22 THE SEA. 



declined. His life afterwards was a series of misfortunes. He was thrown into prison for 

 losing the carrack ; escaped from captivity only to languish an exile in Italy ; and at last 

 died just as fortune once more seemed to smile upon him by offering him a chance in his 

 own king's service. 



On the accession of James I. a general peace ensued so far as England was concerned. 

 All in all, the rest was beneficial to the navy, and many defects were remedied and reforms 

 inaugurated.. In one of the earliest reports presented to the king on the condition of the 

 navy, after enumerating certain pressing needs, we find the estimate for its annual expenditure 

 placed at rather less than 21,000 an amount which a single ironclad would have swallowed 

 up entirely, and got considerably into debt. James caused one fine vessel to be constructed, 

 in 1610, in which every improvement known at the time was introduced. She was christened 

 the Prince Royal. Stow describes her as follows : " This year the king builded a most 

 goodly ship for warre, the keel whereof was 114 feet in length, and the cross beam was 

 forty-four feet in length ; she will carry sixty-four pieces of ordnance, and is of the burthen 

 of 1,400 tons. This royal ship is double built, and is most sumptuously adorned, 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 builded in England; and this 

 glorious ship the king gave to his son Henry, Prince of Wales; and the 24th September, 

 the king, the queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Lady Elizabeth, with 

 many great lords, went unto Woolwich to see it launched ; but because of the narrowness 

 of the dock it could not then be launched ; whereupon the prince came the next morning 

 by three o'clock, and then at the launching thereof the prince named it after his own 

 dignity, and called it the Prince" Phineas Pett, one of a family of leading naval con- 

 structors of those days, was its builder. A well-known authority* says, "Were the absurd 

 profusion of ornament with which the Royal Prince is decorated removed, its contour or 

 general appearance would not so materially differ from the modern vessel of the same 

 size as to render it an uncommon sight, or a ship in which mariners would hesitate at 

 proceeding to sea in, on account of any glaring defects in its form, that in their opinion 

 might render it unsafe to undertake a common voyage in." A very large number of 

 superior vessels were added to the royal navy during this epoch, but the commercial marine 

 was in a bad way until late in James's reign. What its conviction was at this time may be 

 gathered from the fact that in 1615, half way in the reign, there were not more than ten vessels 

 of 200 tons burthen each in the port of London. Less than seven years afterwards, such 

 was the improvement, that Newcastle alone could boast more than a hundred, each of which 

 exceeded that tonnage. 



During this peaceful epoch Monson had to fulfil an unthankful office as guardian 

 of the narrow seas, i.e., the English and Irish Channels, and adjacent waters. He had to 

 transport princes and ambassadors while war was going on, and as it would seem from a 

 paper included in his "Tracts," at his own expense. This document runs at a first 

 glimpse very curiously. Take one entry, "1604, August 4. The constable of Castile at his 

 coming over, 200 (followers) 3 (meals)." An unconscionable number of followers and very 



* (Jhamock, "History of Naval Architecture." 



