MARITIME HISTORY 



the exercise of the prerogative, but the more effective the royal navy became 

 the less reason there w^as for the employment of armed merchantmen except 

 under especial circumstances. It is not until the reign of Elizabeth that we 

 find in force the further development of the right of impressment, the 

 demand for fully-armed ships at the cost of the ports, which was the imme- 

 diate legal precedent for the ship-money levies. The first war with France, of 

 I 5 12— 13, was fought almost entirely by men-of-war ; there were some hired 

 ships, as tenders and victuallers, with the fleets but none is known to have come 

 from Dorset. It need hardly be said that although impressment of ships had 

 practically ceased the impressment of men continued, and among the crews 

 of the 15 12— 13 fleets 126 men came from the Chideock district.^"* Ship- 

 wrights and caulkers were impressed at Poole at the same period to come to 

 the new dockyard at Woolwich to help in the building of the Henry Grace 

 de Dieu}^^ Bridport was encouraged in the conduct of its particular industry, 

 cables and cordage being bought there by the government; in 1530 a 

 statute was enacted intended to benefit the town by preventing local compe- 

 tition."' Melcombe was still impoverished, and even towards the end of the 

 reign obtained reductions in the farm and in taxation on account of the 

 destruction wrought so long ago by the French. 



War with France and Scotland broke out again in 1522 but the ports 

 play little direct part in the naval warfare of Henry VIII nor, if they had 

 been called upon, were those of Dorset likely to have added any material 

 strength to the national armaments. Lyme obtained a grant, in 1535, of 

 _^2o yearly for ten years in consideration of the ruinous condition of the 

 Cobb, and petitioned again in the following year that the town was decay- 

 ing."' In 1543 a return of shipping, generally, was called for in view of 

 approaching war, from which we find that there were six vessels sailing from 

 Lyme, of which the largest was of 72 tons ; one of the owners lived at 

 Bridport and another at Chard."* Only 1 3 seamen were named, probably 

 those at home at the moment of registration. There were 19 men and one 

 vessel of 14 tons at Charmouth, 14 men and one vessel of 18 tons at Bridport, 

 two ships, of which the largest was of 60 tons, and 18 men at Weymouth 

 and Melcombe, and three vessels, of which the largest was of 70 tons, at 

 Poole, The biggest vessel owned in the county was the Mary and John, of 

 120 tons, belonging to Thomas Wade of Burton Bradstock ; upwards of 170 

 seafaring men lived in the villages along the coast. 



About 1539 Henry feared that an alliance of the continental states would 

 be formed against the kingdom. The new navy, although a mightier 

 offensive weapon than any that England had hitherto possessed, was as yet an 

 untried weapon. The preceding centuries were fraught with the lesson that 

 the enemies of England were best met on the English seas, but there was a 

 natural inclination, especially in an age which was tending towards formalism 

 in military science, to fall back upon the orthodox defences of castles, sconces, 

 and bulwarks to prevent a landing or to support a defending force. As early 

 as 1535 the idea of fortifying the weak points round the coast was in the air, 

 for Cromwell then noted in his ' Remembrances ' that a small tax formerly 

 paid to Rome might well be diverted to such a purpose. However at that 



'« Chap. Ho. Bks. ii, fol. 7. '"' Ibid, v, fol. 179. ""^ 21 Hen. VIII, cap. 12. 



'»' L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii, 149 (12) ; ibiJ. x, 179. "" Ibid, xviii, 547. 



