on
board and set fire to it in the most gallant manner.

Havre-de-Grace was likewise bombarded, when the town was set in flames.
Bad weather coming on, the bomb-vessels were ordered off, the mortars
being either melted or the vessels so shattered, that no present use
could be made of them.  One of them, the _Granado_, was entirely blown
to pieces by a bomb, which fell into her.  It was it hoped, however,
that Sir Cloudesly's expedition would be more successful.
Notwithstanding a heavy fire from a French frigate in the roads, from
numerous forts, and from five other frigates near the basin, Captain
Benbow carried his vessels and boats close up to the town, and came off
again in the night without any damage.  The next day, the weather being
fair, the boats and vessels were again sent in, when the French frigate,
after firing her broadside, ran in to the pier.  In the afternoon, two
infernal machines were blown up at a little distance from the pierhead,
but without doing any damage, except to the crew of the boat which towed
them in, who were all blown up on board.  The French, also, having
driven piles outside the pierheads, and sunk four ships, it was found
impossible to approach nearer the town, and the undertaking was
therefore abandoned.  This is one of the many instances which prove that
fire-ships, if resolutely met by the enemy against whom they are
intended to act, are not capable of effecting much damage.

A remarkable instance of promotion for gallant conduct occurred early in
the reign of William and Mary.  On the 25th of March, 1689, the 36-gun
frigate _Nonsuch_, Captain Roome Coyle, fell in with two French ships,
one mounting 30, the other 22 guns, off Guernsey.  He without hesitation
engaged them, when he and the master being killed, and there being no
lieutenant on board, the boatswain, Robert Simcock, took the command.
So spiritedly did the brave boatswain continue the action, that both
French ships were captured.  For his gallant conduct Mr Simcock, on
reaching Portsmouth with his prize, was forthwith promoted to the rank
of captain, and appointed to command the _Nonsuch_.

Next year a ship called the _Friends' Adventure_, belonging to Exeter,
was captured by a French privateer, who took out of her the master and
five of his men, leaving on board only the mate, Robert Lyde, of
Topsham, twenty-three years of age, and John Wright, a boy of sixteen,
with seven Frenchmen, who had orders to navigate the ship to Saint Malo.
When off Cape la Hogue, a strong wind springing up, drove them off the
French coast.  Lyde now began to entertain hopes of recovering the ship,
and on the 6th of March he and his companion took the opportunity, while
two of the Frenchmen were at the pump, one at the helm, one on the
forecastle, and three asleep in the cabin, to attack them.  Lyde with an
iron crowbar killed one of the men at the pump, and knocked down the
other at one blow.  Wright at the same moment knocked down the man on
the forecastle, and they then secured the man at the helm.  One of the
Frenchmen hearing a scuffle, and running up from between decks to the
assistance of his companions, was wounded by the mate, but the two
others coming to his relief seized and had nearly secured the gallant
fellow, when the boy, bravely hurrying to his aid, after a sharp
struggle, killed one and gave the other quarter.  Having thus made
themselves masters of the ship, they put the two disabled men into bed,
ordering a third to look after them, and secured them between decks.
One they kept bound in the steerage, and made use of the remaining man
to navigate the vessel, which, on the 9th of March, they brought safely
into Topsham, with their five prisoners on board.

About the same time the sloop _Tryal_ was captured by a French
man-of-war, who put five Frenchmen on board, leaving only the master,
Richard Griffiths, afterwards Captain Griffiths, commonly known by the
name of "Honour and Glory," and a boy, John Codamon, in the sloop.
Griffiths and his boy having formed their design, suddenly set upon the
five Frenchmen, and, having wounded three and forced all five down into
the hold, carried their vessel with their prisoners safe into Falmouth.

I give these instances to show the stuff out of which the commanders and
crews of men-of-war were formed in those days.  They show, also, that
the authorities who governed the navy appreciated bravery, and were
ready to obtain the services of such gallant fellows for the advantage
of the country.

We find fire-ships at this period universally sent to sea with fleets.
Sir Francis Waller, on board the _Sussex_, was ordered to proceed to
Cadiz, and from thence to convoy the merchant-vessels he might find
there to Turkey or any ports in Spain or Italy.  His fleet consisted of
fifteen third-rates, seven fourth-rates, one fifth-rate, six fire-ships,
two bomb-vessels, a hospital-ship, and a store-ship in company with
several Dutch ships of war.  Having touched at Gibraltar, he again put
to sea, and met with gales of wind; and ultimately, in thick weather, he
with part of his fleet running to the straits mistook the entrance.  The
_Sussex_, with 550 men on board, foundered, two Moors only escaping.
The admiral's body was afterwards discovered on shore much mangled.
Besides this loss, 409 were drowned belonging to various ships which
were either driven on shore or foundered.  Among them was the
_Cambridge_, a ship of 70 guns, and the _Lumley Castle_.

On most occasions the fire-ships, being generally old vessels fit for no
other purpose, were the chief sufferers.  A Dutch ship of 70 guns ran on
shore, but was got off again, as were several other ships; indeed, few
escaped without much damage.  This was the most violent storm that had
ever been known in those seas since the memory of man.

William was now taking measures for retrieving the honour of the British
Flag, and appointed Admiral Russell commander-in-chief of the navy, and
several other eminent officers to form a new commission of admiralty.
He also, finding that the pay of sea-officers was less than that of
other countries, directed that the sea pay of flag-officers, commanders,
lieutenants, masters, and surgeons should be doubled; as also that all
flag-officers and captains of first, second, third, fourth, and
fifth-rate ships, and also the masters of first, second, and
third-rates, who had served a year in the same post in the ships of
those rates, or been in a general engagement, should have half-pay while
on shore, to be paid quarterly out of the general estimate of the navy.
From this it is evident that they before this time, as also those of
other ranks, received no half-pay while on shore.  It was also ordered
that only such commissioned officers as had been put in by the
Admiralty, and warrant officers as had been put in by the Navy Board,
should receive the benefit of half-pay; that half-pay officers be
expected to assist the Navy Board; that no convoy money be demanded or
received under the penalty of forfeiting and losing employment for ever;
that the commanders transmit to the Admiralty when and why they came
into port.

The French had not abandoned their design of restoring James the Second
to the throne.  He had abdicated, and in 1696, while most of the British
ships were laid up, and the rest were employed in the protection of the
trade up the Mediterranean, it was discovered that 500 transports were
in Dunkirk ready to take on board an army of 20,000 men, under the
escort of fifteen sail of men-of-war, for the invasion of England.
While these preparations were making, and every ship was of consequence,
the _Royal Sovereign_, laid up at Chatham to be rebuilt, took fire, and
was totally consumed.  She was the first great ship that ever was built
in England.  The great object then was only to exhibit as much splendour
and magnificence as possible.  In the reign of Charles the Second,
however, being taken down a deck lower, she became one of the best
men-of-war in the world, and so formidable to her enemies, that none of
the most daring among them would willingly lie by her side.  She had
been in almost all the great engagements that had been fought between
England and Holland, and in the last fight between the English and
French, when she compelled the _Soleil Royal_ to fly for shelter among
the rocks.  At length, leaky and defective with age, she was laid up at
Chatham, in order, as has been said, to be rebuilt.

In the year 1691 the first mention is made of a regular regiment of
marines being raised to serve on board ship.  In this year one dry and
two wet docks were ordered to be constructed at Portsmouth, and orders
were given to survey the harbour of Falmouth, and report whether it was
capable of being made a proper port for the refitting and docking ships
of the Royal Navy.

It was not till the year 1693 that men-of-war on the home service were
allowed to carry to sea spare topmasts and sails.

In 1694 the king, by the advice of the excellent Queen Mary, granted the
royal palace of Greenwich to be converted into a hospital for decayed
seamen in the Royal Navy.  Sir Christopher Wren was appointed as
architect, and an annual sum of money was granted to complete and extend
the buildings.  The foundation of the first new building was laid on the
3rd of June, 1696.

In the same year the landmark on the beach at Stoke, near Gosport,
called the Kicker, was erected, and the buoy of the horse placed at
Spithead, for the better security of ships going into Portsmouth
Harbour.  Some docks were made at Plymouth, and storehouses, as also
residences for the accommodation of the officers of the dockyard, were
built.

In 1695 brass box-compasses were invented and allowed to the ships in
the Royal Navy.  Many ships having been wrecked upon the Eddystone Rock
off Plymouth, an application was made to the Trinity House to erect a
lighthouse on it, which was begun to be built in 1696, and was finished
in three years.  Many masters and owners of ships agreed to pay one
penny per ton outwards and inwards, to assist in defraying the expense.

In 1696 an Act of Parliament was passed to establish a register for
30,000 seamen, to be in readiness at all times for supplying the Royal
Navy.  They were to have a bounty of forty shillings yearly.  None but
such registered seamen were to be preferred to the rank of commissioned
or warrant officers in the Royal Navy.  They were likewise entitled to a
double share in all prizes, and when maimed or superannuated, were
admitted into Greenwich Hospital.  The widows and children of such
registered seamen who might be killed in the service were admissible
into that hospital.  It was also enacted that sixpence per month should
be deducted from the wages of all seamen both in the merchant-service as
well as in the Royal Navy, for the support of Greenwich Hospital.

A composition was invented to be laid on the bottoms of ships to
preserve them against worms.  The experiment was ordered to be tried on
his majesty's ship the _Sheerness_.

In 1696 the Parliament voted 2,372,197 pounds for the maintenance of
40,000 seamen and two regiments of marines, the ordinary of the navy,
and the charge of the registry of seamen.  This was the largest sum by
far hitherto voted for the maintenance of the navy.

In 1697 Commissioner Greenhill proposed a plan for rowing of ships in a
calm, which was tried on board His Majesty's ship the _Experiment_.

In 1700 the rate of pay of sea-officers was again reduced.  It was far
less than that of the French; the French admiral having 1500 pounds per
annum for his table-money, whereas the English admiral had only 365
pounds, no allowance whatever being made to other admirals, unless
commanders-in-chief.

For several years the West Indies and Spanish Main had been infested by
the buccaneers, who plundered without distinction the ships of all
nations, but particularly those of the Spaniards.  Several were taken,
among the most notorious of whom was Captain Kidd, who, being brought to
England and tried at the Old Bailey, was fully convicted, and executed
with several of his companions.  The immense property which Kidd had
amassed was given for the support of Greenwich Hospital.  The Earl of
Bellamont, Governor of New England, and others, were accused in
Parliament of favouring Kidd, and giving him a commission, but the
charges were refuted.

On the 25th of July, 1701, a new _Royal Sovereign_, of 110 guns, was
launched at Woolwich.  She was the largest ship in the navy, the length
of her keel was 146 feet 6 inches, and from the top of the taffrail to
the fore-part of the figure-head, 210 feet 7 inches; her extreme breadth
being 54 feet 3 and a half inches.

Several actions exhibiting extraordinary courage, performed during the
war with France, are worthy of notice.  On the 30th of May, 1695,
William Thompson, master of a fishing-boat belonging to Poole, in
Dorsetshire, with a crew of one man and a boy, observed a French sloop
privateer standing towards him.  He had but two swivel guns and a few
muskets; the privateer had two guns, several small-arms, and sixteen
men.  Thompson, finding that his small crew were ready to support him,
made up his mind to do battle with the Frenchman.  As she approached, he
began blazing away, and in a short time wounded the captain, and mate,
and six men of the privateer, upon which she sheered off.  Thompson on
this made chase, and so skilfully did he manage his little craft, and
with so much determination keep up his fire, that after engaging the
privateer for two hours, she struck.  On his arrival at Poole with his
prize, he was warmly received, and the Lords of the Admiralty, hearing
of his gallantry, presented him with a gold chain and a medal of the
value of 50 pounds.

Another fishing-vessel, belonging to Whitesand, commanded by a Mr
Williams, falling in with some merchant-vessels which had been captured
by French privateers, attacked them with so much courage and skill, that
he retook the whole.  He received the same reward as had Mr Thompson.

Not long afterwards a coasting sloop, the _Sea Adventure_, commanded by
Peter Jolliffe, fell in, off Portland, with a French privateer, which
was in the act of taking possession of a small fishing-vessel belonging
to Weymouth.  The privateer endeavoured to escape, when Jolliffe made
sail in chase, and coming up, briskly opened his fire, when he compelled
her to release her prize.  Not content with this success, he continued
the fight, and at length drove her on shore in Lulworth Bay.  The
seafaring population of the village hurrying out, captured the
privateer, and made prisoners of her crew.

Just before the close of the war, Captain William Jumper, commanding the
_Weymouth_, engaged and sank the _Fougueux_, a French 48-gun ship, and
shortly afterwards he fell in with another French 50-gun ship, but in
the heat of the engagement, some powder on board the _Weymouth_ blew up
the poop, and disabled her for further immediate action.  Having
repaired damages, Captain Jumper again closed with the enemy, but
unhappily his bowsprit and three lower-masts fell overboard, when the
French ship made sail and escaped.  On the 19th of the following August
he fell in with a sail to leeward, between the island of Cloune and
Saint Martins.  He immediately ran down, hoisting the French ensign, and
yawing a little to show it.  Another French frigate at anchor under the
castle, weighed and stood off.  The first man-of-war, suspecting the
character of the stranger, made sail, but the _Weymouth_, outsailing
her, got close under her lee, keeping his French ensign flying to
prevent the enemy from firing at his masts till he was near enough.  He
then hoisted the English ensign and poured in a broadside, and commenced
bracing his main-topsail back; when, before he had fired off a second
round, the enemy, which proved to be _L'Amore_, of Rochefort, a king's
ship, struck her colours.  The other ship, seeing the fate of her
consort, escaped.  The prize was a vessel similar to an English galley.
She carried 20 guns on the upper-deck, and 9 on the lower-deck, but 4 on
the quarter-deck, and between decks she had small ports for oars.



CHAPTER TWELVE.

QUEEN ANNE--FROM A.D. 1702 TO A.D. 1714.

Anne, daughter of James the Second, married the Prince George of
Denmark, and ascended the throne March the 8th, 1702.  Although the army
was held in more consideration during her reign than the navy, the
British seamen managed by their gallant deeds to make the service
respected at home and abroad.  It was not much to his advantage that the
queen appointed her consort, Prince George, to be Lord High Admiral.
The acts done in his name were not so narrowly scrutinised as they would
otherwise have been, and the commissioners of the Admiralty took good
care to shelter themselves under his wing.

Three of the most celebrated admirals in this reign were Sir George
Rooke, Sir Cloudesly Shovel, and Admiral Benbow.  Sir George, upon the
breaking out of war with France, was appointed to the chief command of
the fleet.  An expedition, which he at once sent against Cadiz, was
unsuccessful.  Not long afterwards, intelligence was carried to Sir
George that a French squadron and a fleet of Spanish galleons was at
Vigo.  Sir George immediately sailed with the English and Dutch fleets,
and appeared before that port.  The weather being hazy, the people in
the town did not discover them.  The passage into the harbour is not
more than three-quarters of a mile across.  Batteries had been thrown up
on either side, and garrisoned with a large body of troops, while a
strong boom, composed of ships-yards and topmasts fastened together with
three-inch rope, had been carried across it.  The top chain at each end
was moored to a 70-gun ship, while within the boom were moored five
ships, of between 60 and 70 guns each, with their broadsides fronting
the entrance to the passage, so that they could fire at any ship which
came near the boom, forts, or platform.  As it was impossible for the
whole fleet to enter, a detachment of fifteen English and ten Dutch
men-of-war, with all the fire-ships, followed by the frigates and
bomb-vessels, were ordered to enter and attempt the destruction of the
enemy's fleet, while the troops were to land and attack the forts in the
rear.  Vice-Admiral Hopson in the _Torbay_ led the van; but when he got
within shot of the batteries it fell calm, so that the ships were
compelled to come to an anchor.  A strong wind, however, soon afterwards
springing up, Admiral Hopson cutting his cables clapped on all sail,
and, amidst a hot fire from the enemy, bore up directly for the boom,
which he at once broke through, receiving broadsides from the two ships
at either end.  The rest of the squadron and the Dutch following, sailed
abreast towards the boom, but being becalmed they all stuck, and were
compelled to hack and cut their way through.  Again a breeze sprang up,
of which the Dutchman made such good use that, having hit the passage,
he went in and captured the _Bourbon_.  Meantime Admiral Hopson was in
extreme danger, for the French fire-ship having fallen on board him,
whereby his rigging was set on fire, he expected every moment to be
burnt; but it happened that the fire-ship was a merchantman, and laden
with snuff, and being fitted up in haste, the snuff in some measure
extinguished the fire.  The gallant Hopson, however, received
considerable damage, for, besides having his fore-topmast shot away, he
had 115 men killed and drowned, and 9 wounded, while his sails and his
rigging were burnt and scorched.  He was, therefore, compelled to leave
his ship, and hoist his flag on board the _Monmouth_.

At the same time, Captain Bokenham, in the _Association_, laid his
broadside against the town, while Captain Wyvill, in the _Barfleur_, a
ship of the like force, was sent to batter the fort on the other side.
The firing of the great and small shot of both sides was continued for
some time, till the French admiral, seeing the platform and fort in the
hands of the English and his fire-ship useless, while the confederate
fleet were entering, set fire to his own ship, ordering the rest of the
captains under his command to follow his example, which was done in so
much confusion, that several men-of-war and galleons were taken by the
English and Dutch.  The allies and French lost about an equal number of
men, but by this victory a vast amount of booty, both of plate and other
things, was captured.  The Spanish fleet was the richest that ever came
from the West Indies to Europe.  The silver and gold was computed at
20,000,000 of pieces of eight, of which 14,000,000 only had been taken
out of the galleons and secured by the enemy at Lagos, about twenty-five
leagues from Vigo, and the rest was either taken or sunk in the
galleons.  Besides this, there were goods to the value of 20,000 pieces
of eight, and a large quantity of plate and goods belonging to private
persons.  A few years ago only, a company was formed in England for the
purpose of dredging for the treasure sunk in the galleons, but the
scheme was abandoned on the discovery that much less amount of treasure
than here described was really lost, the confederates having captured
nearly all of that which had not been landed at Lagos.

By this blow the naval power of France was so deeply wounded, that she
never recovered it during the war.

Admiral Benbow had in the meantime been despatched to the West Indies,
in command of a small squadron, to prevent the Spanish islands from
falling into the power of France.  Hearing that Monsieur de Casse, the
French admiral, had sailed for Carthagena, he pursued him.  On the 19th
of August, in the afternoon, he discovered ten sail steering westward
along the shore under their topsails.  Upon this, he threw out a signal
for a line of battle.  The frigates being a long time coming up, and the
night advancing, Benbow steered alongside the French, having disposed
his line of battle in the following manner:--The _Defiance, Pendennis,
Windsor, Breda, Greenwich, Ruby_, and _Falmouth_.  Though he endeavoured
to near them, he intended not to make any attack until the _Defiance_
had got abreast of the headmost.  He, however, was compelled before long
to open his fire; but after two or three broadsides had been exchanged,
the _Defiance_ and _Windsor_ luffed up out of gunshot, leaving the two
sternmost ships of the enemy engaged with the admiral, while his own
ships in the rear did not come up as he had expected.  He afterwards
altered his line of battle.  The next morning at daybreak, he was near
the French ships, but none of his squadron, excepting the _Ruby_, were
with him, the rest lying some miles astern.  There was but little wind,
and though the admiral was within gunshot of the enemy, they did not
fire.  In the afternoon, a sea-breeze springing up, the enemy got into
line and made what sail they could, while the rest of the English ships
not coming up, the admiral and _Ruby_ plied them with chase-guns, and
kept them company all the next night.  On the 21st the admiral again
exchanged fire with the enemy's fleet, as did the _Ruby_, and he would
have followed had not the _Ruby_ been in such a condition that he could
not leave her.  The _Ruby_ was so disabled during this and the following
day, that the admiral ordered her to return to Port Royal.

The rest of the squadron now came up, and the enemy being but two miles
off, the gallant Benbow was at last in hopes of doing something, and
continued, therefore, to steer after them, but again, all his ships,
with the exception of the _Falmouth_, were astern, and at twelve the
enemy began to separate.  Early on the morning of the 24th he again came
within hail of the sternmost of the French ships.  At three, while hotly
engaged with them, the admiral's right leg was shattered to pieces by a
chain-shot, and he was carried below, but soon after, he ordered his
cradle on the quarter-deck, and the fight was continued till daylight,
when one of the enemy's ships, of 20 guns, was discovered to be very
much disabled.  A strong breeze now brought the enemy down upon him,
when three of his own ships getting to leeward of the disabled ship,
fired their broadsides and stood to the southward.  Then came the
_Defiance_, which, after exchanging fire with the disabled ship, put her
helm a-weather and ran away before the wind, without any regard to the
signal of battle.  The French seeing the two ships stand to the
southward, and finding that they did not attack, immediately bore down
upon the admiral, and running between their disabled ship and him,
poured in all their shot, by which they brought down his main-topsail
yard, and shattered his rigging very much.

Some time after this, his line of battle signal flying all the while,
Captain Kirby came on board and told him that he had better desist, that
the French were very strong, and that from what was past, he would guess
he would make nothing of it.  On this he sent for the rest of the
captains.  They obeyed him, but were most of them of Captain Kirby's
opinion.  This satisfied the admiral that they were not inclined to
fight; when, had they supported him, the whole French fleet might have
been captured.  On this he returned with his squadron to Jamaica.  As
soon as he arrived he ordered a court-martial on the captains who had
deserted him.  One, Captain Hudson, died a few days before his trial
came on.  Captains Kirby and Wade were condemned to death, and being
sent home, were shot immediately on their arrival at Plymouth, in 1703.

The gallant Benbow, in spite of the fearful wound he had received,
lingered till the 4th of November, when he yielded up his brave spirit,
feeling more the disgrace which his captains had brought upon the
English flag than his own sufferings.  All the time of his illness he
continued to issue his orders, and showed more anxiety for the interests
of the nation than for his private affairs.  He received a proof of what
would have been the result of the action had he been properly supported,
in a letter from the brave French Admiral Du Casse.  "Sir,--I had little
hopes on Monday last but to have supped in your cabin, but it pleased
God to order it otherwise.  I am thankful for it.  As for those cowardly
captains who deserted you, hang them up, for by God they deserve it.--
Yours, Du Casse."

The opinion of the nautical poets of the time is well shown in one of
those sea-songs which have done so much to keep up the spirits of
British tars.

  "The Death of Benbow."

  Come all ye sailors bold,
  Lend an ear, lend an ear,
  Come all ye sailors bold, lend an ear;
  'Tis of our Admiral's fame,
  Brave Benbow called by name,
  How he fought on the main,
  You shall hear, you shall hear.

  Brave Benbow he set sail,
  For to fight, for to fight;
  Brave Benbow he set sail
  With a free and pleasant gale,
  But his captains they turned tail.
  In a fright, in a fright.

  Says Kirby unto Wade,
  I will run, I will run;
  Says Kirby unto Wade, I will run;
  I value not disgrace,
  Nor the losing of my place,
  My en'mies I'll not face
  With a gun, with a gun.

  'Twas the _Ruby_ and _Noah's Ark_
  Fought the French, fought the French;
  'Twas the _Ruby_ and _Noah's Ark_ fought the French;
  And there was ten in all;
  Poor souls they fought them all,
  They valued them not at all,
  Nor their noise, nor their noise.

  It was our Admiral's lot,
  With a chain-shot, with a chain-shot;
  It was our Admiral's lot, with a chain-shot
  Our Admiral lost his legs;
  Fight on, my boys, he begs,
  'Tis my lot, 'tis my lot.

  While the surgeon dressed his wounds,
  Thus he said, thus he said;
  While the surgeon dressed his wounds, thus he said,
  Let my cradle now, in haste,
  On the quarter-deck be placed,
  That my enemies I may face,
  Till I'm dead, till I'm dead.

  And there bold Benbow lay,
  Crying out, crying out;
  And there bold Benbow lay, crying out,
  Let us tack about once more,
  We'll drive them to their own shore;
  I don't value half-a-score,
  Nor their noise, nor their noise.

In 1703 Rear-Admiral Dilkes did good service by pursuing a fleet of
forty-three French merchantmen, convoyed by three men-of-war, into a bay
between Avranches and Mount Saint Michael.  He first sent in his boats,
under cover of the ships, when fifteen sail were taken, six burnt, and
three sunk; and, on the following morning, the enemy having got into too
shoal water for the large ships to approach, he in person led the boats,
when two men-of-war were burnt, a third was taken, and seventeen more of
the merchant-vessels were burnt, so that only four escaped.  For this
signal service the queen ordered gold medals to be struck, and presented
to the admiral and all his officers.

Parliament this year voted 40,000 men, including 5000 marines, for the
sea-service.

On the night between the 26th and 27th of November, one of the most
fearful storms ever known in England began to blow.  It commenced
between eleven and twelve o'clock, from the west-south-west, with a
noise which resembled thunder, accompanied by bright flashes of
lightning, and continued with almost unrelenting fury till seven the
next morning.  During these few hours thirteen men-of-war were cast
away, and 1509 seamen were drowned.  Among the officers who lost their
lives were Rear-Admiral Beaumont, when his ship, the _Mary_, was driven
on the Goodwin Sands.  Of the whole ship's company, Captain Hobson, the
purser, and one man, Thomas Atkins, alone were saved.  The escape of
Atkins was remarkable.  When the ship went to pieces, he was tossed by a
wave into the _Stirling Castle_, which sank soon after, and he was then
thrown by another wave, which washed him from the wreck into one of her
boats.  Sir Cloudsley Shovel, who was lying in the Downs, saved his ship
by cutting away her main-mast, though she narrowly escaped running on
the _Galloper_.  The wives and families of the seamen who perished on
this occasion received the same bounty as would have been granted had
they been actually killed in fight in her majesty's service.  The House
of Commons also resolved to present an address to her majesty, stating,
that as they could not see any diminution of her majesty's navy without
making provision to repair the same, they besought her immediately to
give directions for repairing this loss, and for building such capital
ships as her majesty should think fit.

In 1704 Sir George Rooke, who commanded a large squadron in the
Mediterranean, on board of which was a body of troops under the Prince
of Hesse, resolved to attempt the capture of Gibraltar.  On the 17th of
July, while the fleet lay in Tetuan Roads, he called a council of war,
when, finding that his officers were ready to support him, he gave
orders that the fleet should at once proceed to the attack.  Entering
the Bay of Gibraltar, the ships took up a position to prevent all
communication between the rock and the continent, and the Prince of
Hesse landed on the isthmus with 1800 marines.  His highness having
taken post there, summoned the governor, who answered that he would
defend the place to the last.  At daybreak on the following morning, the
22nd, Sir George ordered the ships under the command of Rear-Admiral
Byng and Rear-Admiral Vanderduesen to commence the cannonade, but owing
to want of wind they were unable to reach their stations till nearly
nightfall.  In the meantime, to amuse the enemy, Captain Whitaker was
sent in with some boats, who burnt a French privateer of 12 guns at the
old mole.  On the 23rd, soon after daybreak, the ships having taken up
their stations, the admiral gave the signal for commencing the
cannonade, when, in five or six hours, 15,000 shot were thrown into the
fortress, compelling the enemy to retreat from their guns.  Sir George
now considering that could the fortifications be captured, the town
would yield, sent in Captain Whitaker with all the boats, to endeavour
to possess himself of it.  Captain Hicks and Captain Jumper, who lay
next the mole, were the first to reach the shore with their pinnaces,
and before the other boats could come up, the enemy sprang a mine, which
blew up the fortifications on the mole, killed 2 lieutenants and about
40 men, and wounded about 60 others.  The gallant captains, then
advancing, gained possession of the great platform, Captain Whitaker
capturing a redoubt half-way between the mole and the town, many of the
enemy's guns being also taken.  The next day the governor offered to
capitulate; when, hostages being exchanged, the Prince of Hesse marched
into the town, of which he took possession, the Spaniards composing the
garrison being allowed to march out with all the honours of war--though
the French were excluded from this part of the capitulation, and were
detained as prisoners of war.

The town was found to be extremely strong, with 100 guns mounted, all
facing the sea, and with two narrow passes to the land.  It was also
well supplied with ammunition, but the garrison consisted of less than
150 men.  However, it was the opinion that fifty men might have defended
the fortifications against thousands, and the attack made by the seamen
was brave almost beyond example.  Sixty only were killed, including
those blown up, and 216 wounded.  As this design was contrived by the
admiral, so it was executed entirely by the seamen, and to them was the
honour due.

Leaving a garrison under the Prince of Hesse, the fleet sailed to
Tetuan, in order to take in wood and water.  At the end of the year the
Spaniards attempted its recapture, but Sir John Leake arriving to its
relief, surprised and took three French frigates, a fire-ship, corvette,
and storeship laden with warlike stores, the very night before the
Spaniards had intended to storm it.  The following month 2000 troops
arrived to garrison the place, making it no longer necessary for the
ships to remain in the bay.

Notwithstanding the many important services rendered by Sir George
Rooke, his political opponents gaining the ascendant, so annoyed him
that he resolved to retire, to prevent public business from receiving
any disturbance on his account.  He passed the remainder of his days as
a private gentleman, for the most part at his seat in Kent.  He left but
a small fortune, so moderate that when he came to make his will, it
surprised those who were present.  The reason he assigned reflected more
honour on him than had he possessed unbounded wealth.  His words were:
"I do not leave much, but what I leave was honestly gotten--it never
cost a sailor a tear, or the nation a farthing."  He died on the 24th of
January, 1708-9, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, leaving one son,
George Rooke, by the daughter of Colonel Luttrell, of Dunster Castle,
Somersetshire.

On the resignation of Sir George Rooke, Sir Cloudsley Shovel was
appointed Vice-Admiral of England.

In 1704 a sum of 10,000 pounds was voted by Parliament for building a
wharf and storehouses in the dockyard at Portsmouth, and 40,000 men for
the sea-service, including 8000 marines, proving the value which was
attached to this arm.  Probably they were trained even then to assist in
working the ship, while to them was committed those duties exclusively
which have since been so ably performed by our gallant blue-jackets on
shore.

On the 1st of December, 1704, Greenwich Hospital was opened for the
reception of seamen, and a lieutenant-governor, captain, and two
lieutenants, a physician, and surgeon, were appointed by warrant.
Numerous other officers were afterwards appointed, as well as two
chaplains.

In 1705, the Eddystone Lighthouse, which had been blown down during the
great storm, was rebuilt by Act of Parliament, and the contribution from
the English shipping, which had before been voluntary, was fixed by its
authority.  The contest with France, Queen Anne's war, as it was called,
resulted in the general destruction of the French power at sea; and
after the battle of Malaga, we hear no more of their great fleets.  The
number of their privateers, however, was _very_ much increased, in
consequence of which Parliament was urged on by the mercantile interest
to put them down.  The loss also by the great storm, and the misfortunes
met with in the West Indies, indeed, every untoward accident, induced
the nation more eagerly to demand an augmentation of the navy.  Thus, at
the close of 1706, not only were the number but the quality of the
men-of-war greatly superior to what they had been in Charles's reign.
The economy and discipline of the navy was also much improved.  Great
encouragement was also given to seamen, by the utmost care being taken
in the treatment of the wounded, and exact and speedy payment of
prize-money.

A bounty was now given for hemp imported from the plantations, and every
encouragement was afforded to British merchants to enable them to carry
on their schemes with vigour.

The gallantry of Captain Mordaunt, son of the Earl of Peterborough, in
command of the _Resolution_, of 70 guns, in the Mediterranean, deserves
to be remembered.  He had sailed with his father from Barcelona on the
13th of March, 1706, with an envoy of the King of Spain to the Duke of
Savoy on board, and had in company the _Enterprise_ and _Milford_
frigates.  When within about fifteen leagues of Genoa, six French line
of battle ships were seen, who immediately gave chase to the English
squadron.  Lord Peterborough and the Spanish envoy on this went on board
the _Enterprise_, and, with the _Milford_, made their escape to Leghorn.
The enemy continued the chase of the _Resolution_, when one of their
ships came about ten o'clock at night within shot of her, but did not
begin to fire till the other ships had come up.  The _Resolution_ had
been much shattered a few days before in a heavy gale of wind, and was
at no time a fast sailer.  Notwithstanding the great disparity in force,
Captain Mordaunt made a brave resistance; but by the advice of his
officers he ran the ship ashore under the guns of a Genoese fort, from
which, however, he received no manner of protection; and shortly
afterwards he was wounded in the thigh, when he was carried on shore.
At five the French commodore sent in all the boats of his squadron, but
the enemy were repulsed and obliged to retire to their ships.  The next
morning a French 80-gun ship, brought up under the _Resolution's_ stern,
with a spring in her cable, and opened a heavy fire upon her.  Her
officers finding that there was no prospect of saving the ship, with the
consent of Captain Mordaunt, set her on fire, and in a short time she
was consumed, while they and the crew got safely on shore.

The last act of the gallant Sir Cloudsley Shovel was an attempt to
assist the Duke of Savoy and Prince Eugene, who were closely investing
Toulon.  A large number, however, of the French ships were destroyed
before the siege was raised.  On his return to England, on the 23rd of
October, 1707, a strong gale blowing from the south-south-west, his
ship, the _Association_, ran upon the rocks called the Bishop and his
Clerks off Scilly, and immediately going to pieces, every soul perished.
The _Eagle_ and _Romney_ shared the same fate; other ships struck, but
happily got off.  The body of the brave Sir Cloudsley was the next day
cast on shore, and was known by a valuable ring which he wore on his
finger.  Being brought to Plymouth, it was thence conveyed to London and
interred in Westminster Abbey, where a magnificent monument was erected
by Queen Anne to his memory.

We may judge of the progress of the navy by the sums voted by Parliament
for its support, which in this year amounted to 2,300,000 pounds.

In 1708, Commodore Wager, with a small squadron, attacked a fleet of
galleons on their way from Porto Bello to Carthagena.  The Spanish
admiral's ship, the _San Josef_, of 64 guns and 600 men, blew up with a
cargo on board of 7,000,000 pounds in gold and silver, only seventeen
men being saved.  The vice-admiral escaped, but the rear-admiral, of 44
guns, was captured.  She had, however, only thirteen chests of eight and
fourteen sows of silver.  The rest of the galleons were for the most
part loaded with cocoa.  Two of Commodore Wager's captains, who had
disobeyed his orders, were tried by a court-martial, and dismissed from
the command of their ships.

About the same time Captain Purvis, while chasing a French ship, got his
vessel on a ledge of rocks, where she was bilged.  He, and some of his
men, however, reached a small Key within shot of the French ship, which
mounted 14 guns and had on board 60 men.  She kept up a brisk fire upon
the Key until Captain Purvis with his own boats and a canoe had boarded
her, when her commander called for quarter and surrendered on condition
that he and his crew should be set on shore.  Captain Purvis got the
French ship off and returned in her to Jamaica.

Another gallant exploit was performed by Captain Colby, commanding a
privateer.  Being on a cruise on the Spanish main, he fell in with
fourteen sail of brigantines and sloops, laden with valuable goods taken
out of the galleons at Porto Bello.  They were bound to Panama, under
convoy of a guard sloop, which he bravely fought and took, with six of
her convoy.

An Act of Parliament was passed this year, by which the forfeited and
unclaimed shares of prize-money were to be paid into Greenwich Hospital.

The Prince George of Denmark dying, the Earl of Pembroke was appointed
Lord High Admiral of Great Britain in his stead.

England was, as before, determined to assert her supposed sovereignty of
the narrow seas, and to compel other nations to acknowledge her claims.
While cruising in the chops of the channel the _Winchester_, Captain
Hughes, chased a strange sail, on coming up with which he discovered her
to be a large Dutch privateer.  The commander, on being required to pay
the usual compliment to the British flag, not only refused, but
discharged a broadside into the _Winchester_.  An obstinate fight
ensued, in which the Dutch commander and forty of his men were killed.
The Dutch and English were at this time, it will be remembered, at
peace; but we hear of no complaint being made of the proceeding.

On the retirement of the Earl of Pembroke, the queen, in November, 1709,
issued a warrant for the executing of the office of Lord High Admiral by
commission.  The next year an Act was passed for the purchase of lands
in order to fortify and better secure the royal docks at Portsmouth,
Chatham, Harwich, Plymouth, and Milford Haven.

By another Act, any seaman in the merchant-service, who had been
disabled in defending or taking enemy's ships was deemed qualified to be
admitted into Greenwich Hospital.

A fleet, under Sir Hovenden Walker, whose flag-ship was the _Edgar_, was
sent out to attack Quebec, and to recover from the French Placentia, in
the island of Newfoundland.  Having arrived too late in the season he
was compelled to return.  While he and most of the officers were on
shore, on the 15th of October, the _Edgar_ blew up at Spithead, when
every soul perished.

There lay at that time in the Downs two privateers, the _Duke_, of 30
guns and 170 men, commanded by Captain Wood Rogers, and the _Duchess_,
of 26 guns and 150 men, commanded by Captain Stephen Courtnay, having
been fitted out by some Bristol merchants to cruise against the
Spaniards in the South Seas.  They had just returned from thence, having
captured a Spanish ship with two millions of pieces of eight on board.
On their voyage they had touched at the island of Juan Fernandez, which
they reached on the 31st of January, 1708-9.  Two of the officers with
six armed men had gone on shore, but not quickly returning, the pinnace
was sent well manned to bring them off.  Towards evening they both came
back bringing with them a man clothed in goat-skins, who appeared wilder
than the goats themselves.  He seemed very much rejoiced at getting on
board, but at first could not speak plainly, only dropping a few words
of English by times, and without much connection.  However, in two or
three days he began to talk, when he stated that, having been four years
and as many months upon the island without any human creature with whom
to converse, he had forgotten the use of his tongue.  He had been so
long inured to water and such insipid food as he could pick up, that it
was some time before he could reconcile himself to the ship's victuals,
or to the taking of a dram.  He stated that he was a native of Largo, in
Fifeshire, that his name was Alexander Selkirk, and that he had belonged
to a ship called the _Cinque Ports_, commanded by one Stradling, who,
upon some difference, set him on shore here, leaving him a firelock with
some powder and ball, a knife, a hatchet, a kettle, some mathematical
instruments, a Bible, and two or three other useful books, with a small
quantity of tobacco, a bed, bedding, etcetera.  At first his loneliness
weighed heavily on his spirits, but in time he became inured to it, and
got the better of his melancholy.  He had erected two huts, one of which
served him for a kitchen, the other for a dining-room and bed-chamber.
They were made of pimento wood, which supplied him also with fire and
candle, burning very clear, and yielding a most refreshing fragrant
smell.  The roof of his hut was of long grass, and it was lined with the
skins of goats, nearly five hundred of which he had killed during his
residence on the island, besides having caught above five hundred more,
which he marked on the ears, and then set at liberty.  When his
ammunition was exhausted he caught them by running, and so active was
he, that the swiftest goat upon the island was scarcely a match for him.
While the ships remained, Mr Selkirk often accompanied the men to hunt
the goats with the dogs, whom he always distanced, and frequently tired
out.  At first, for want of salt, he was unable to relish his food,
which consisted of goats' flesh and crawfish, but in time he took to
seasoning it with pimento fruit, which is not unlike the black pepper of
Jamaica.  At first the rats plagued him very much, growing so bold as to
gnaw his feet and clothes while he slept.  However, he managed to tame
some cats which had been left on shore, and these soon kept the rats at
a distance.  He also made pets of a few kids, and used to divert himself
by dancing among them, and teaching them a thousand tricks.  When his
clothes were worn out, he made a fresh suit of goat-skins joined
together with thongs which he had cut with his knife, and which he ran
through holes made with a nail instead of a needle.  He had a piece of
linen remaining, of which he made a shirt to wear next his skin.  In a
month's time he had no shoes left, and his feet having been so long bare
were now become quite callous, and it was some time after he had been on
board that he could wear a shoe.

Alexander Selkirk subsequently entered the Royal Navy and became a
lieutenant.  A monument to his memory was erected on the island of Juan
Fernandez by the captain and officers of a British ship of war which
touched there a few years ago.  On Selkirk's adventures Daniel Defoe
founded his immortal story of "Robinson Crusoe."

For some time before the end of Queen Anne's reign no general action
worthy of particular mention was fought, although in several engagements
between single ships or small squadrons the seamen of England maintained
the honour of the British flag.  At length, in 1713, the peace of
Utrecht put an end to the war.  During it the French had been deprived
of all pretensions to the dominion of the sea.  England had gained and
retained possession of Gibraltar, Minorca, Hudson's Bay, the whole of
Nova Scotia, the island of Saint Christopher, and also the chief part of
Newfoundland; her fleets had literally swept the Mediterranean of all
foes, scarcely a French ship daring to navigate its waters, and even the
Algerines and other piratical states of Barbary, instead of paying court
to the French, now yielded to us, and acknowledged the superiority of
the British flag.



CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

GEORGE THE FIRST AND SECOND--FROM A.D. 1714 TO A.D. 1760.

Happily, England being at peace with France when George the First came
to the throne, and the Dutch being our firm allies, the history of that
period is barren of naval engagements.  We possessed, however, numerous
skilful commanders, and the navy was in as efficient a state as at any
previous period.  Sir George Byng, afterwards Viscount Torrington,
commanded the fleets of England during the greater part of this reign.
The principal officers who served under him were Sir John Leake, Sir
John Jennings, Sir James Wishart, Admiral Baker, the Marquis of
Carmarthen, Sir William Jumper, and Admiral Aylmer.

On the meeting of Parliament in 1715, 10,000 seamen, at 4 pounds a man
per month, were voted for the navy.  It also granted 35,574 pounds for
the half-pay of sea-officers; and the piratical States of Barbary again
becoming troublesome, Admiral Baker cruised against them, and destroyed
most of their vessels.

In 1716 Captain Delgarno, an active officer in command of the _Hind_, 20
guns, came up with one of their best men-of-war, mounting 24 guns; when,
after a most obstinate and bloody battle, he compelled her to strike,
and soon after she sank, all her crew, with the exception of
thirty-eight, perishing.

The West Indies being at this time overrun with a desperate set of
pirates, a proclamation was issued offering a pardon to all who would
surrender themselves within a twelvemonth.  After the expiration of that
time a reward was offered to any of his majesty's officers, by sea or
land, who should take a pirate, after he had been legally convicted: for
a captain, 100 pounds; for any other officer down to a gunner, 40
pounds; an inferior officer, 30 pounds.  Any private man delivering up a
captain or commodore was entitled to 200 pounds.

In 1718 the Spaniards sent a fleet and army to attack the possessions of
the King of Naples, on the island of Sicily.  This giving offence to the
English, Sir George Byng was appointed to the command in the
Mediterranean, with directions to protect the Neapolitans.  Soon after
Sir George arrived off Messina he discovered a Spanish fleet amounting
to twenty-seven sail, besides fire-ships, bomb-vessels, and galleys.  On
seeing the English, the Spaniards stood away, and the admiral chased
them, and finally, after a running fight, captured the Spanish admiral,
Chacon, with five ships of the line, one frigate of 44 guns, and one of
36.  Captain Walton in the _Canterbury_, with five more ships, had been
sent in pursuit of another part of the Spanish fleet.  On the 22nd
August Sir George received the following pithy despatch from him:--

"We have taken and destroyed all the Spanish ships and vessels which
were upon the coast, the number as per margin.--I am, yours, etcetera,
G. Walton."

In 1722, the navy being on a peace establishment, 7000 seamen alone were
voted at the usual rate of 4 pounds a man per month.

Notwithstanding the proclamation which had been issued for the
apprehension of pirates, those daring sea-robbers continued their
depredations, and became especially formidable on the coast of Africa,
as well as in the West Indies.  The most notorious of them was one
Roberts, an able seaman, of undaunted courage, and capable of command.
His force consisted of three stout ships; his own carried 40 guns and
152 men; another 32 guns and 132 men, and a third 24 guns and 90 men.
In April, 1722, Captain Ogle, commanding the _Swallow_, being on a
cruise off Cape Lopez, received intelligence that Roberts was lying with
his three ships in an adjoining bay.  Upon this, he disguised his ship
to look like a merchant-vessel, and stood in, when one of the pirates
slipped her cable and gave chase.  Captain Ogle decoyed him off the land
till he had reached such a distance as to prevent his associates hearing
the report of the guns.  He then shortened sailed, tacked, and brought
the pirate to action, which continued an hour and a-half, when, her
commander being killed, she struck.  Captain Ogle then steered in for
the bay, with the pirate's colours hoisted over the king's.  This
stratagem succeeded, for the pirates, seeing the black flag uppermost,
concluded that the king's ship had been taken, and stood out to sea to
meet and congratulate their consort on his victory.  Their joy was of
short duration, for no sooner did they come alongside the _Swallow_ than
Captain Ogle, throwing off the deception, opened his broadsides upon
them.  The action lasted two hours, when, Captain Roberts being killed,
with a large number of his men, both ships struck.  Captain Ogle carried
his prizes into Cape Coast Castle, where the prisoners, to the amount of
160, were brought to trial; 74 of them were capitally convicted, 52 of
whom were executed and hung in chains along the coast.

In 1725 the South Sea Company commenced a whale-fishery, in which they
employed twelve ships, and were sometimes very successful.

In 1726 an expedition was sent to the Spanish West Indies, under
Rear-Admiral Hosier, for the purpose of blocking up the galleons or
seizing them should they venture out.  On the first arrival of the
squadron its appearance struck terror along the whole coast, and several
Spanish ships were captured.  Conceiving that it was his duty to
blockade Porto Bello, the brave Hosier remained before it, suffering no
ships to go in or come out without strict examination; but, after
remaining for six months, fever made such havoc among his seamen, while
the ships were so eaten with worms, that he was compelled to return to
Jamaica.  In two months, however, he was again at sea, and standing over
to Carthagena, continued to cruise in those seas.  It is said that he
lost his crews twice over.  Thus the gallant Hosier, mourning for his
men, and suffering himself from the deadly effects of the climate, still
kept at his post in performance of his duty till, on the 23rd of August,
1727, he breathed his last.

In 1727 a fleet was despatched, under Sir John Norris, into the Baltic,
where he was joined by a Danish squadron, to keep a watch on the
proceedings of the Empress Catherine, but her death put a stop to the
war.

The last naval expedition in this year was one for the purpose of
relieving Gibraltar.  Sir Charles Wager and Rear-Admiral Hopson on
arriving there soon compelled the Spaniards to raise the siege.

George the First ended his reign on the 11th of June, 1727.

GEORGE THE SECOND.

Soon after the accession of George the Second in 1727, a peace was
concluded with Spain, which lasted twelve years.

Parliament voted a sum of 780,000 pounds to pay the wages of 15,000
seamen.

On the 16th of April, by an order in council, twenty of the oldest
surgeons in the Royal Navy were to be allowed two shillings and sixpence
per day, half-pay, and the twenty next in seniority two shillings per
day.

Notwithstanding the treaty with Spain, the Spaniards continued to annoy
the British trade, and to treat British subjects with the greatest
insolence and inhumanity.  As an instance, Robert Jenkins, master of the
_Rebecca_ brig, of Glasgow, was boarded by a Guarda Costa.  The
Spaniards treated the crew with the greatest barbarity, and cut off one
of the master's ears, which the captain of the Guarda Costa, giving to
Jenkins, insolently told him to carry that present home to the king his
master, whom, if he were present, he would serve in the same manner.
Some years afterwards, when Jenkins was examined at the bar of the House
of Commons, being asked what he thought when he found himself in the
hands of such barbarians, he replied with great coolness, "I recommended
my soul to God, and my cause to my country."

Four 20-gun ships and two sloops of war were sent out, therefore, to the
West Indies to cruise for the protection of British trade.

In 1731 an account of the reflecting or Hadley's quadrant appeared in a
paper given by a member of the Royal Society.  After Dr Hadley's death,
however, among his papers a description was found of an instrument not
much dissimilar to Hadley's, written by Sir Isaac Newton, who may,
therefore, be considered the first inventor of the reflecting quadrant.

In 1732 the king granted a commission to the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty to erect a corporation to relieve the poor widows of
sea-officers.  The terms of admission to the institution were that each
member, who must be an officer in the navy, was to allow threepence in
the pound per annum out of his pay.  Soon after the establishment of
this fund, Lieutenant George Crow generously resigned his half-pay for
the use of this charity, stating that he had a competency to live on.
The king gave 10,000 pounds for the support of the charity.

The Sallee rovers still continued very daring and troublesome to our
trade, and in 1734 a small squadron was sent out, under Captain James
Cornwall in the _Greyhound_, to block up the ports of Morocco, and
capture the vessels of the barbarians.  Two large corsairs were taken
and destroyed, and 140 British subjects released by the Emperor of
Morocco, who concluded a treaty with Great Britain.

That year his majesty issued his royal proclamation recalling all
British seamen from the service of foreign powers, and offering a bounty
of twenty shillings to every able-bodied seaman, and fifteen shillings
to every able-bodied landsman who should enter the navy.

In the following year 30,000 men were voted for the sea-service.

An Act of Parliament was passed this year appropriating the rents of the
estates of the Earl of Derwentwater and Charles Ratcliff to the
completion of the royal hospital at Greenwich.  By this Act all seamen
in the merchant-service who may happen to be maimed, not only in
fighting against pirates, but also in fighting against any enemy
whatever, should be admitted into, and provided for, in that hospital.

In 1739, Spain still obstinately refusing to make any compensation for
the injuries inflicted on English merchant-vessels by guarda costas,
Great Britain prepared for war.  Numerous ships were put in commission,
and letters of marque and reprisal were issued by the Admiralty against
Spain.  For some time previously the opponents of the English ministry
were continually taunting them with their want of courage.  Among
others, Admiral Vernon, who was then in Parliament, boasted that with
six ships he would undertake to capture the Spanish settlement of Porto
Bello.  The whole nation fully believing him, a squadron was at once
placed under his command, when, after remaining for a few days at Port
Royal, Jamaica, he sailed on the 5th of November, with six ships of war.
Light winds prevented him reaching Porto Bello till the 20th, when, on
the following day, Commodore Brown, who led in the _Hampton Court_, got
close to the _Iron Castle_, where, being becalmed by the high land to
windward, she was exposed for some time to a smart fire from the enemy,
without being able to return it.  As soon, however, as she could do so,
she began firing her broadside with such rapidity that she is said, in
twenty-five minutes, to have expended four hundred shot.  She was soon
supported by the _Burford_, _Norwich_, and _Warwick_; these ships opened
a tremendous fire, and did great execution, the small-arms from their
tops compelling the Spaniards to desert their guns.  As the boats with
seamen and marines passed the admiral, he ordered them to land
immediately under the walls, though there was no breach made, nor had
the scaling-ladders arrived.  As a substitute for them, however, one man
placed himself close to the wall under an embrasure, while another
climbed upon his shoulders.  Thus the sailors became masters of the
fort, and drew up the soldiers.  The Spaniards, panic-stricken, tied,
and the seamen, no longer obedient to the commands of their officers,
plundered the town, and committed great outrages on the inhabitants.
The governor soon after this hoisted the white flag and surrendered at
discretion.  Two ships of 20 guns each and other vessels were taken in
the harbour, as also ten thousand dollars intended for the payment of
the garrison, which the admiral ordered to be distributed among the
British forces for their encouragement.

The squadron's loss amounted to scarcely twenty men, while a large
number of great guns, powder, and shot were captured.  To prevent the
place from being longer an asylum for the enemy's guarda costas, Admiral
Vernon directed the whole of the fortifications to be dismantled and
blown up.  The news of this success caused unbounded satisfaction at
home.

In 1740 two Acts were passed, one for the better supply of seamen to
serve in the Royal Navy, one allowing English merchant-vessels to be
navigated by foreign sailors, not exceeding three-fourths of the crew,
such foreign seamen serving for two years to be considered natural-born
subjects.  Another was to prevent impressment of seamen of the age of
fifty or upwards, and all such as have not attained the full age of
eighteen; also all foreigners serving in merchant-vessels,
sea-apprentices for the first three years, and persons of any age for
the first two years of their being at sea.  A new board was also
appointed to superintend the business of the Sick and Hurt Office.  The
charge of the prisoners of war was also intrusted to this board.

Anson, one of the most celebrated of British admirals, entered the navy
in 1712, as a volunteer on board the _Ruby_, Captain Chamberlain, with
whom he continued for several years, till, in 1718, he was appointed
second lieutenant of the _Montague_.  After commanding the _Weasel_
sloop, he was promoted to the rank of post-captain in 1724.  After
commanding numerous ships, and conducting himself with much ability and
discretion, he was selected to command that expedition to the South Seas
which made his name famous.  In 1740 he sailed from Spithead on the 18th
of September, with a squadron of five ships, the _Centurion_, of 60
guns; the _Gloucester_, of 50, Captain Norris; the _Sovereign_, of 50,
Captain Legge; the _Pearl_, of 40 guns, Captain Mitchell; the _Wager_,
28, Captain Kidd; the _Tryal_, 8 guns, Captain Murray; and two
victuallers, the _Anna_ and _Industry_ pinks.  On board the _Wager_
sailed the Honourable John Byron, then a midshipman.  The _Wager_ must
serve as an example for the rest of the ships.  She was an old Indiaman,
bought into the service, and now fitted out as a man-of-war, but also
deeply laden with stores and merchandise of all sorts.  Her crew
consisted of men pressed from long voyages, while her land forces were a
wretched detachment of infirm and decrepit invalids from Chelsea
Hospital, desponding under the prospect of a long voyage.  Her
commander, Captain Kidd, before his death, predicted that misfortunes
would overtake her.  The _Centurion_, however, under the judicious
management of Commodore Anson, performed a successful voyage, and had
the good fortune to capture a rich Spanish galleon.

In consequence of the way ships had suffered from the attacks of worms
on former occasions, those now destined for the West Indies were
sheathed by a new process.

On the 25th of February Admiral Vernon again sailed on an expedition
against Carthagena, but finding his force inadequate to reduce it, after
refitting at Porto Bello, he proceeded to the river Chagres, an accurate
chart of which he had obtained from the pirate Lowther, who, by doing
this piece of service, had his majesty's pardon granted him.  The castle
of San Lorenzo was quickly captured, and a large amount of merchandise
and plate found in the place.  After blowing up the fortifications, and
destroying two guarda costas, he returned to Jamaica.  He next, being
joined by Sir Challoner Ogle with a large body of troops, attacked
Carthagena; forcing a beam which had been laid across the harbour, the
fleet entered and blew up a considerable number of forts, great
gallantry being shown by the commanders of the ships of war and their
crews.  The British troops, however, were repulsed with great slaughter
in their attempts to storm Fort Saint Lazare.  In consequence of
sickness, it became at length necessary to raise the siege, and the
admiral returned to Jamaica.  The establishment of a settlement on the
island of Rattan and an attack on Cuba were designed by Admiral Vernon,
but this and other plans were thwarted by the commander of the land
forces, General Wentworth--showing the inconvenience which, in nearly
all instances, arises from a division of command.  Probably, had the
whole power been vested with Admiral Vernon, his plans would have
succeeded.  Soon after his arrival in England, in consequence of a
disagreement with the Admiralty, he was deprived of his command in 1746,
after which he did not again go to sea.  Probably in consequence of
observing the ill effects of undiluted spirits among his crews in the
West Indies, he was the first to order a sailor's allowance of rum to be
mixed with water, to which the name of grog has since been given.

During this war the English merchants lost a number of their vessels in
the British Channel and the German Ocean, the prizes being carried into
Vigo, Bilboa, and San Sebastian, where the poor sailors suffered
inexpressible hardships, being driven barefooted a hundred or two
hundred miles up the country, lodged in damp dungeons, and fed only on
bread and water.  On hearing of this treatment, the British Government
allowed to every prisoner sixpence a-day, which was regularly paid to
them.  On the other hand, the English ships of war and privateers took
several valuable prizes from the Spaniards, and destroyed many of their
privateers; while the masters of the merchant-ships bravely defended
themselves, and were never taken but by a superior force.  One of these
actions is worthy of being recorded.  On the 27th of December, the
_Pulteney_ privateer, a large brigantine, mounting 16 carriage-guns and
26 swivels, with 42 men, commanded by Captain James Purcell, was
standing into the Bay of Gibraltar after a cruise, when she was seen
from Old Gibraltar, from whence 2 large Spanish xebeques, each carrying
120 men, 12 carriage-guns, and a great number of patereroes and
musquetoons, were sent out to take her.  They soon came up with her, a
little to the eastward of Europa Point, and almost within reach of the
guns of Gibraltar.  In the bay lay an 80-gun ship, but without her
topmasts, so that the only way of assisting the privateer was to send a
reinforcement of men, which might easily have reached her before the
xebeques, but the commander of the ship of war, alleging that so small a
vessel could not escape, declined to do so.  The gallant Captain
Purcell, however, was of a different opinion, and resolved to defend his
vessel to the last, being supported by his officers and men.  After the
Spaniards had fired a few single guns, they came near and hailed the
vessel by her name, the captain entreating the English to strike and
preserve their lives.  These threats were returned by the _Pulteney's_
guns.  The Spaniards then attempted to board, but were resolutely beaten
off.  They twice more renewed the attempt; Captain Purcell having
prudently reserved half his broadside, they had not the courage to board
him.  For an hour and three-quarters the engagement continued, till the
Spaniards, unable to stand the pounding they were receiving, made off
with their oars towards Malaga, having lost above a hundred of their
men--the _Pulteney_ having had but one man killed and five more badly
wounded, though it is remarkable that every man on board was shot
through the clothes, the sails and rigging were cut to pieces, and some
9-pounders went through the hull and masts of the privateer.  The
governor, officers, and principal inhabitants of Gibraltar, who were
witnesses of the action, to show Captain Purcell the high estimation in
which they held his character, presented him with a piece of plate with
a suitable inscription, and gave a handsome reward to the sailors for
their bravery.

In 1742 the _Tiger_, of 50 guns, Captain Herbert, was lost on a cayo
near the island of Tortuga, when the crew got on shore and saved most of
their stores.  They then mounted twenty of the ship's guns for their
protection, thus saving themselves from being made prisoners by the
Spaniards, who had sent a ship, _El Fuerte_, of 60 guns, for that
purpose.  In the attempt, however, she also got on shore and was lost.
On this cayo Captain Herbert remained nearly two months.  At length, a
sloop and schooner appeared off the spot; Captain Herbert, pulling off
in his boats, boarded and took them, and returned in them with his
ship's company safe to Jamaica.

In 1744, the French fleet having united with that of Spain, war was
declared against France.  Admiral Matthews was at this time
commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean.  In an action which ensued soon
afterwards, Admiral Matthews accused his second in command, Admiral
Lestock, of not doing his duty, and sent him to England, but was himself
recalled to undergo a court-martial, the issue of which was that he was
dismissed and rendered for ever incapable of serving his majesty.
Several other officers were also tried on various charges, some of whom
were cashiered.  The sentence of several of them was considered
extremely hard, and many circumstances appearing in their favour, his
majesty was pleased to restore them to their former rank.
Courts-martial, indeed, appear to have taken place very frequently.
Discipline was often lax, and that high tone which afterwards prevailed
in the navy was apparently greatly wanting.

An action, which, had the English been successful, would have saved the
lives and fortunes of many of the leading Jacobites, took place in 1745.
On the 9th July of that year the _Lion_, a 60-gun ship of 400 men,
commanded by Captain Piercy Brett, being on a cruise, fell in with the
_Elizabeth_, a French ship of war, of 64 guns and 600 men, and a small
frigate, the latter having on board Prince Charles, son of the old
Pretender, and several officers of distinction who were accompanying him
in order to support his cause in Scotland.  At five o'clock in the
evening the _Lion_ got within pistol-shot of the _Elizabeth_, when a
most obstinate battle began, and continued with great fury till ten, at
which time the _Lion_ had lost her mizen-mast, all her other masts and
yards being so much wounded, and rigging and sails cut to pieces, that
she became unmanageable.  The _Elizabeth_ not being so much crippled in
her rigging, her commander availed himself of the opportunity, to set
what sail he could, and got off.  The _Lion_ had 45 men killed and 107
wounded.  Among the latter were Captain Brett, with all his lieutenants
and the master.  The _Elizabeth_ had her captain and 64 men killed, and
144 wounded.  She was so much damaged that it was with difficulty she
reached Brest.  The frigate pursuing her course landed Prince Charles at
Lochaber on the 27th day of July.

In order to prevent succours being sent to the rebels from France,
Admiral Vernon proceeded with a strong squadron to the Downs, and
Rear-Admiral Byng was sent with some ships to the coast of Scotland.

English ship-owners and merchants had sent many large privateers of
considerable force to sea, and they were especially fortunate this year.
The _Prince Frederick_, of 28 guns and 250 men, commanded by Captain
James Talbot, fell in off the western islands with two large French
ships with valuable cargoes, which had just returned from the South
Seas.  After an obstinate engagement they captured the _Marquis
D'Autin_, of 400 tons, 24 guns, and 68 men; and the _Lewis Erasmus_, of
500 tons, 28 guns, and 66 men.  The privateers and their prizes having
been convoyed to Bristol by three men-of-war, the treasure and plate
taken out of them were put into forty-five waggons and carried to
London, when, upon a division of the prize-money, each sailor's share
amounted to 850 pounds.  The captains and crews of the privateers
behaved with great generosity to their prisoners, allowing them to keep
their valuable effects, and when the common men were landed, they
distributed to each twenty guineas.  The proprietors, whose share
amounted to 700,000 pounds, made a voluntary tender of it to the
Government to assist in putting down the Jacobite rebellion.

Another privateer took a Spanish ship worth 400,000 pounds; and another,
one of 50,000 pounds; but a fourth, the _Surprise_, commanded by Captain
Redmond, was less fortunate, for having taken a French East India ship,
after an action of six hours, with a cargo valued at 150,000 pounds, the
prize, from the number of shot in her hull, sank the next day with all
her wealth on board.

There are many instances of captains of privateers being at once given
commands in the Royal Navy.  Captain Rous in the _Shirley_ galley, and
ten more stout privateers, having escorted a body of troops from Boston
to assist in the reduction of Louisbourg, as a reward, his majesty
directed that the privateer, which carried 24 guns, should be purchased
into the navy as a post-ship, and Captain Rous appointed to command her.

Fortunes were very frequently rapidly made, not only by commanders of
privateers, but by captains of men-of-war.  Among these fortunate men
was Captain Frankland, afterwards Admiral Thomas Frankland.  When in
command of the _Rose_, of 20 guns and 125 men, being on a cruise off the
coast of South Carolina, he fell in with _La Concepcion_, of 20 guns and
326 men, from Carthagena bound to Havannah; and after a severe and
obstinate battle captured her, she having 116 killed and 40 wounded,
while he had only 5 men killed and 13 wounded.  Her cargo consisted of
800 serons of cocoa, 68 chests of silver, gold and silver coin to a
large amount, plate, a curious two-wheeled chase, the wheels, axles,
etcetera, all of silver, diamonds, pearls, precious stones, and gold.
So great was the quantity of money that the shares were delivered by
weight, to save the trouble of counting it; and when the cargo was taken
out of the ship, and she was put up for sale, the French captain, upon
the promise of reward from Captain Frankland, discovered to him 30,000
pistoles which were concealed in a place that no one would ever have
thought of looking for them.  Captain Frankland presented the French
captain with a thousand pistoles, with which he was far from contented.

The captain also made another fortunate discovery by means of a young
French boy whom he had taken into his service.  The boy complained to
him that one of the sailors had taken from him a stick which was in
appearance of no value.  Captain Frankland recovered it for the boy, and
on returning it gave him a tap on the shoulder, when, hearing something
rattle, he took off the head, and found jewels (according to the
Frenchman's account) worth 20,000 pistoles.  When the captain
surrendered, he had given this stick to the boy in the hopes of saving
it, not imagining such a trifle would be ever noticed.

That year 531 prizes were taken from the Spaniards and French, but the
English lost very nearly as many, though their vessels were smaller and
of much less value.

Mr William Brown, master of the _Shoreham_, having been placed by
Captain Osborne in command of a small privateer of 2 guns and 12
swivels, captured a Spanish privateer of 10 guns and 18 swivels; and
shortly afterwards another of 5 guns and 32 men; and was for his
gallantry promoted by the Lords of the Admiralty to the command of a
sloop of war.

Among the gallant deeds performed at this time, an action fought by the
_Fame_, a privateer belonging to Liverpool, and commanded by Captain
Fortunatus Wright, deserves to be recorded.  While on a cruise in the
Levant, she encountered sixteen French ships, one of them mounting 20
guns, with 150 men, fitted out expressly for the purpose of taking her.
They engaged her furiously for three hours off the island of Cyprus,
when the large ship was run ashore and her crew fled up the country.
The _Fame's_ crew then boarded and brought her off.

By an Act of Parliament passed this year, every ship in Great Britain or
his majesty's plantations in North America was compelled on first going
to sea to be furnished with a complete suit of sails, made of sail-cloth
manufactured in Great Britain, under a penalty of fifty pounds.  It was
also enacted that every sail-maker in Britain or the plantations shall
on every new sail affix in letters and words at length his name and
place of abode, under a penalty of ten pounds.

By an order in council dated the 10th of February, 1747, established
rank was first given to the officers in the Royal Navy, and a uniform
clothing appointed to be worn by admirals, captains, lieutenants, and
midshipmen.  Hitherto they had dressed much as suited their fancy.  The
crew of a man-of-war must have looked more like a band of pirates than a
well-ordered ship's company of the present day.  Even in later days
midshipmen sometimes appeared on the deck of a man-of-war in rather
extraordinary costume, as the following account, taken from the journal
of an old admiral, will show.

"As we midshipmen met on board the cutter which was to carry us to
Plymouth, we were not, I will allow, altogether satisfied with our
personal appearance, and still less so when we stepped on the
quarter-deck of the seventy-four, commanded by one of the proudest and
most punctilious men in the service, surrounded by a body of
well-dressed, dashing-looking officers.  Tom Peard first advanced as
chief and oldest of our gang, with a bob-wig on his head, surmounted by
a high hat bound by narrow gold lace, white lapels to his coat, a white
waistcoat, and light blue inexpressibles with midshipman's buttons.  By
his side hung a large brass-mounted hanger, while his legs were encased
in a huge pair of waterproof boots.  I followed next, habited in a coat
`all sides radius,' as old Allen, my schoolmaster, would have said, the
skirt actually sweeping the deck, and so wide that it would button down
to the very bottom--my white cuffs reaching half-way up the arm to the
elbow.  My waistcoat, which was of the same snowy hue, reached to my
knees, but was fortunately concealed from sight by the ample folds of my
coat, as were also my small clothes.  I had on white-thread stockings,
high shoes and buckles, and a plain cocked hat, a prodigiously long
silver-handled sword completing my costume.  Dick Martingall's and Tom
Painter's dresses were not much less out of order, giving them more the
appearance of gentlemen of the highway than of naval officers of
respectability.  One had a large brass sword, once belonging to his
great-grandfather, a trooper in the army of the Prince of Orange, the
other a green-handled hanger, which had done service with Sir Cloudsley
Shovel."  The writer and his friends had to beat a precipitate retreat
from the _Torbay_, as, with a stamp of his foot, their future captain
ordered them to begone, and instantly get cut-down and reduced into
ordinary proportions by the Plymouth tailors.  This description refers
to some thirty years later than the time we are speaking of.  The tailor
had taken his models, the writer observes, from the days of Benbow; or
rather, perhaps, from the costumes of those groups who go about at
Christmas time enacting plays in the halls of the gentry and nobility,
and are called by the west-country folks "geese-dancers."

Vice-Admiral Anson, who had returned from his voyage to the Pacific, was
now placed in command of a powerful fleet, and sent to cruise on the
coast of France.  He and Rear-Admiral Warren sailed from Plymouth on the
9th of April to intercept the French fleet, with which it fell in on the
3rd of May off Cape Finisterre, convoying a large number of merchantmen.
Admiral Anson had made the signal to form line of battle, when
Rear-Admiral Warren, suspecting the enemy to be merely manoeuvring to
favour the escape of the convoy, bore down and communicated his opinion
to the admiral, who thereon threw out a signal for a general chase.  The
_Centurion_, under a press of sail, was the first to come up with the
rearmost French ship, which she attacked in so gallant a manner that two
others dropped astern to her support.  Three more English ships coming
up, the action became general.  The French, though much inferior in
numbers, fought with great spirit till seven in the evening, when all
their ships were taken, as well as nine sail of East India ships.  The
enemy lost 700 men, killed and wounded, and the British 250.  Among the
latter was Captain Grenville of the _Defiance_, to whom a monument was
erected by his uncle, Lord Cobham, in his gardens at Stowe.  Upwards of
300,000 pounds were found on board the ships of war, which were conveyed
in twenty waggons by a military escort to London.

So pleased was the king with this action that, after complimenting
Admiral Anson, he was created a peer of Great Britain, and Rear-Admiral
Warren was honoured with the order of the Bath.

A sad accident occurred shortly afterwards in an action off the Azores,
when the _Dartmouth_, Captain Hamilton, of 50 guns, while engaging for
some hours the _Glorioso_, a Spanish ship of 74 guns and 750 men, caught
fire and blew up, every soul with her brave commander perishing, except
Lieutenant O'Bryan and eleven seamen, who were saved by the boats of a
privateer in company.  The _Dartmouth's_ consort, the _Russell_,
pursuing the Spaniard, captured her after a warm engagement.

As an encouragement and relief to disabled and wounded seamen in the
merchant-service, an Act of Parliament was passed in this year
authorising the masters of merchant-vessels to detain sixpence per month
from the wages of seamen.  It was extended also to the widows and
children of such seamen as should be killed or drowned.  A corporation
was established for the management of this fund.

Admiral Hawke in command of another squadron, was equally successful,
having captured in one action no less than six large French ships.

The war terminated at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.  The total
number of ships taken from the French and Spaniards amounted in all to
3434, while the entire loss of English merchant-vessels amounted to
3238.

In 1744 Admiral Sir John Balchen, whose flag was flying on board the
_Victory_, was returning from Gibraltar, when, having reached the
channel on the 3rd of October, the fleet was overtaken by a violent
storm.  The _Exeter_, one of the squadron, lost her main and mizen-mast,
and it became necessary to throw twelve of her guns overboard to prevent
her from sinking, while other ships suffered much.  On the 4th the
_Victory_ separated from the fleet, and was never more heard of.  She
had on board nearly a thousand men, besides fifty volunteers, sons of
the first nobility and gentry in the kingdom.  It is supposed that she
struck upon a ridge of rocks off the Caskets, as from the testimony of
the men who attended the light, and the inhabitants of the island of
Alderney, minute-guns were heard on the nights of the 4th and 5th, but
the weather was too tempestuous to allow boats to go out to her
assistance.  The king settled a pension of 500 pounds per annum on Sir
John Balchen's widow.

As an example of the danger those on board fire-ships ran, a fearful
accident which happened to one of them must be mentioned.  While the
fleet of Admiral Matthews was engaged with the Spaniards in the
Mediterranean, he ordered the _Anne_ galley fire-ship, commanded by
Captain Mackay, to go down and burn the _Real_.  In obedience to his
orders, that brave officer approached the Spanish admiral.
Notwithstanding the heavy fire opened on his vessel, he ordered all his
people off the deck, and boldly steered the fire-ship, with a match in
his hand.  As he approached, he found that the enemy's shot had such an
effect that his ship was fast sinking; at the same time, observing a
large Spanish launch rowing towards him, he opened fire on her with his
guns, when, on a sudden, the fire-ship appeared in a blaze, and almost
immediately blew up, but at a distance too great either to grapple or
damage the _Real_.  The gallant commander, with his lieutenant, gunner,
mate, and two quartermasters, perished.

The Admiralty at this time appear to have considered that the best way
of inducing naval officers to perform their duty was to shoot or
otherwise severely punish them if they did not.  On the 22nd of April,
1745, the _Anglesea_, of 40 guns and 250 men, commanded by Captain Jacob
Elton, fell in with a French privateer of 50 guns and 500 men.  After a
severe action, in which the commander and his first lieutenant were
killed, the ship being much disabled, and above sixty of her crew killed
or wounded, Mr Barker Phillips, her second lieutenant, who succeeded to
the command, surrendered her to the enemy.  On his return to England, he
was tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to be shot, which sentence
was carried into execution on board the _Princess Royal_ at Spithead.

The war again broke out in 1755, when information being received that
the French were preparing a fleet of men-of-war to sail from different
ports, the ministry immediately equipped a squadron, the command of
which was given to Admiral Boscawen, who was ordered to proceed to North
America.  The first ships taken during the war were by the _Dunkirk_,
Captain Howe, who after an engagement of five hours captured the
_Alcide_ and _Lys_, part of the squadron of M. de la Motte.

A fleet of ten ships, under the command of Admiral Byng, was sent out to
the Mediterranean.  With his squadron but imperfectly manned, he sailed
from Spithead on the 7th of April.  When off Minorca, then held by the
English, and besieged by the Spaniards, a French fleet appeared in
sight.  The next day, the weather being hazy, the French fleet was not
seen till noon, when Admiral Byng threw out an order to Rear-Admiral
West to engage them, but he being at a distance did not understand these
orders.  He, however, with his whole division bearing away seven points,
came up with the enemy, and attacked them with such impetuosity that
several of their ships were soon obliged to quit the line.  Byng's
division not advancing, Admiral West was prevented from pursuing his
advantage for fear of being separated from the rest of the fleet, which,
from unskilful manoeuvring, gave the enemy time to escape.  On his
arrival at Gibraltar the unfortunate Admiral Byng found that
commissioners had arrived to arrest him and Admiral West, who were
accordingly sent prisoners to England.  Sir Edward Hawke, who had
brought out reinforcements, immediately sailed up the Mediterranean, but
on arriving off Minorca, to his mortification, saw the French flag
flying from the Castle of San Felipe.  The French fleet took shelter in
Toulon, while Sir Edward Hawke had the command of the Mediterranean.
The fall of Minorca caused the greatest dissatisfaction in England, and
though undoubtedly the ministry were to blame for not having sent more
troops to Minorca, and given Byng a larger fleet, he committed an error
in not taking greater pains to engage the French fleet.  A court-martial
pronounced him guilty of a breach of the twelfth article of war, and
condemned him to death.  He was accordingly, on the 14th of March, shot
on board the _Monarch_, in Portsmouth harbour--a sacrifice to popular
clamour.  The court which condemned him, however, declared that his
misconduct did not proceed from want of courage or disaffection, and
added to their report of their proceedings a petition to the Lords of
the Admiralty requesting their lordships most earnestly to recommend him
to his majesty's clemency.  The Government, however, having resolved on
his death, allowed the law to take its course.  The president of the
court-martial was Vice-Admiral Thomas Smith, generally known in the
service by the name of Tom of Ten Thousand.  When he was lieutenant on
board the _Gosport_ in Plymouth Sound, and her captain on shore, Mr
Smith directed a shot to be fired at a French frigate which, on passing,
had neglected to pay the usual compliment to the flag.  The Frenchman
considering this as an insult offered to his flag, lodged a complaint
against Mr Smith, who was tried by a court-martial and dismissed the
service.  His spirited conduct was, however, so much approved of by the
nation, that he was promoted at once to the rank of post-captain.

In 1749 an Act of Parliament was passed authorising the Admiralty to
grant commissions to flag-officers or any other officer commanding his
majesty's fleet or squadron of ships of war, to call and assemble
courts-martial in foreign parts.

The sudden possession of wealth by the capture of prizes had undoubtedly
a deteriorating effect on the minds of many officers of the navy.  We
may understand the disappointment which was felt by those serving under
Admiral Knowles, who was cruising off the Havannah to intercept the
expected Plate fleet, when a Spanish advice-boat brought into the
squadron informed the admiral that the preliminary articles for a
general peace were signed.  The unpleasant news caused a general
dejection throughout the whole squadron.  Dissensions among the officers
had for some time before prevailed, and these at length terminated in
various courts-martial.  It was probably this lust of wealth which
induced the officers of the _Chesterfield_, of 40 guns, commanded by
Captain O'Brien Dudley, when off Cape Coast Castle, to mutiny.  Samuel
Couchman, the first lieutenant, John Morgan, the lieutenant of marines,
Thomas Knight, the carpenter, were the ringleaders.  They managed to
seize the ship and carry her to sea while the captain and some others
were on shore.  By the spirited conduct of Mr Gastrien, the boatswain,
and Messrs Gillan and Fraser, she was retaken from the mutineers thirty
hours afterwards, and ultimately brought safe to Portsmouth, where the
mutineers being tried, two of the principal officers were shot on board
their ship.  The four others and one seaman were hanged.

The animosity which had existed among the captains of the West India
squadron was carried to serious lengths, and resulted in several duels,
one of which was fought between Captains Clarke and Innes, in Hyde Park,
when the latter was killed.  Captain Clarke was tried, and received
sentence of death, but his majesty granted him a free pardon.  Another
duel was fought between Admiral Knowles and Captain Holmes.  After they
had discharged two or three shots at each other, the seconds interfered,
and they were reconciled.  The king being informed that four more
challenges had been sent to the admiral, ordered three of the officers
to be taken into custody, which put an end to all further dissensions.

In 1753 an Act was passed to render more effectual the Act of the 12th
of Queen Anne, for providing a public reward for such person or persons
as should discover the longitude at sea.

In 1756 the Marine Society was instituted, owing to the patriotic zeal
of the merchants of London, who entered into a liberal subscription to
clothe and educate orphans or deserted and friendless boys to serve in
the Royal Navy.  It has proved of great advantage to the navy.  In June,
1772, it was incorporated, and is governed by a president and six
vice-presidents.

Among the most desperate engagements fought at this period the exploit
of the _Terrible_ privateer, commanded by Captain Death, deserves to be
recorded.  She carried 26 guns and 200 men.  When on a cruise, she fell
in with the _Grand Alexander_, from Saint Domingo, of 22 guns and 100
men, when, after an action of two hours, she captured her.  Both vessels
were considerably damaged; the _Terrible_ had a lieutenant and sixteen
men killed.  While conducting her prize to England, and ill-prepared for
a second engagement, she fell in with the _Vengeance_ privateer,
belonging to Saint Malo, of 36 guns and 360 men.  The enemy having
retaken the prize, manned her, and together bore down on the _Terrible_.
Captain Death defended his ship with the greatest bravery against so
unequal a force, but at length, he and half his crew being killed and
most of the survivors badly wounded, the masts being shot away, she was
compelled to strike.  The enemy's ship was also a complete wreck; her
first and second captains were killed, with two-thirds of her crew.  The
merchants of London, as a testimony of their high sense of the gallant
behaviour of Captain Death and his brave crew, opened a subscription at
Lloyd's coffee-house for the benefit of his widow; for the widows of the
brave fellows who lost their lives with him, and for that part of the
crew who survived the engagement.

Captain Fortunatus Wright, who had before been so successful in the
Mediterranean, was now in command of the _Saint George_ privateer
cruising in the same sea.  He had first a desperate battle with a French
privateer twice his size, which he beat off, and then proceeded to
Leghorn, where he was thrown into prison by the Austrian government.
Admiral Hawke, on hearing of it, sent two ships to demand his immediate
release.  This request was complied with.  Shortly afterwards the _Saint
George_ was overtaken by a furious storm, in which she foundered, her
brave commander and crew perishing.

At this time, while Lord Clive was, by a series of victories, laying the
foundation of the British Empire in the east, Admiral Watson commanded
in the Indian seas.  To assist the army the squadron entered the
Hooghly, when a body of seamen was landed to attack the fort of Boujee.
By a singular event it was carried without bloodshed.  A seaman by the
name of Strachan, belonging to the _Kent_, having drunk too much grog,
strayed under the walls of the fort in the dead of night, and observing
a breach, entered at it, giving loud huzzas.  This alarmed some more of
his comrades, who had also strayed the same way.  They instantly mounted
the breach, and drove the Indian garrison from the works.  By this time
the whole camp and squadron were alarmed, and the troops, flying to the
fort, entered and gained possession of it without the loss of a man.
After everything was quiet, Admiral Watson sent for Strachan to admonish
him for his temerity, and addressing him, observed, "Strachan, what is
this you have been doing?"  The untutored hero, after having made his
bow, scratching his head with one hand and twirling his hat with the
other, replied, "Why, to be sure, sir, it was I who took the fort, but I
hope there was no harm in it."  The admiral then pointed out to him the
dreadful consequences that might have resulted from so rash an act, and
insinuated as he left the cabin that he should be punished.  Strachan,
highly disappointed at this rebuke from the admiral when he thought
himself entitled to applause, muttered as he was leaving the cabin, "If
I'm flogged for this here action, I'll never take another fort as long
as I live."

A gallant action fought in the West Indies, in the year 1757, is worthy
of note.  Admiral Cotes, commander-in-chief on the station, despatched
Captain Arthur Forrest, of the 60-gun ship _Augusta_, with the
_Edinburgh_, Captain Langdon, of 60 guns, and the _Dreadnought_, Captain
Maurice Suckling, of 60 guns, to cruise off Cape Francois, where the
French were assembling a fleet of merchant-vessels for Europe.  The
French squadron consisted of two seventy-fours, one sixty-four, one
fifty, one forty-four, and two of thirty-two guns.  On the 21st of
October, early in the morning, the _Dreadnought_ made the signal for the
enemy.  On this, Captain Forrest summoned his captains, and on their
arrival on the _Augusta's_ quarter-deck, he observed, "Well, gentlemen,
you see they are come out to engage us."  On this, Captain Suckling
replied, "I think it would be a pity to disappoint them."  Captain
Langdon being of the same opinion, the signal was thrown out to make all
sail to close the enemy.  So admirably were the three ships manoeuvred,
and so well were their guns fought, that one of the enemy's ships was
dismasted and the whole fleet much disabled, with the loss of nearly 600
men killed and wounded, when they made sail to leeward.  The British
ships were so much cut up in their sails and rigging that it was
impossible to follow.  The _Dreadnought_ had lost 9 killed, 20
dangerously and 10 slightly wounded, while every yard and mast was
greatly injured.  Shortly afterwards, Captain Forrest captured a French
convoy consisting of 9 ships, carrying 112 guns and 415 men.

Among the many dashing officers of those days was Captain Gilchrist.
When in command of the _Southampton_, of 32 guns and 220 men, he was on
his way from Portsmouth to Plymouth, with money to pay the dockyard
artificers.  Being attacked at eleven at night, off Saint Alban's Head,
by five French privateers, two of them of equal force, he compelled
them, after an action of two hours, to sheer off; his vessel being a
perfect wreck, with several shot between wind and water, and ten men
killed, and fourteen mortally wounded.  The following September, when
looking into Brest, a French ship came out, for which he waited.  He
reserved his fire till he got within twenty yards of her, when a most
furious engagement began; the ships falling on board of each other.  The
enemy made an attempt to board the _Southampton_, but being vigorously
repulsed, in a quarter of an hour after struck, and proved to be the
_Emeraude_, a French frigate of 28 guns and 245 men, 60 of whom were
either killed or wounded.  The action was fought at such close quarters
that the men used their handspikes, and two of the officers were killed
by a discharge from Captain Gilchrist's own blunderbuss.  The
_Southampton_ had her second lieutenant and 19 men killed, and every
officer except the captain, and 28 wounded.  While conducting her prize
into port, the _Southampton_ captured an 18-gun privateer belonging to
Dunkirk.

Among the worst ships in the service at that time were the two-deck 40
and 50 gun ships, for when any heavy sea was running, they were unable
to open their lower-deck ports, and were thus of even less force than
vessels carrying only 20 guns.  Numerous instances of this occurred, and
among others the _Antelope_, of 50 guns, Captain Thomas Saumarez, fell
in with a French privateer of 22 guns.  The _Antelope_ being unable at
the time to open her lower-deck ports in consequence of the heavy sea,
it took her two hours to capture the privateer, which even then would
probably have got off, had not her mizen-mast been shot away.

An action, celebrated in naval song, was that between the _Monmouth_, of
64 guns, commanded by Captain Gardiner, and the _Foudroyant_, of 84
guns.  Captain Gardiner had been flag-captain to Admiral Byng in the
action off Minorca, in which the _Foudroyant_ bore the French admiral's
flag, and he had declared that if he should ever fall in with the
_Foudroyant_ he would attack her at all hazards, though he should perish
in the encounter.  In company with the _Monmouth_ were the _Swiftsure_,
74, and the _Hampton Court_, 64; but the _Monmouth_ soon ran her
consorts out of sight, and at 8 p.m., getting up with the chase,
commenced the action.  Among the first wounded was the captain, but it
being in the arm, he refused to go below.  He soon knocked away some of
the _Foudroyant's_ spars, and then carried his ship close under her
starboard-quarter, where for four hours the _Monmouth_ maintained the
unequal contest.  At 9 p.m. the gallant Gardiner was mortally wounded in
the forehead by a musket-ball, when Lieutenant Robert Carket took
command.  Shortly afterwards the _Monmouth's_ mizen-mast was shot away,
on which the French crew cheered; but the _Foudroyant's_ mizen-mast
sharing the same fate, the British seamen returned the compliment, and
in a little time down came the French ship's main-mast.  Still, she
continued working her guns till some time after the arrival of the
_Swiftsure_, when she surrendered.  Her captain presented his sword to
Lieutenant Carket, thus acknowledging that he was captured by the
_Monmouth_.  To understand the disparity between the two ships, their
comparative broadside weight of metal should be known.  That of the
_Monmouth_ was 540 pounds, that of the _Foudroyant_ was 1136 pounds.
The _Foudroyant_, which was taken into the service, was looked upon for
many years as the finest ship in the British Navy.  She exceeded by
twelve feet in length the _Chester_ British first-rate, and measured
1977 tons.  All her guns abaft the main-mast were of brass.  Lieutenant
Carket was deservedly promoted to command her.

We must pass over one of the most memorable events of this reign, the
capture of Quebec by General Wolfe, in which Captain Cook, then a master
in the navy, first exhibited his talents and courage, and briefly
describe an important naval action, that of Sir Edward Hawke in Quiberon
Bay.  The admiral sailed from Spithead early in June, 1759, with a
powerful fleet to cruise off Brest and in soundings.  Hence he
despatched three small squadrons to scour the enemy's coast.  In
November a heavy gale compelled Sir Edward Hawke to take shelter in
Torbay.  During his absence M. de Conflans got safe into Brest with his
squadron from the West Indies.  Believing that the coast was clear, he
again put to sea on the 14th of November, and on the same day the
British fleet sailed from Torbay.  The next day Captain McCleverty, in
the _Gibraltar_, joined Sir Edward, with the information that he had
seen the French fleet about twenty-four leagues to the north-west of
Belleisle, steering to the south-east.  Sir Edward immediately shaped a
course for Quiberon Bay.  A strong wind forced the fleet to leeward; it
shifted, however, on the 19th to the westward.  The _Maidstone_ and
_Coventry_ frigates were ordered to look out ahead.  The French admiral
seeing them, sent some of his ships in chase, but soon after perceiving
the British fleet, he recalled them, and formed in order of battle.  On
the approach of the British ships he crowded sail and pushed in for the
land, not more than four or five leagues distant, in the hopes of
entangling them among the rocks and shoals.  In this he was
disappointed, as the van ships of the English fleet were close up to his
rear at half-past two o'clock, and in a few minutes the engagement
became general.  The _Formidable_, carrying the flag of the French
rear-admiral, was closely engaged by the _Resolution_, and having to
sustain the fire of every ship that passed, was obliged to strike, he
and 200 of his men being killed.  Lord Howe, in the _Magnanime_ attacked
the _Thesee_, but the _Montague_ running foul of the former so much
disabled her, that she fell astern.  Captain Keppel, in the _Torbay_,
then attacked the _Thesee_, when a sudden squall coming on, the
lower-deck ports of the latter ship not being closed, she filled and
instantly sank.  The _Superbe_ shared a similar fate alongside of the
_Royal George_.  Lord Howe having got clear, bore down and attacked the
_Hero_ so furiously that he soon compelled her to strike.  During the
night, which proved very boisterous, she drove on shore and was lost.
The enemy then endeavoured to make their escape; some succeeded, but
several got ashore, as did the _Essex_ and _Resolution_, but their crews
were saved.  The French admiral's ship, the _Soleil Royal_, had in the
dark anchored in the midst of the British fleet, on discovering which he
cut his cable, when he drove ashore.  On the weather moderating the
boats of the squadron were sent in to destroy the French ships.  The
_Soleil Royal_ was set on fire by her own crew, and the _Hero_ by the
British boats.  _La Juste_, of 70 guns, was also wrecked, but seven of
the French ships, by throwing overboard their guns and stores, escaped
into the river Yillaine.

The remnant of this fleet, under M. de Thurot, a celebrated privateer
commander, escaped out of Dunkirk for the purpose of making a descent on
the northern coast of England or Ireland.  After taking shelter during
the winter on the coast of Norway, he appeared with three frigates
before the town of Carrickfergus, which he attacked and laid under
contribution.  Having supplied his ships with such necessaries as they
were in need of, he re-embarked his men and took his departure.  At that
time Captain John Elliot, who was lying at Kinsale in the _Aeolus_, with
the _Pallas_ and _Brilliant_ under his command, on hearing that M. de
Thurot was on the coast, put to sea, and fortunately came up with him
off the Isle of Man.  A close action was maintained for an hour and
a-half, when the gallant Thurot and a large number of his men being
killed, the three frigates struck their colours.  His own ship, the
_Marechal Belleisle_, was so shattered that it was with difficulty she
could be kept afloat.  _La Blonde_ and _Terpsichore_ were added to the
British Navy.

The French at this time built a number of vessels on a new construction,
to which they gave the name of prames.  They were about a hundred feet
long, quite flat-bottomed, and capable of carrying four or five hundred
men.  They were to be employed in transporting troops over for the
invasion of England.  Admiral Rodney fell in with and destroyed a number
of them off Havre-de-Grace.

During this year the French took 330 ships from the English, whereas the
English took only 110 from the French.  In reality, however, the gain
was on the side of Great Britain, the French ships captured being
chiefly large privateers and rich armed merchantmen, while those England
lost were mostly coasters and colliers.  The trade of France, also, was
almost annihilated, and she in consequence employed the greater part of
her seamen in small privateers, which swarmed in the channel, the
vessels they captured being of like value.

George the Second had the satisfaction of seeing the arms of England
everywhere prospering, when on the 27th of October, 1760, he breathed
his last, in the thirty-third year of his reign and the seventy-seventh
of his age.

Gallant as were the officers and brave as were the men of the navy, they
were generally rough in their manners, and ignorant of all matters not
connected with their profession.  So they continued for many years, till
the naval college was established, and schoolmasters were placed on
board ships to afford the midshipmen instruction.  It could scarcely
have been otherwise, considering the early age at which young gentlemen
were sent to sea, when they had had barely time to learn more than
reading, writing, and arithmetic, while comparatively few had afterwards
time or opportunity to improve themselves.  Practices were allowed on
board ship which would not have been tolerated in Elizabeth's days.



CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

GEORGE THE THIRD--FROM A.D. 1760 TO A.D. 1782.

On George the Third coming to the throne in 1760 he found the nation
still at war with France.

Among the gallant men actively employed at this time, whose names were
long as household words both in the navy and on shore, were Lord Anson,
Sir Edward Hawke, Admiral Rodney, Captain Alexander Hood, Commodore
Keppell, Captain Faulkner, Captain the Honourable Keith Stuart, Captain
Richard Howe, afterwards Earl Howe, Captains Shuldham, Sir Hugh
Palliser, the Honourable John Byron, Peter Parker, and Samuel
Barrington.

The fleets of England were at this time distributed much, as at the
present time, under flag-officers.  The Nore, the Channel Fleet, the
Mediterranean, Lisbon, North America, Newfoundland, the West Indies, the
Leeward Islands, Jamaica, the East Indies, and occasionally on the coast
of Africa.

We have numerous proofs that British seamen gained their victories as
much by their proficiency in gunnery and their activity as by their
strength and courage.  Of this there are numberless instances, among
others the following.  In 1761, on the evening of the 13th of August,
the _Bellona_, of 74 guns, and a crew of 550 men, Captain Robert
Faulkner, and the _Brilliant_, a 36-gun frigate, Captain James Logie, on
their passage from Lisbon to England, being off Vigo, came in sight of
three large ships.  The strangers were the French 74-gun ship
_Courageux_, of 700 men, and the 36-gun frigates _Hermione_ and
_Malicieuse_.  In consequence of seeing the British ships through the
magnifying medium of a hazy atmosphere, they concluded that they were
both line of battle ships, and dreading the issue of an engagement, took
to flight.  Captain Faulkner on this, suspecting them to be enemies,
immediately made sail in chase, and kept them in sight all night.  At
daylight the next morning he and his consort were about five miles from
the two ships, when the largest, throwing out a signal, took in her
studding-sail, wore round, and stood for the _Bellona_.  The two
frigates at the same time closed, and at six brought the _Brilliant_ to
action.  Captain Logie determined to find so much for them to do that
the _Bellona_ should have the _Courageux_ to herself.  So vigorously did
he work his guns that the frigates received such injury in their sails
and rigging as to be compelled to sheer off to repair damages.  As the
water was smooth and a light wind only blowing, the contest become one
of simple gunnery.  At half-past six the _Bellona_ was closely engaged
with the French 74.  In nine minutes both their mizen-masts fell
overboard, while the _Bellona's_ braces, shrouds, and rigging were much
cut up.  Captain Faulkner, fearing that the enemy would seize the
opportunity to sheer off, gave orders for immediately boarding, but the
_Courageux_, falling athwart the bow of his ship, rendered this
impracticable.  The _Bellona_ might now have been seriously raked fore
and aft, but Captain Faulkner immediately set all his studding-sails to
wear the ship round, when the crew flew to their guns on the side now
opposed to the enemy, from which they fired away with so much rapidity
for twenty minutes as almost to knock the _Courageux_ to pieces, while
the two frigates were unable, in consequence of the gallant way in which
they were kept at bay by Captain Logie, to render her any assistance.
Unable to withstand this unremitting fire, the _Courageux_ hauled down
her colours, her crew crying for quarter.  The two frigates on this bore
away and got off.  Considerable as was the damage done to the _Bellona_
in her rigging, she had suffered very little in the hull, and had lost
only 6 killed and 25 wounded; while the _Courageux_ had her foremast and
bowsprit alone standing, her decks torn up in several places, and large
breaches made in her sides; 220 of her men being killed, and half that
number wounded, among whom was her captain, Dugue L'Ambert.  The
_Brilliant_ lost her master and 5 men killed and 16 wounded.  The
_Courageux_ had on board 8500 pounds in specie.  She was carried by her
captor into Lisbon to be refitted, and was added to the British Navy
under the same name.  Proverbially thoughtless as are British seamen,
they have ever shown themselves equally kind and generous to those in
distress.  On this occasion the French crew being found destitute of
means for their support when at Lisbon, a subscription was raised on
board the _Bellona_ and _Brilliant_, as well as among the merchants on
shore, to enable them to return to France.

Still further improvements being made in Mr Harrison's timekeeper for
finding the longitude at sea, the _Deptford_, of 50 guns, was sent out
with the inventor on board.  She made the island of Maderia at the exact
time which he pointed out, and from thence proceeded to Jamaica, making
that island with equal accuracy.  On his return he found that the
instrument had lost only 1 minute, 54 and a half seconds.

This year also the experiment for coppering ships' bottoms as a
preservation against worms was introduced into the Royal Navy, and tried
on the _Alarm_ frigate, of 32 guns.

Another act of humanity deserves to be recorded.  In November, 1762,
Captain Clarke, commanding the _Sheerness_, of 24 guns, being closely
pursued by five French ships of war, took refuge in the neutral bay of
Villa Franca.  One of the enemy's ships, _La Minerva_, continued the
pursuit, and by way of bravado running in between the _Sheerness_ and
the land, attempted to anchor.  In doing this she was driven on the
rocks, and the sea running high was soon dashed to pieces.  On this,
although the other four ships were approaching, Captain Clarke, with
much humanity, sent in his boats, and saved the greater part of her
crew, twenty-five only perishing, although the whole would otherwise
have been lost.  Struck by this generous act, the French commodore went
on board the _Sheerness_ to thank Captain Clarke for the relief he had
offered his distressed countrymen.

To the credit of the Spaniards, it must be told how they on another
occasion exhibited much good-feeling.  Two ships, the _Lord Clive_ and
_Ambuscade_, had been sent out to attack the Spanish settlements on the
River Plate in South America.  During the action the first blew up; her
commander, and the whole crew, excepting seventy-eight, perishing.
They, escaping the flames, swam to the shore, when instead of being
looked upon as enemies who came to plunder the settlement, the Spaniards
treated them with the greatest tenderness, and furnished them with
clothes and every necessary refreshment.

On the 6th of June, 1762, Lord Anson died, and was succeeded as First
Lord of the Admiralty by the Earl of Halifax.

The king's ships were especially fortunate in their captures this year.
In the Mediterranean a rich Spanish ship from Barcelona, with 100,000
dollars on board, was taken; and the _Active_ frigate, Captain Sawyer,
and the _Favourite_ sloop of war, Captain Pownall, while on a cruise off
Cadiz, captured the _Hermione_, a large Spanish register ship from Lima.
She was the richest prize made during the war, the net proceeds of her
cargo amounting to 519,705 pounds, 10 shillings.  The admiral received
64,000 pounds; the captain of the _Active_, 65,000 pounds; three
commissioned officers of that ship, 13,800 pounds each; eight warrant
officers, 4000 pounds each; twenty petty officers, 1800 pounds each; and
each seaman and marine, 485 pounds.  The officers and crew of the
_Favourite_ received in the same proportion.  On arriving at Portsmouth
the treasure was sent up to London in twenty waggons, decorated with the
British colours flying over those of Spain, and escorted by a party of
seamen.  At Hyde Park corner they were joined by a troop of light horse,
and proceeded through the city, amidst the acclamations of the people,
to the Tower.

The Seven Years' War with France and Spain was now brought to a
conclusion, and peace was signed at Fontainebleau on the 3rd of
November.  England was now possessed of the most powerful fleet in the
world, while her resources were comparatively undiminished.  By means
chiefly of her navy, she had gained the whole of the provinces of
Canada, the islands of Saint John and Cape Breton, the navigation of the
river Mississippi, and that part of Louisiana which lies on the east of
that river, the town of New Orleans excepted, permission to cut logwood
and to build houses in the Bay of Honduras, and the province of
Florida--though she had to restore the Havannah and its dependencies to
Spain, as well as Martinico, Guadaloupe, Marie Galante, and Saint Lucia
to France--while she was to retain the Grenadas and Grenadines, with the
neutral islands of Dominica, Saint Vincent, and Tobago.  In Europe she
regained the island of Minorca and gave up that of Belleisle.  In Africa
she retained Senegal and restored Goree.  In Asia all her conquests made
from France were restored, with the restriction that France was not to
erect fortifications in the province of Bengal, and the fortifications
of Dunkirk were to be demolished.

Popular as had been the war, Parliament had only voted 70,000 men for
the navy, though in order that each ship should have had her full
complement, fully 85,000 men would have been required.  Many ships,
indeed, went to sea imperfectly manned; the proper number of the crews
being often made up of men sent from the jails, and landsmen carried off
by the press-gangs.  The ships themselves were also of a very inferior
character.

Up to this time all 80-gun ships were three-deckers, but after 1759 no
more were built.  The building also of 70 and 60 gun ships was
discontinued about the same period.  The finest ships were those taken
from the French and added to the Royal Navy.  The first English 80-gun
ship on two decks was the _Caesar_, launched in 1793.

The Marine Society at the peace came to the resolution of receiving and
making provision for all boys under sixteen years of age who had been,
or might be, discharged from his majesty's service, by putting them out
apprentices in the merchant-service. 295 boys made application for
employment, and were provided for.

A body of sailors presented a petition to the king requesting to have
the D's, placed against their names for deserter, taken off.  His
majesty granted the request to all who had again entered on board a
king's ship.

It appears that the whole number of seamen and marines employed during
the war amounted to 184,893.  Of these, only 1512 had been killed in
action or by accident, while 133,700 had either died by sickness or were
missing--probably, had deserted.  Thus, on the books of the Navy Office
but 49,673 remained.  Of these, all except 16,000 were paid off at the
peace.  To pay them, Parliament granted 832,000 pounds; to pay the
officers, including those on half-pay, 398,000 pounds.

In 1764 Mr Harrison's chronometer was again tried on board the _Tartar_
frigate, commanded by Captain John Lindsay, who reported most favourably
on it.

This year the officers of his majesty's navy were directed to act as
custom-house officers on the coast of America, as well as in the British
Channel, but, from the complaints made, the Admiralty released them from
a service which they considered as degrading to their situation.

On the 3rd of July his majesty's ship _Dolphin_, of 20 guns, commanded
by the Honourable John Byron, and the _Tamer_ sloop of war, 14 guns,
Captain Mouat, sailed from Plymouth on a voyage of discovery.  On her
return in 1766 the _Dolphin_ was again despatched, under the command of
Captain Samuel Wallis, and the _Swallow_ sloop of war, Captain Carteret,
was ordered to accompany her till she should have got through the
Straits of Magellan.

In 1768 a pump, invented by Mr Coles in 1764, was tried on board the
_Seaford_ frigate in Portsmouth harbour, and it was found that with four
men it pumped out a ton of water in 43 and a half seconds; with two men,
in 55 seconds; and when choked with shingle ballast, it was cleared in 4
minutes: while the old pump, with seven men, pumped out one ton of water
in 76 seconds.

Early this year the Royal Society presented a memorial to his majesty,
expressing a wish that proper vessels might be appointed to sail to the
southward to observe the transit of Venus over the disc of the sun.  The
Admiralty accordingly, for this service, purchased the _Endeavour_
barque, and placed her under the command of Lieutenant James Cook.  Mr
Charles Green was appointed astronomer, and Mr Banks and Dr Solander
embarked on board her.

In the month of June, 1769, a French frigate having anchored in the
Downs without paying the usual compliment to the British flag, Captain
John Hollwell, the senior officer there, in the _Apollo_ frigate, sent
on board to demand the customary salute.  The French captain refused to
comply, upon which Captain Hollwell ordered the _Hawke_ sloop of war to
fire two shots over her, when the Frenchman thought proper to salute.

In 1771 Admiral Sir Charles Knowles obtained his majesty's permission to
enter into the service of the Empress of Russia as admiral of her fleet.
Though high payments were promised him, it appears that he was very
inadequately rewarded.  On his return in 1774, he found some difficulty
in being reinstated to his rank as admiral.

A machine, invented by Dr Lynn, for making salt water fresh, was tried
on board the _Resolution_ at Deptford with great success, in consequence
of which the Admiralty directed all ships of war to be fitted with a
still and the necessary apparatus.

In 1772 Captain James Cook, who had lately returned, undertook a second
voyage of discovery in the Pacific, on board the _Resolution_,
accompanied by Captain Furneaux in the _Adventure_.

We now come to the first outbreak of hostilities with the revolted
provinces of North America.  At Rhode Island, his majesty's schooner
_Gaspee_, commanded by Lieutenant Duddingstone, was attacked in the
night by 200 armed men in eight boats, who, notwithstanding the defence
made by her commander, seized the vessel, when he and several of his
people were wounded, and the rebels taking out the crew, set her on
fire.

In 1773 Lord Howe presented a petition to the House of Commons in behalf
of the captains in the navy, soliciting an increase of half-pay.  It was
carried by a great majority, and two shillings a-day were added to the
half-pay.  The pay of surgeons was also increased, as was that of
masters.

It was now evident that the ministry expected to be plunged into war.
On the 26th of April the guard-ships were ordered to take on board six
months' provisions, to complete their complement of men, and to prepare
for sea.  All the ships of war reported fit for service were got ready
to be commissioned, rendezvous were opened for the raising of seamen,
and a proclamation issued by his majesty offering bounties of 3 pounds
to every able seaman who should enter the navy, 2 pounds to an ordinary
seaman, and 1 pound to a landsman.  On the 22nd of June his majesty
reviewed the fleet at Spithead, consisting of 20 sail of the line, 2
frigates, and a few sloops, when he was saluted by 232 guns.  It was the
first of many visits.  He knighted several officers, others received
promotion, and sums were distributed among the dockyard artisans, the
crews of his yacht, the poor of Portsea and Gosport, and the prisoners
confined for debt in Portsmouth jail.

Another voyage was undertaken to the North Pole in the hopes of
discovering a passage to the East Indies.  The _Racehorse_ and _Carcass_
bombs, commanded by the Honourable Captain Phipps--afterwards Lord
Mulgrave--and Captain Lutwidge, were equipped for the enterprise, but,
unable to penetrate the ice, returned in the same autumn.  On board the
_Racehorse_ sailed, in the capacity of captain's coxswain, one who was
ere long to make his name known to fame--Horatio Nelson.

His majesty's ship _Kent_, commanded by Captain Fielding, was nearly
destroyed while saluting the admiral as she was sailing out of Plymouth
Sound, the wadding from the guns having communicated with some powder in
the ammunition-chest on the poop.  It blew up all the after-part of the
ship, when most of the men on the poop were blown overboard, 50 of whom
being killed or dreadfully wounded.

On the 29th of June, 1775, the Hibernian Marine Society in Dublin was
instituted for maintaining and educating the children of decayed,
reduced, or deceased seamen, and apprenticing them to the sea-service.

The news arrived of a conflict between the revolted provinces and a
detachment of the king's troops at Lexington, when the latter were
compelled to retire with considerable loss into the town of Boston.
This was followed by the attack on Bunker's Hill on the 17th of June,
when the British also lost a number of officers and men, and the flame
of war now began to blaze over the whole of the continent.  The
incidents, however, of the American war of independence cannot but be
briefly touched on.  A fleet under Lord Shuldham and Commodore Sir Peter
Parker was sent to blockade the principal naval ports, and both parties
fitted out small vessels on Lake Champlain to carry on the contest.  The
English squadron was under the command of Captain Pringle, who found the
Americans drawn up in an advantageous position to defend the passage
between the island of Valicour and the main.  As the enemy was to
windward, he was unable to work up his large vessels, so that his
gunboats and a schooner were alone engaged.  He, however, succeeded in
sinking the largest American schooner and a smaller vessel.  At night,
he called off the vessels engaged, and anchored his fleet in line, to be
ready for an attack the next morning.  General Arnold, who commanded the
American squadron, finding it inferior, availed himself of the darkness
of the night, and withdrew towards Crown Point.  Captain Pringle
followed him on the 13th, when another action ensued, and continued for
two hours, the Americans being dispersed, leaving the _Washington_
galley, with General Waterburn on board, in the hands of the British;
others were run on shore and burnt by their own crews, the remainder
effecting their escape to Ticonderoga.

Letters of marque and reprisal were now granted by the Admiralty against
the thirteen revolted provinces.  On the 18th of March the French king
issued an edict to seize all British ships in the ports of France, and
on the 13th of April a squadron of French ships of war under the command
of the Comte D'Estaing sailed for North America.  It was not, however,
till the 5th of June that an English fleet under Admiral Byron was sent
out in quest of it.  The English fleet was dispersed by a heavy gale,
when Admiral Byron alone succeeded in reaching the American coast.  He
found the French squadron already at anchor in the neighbourhood of New
York.

Admiral Keppel was now appointed to the command of the Channel Fleet,
and soon afterwards the _Milford_ captured the _Licorne_, a French
frigate of 32 guns, which, with three others, had been found
reconnoitring the fleet.  The _Arethusa_ and _Alert_ cutters pursued the
other French vessels, and at night came up with the _Belle Poule_, when
the first action of this war ensued, celebrated in song.  Captain
Marshall informed her commander that his orders were to conduct him to
the British admiral, with which the French captain peremptorily refused
to comply.  Captain Marshall then fired a shot over her, which was
instantly returned by a broadside from the _Belle Poule_.  A desperate
engagement took place, and continued with great obstinacy for two hours,
by which time they were close in with the French coast.  The _Belle
Poule_ then stood in to a small bay, from whence a number of boats came
out and towed her into a place of safety.  The _Arethusa's_ main-mast
fell over the side, and she was otherwise so disabled that it was with
the utmost difficulty she could clear the land.  The next morning she
was towed back to the fleet by the _Valiant_ and _Monarch_.

  "The Arethusa."

  Come, all you jolly sailors bold,
  Whose hearts are cast in honour's mould,
  While English glory I unfold,
  Huzza to the _Arethusa_!
  She is a frigate, tight and brave,
  As ever stemm'd the dashing wave;
  Her men are staunch
  To their favourite launch;
  And when the foe shall meet our fire,
  Sooner than strike we'll all expire
  On board of the _Arethusa_.

  'Twas with the spring fleet she went out
  The English Channel to cruise about,
  When four French sail in show so stout
  Bore down on the _Arethusa_.
  The famed _Belle Poule_ straight ahead did lie;
  The _Arethusa_ seemed to fly--
  Not a sheet, or a tack,
  Or a brace, did she slack,
  Tho' the Frenchmen laugh'd and thought it stuff;
  But they knew not the handful of men, how tough
  On board of the _Arethusa_.

  On deck five hundred men did dance,
  The stoutest they could find in France;
  We with two hundred did advance
  On board of the _Arethusa_.
  Our captain hailed the Frenchmen, Ho!
  The Frenchmen they cried out, Hallo!
  "Bear down, d'ye see, To our admiral's lee."
  "No, no," says the Frenchman, "that can't be;"
  "Then I must lug you along with me,"
  Says the saucy _Arethusa_.

  The fight was off the Frenchmen's land,
  We forced them back upon their strand,
  For we fought till not a stick would stand
  Of the gallant _Arethusa_.
  And now we've driven the foe ashore,
  Never to fight with Britons more.
  Let each fill a glass
  To his favourite lass;
  A health to our captain and officers true,
  And all that belong to the jovial crew
  Of the gallant _Arethusa_.

On the 23rd of June Admiral Keppel's fleet came in sight of that of the
French under the command of the Comte D'Orvilliers.  After an engagement
of some hours, the French fleet took to flight during the night, and
escaped into Brest.

It is impossible to relate the numberless gallant actions which from
this period took place for many years between the ships of Great Britain
and her enemies.

In consequence of charges exhibited by Sir Hugh Palliser against Admiral
Keppel for his conduct in the engagement just mentioned, a court-martial
was held at the governor's house at Portsmouth to try him, when the
following sentence was pronounced:--"That in their opinion the charge
against Admiral Keppel is malicious and ill-founded, it having appeared
that the said admiral, so far from having, by misconduct or neglect of
duty on the days therein alluded to, lost an opportunity of rendering
essential service to the State, and thereby tarnished the honour of the
British Navy, behaved as became a judicious, brave, and experienced
officer."

On the following day Admiral Keppel received the thanks of both Houses
of Parliament.

Not long after this the "gallant _Arethusa_" was wrecked upon the rocks
near Ushant, in pursuit of an enemy.  The crew were saved, and treated
by the French with great humanity.

On the 15th of June, 1779, his Royal Highness Prince William Henry
embarked on board his majesty's ship _Prince George_, 90 guns, to serve
as a midshipman in the navy.  The next day a proclamation was issued to
commence hostilities against Spain, in consequence of the hostile
attitude that country had assumed.  The first Spanish ship captured
during the war was taken by the _Pearl_, of 32 guns, commanded by
Captain George Montague, during a cruise off the Western Islands.  After
an action which lasted from half-past nine till half-past eleven, she
struck, and proved to be the _Santa Armonica_, a Spanish frigate of 32
guns and 271 men, 38 of whom were killed and 45 wounded.  The _Pearl_
had 12 killed and 10 wounded.

Admiral Byron, though a gallant officer, appears always to have been
unfortunate.  In the last engagement which took place while he commanded
the British fleet on the American station, Comte D'Estaing managed to
pass him and escape after severely mauling his ships, when 103 men were
killed and 346 wounded, though the French loss amounted to 1200 men
killed and 1500 wounded.

At this time the want of active flag-officers was severely felt.
Promotions were exceedingly slow, so that it was not until officers were
nearly superannuated that they attained to that rank.  The junior
captain promoted in 1779 to the rank of rear-admiral was Sir John
Lockhart Rose, who had been twenty-three years on the list of
post-captains.  Others had been a still longer time.

The French ships also had a great advantage in being coppered, besides
which, though respectively carrying the same number of guns as the
British, they were much larger vessels.

Among the actions fought at this time, one deserves especially to be
noticed.  It ended disastrously to the English flag; although nothing
could exceed the gallantry displayed by British officers and seamen on
the occasion.  Captain Richard Pearson, commanding the 44-gun ship
_Serapis_, in company of the armed 22-gun ship _Countess of
Scarborough_, Captain Thomas Piercy, was escorting the Baltic Fleet,
loaded with naval stores, which were at that time of especial
consequence to supply the dockyards, left almost destitute of them.  The
_Serapis_ was one of a remarkably bad class of ships, worse even than
the two-decked 50-gun ships.  She measured 886 tons, and her armament
consisted of 20 long 18-pounders on the lower-deck, 22 long 12-pounders
on the main-deck, and 2 long 6-pounders on the forecastle, making in all
44 guns.  These guns she carried on two decks, but the lower-deck ports
were so close to the water's edge that it was dangerous to open them in
a seaway, besides which the space between decks was so low that it was
with difficulty they could be worked, while the upper-deck had only a
light breast-high bulwark.  From the length of the lower-deck guns they
could not be easily run in, while the 12-pounders on the main-deck were
so old and their vents so large that much powder exploded through them.

The convoy had already made the coast of England, and was close in with
Scarborough, when information was received from the shore that a flying
squadron of the enemy's ships had been seen the day before standing to
the southward.  Upon receiving this intelligence, Captain Pearson made
the signal for the convoy to bear down under his lee, but they still
kept stretching out from the land, till the headmost vessel caught sight
of the enemy, when they tacked and stood inshore, letting fly their
topgallant sheets and firing guns.  Captain Pearson on this made sail to
windward to get between the enemy's ships and the convoy.  At one
o'clock the strangers were seen from the mast-head of the _Serapis_, and
at four were discovered from the deck to be three large ships and a
brig.  His consort, _Countess of Scarborough_, being at this time close
inshore, Captain Pearson ordered her by signal to join him.  The
approaching ships were three fitted out in France, but carrying the
American flag, and commanded by Captain Paul Jones.  The largest had
formerly been an Indiaman, and her name had been changed to that of the
_Bon Homme Richard_.  She is supposed to have measured about 946 tons,
and to have carried on her main-deck about 28 long 12-pounders, on the
lower-deck, 6 or 8 18-pounders, and 2 long 6-pounders on the forecastle.
The other ships were the American 36-gun frigate _Alliance_, the French
32-gun frigate _Pallas_, the _Vengeance_, a French 14-gun brig, and the
French _Cerf_ cutter.  As yet, however, the strangers' colours were not
visible.

At about 7:20 the two-decked ship, soon known to be the _Bon Homme
Richard_, brought to on the larboard bow of the _Serapis_, within
musket-shot, when Captain Pearson hailed her, and asked, "What ship's
that?"

"The _Princess Royal_," was the answer.  Captain Pearson then asked from
whence they came, and on an evasive answer being returned, declared that
he would fire if his question was not directly answered.  The stranger
then fired a gun, on which the _Serapis_ gave her her broadsides.
Several broadsides were now exchanged, when the American ship hove all
aback, and dropped on the quarter of the _Serapis_, evidently with the
intention of raking her.  Filling again, she ran the _Serapis_ aboard on
the weather or larboard quarter, and an attempt was now made to board
her, but was at once repulsed.  Captain Pearson now backed his yards to
enable him to get square with his antagonist, but gathering too much
stern-way, the _Richard_ was able to fill and stand across his bows.
Her mizen-shrouds, however, catching the jib-boom of the _Serapis_, and
the spar giving way, the ships dropped alongside each other head and
stern.  Both ships were kept in this position in consequence of the
spare anchor of the _Serapis_ having entered the gallery of the
_Richard_, when a furious cannonade was carried on, the muzzles of the
guns touching each other.  While in this position, the _Alliance_
frigate coming up, sailed round the combatants, pouring in a galling
fire on the _Serapis_, to which no return could be made.  There could
have been little doubt that even thus Captain Pearson would have gained
the victory, had not some hand grenades been thrown on his deck, which
set the ship on fire several times, one of them igniting a cartridge of
powder, the flames of which communicated from cartridge to cartridge all
the way off, and blew up the whole of the people and several officers
who were quartered abaft the main-mast.  By this time all the men on the
quarter and main-decks were killed or wounded.  Notwithstanding this, so
furious had been the fire of the _Serapis_, that at ten the enemy called
for quarter; but on Captain Pearson hailing to inquire if they had
struck, and no answer being given, he ordered the boarders away.  As,
however, they reached the deck of the enemy, they found a superior
number of men concealed with pikes in their hands ready to receive them.
On this the crew of the _Serapis_ retreated to their own ship, and
instantly returned to their guns; but at the same moment the frigate
again poured another broadside into her with such effect that the
main-mast fell, and Captain Pearson being unable to get a single gun to
bear on his antagonist, was compelled to strike his colours.  He and his
first lieutenant were immediately escorted on board the _Bon Homme
Richard_.  He found her condition to be even worse than his own; her
quarters and counter were entirely driven in; the whole of her
lower-deck guns dismounted, and she was also on fire in two places, with
six or seven feet of water in the hold.

In the meantime Captain Piercy had been closely engaged with the
_Pallas_ and _Vengeance_, but perceiving another frigate bearing down on
him, he also was compelled to surrender.  The next day the _Bon Homme
Richard_ sank, and Paul Jones and the French frigate carried their
prizes into the Texel.  The two English captains had done their duty,
and saved their convoy, which all escaped.  Of the numerous crew on
board the _Richard_ no less a number than 317 were killed or wounded,
while the _Serapis_ lost 49 killed and 68 wounded, many others suffering
from burns--while, from the ill-treatment the prisoners received, many
of the wounded died.

On the return of Captains Pearson and Piercy, the former was knighted
and the latter promoted, and both received testimonials from the London
Assurance Company, as an acknowledgment of their skill and bravery,
which had preserved the valuable fleet from capture.  Had ships of
sufficient force been sent out to convoy the fleet, the enemy would, in
all probability, have been captured.

A considerable change was now about to be introduced in the character of
the guns used on board ships of war.  On the banks of the River Carron
in Scotland, the ironworks of the Carron Company for some time existed.
In these works, in the year 1779, a piece of ordnance had been cast, the
invention of John Robert Melville, shorter than a 4-pounder, and lighter
than a 12-pounder.  It carried a shot of 68 pounds, and from its
destructive effects, when fired against a mass of timber, its inventor
called it the "Smasher."  From the works in which it was cast, it soon
obtained the name of "carronade."  Several smaller pieces were shortly
afterwards cast, to carry shot of 24, 18, and 12 pounds.  These guns
were eagerly purchased by the owners of privateers fitted out to cruise
against the Americans, and the Lords of the Admiralty approving of them,
directed some 18 and 12-pounder carronades to be placed on board a few
frigates and smaller vessels of the Royal Navy.  It was some time,
however, before naval officers approved of them; some complained that
the carronade was too short to allow its fire to pass clear of the
ship's side, and that its range was not of sufficient extent to be of
use; that one pair of their quarter-deck carronades being in the way of
the rigging, endangered the lanyards and shrouds.  The Board of Ordnance
also asserted that the old gun, from the comparative length of its
range, was superior to the carronade, notwithstanding the greater weight
of the shot it carried.  Thus, curiously enough, although a considerable
number of carronades were placed on board ships of war, they were not
reckoned for some time as belonging to the armament of the ship, and
officers persisted in speaking only of the long guns they carried, and
ignoring the carronades, although, in reality, far more destructive in
their effects.  Especially did they object to exchange any of their long
guns for carronades.  On board the larger ships, as the quarter-decks
carried already as many guns as there was room for ports on each side,
no additional pieces could be admitted; but the forecastle in most ships
allowed of the opening of a pair of extra ports, and by strengthening
the poop, it was found that three pairs of ports could be placed there.
A 50-gun ship had room for three pairs of ports on her poop, one pair on
her quarter-deck, and a pair on her forecastle.  By similar alterations,
a 44-gun ship was made to carry ten carronades, while on board the
sixth-rates and the quarter-deck ship-sloop class, by building up
bulwarks or barricades, they could be made to carry eight carronades.

Notwithstanding the fewer number of men with which carronades were
worked, and the powerful effect of their shot at close quarters, it was
some time before all British men-of-war were entirely furnished with
them.  At length it was determined to arm with them the 44-gun ship
_Rainbow_, commanded by Captain Henry Trollope, who, with Lord Keith,
then Captain Keith Elphinstone, and Admiral Macbride, were among the
first patrons of the new style of gun.  About March, 1782, she was
equipped with 48 carronades--namely, 20 68-pounders on her main-deck, 22
42-pounders on her upper deck, 4 32-pounders on her quarter-deck, and 2
32-pounders on her forecastle, her broadside weight of metal being thus
1238 pounds, whereas in her former armament of long guns, the broadside
weight of metal was only 318 pounds.  Thus armed, with the
above-mentioned officers and crew, she sailed on a cruise in search of
an enemy; for some months, however, she was unable to come within
gunshot of a foe, and it was not till the 4th of September of that year,
when, being off the Isle du Bas, she came in sight of a large French
frigate, to which she at once gave chase.  The enemy proved to be the
_Hebe_, mounting 28 18-pounders, and 12 8-pounders, 40 guns in all, and
measuring 1063 tons, with 363 men on board, commanded by the Chevalier
de Vigney.  At 7 a.m. the _Rainbow_ commenced firing her bow-chasers,
which were returned by the frigate, and, as it proved, several shot
falling on board, the enemy discovered their size.  The French captain
concluding that if such large shot came from the forecastle of the
enemy's ship, larger ones would follow from her lower batteries, after
exchanging a single broadside with the _Rainbow_, for the honour of his
flag, wisely surrendered.  During this short action the _Hebe's_
foremast had been disabled by one of the 68-pound shot, her wheel had
been knocked away, and her second captain and four men killed.  No one
was hurt on board the _Rainbow_.  The _Hebe_, a beautiful ship, was
purchased into the British Navy, and long served as a model to English
shipwrights.  No reflection could be cast upon the courage of the French
captain, for had he continued the action, his ship would in a few
minutes probably have been sunk, the _Rainbow's_ broadside weight of
metal being nearly four times that of the _Hebe_, though the number of
guns she carried was only four less than that of his antagonist.  This
action went far to establish the reputation of the carronades.

Towards the end of 1779 information was received that the French had
agreed to assist Spain in an attempt to retake Gibraltar, in consequence
of which Sir George Rodney, who was about to sail to the West Indies
with 20 sail of the line convoying a large fleet of merchantmen, was
directed to relieve Gibraltar before he proceeded westward.  Another
squadron under Rear-Admiral Digby was also sent out, which was to return
to England.  For several years since 1773 a Spanish army had been kept
before Gibraltar, but General Elliot, who commanded the fortress, had
completely baffled all its attempts.  Rodney on his way out, when off
Cape Saint Vincent, caught sight of a Spanish squadron convoying a fleet
of merchant-vessels.  The enemy on discovering him crowded all sail to
escape, on which he made a signal for a general chase.  The English
ships gained rapidly on the enemy.  At about five in the evening the
_Bienfaisant_, Captain John Macbride, got up with the Spanish 70-gun
ship the _San Domingo_, but scarcely had she opened her fire when the
latter blew up, and every soul on board, with the exception of one man,
perished.  The poor fellow was picked up by the _Pegasus_, but was so
much injured that he expired shortly afterwards.  The action was
continued during the whole night, and at 2 a.m. the following morning
Admiral Rodney finding that the enemy's ships were too much disabled to
enable them to escape, hove to.  Besides the one which blew up, the
_Phoenix_ 80-gun ship and five 70-gun ships were taken.  The weather
being bad, it was not without great difficulty that the fleet, which had
got into shoal water, could work off again.  Two of the prizes, on board
of which prize-crews had been put, but from which on account of the bad
weather it had been impossible to remove the officers and men, were
recaptured by the Spaniards and carried into Cadiz.  The small-pox
raging on board the _Bienfaisant_, Captain Macbride, who had taken
possession of the _Phoenix_, actuated by principles of humanity worthy
of being recorded, to avoid the risk of infection spreading among the
prisoners, sent the following proposals to Don Juan de Langara, who
accepted them with thanks:--

"Captain Macbride consents that neither officers nor men shall be
removed from the _Phoenix_, Admiral Langara being responsible for their
conduct; and in case we shall fall in with any Spanish or French ships
of war, he will not suffer Lieutenant Thomas Lewis, the officer now in
command of the _Phoenix_, to be interrupted in conducting and defending
the ship to the last extremity.  And if, meeting with superior force,
the _Phoenix_ should be retaken and the _Bienfaisant_ fight her way
clear, the admiral and his officers and men are to hold themselves
prisoners of war to Captain Macbride, upon their parole of honour,
(which he is confident with Spanish officers is ever sacred).  Likewise,
if the _Bienfaisant_ should be taken and the _Phoenix_ escape, the
admiral and his officers will no longer be prisoners, but freed
immediately.  In short, they are to follow the fate of the
_Bienfaisant_."

This remarkable agreement was executed with the strictest honour.

Soon afterwards Captain Macbride, after a smart action, captured the
_Comte d'Arotis_, private ship of war, mounting 64 guns, and 644 men,
commanded by the Chevalier de Clonard.

Admiral Rodney, who had been joined by Rear-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker at
Saint Lucia, gaining intelligence of the French fleet, which consisted
of 25 sail of the line and 8 frigates, sailed in search of them.  On the
19th of April, having come in sight of the enemy on the previous
evening, about noon he threw out a signal for every ship to bear down,
steer for them, and engage at close quarters her opposite in the enemy's
line.  At 1 the action became general, and continued until 4:15 p.m.,
when the French took to flight, the crippled state of the British ships
rendering pursuit impracticable.  Every exertion having now been made to
repair damages, on the 20th the _George_ again caught sight of the
French, and pursued them without effect for three successive days.  The
French ran under Guadaloupe, where they had taken shelter.  On the 6th,
hearing that they had left their anchorage and were approaching to
windward of Martinique, Rodney put to sea, and continued turning to
windward between it and Saint Lucia until the 10th, when the enemy's
fleet was discovered about three leagues to windward.  Still the French
studiously avoided coming to a general action.  Sir George on this, to
deceive them, directed his fleet to make all possible sail on a wind.
This manoeuvre led the enemy to think he was retiring, and emboldened
him to approach much nearer than usual.  Rodney allowed them to indulge
in their mistake, until their own ship had approached abreast of his
centre, when, by a fortunate shift of wind, being able to weather the
enemy, he made the signal to Rear-Admiral Parker, who led the van, to
tack and gain the wind of the enemy.  The French fleet instantly wore
and fled under a crowd of sail, but would have been compelled to fight,
had not the wind on a sudden changed.  The _Albion_, Captain Bowyer,
late in the evening, reached the centre of the enemy's line, and
commenced a heavy cannonade, supported by the _Conqueror_ and the rest
of the van; but as the enemy continued under a press of sail, the
remainder of the fleet could not partake in the action.  Still, Rodney
perseveringly followed up the enemy, and on the 19th the wind again
changing gave him hopes of being able to bring on a general action.
Before, however, he could close it again shifted; but the French admiral
finding that his rear could not escape, suddenly took the resolution of
risking a general action.  As soon is his van had weathered the British,
he bore away along the line to windward, discharging his broadsides, but
at such a distance as to do little execution.  The Frenchmen, however,
could not avoid being closely attacked by the ships of the van, led by
Commodore Hotham.  After this the enemy continued under a press of sail
to the northward, and on the 21st were out of sight.

In these several actions the British loss amounted to 186 killed and 464
wounded, including 7 officers in the former and 14 in the latter list.

On the 10th and 11th of October a dreadful hurricane blew over the West
Indian Islands, during which eight ships were lost, with the greater
portion of their crews, and six were severely damaged.  The French were
also great sufferers.

A squadron, under Rear-Admiral Rowley, on the passage to England with a
convoy, also suffered dreadfully.  The admiral, with five of his ships,
returned to Jamaica dismasted.  The _Berwick_, also dismasted, with
difficulty arrived in England.  The _Stirling Castle_ was totally lost
on the Silver Keys, near Hispaniola, and only fifty of her crew saved;
while the _Thunderer_, which had separated from the fleet, foundered,
and every soul perished.  Several other ships were driven on shore, and
eight lost their masts.

Towards the end of 1780 war was declared against the Dutch, who, it was
found, were making preparations to attack England.  On the 5th of
August, 1781, Rear-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker fell in with the Dutch fleet
off the Dogger Bank, when an action ensued in which both fleets were
dreadfully cut to pieces, the Dutch escaping into the Texel.  One of
their ships, of 68 guns, the _Hollandia_, went down in twenty-two fathom
water.  Her pendant the next morning was seen above the surface, when
Captain Patten, of the _Belle Poule_, struck it, and brought it to Sir
Hyde Parker.  The English lost 104 men killed and 339 wounded, among
whom were 30 officers.

Sir George Rodney at the same time attacked the Dutch island of Saint
Eustatia, which, with those of Saint Martin and Saba, at once
capitulated, a richly-laden fleet falling into the hands of the English,
as well as a vast quantity of merchandise stored up.

One of the most important events of this period must now be described.
The hopes of the Spaniards had been raised in consequence of their
recapture of the island of Minorca; General Murray, in command of Fort
Saint Philip--the greater portion of his troops having died or been
struck down with scurvy--after a heroic defence, having been compelled
to yield.  The Spanish army, which had so long been besieging Gibraltar,
was now increased to 40,000 men, including 12,000 French, and, in
addition, there were 47 sail of the line, 40 gunboats with heavy cannon,
40 bomb-vessels, each armed with 12-inch mortars, 5 large bomb-ketches,
and 300 large boats to be employed in landing the troops as soon as a
breach should be made--besides which, there were 10 large floating
batteries, the invention of the Chevalier D'Arzon, a French engineer of
great repute, on such a principle that they would not, he believed, be
sunk or set on fire by shot.  It was said that no less than 1200 pieces
of heavy ordnance had been accumulated before the place, with 83,000
barrels of gunpowder, and shot, shells, military stores, and provisions
in the same proportion.  The chief reliance of the besiegers was,
however, placed on the floating batteries.  They were built of
extraordinary thickness, and so fortified that they were proof from all
external, as well as internal, violence.  To prevent their being set on
fire, a strong case was formed of timber and cork, a long time soaked in
water, and enclosing a large body of wet sand; the whole being of such
thickness and density that no cannon-ball could penetrate within two
feet of the inner partition.

For this purpose, ten large ships, from 600 to 1400 tons burden, had
been cut-down, and 200,000 cubic feet of timber worked in their
construction.  To protect them from bombs, and the men at the batteries
from grape, or descending shot, a hanging roof was contrived; which was
worked up and down by springs.  The roof was composed of a strong
rope-work netting, laid over with a thick covering of wet hides, while
its sloping position was calculated to prevent shells from lodging, and
to throw them off into the sea before they could burst.  To render the
fire of these batteries the more rapid, a kind of match had been
contrived, so to be placed that all the guns in the battery could go off
at the same instant.  To defend them from red-hot shot, with which the
fortress was supplied, the newest part of the plan was that by which
water could be carried in every direction to neutralise its effect.  In
imitation of the circulation of the blood, a variety of pipes and canals
perforated all the solid workmanship in such a manner that a continued
succession of water could be conveyed to every part of the structure, a
number of pumps being adapted to afford an unlimited supply.  It was
thus believed that these terrible machines, capable of inflicting
destruction, would themselves be invulnerable.  The largest carried 21
guns, and their complement of men was 36 for each gun in use, exclusive
of officers and mariners for working the ships.

General Elliot, undaunted by the preparations made by the enemy,
determined to try what he and his brave garrison could do to counteract
them.  Accordingly, at seven o'clock in the morning of the 8th of
September, he opened a tremendous fire on their works with red-hot shot,
carcasses, and shells.  At ten o'clock the Mahon battery, with the one
adjoining it, were in flames.  By five in the evening both were entirely
consumed; a great part of the eastern parallel, and of the trenches and
parapet for musketry, were likewise destroyed.  A large battery near the
bay was so much damaged by having repeatedly been set on fire, that the
enemy were compelled to abandon it, while they lost an immense number of
men in their endeavour to extinguish the flames.  The next day the
French and Spaniards opened a new battery of 64 heavy cannon, which,
with the artillery from the lines and mortars, continued to play upon
the garrison without intermission the whole day.  At the same time,
seven Spanish ships of the line and two French, with some frigates and
small vessels, passing along the works discharged their broadsides,
until they had passed Europa Point, and got into the Mediterranean.

In the meantime, the English squadron being too small to compete with
them, the seamen had been landed, under the command of Captain Roger
Curtis, and had been placed in the batteries at Europa Point.  Hence
they had attacked the Spanish line-of-battle ships, and compelled them
to haul off.

About eight o'clock in the morning of the 13th of September, the
battering ships lying at the head of the bay, under the command of
Rear-Admiral Don Moreno, got under sail to attack the fort.  At ten
o'clock the admiral having taken up his station off the king's bastion,
the other ships extended themselves at moderate distances from the old
to the new mole, in a line parallel with the rock, at a distance of
about one thousand yards, and immediately commenced a heavy cannonade,
supported by the cannon and mortars on the enemy's lines.  On seeing
this the garrison opened a tremendous fire; the red-hot shot were thrown
with such precision that about two o'clock in the afternoon, the smoke
was seen to issue from the admiral and another ship, the men in vain
endeavouring to extinguish the fire by pouring water into the holes.  By
one o'clock the two ships were in flames, and seven more took fire in
succession.  Signals of distress were now seen flying on board the
Spanish ships, while the launches came up for the purpose of taking the
men out of the burning ships, it being impossible to remove them.  When
he saw this, Captain Curtis advanced with his gunboats and drew them up
so as to flank the enemy's battering ships, which were annoyed by an
incessant, heavy, and well-directed fire from the garrison.  The Spanish
boats were so assailed by showers of shot and shell that they would not
venture on a nearer approach, and were compelled to abandon their ships
and friends to the flames.  Several of the enemy's boats were sunk; the
crew of one of these were all drowned, with the exception of an officer
and twelve men, who floated on the wreck under the walls, and were
rescued by the English.

The scene was full of horrors.  Numbers of men were observed in the
midst of the flames, imploring relief; others were seen floating on
pieces of timber; while even those on board the ships not on fire
expressed the deepest distress, and were equally urgent in asking for
assistance.  Captain Curtis and his gallant sailors, though exposed to
the greatest possible danger, eagerly boarded the burning ships to
rescue the now conquered enemy from destruction.  While they were thus
engaged, one of the largest of the Spanish ships blew up, spreading its
wreck far around.  By this accident, one English gunboat was sunk, and
another much damaged.  A piece of falling timber struck a hole through
the bottom of Captain Curtis' barge, by which his coxswain was killed
and two of his crew wounded; the rest were saved from perishing by the
seamen stuffing their jackets into the hole, which kept the boat afloat
until others came to their assistance.  While the ships were burning,
numbers of Spaniards were seen floating on pieces of timber, liable
every moment to be washed off, or destroyed by the shot from the
garrison.  As soon, however, as it was discovered that the enemy were
defeated, the firing from Gibraltar entirely ceased, and every possible
effort was made to save the Spaniards from death.  Nine of these
formidable batteries were burnt by the red-hot shot, and the tenth was
set on fire by her crew, as it was found impracticable to carry her off.
Even had the battering ships not taken fire, the Spaniards would have
had no chance of success, as the works of the fortress, notwithstanding
the tremendous fire directed against them, were scarcely damaged.
During the nine weeks the siege had been going on, only 65 of the
garrison had been killed, and less than 400 wounded, while the seamen
had only lost two or three men.

A heavy gale coming on, several of the French and Spanish ships suffered
material damage, and the _Saint Michael_, a 72-gun ship, carrying 650
men, was driven close under the works, and struck after a few shot had
been fired into her.  She was got off by Captain Curtis a few days
afterwards, with the loss only of her mizen-mast.

On the 11th of October Lord Howe appeared with a large fleet, which the
enemy endeavoured to avoid.  After seeing the troop-ships which he had
convoyed into the harbour, he went in search of the enemy's fleet,
which, after a short engagement, hauled their wind and stood off to the
north-west.

In the bomb-proof vessels above described we recognise the idea of our
present floating batteries; while the result of their attack on
Gibraltar might have shown our naval commanders in the Crimean war the
slight hope there was of any advantage being gained by their attack on
the batteries of Sebastopol.

The great object of the French was to capture the island of Jamaica.
For this purpose, the Comte de Grasse, who commanded their fleet in the
West Indies, was using every exertion to equip his fleet and to form a
junction with the Spaniards.  Sir George Rodney, with Sir Samuel Hood
and Admiral Drake and Commodore Affleck under him, were on the look-out
to prevent them.  At length, on the 8th of April, while the English
fleet was at anchor at Saint Lucia, Captain Byron, in the _Andromache_
frigate, communicated to the admiral by signal that the enemy's fleet,
with a large convoy, were seen coming out of Fort Royal Bay, and
standing to the north-west.  Sir George instantly made the signal to
weigh, and on the morning of the 9th the enemy were seen forming a line
of battle to windward, and standing over towards Guadaloupe.  For some
time the British fleet was becalmed, but as the breeze reached the van
division, commanded by Sir Samuel Hood, he stood on and closed with the
enemy's centre.  At nine o'clock the action commenced, and was
maintained with determined bravery for upwards of an hour by this
division, the _Barfleur_ having generally three ships firing upon her at
once.  At length the leading ships of the centre got the breeze, and
were enabled to come up to the assistance of the van.  These were soon
after followed by the _Formidable, Bake_, and _Namur_.  The action raged
it for some time, much gallantry being displayed by the captain of a
French 74-gun ship, who, backing his main-topsail, steadily received and
returned the fire of these three ships in succession.  The Comte de
Grasse, seeing the remainder of the British fleet coming up, withdrew
out of fire, and by the 11th his fleet was nearly hull down.  All hopes
of being able to keep up with them appeared to be at an end, when two
French ships, which had been much damaged, were perceived about noon to
leeward of their fleet.  Chase was instantly made by the English, when
the Comte de Grasse bore down to their relief.  Sir George Rodney on
this recalled the ships in chase, and formed a close line of battle,
carrying sail to windward all night.  At dawn of the 12th, a French ship
of the line, the _Zele_, 74 guns, was seen much disabled, and towed by a
frigate.  The Comte de Grasse, on perceiving that she must be taken,
bore up with his whole fleet for her protection.  He could now no longer
avoid an engagement.  At half-past seven Rear-Admiral Drake's division,
which led, commenced the action, which soon became general from van to
rear.  Captain Gardner, in the _Duke_, having unsuccessfully attempted
to force the enemy's line, in consequence of the loss of his
main-topmast, Sir George Rodney, in the _Formidable_, supported by the
_Namur_ and _Canada_, broke through their line, about three ships from
the _Ville de Paris_, and was followed by the ships in his rear, when he
wore and doubled upon the enemy.  By this manoeuvre the French line was
broken and thrown into the utmost confusion; their van bore away, and
endeavoured to re-form to leeward, but this, hardly pressed as they
were, they were unable to accomplish.  Sir Samuel Hood's division, which
had been becalmed the greater part of the forenoon, now coming up,
completed the victory.  Several of the French ships struck.  Captain
Cornwallis, to whom the _Hector_ had yielded, left his prize, and made
sail after the French admiral in the _Ville de Paris_.  The
well-directed fire of the _Canada_ so much annoyed her, and some other
ships approaching, made it impossible for her to escape; but the Comte
de Grasse seemed determined to sink rather than yield to anything under
a flag.  At length Sir Samuel Hood came up in the _Barfleur_, and poured
in a tremendous and destructive fire.  The brave Frenchman maintained
the action for a quarter-of-an-hour longer, when finding further
resistance vain, and that he was deserted by his second, hauled down his
flag.  The enemy's fleet continued going off before the wind in small
detached squadrons and single ships, pursued by the British.  On this,
Sir George made the signal to bring to, in order to collect his fleet
and secure the prizes.  Some of the ships, however, not observing the
signal, did not return till the next day.  Before the prisoners could be
shifted from the _Caesar_, she caught fire and blew up, an English
lieutenant and 50 men belonging to the _Centaur_, together with 400
Frenchmen, perishing.

The French are supposed to have lost 3000 men killed, and double that
number wounded, for, besides the ships' crews, the fleet had on board
5500 troops.  It was said that at the time the _Ville de Paris_ struck
there were but three men left alive and unhurt on the upper deck, and
that the Comte de Grasse was one of the three.

A story is told of a female sailor who fought in the action.  While the
battle was raging, one of the crew of a gun being wounded and sent
below, a woman took his place.  After the action she was brought before
the admiral, when it was discovered that she was the sailor's wife, and
had been concealed on board.  She declared that she thought it her duty
to supply her husband's place, and fight the French.  Rodney threatened
her for a breach of the rules, but privately sent her a purse of ten
guineas.

A few days afterwards the admiral detached Sir Samuel Hood in chase of
the crippled French ships, when two more were captured in the same
gallant way by Captain Goodall of the _Valiant_.  A frigate of 32 guns
and a sloop of 16 were also taken.

For this action Sir George Rodney was created a peer of Great Britain;
Sir Samuel Hood a peer of Ireland; and Admiral Drake and Commodore
Affleck were made baronets.

These actions must be taken merely as examples of what the navy was
about at that time.

Towards the end of 1782, negotiations for a general peace were set on
foot, and it was finally concluded early in the following year.



CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

GEORGE THE THIRD--FROM WAR WITH REPUBLICAN FRANCE, A.D. 1792, TO END OF
A.D. 1802.

We will briefly run over a few events which occurred previous to the
breaking out of the first revolutionary war.

On May the 29th, 1782, the _Royal George_, of 100 guns, being heeled
over at Spithead to repair a pipe which led under water, the lower-deck
guns having been run out, the water rushed with such rapidity in at the
port-holes that she filled and sank--Rear-Admiral Kempenfeldt, with more
than half his officers, and four hundred persons, perishing, many of
them the wives and children of the seamen and marines on board.

We are apt to consider that the uniform of the navy differed greatly
from the army; but in an order dated the 11th of January, 1783,
admirals, vice-admirals, and rear-admirals were directed to wear coats
very similar to those worn by generals, lieutenant-generals, and
major-generals respectively, in the army, with the exception of the
crown and anchor buttons.

In the month of June, 1785, his Royal Highness Prince William Henry, who
had now served his time as a midshipman, passed his examination, and was
appointed third lieutenant of the _Hebe_ frigate, of 40 guns.

In 1785 a debate arose in the House of Commons on the propriety of
repairing the old 64-gun ships, and also suffering ships of war to
remain in ordinary with the copper on their bottoms.  Captain Macbride
thought that the 64-gun ships should be either broken up or sold, and
recommended in future none less than seventy-fours to be built for the
line of battle.  He also pointed out the mischievous effects that might
ensue in suffering ships to be laid up with their copper on, alleging
that the copper would in time corrode the bolts; in consequence of which
the ships' bottoms might drop out.  He had examined a coppered ship
under repair, and found the bolts corroded and eaten away.  Ships had,
however, before this time, been fastened with copper bolts, and probably
those seen by Captain Macbride were either iron bolts cased only with
copper or composition.

The supplies granted by Parliament for the sea-service for the year 1789
amounted to 2,328,570 pounds.

On the 24th of November, 1787, the _Bounty_, of 215 tons, commanded by
Lieutenant William Bligh, sailed from Spithead, for the Pacific Ocean,
to obtain a supply of the bread-fruit tree.  On the 28th of April, 1789,
some of his officers and crew mutinied, and took possession of the ship,
casting the commander and those who remained firm to him adrift in an
open boat.  The hardihood and judgment he displayed in conducting his
boat's crew across the Pacific to Batavia are well known.

Many useful contrivances have been invented by inferior officers of the
navy.  Among others, Mr Hill, the carpenter of the _Active_, invented a
machine for drawing bolts out of ships' sides.  He also invented a
method for stopping shot-holes.

In 1791 some experiments were made on board a ship in Portsmouth
Harbour, when he stopped a shot-hole on the outside of the ship, four
feet under water, in the space of one minute, without the assistance of
any person out of the vessel.  He stopped in the same manner a space in
the ship's side, four feet under water, of four feet by four inches, in
two minutes and a-half.  During the time of effectually curing both
leaks, the ship made only ten inches water in the well.

He also invented a wheel to work the chain-pump, which was much safer
and less liable to get out of order than that before in use.

The French Revolution broke out in 1792.  On the 21st of the following
January, the French beheaded their king, Louis the Sixteenth; in
consequence of which the French ambassador at the court of London was
ordered to quit England.  A short time before this the new Republic had
exhibited its hostile spirit against England, and on the 2nd of January
a shot had been fired from one of the batteries near Brest on the
British 16-gun brig-sloop _Childers_.  Though a 48-pounder shot struck
her, no one was hurt.

On the 1st of February the National Convention declared war against
Great Britain and the United Netherlands.

England at this time possessed nominally 135 ships of war in commission,
and 169 in ordinary or under repair; 21 building or ordering to be
built, and 86 harbour-ships; making in all 411 ships of 402,555 tons.
Of these there was one of 100 guns, 12-pounders, of 2091 tons, in
commission; two of 100 guns, 18-pounders, under repair; and two of 100
guns, 12-pounders, under repair.  Of second-rates there were four 98-gun
ships in commission, and eleven under repair; of 90-gun ships there was
one under repair.  Of two-deckers third-rate there was one 80-gun ship
in commission and one under repair.  Of seventy-fours there were 19 in
commission and 61 under repair.  Of sixty-fours there were only two in
commission and 30 under repair, making a total of 113 line-of-battle
ships.  There were 75 frigates either in commission or under repair; but
23 of these carried 28 guns only.  Of the most useless class of ships in
the service, the 24 and 20 gun post-ships, there were 12 in commission
or under repair.  Of 18-gun ship-sloops and gun brigs there were
altogether 40.  Besides these there were 25 bomb fire-ships and cutters,
either in commission or under repair, making a total of 304 vessels,
exclusive of those building; but of these probably some were
unseaworthy, and of those building or ordered to be built, many were not
in a state to be launched for two or more years.  However, in
consequence of the expected rupture between Spain and Russia, in the
previous two or three years upwards of 60 line-of-battle ships were in a
condition speedily to go to sea, while the dockyards were well-stocked
with imperishable stores.  Thus, in a few weeks, 200 cruisers were
commissioned and fit for use.

At that time we had admirals 17, vice-admirals 19, rear-admirals 19,
post-captains 446, commanders 136, lieutenants 1417, and masters 197.
The number of seamen and marines, including officers of all ranks, voted
by Parliament for the service of the current year, was 45,000.

Portugal and Naples, who joined England, had the first six ships of the
line and four frigates, and the latter four 74-gun ships.

The Spanish navy amounted to 204 vessels, 76 of which were of the line,
carrying from 112 to 60 guns.

The Dutch navy at this time, though amounting nominally to 119 vessels,
from a 74-gun ship to the smallest armed cutter, was of little use to
England, a large number of the ships lying rotting in the different
harbours, and those able to put to sea being of comparatively small
size, and carrying but light guns.

The navy of France amounted to 250 vessels, of which 82 were of the
line, nearly three-fourths in a serviceable state; and immediately on
the outbreak of war, 71 new ships were laid down, including 25 of the
line, and orders given to cast 400 brass 36-pounder carronades, the
first guns of the kind employed by the French.  One of the former was to
mount 130 guns, and several old small-class seventy-fours were cut-down
and converted into the most formidable frigates that had hitherto been
seen.

Such was the French navy, with which the fleet of England was about to
contend, not only for the dominion of the seas, but to protect the
hearths and homes of the people from foreign invasion.  Such, from the
aggressive character of the French people, was the danger, it was soon
seen, most to be apprehended.  Never had the royal dockyards been so
busy.  Squadrons had to be sent off to reinforce stations at a distance
from home, and to protect our colonies.  Some months, therefore, elapsed
before a fleet could be got ready to cope with the enemy.  As soon as
the ships could be fitted out, they were placed under the command of
Admiral Lord Howe, who, on the 24th of July, set sail from Spithead with
15 ships of the line and a few frigates and sloops.  For some weeks he
cruised about in search of the French fleet, being joined in the
meantime by more ships, till he had upwards of 30 under his command.
He, however, was compelled to return to Spithead without meeting them.

In the meantime Lord Hood had proceeded to the Mediterranean and taken
possession of Toulon.  Before, however, we describe the events which
took place there, we will follow Lord Howe, who, on the following May,
received information that a valuable French convoy was expected from the
West Indies, and guessing that the enemy's fleet would sail out for
their protection, put to sea in the hopes of intercepting them.  His
force now consisted of 26 sail of the line and 13 frigates and sloops.
On the morning of the 28th, being about 140 leagues west of Ushant, the
enemy were discovered at some distance to windward.  On their perceiving
the British fleet, they bore down in loose order, but soon after hauled
again to the wind, and began to form in order of battle.  Several of the
British ships, at a considerable distance to windward of the fleet,
approached the enemy's rear.  Lord Howe then made the signal for a
general chase, and to engage the enemy.  Rear-Admiral Pasley, of the
_Bellerophon_, towards the close of the day, got up with the rear-ship
of the enemy's line, a three-decker