NAVY 



French off the North Foreland. 

 Edward I, when he invaded Scot- 

 land, took up a great deal of 

 shipping in the west country ports, 

 and Edward III, when he besieged 

 Calais in 1347, had a fleet of 745 

 vessels, drawn from most of the 

 ports in England, some from 

 Ireland, and others from Bayonne, 

 and Spain. The victory of Sluys, 

 in 1340, marked the zenith of 

 English sea power in medieval 

 times. Admirals began to be 

 appointed in Edward I's reign. 

 Guns were mounted in the 14th 

 century, at first firing over the 

 gunwale, and afterwards through 

 port- holes. 



It was the greater specialisation 

 of ships for fighting purposes that 

 led to the organization of a distinct 

 naval establishment. The Cinque 

 Ports silted up, and Portsmouth 

 and Plymouth came into promin- 

 ence. The cog, the chief fighting 

 ship of the early Plantagenets, was 

 displaced by the great ship in the 

 time cf Henry V. In Tudor times 

 ships were specially built for naval 

 purposes. Henry VII had a famous 

 ship named the Regent, carrying 

 four masts and a bowsprit and 

 armed with 225 small guns called 

 serpentines. Henry VIII' s great 

 ship was the Henry Grace a Dieu, 

 an imposing vessel, carrying two 

 lines of guns on her lower decks, 

 and another on her half deck and 

 forecastle. Massive structures rose 

 like fortalices at the bow and stern, 

 and the latter had eight decks and 

 five lines of guns. There were im- 

 portant dockyards at Portsmouth, 

 Woolwich, and Deptford, and the 

 Trinity House was developed to 

 regulate buoys, beacons, and light- 

 houses. 



Systematic Shipbuilding 



The great explorations of the 

 15th and 16th centuries resulted in 

 rapid development in shipbuilding, 

 navigation, and organization. A 

 committee of officers of state, in- 

 cluding the lord admiral, ship- 

 wrights, and seamen, met in 1583, 

 and gave an impulse to many devel- 

 opments. In place of the great 

 ships, deep-waisted and castled at 

 either end, came the weatherly 

 sailing ships of war, capable of 

 keeping the seas and carrying a 

 powerful armament on the broad- 

 side. The Triumph of 1,000 tons 

 with thirty-four 30-pounders, and 

 the St. Matthew, White Bear, Vic- 

 tory, Mer Honour and Arc Royal 

 were types. The great defeat of the 

 Spanish Armada in the fighting of 

 many dayc in 1588, all the way up 

 the Channel, was one of the deci- 

 sive battles of the world. 



The reign of James I saw the 

 division of the royal fleet into rates 

 and the institution of squadrons, or 



5662 



groups of ships, for the defence of 

 the narrow seas, by means of a 

 summer guard and sometimes a 

 winter guard. Phineas Pett built, in 

 1610, the Prince Royal, a two- 

 decked ship with quarter-deck and 

 forecastle, and in 1637 came the 

 Sovereign of the Seas, the first 

 three-decker in the navy. The 

 government of the navy had rested 

 with the lord high admiral and a 

 board of principal officers, but the 

 lord high admiral Buckingham had 

 a council of commissioners, who 

 supervised dockyard affairs and 

 built two ships a year for five years 

 in succession. Naval administra- 

 tion became more and more com- 

 plex, and the system underwent 

 successive changes. Though all the 

 Stuarts had a sound comprehension 

 of the need of naval force, corrup- 

 tion overspread the organization 

 under Charles I. The sailors suf- 

 fered terribly, and it was said that 

 " foul weather, naked bodies, and 

 empty bellies made the seamen 

 voice the king's service worse than 

 galley slavery." 



Navigation Act of 1651 



The men of the Commonwealth 

 imparted new vigour and earnest- 

 ness to the navy, and endeavoured 

 to abolish the corruption in the 

 dockyards and establishments. The 

 fleet was employed both in home 

 waters and in the Mediterranean. 

 It gained rapidly in numbers and 

 strength, becoming a permanently 

 organized force in every depart- 

 ment ; the officers were trusted and 

 there was better pay, food, and 

 clothing for the men. The need of a 

 sufficient and active fleet was recog- 

 nized, for the Dutch were England's 

 strongest commercial rivals in 

 many seas. England struck at 

 their commerce by the Navigation 

 Act of 1651, and war became in- 

 evitable. 



England was also in a state of 

 virtual war with France, and her 

 seamen searched neutral Dutch 

 ships and exacted by force a salute 

 in the Channel. It was inconceiv- 

 able that Tromp, who was in com- 

 mand, would submit to Blake and 

 Bourne without a struggle, and the 

 first battle took place in the Straits 

 of Dover in May, 1652, and after a 

 stout fight Tromp withdrew. Near- 

 ly all the fighting was concerned 

 with the protection of convoys. The 

 inconclusive battle of the Kentish 

 Knock (Sept. 27) was the first 

 action not directly concerned with 

 the attack upon and defence of 

 floating trade. At the end of Nov. 

 Tromp defeated Blake, and brought 

 a huge convoy of 400 sail through 

 the Straits into safety. The Dutch 

 were finally defeated off the 

 Thames and at the Texel in May 

 and July 1653. 



NAVY 



At the Restoration, when James, 

 duke of York, became lord high 

 admiral, a great impetus was given 

 to the internal organization of the 

 fleet and the strengthening of its 

 administration. The navy was 

 thenceforth directed by principal 

 officers, who were men of experi- 

 ence actually bred to the sea Sir 

 George Carteret, Sir Robert Slings- 

 by, Sir William Batten, and others, 

 with Samuel Pepys as clerk of the 

 acts. Their successors became the 

 navy board, and existed long after 

 the office of lord high admiral had 

 been placed in commission in the 

 board of admiralty. 



Wars with the Dutch 



In the second Dutch War the 

 fleets were organized on a great 

 scale, and Opclam was severely 

 beaten off Lowestoft on June 3, 

 1665; but in June of the following 

 year the four days' battle in the 

 Straits of Dover ended in the retire- 

 ment of the English fleet to the 

 Thames. De Ruyter and Van Gent 

 afterwards entering the river and 

 capturing or destroying the ships at 

 Chatham in June, 1667. In the 

 Third Dutch War, 1672, originating 

 in the old rivalry of commerce, the 

 French were England's allies. But 

 in the great battle of Solebay off 

 Southwold, May 28, De Ruyter was 

 again victorious, though he suffered 

 severely. The last fight was the bat- 

 tle of the Texel, Aug. 11, 1673, but 

 it was not a victory for England. 



James II did much for the bet- 

 terment of the naval service, and 

 had an establishment of 173 ves- 

 sels, including 9 first-rates, 11 

 second-rates, and 39 third- rates. 

 They went over to William III, 

 in whose reign the long struggle 

 with France began. But the fleet 

 which Colbert had created was a 

 powerful weapon for Louis XIV, 

 and a great invasion of England 

 was planned. Torrington fought, 

 under orders, the battle of Beachy 

 Head on June 30, 1690, after- 

 wards retiring to the Thames and 

 preserving his fleet in being. The 

 army of Louis was at last ready in 

 1692, and was embarked. Tour- 

 ville, the French admiral, was 

 ordered to attack the English, 

 however strong they might be. 

 He was utterly defeated and his 

 fleet destroyed by Russell in the 

 battle of Barfleur and at La 

 Hogue in May, 1692. 



The navy was for a time supreme, 

 and under its aegis the resources 

 of the empire grew, and English 

 trade spread on every sea. But 

 as the years passed it weakened 

 and became corrupt, and the 

 spirit of formalism and undue 

 caution grew in the service; jea- 

 lousies divided it; English ships 

 were inferior to the French, 



