NAVY 



415 



admiral from the fleet conveying Philip II. of 

 Spain off Southampton-water, when the latter was 

 on his way to espouse Queen Mary : this honour 

 was formally yielded by the Dutch in 1673 and the 

 French in 1704, but the custom since the peace of 

 1815 has fallen into disuse. In the year 1293 a 

 great naval action was fought in mid-channel with 

 the French, when the English captured 250 sail ; 

 and Edward III. with the Black Prince at the 

 battle of Sluys in 1340 defeated a greatly superior 

 French fleet. 



Henry V. had something of a navy ; but Henry 

 VII. seems to have lieen the first king who thought 

 of providing a naval force which might be at all 

 times ready for the service of the state. He built 



Fig. 1. The Great Harry. 



the Great Harry, properly speaking the first ship 

 of the royal navy. She cost 15,000, and was acci- 

 dentally burned in 1353. To Henry VIII., how- 

 ever, belongs the honour of having laid the founda- 

 tion of the British navy as a dixtmct service. He 

 constituted the Admiralty and Navy Office, estab- 

 lished the Trinity House, and the dockyards of 

 Deptford, \Vool\vich, and Portsmouth, fixed regu- 

 lar salaries for the admirals, captains, and sailors, 

 and made the sea-service a distinct profession. In 

 1512, when a fleet was fitted out against France 

 under Sir Edward Howard, Lord High Admiral, 

 the following allowances were made: For his own 

 diet, maintenance, wages, and rewards per diem, 

 10s. ; each captain for his own diet, maintenance, 

 wages, and rewards per diem, Is. 6d. ; every soldier, 

 mariner, and gunner for his wages per lunar 

 month, 5s., and for his victuals, 5s. In 1515 King 

 Henry caused the Henri Grace-A-Dieu, of about 

 1000 tons and carrying 122 guns, to be con- 

 structed, in emulation of a somewhat similar 

 ship called the Caracon, but only carrying 100 

 guns, which had lately been built by Francis I. of 

 France. She appears to have been built rather 

 for magnificence than for use ; only thirteen of her 

 guns were 9-ponndere or upwards, and she is 

 said to have steered badly and rolled heavily. 

 After making one voyage she was disarmed at 

 Bristol and suffered to decay. The French ship 

 was still more unfortunate, being accidentally de- 

 stroyed by fire at Havre. The ships of this period 

 were high, unwieldy, and narrow, their guns 

 close to the water, and they had lofty poops and 

 forecastles. At the death of Henry VIII. the ton- 

 nage of the navy was 12,000 tons ; there were some 

 fifty ships manned by 8000 men. Elizabeth in- 

 creased the fleet greatfy. The fleet which met the 

 Armada numbered 176 ships armed by 



14,996 men ; but these were not all 'shippes royal,' 

 for she encouraged the merchants to build large 

 ships which were as much fighting ships as traders, 

 aim rated at 50 to 100 tons more than they measured. 

 She raised the wages of seamen to 10s. per month. 

 Signals were first used in this reign as means of 

 communication between ships. In the reign of 

 James I. lived the first able and scientific naval 

 architect, Phineas Pett ; he introduced a better 

 system of building, and relieved the ships of much 

 of their top-hamper, abolishing the lofty poops and 

 forecastles. In 1610 he laid down the Prince- 

 Royal, a two-decker carrying sixty-four guns ; and 

 in 1637 from Woolwich he launched the celebrated 

 Sovereign of the Seas, the first three-decker and the 

 largest ship hitherto constructed on modern prin- 

 ciples. She was 232 feet in length, of 1637 tons, 

 and carried at first 130 pieces of cannon ; being 

 found unwieldy, she was cut down, and proved an 

 excellent ship, but was burned in 1696. In this 

 reign the navy was first divided into rates and 

 classes. Cromwell left 154 sail, measuring 57,643 

 tons, of which one-third were two-deckers. He was 

 the first to lay before parliament annual estimates 

 for the support of the navy, and obtained 400,000 

 for that purpose. During the Protectorate Peter 

 Pett, son of Phineas, built the Constant Warwick, 

 the earliest British frigate, from a French design 

 and pattern. The Duke of York, afterwards James 

 II., assisted by the celebrated Samuel Pepys, as 

 Secretary, did much for the navy. He appointed a 

 new commission when he came to the throne, with 

 which he joined Sir Anthony Deane, the best naval 

 architect of the time, who essentially improved the 

 ships of the line by copying from French models ; 

 at this time, and during the 18th century, naval 

 architecture was zealously studied in France, and 

 the English constructors were so sensible of their 

 inferiority that even up to the beginning of the 

 19th century all our best ships were either cap- 

 tured from the French or coined from them. At 

 the Revolution of 1689 the fleet was in excellent 

 condition, with sea stores complete for eight months 

 for each ship. The force consisted of 184 vessels, 

 carrying 6930 guns, and 42,000 men, whereof nine 

 were first-rates. 



William III. added greatly to the navy, which 

 numbered at his death 272 ships of 159,020 tons, 

 the annual charge being '.,056,915. The dockyard 

 at Hamoaze, out of which has since grown the 

 considerable town of Devonport (q.v.), was also 

 established during his reign (see also the article 

 DOCKYARDS, KOYAL). 



At the death of Queen Anne in 1714 the 

 number of ships was less, but the tonnage 

 relatively greater, there being 198 ships, carry- 

 ing 10,600 guns, the tonnage being 156,640. In 

 1747 a naval uniform -was first established. The 

 navy increased rapidly during the reigns of the 

 first two Georges, and at the accession of George 

 III. consisted of 127 ships of the line and 198 

 of fifty guns and under, measuring 321,104 tons, 

 and manned by 70,000 seamen and marines. The 

 navy was kept in a high state of preparation, 

 and, when in February 1793 the French Republic 

 declared war against England, in a few weeks 

 fifty-four sail of the line and 146 smaller vessels had 

 put to sea completely equipped. The whole fleet in 

 1793 consisted of 122 ships of the line, 97 frigates, 

 and 102 sloops and smaller vessels, manned by 

 85,000 seamen and marines. The navy of France 

 had never been so powerful ; it amounted to above 

 200 vessels, of which 82 were of the line, and 71 

 were in addition ordered to l>e built. The English 

 had about 115 sail of the line fit for service; but 

 the majority of the French ships were larger and 

 finer and carried heavier guns on their lower or 

 principal battery. The following abstract will 



