of Sh ips of the Line. 223 



they afford ample latitude to the naval architect for making 

 such a disposition of his force as shall produce the best sea- 

 going qualities. 



Since the introduction of cannon on board ship, towards the 

 end of the fourteenth century, the progress of improvement 

 has produced great changes in the disposition of the ordnance, 

 and consequently in the relative proportions and sizes of vessels 

 of war. From first carrying guns to fire over the gunwale, 

 then through holes pierced in the breastwork of the weather- 

 deck ; the rivalry, which soon sprang up between the maritime 

 powers of Europe, produced, at the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, ships of two entire tiers of ordnance*, but of very 

 small dimensions, and in accordance with the then existing 

 prejudices, having extravagantly lofty hulls. The celebrated 

 Sovereign of the Seas, of 100-guns, built by Phineas Pett, in 

 1637, seems to have been the earliest ship of three whole tiers 

 of cannon, that we have any distinct records of, and was at 

 that time a great effort to combine force with a lofty hull. 

 From the then very imperfect state of naval science, and a 

 great, if not total absence of data, to guide its constructor, the 

 attempt was a very hazardous one, and nothing but the bold 

 increase of dimensions, which the science of Pett gave to this 

 ship, rendered it at all successful f. The prepossession which, 

 for such a length of time, existed in favour of these towering 

 but inefficient ships, at length gave way to a more enlightened 

 practice with all the maritime powers, excepting the Dutch J. 

 In this country the bold views of Pett died with him, and our 

 naval architects relapsed into their old methods, from the 

 perversity which usually attends ignorance, and caused the 

 English navy not merely to stand still, as far as regarded the 



* The contrivance of port-holes, by which a ship is rendered capable 

 of using artillery between the gunwale and the water, took place in the 

 year 1500,' and is said to have proceeded from Descharges, — a French 

 shipbuilder at Brest. The Hairy Grace de Dieu, built in 1515, exhibits 

 a very early adoption of this simple but important idea. 



t Mr. Knowles, in some very able lectures on Naval Architecture, 

 delivered in May, 1828, at the Royal Institution, tells us that the length 

 of this ship was 167.75 feet, and breadth48.33 feet, or about the length of 

 the old Bellerophon of 74 guns, built in 1786, with a foot more breadth. 



X It would appear from Petts ships, that he had made some attempts 

 towards suppressing the enormous and unnecessary weight of hull above 

 water. Raleigh had, however, pointed out the necessity of doing this 

 long before. 



