

MARITIME HISTORY 



townsmen were bound, in 2,000, to keep them serviceable and replace them when necessary. 1 

 Until about 1798 there were six brass guns at Rye, with the arms of Spain upon them, which 

 tradition said were presented by Elizabeth ; they were then exchanged for iron guns taken from 

 the Dutch at Camperdown. 2 An order of February, 1589-90, directed the removal of all brass 

 ordnance from Rye in order to place the guns on board men-of-war just launched ; 3 thus, if the 

 aforesaid Spanish guns were really given by Elizabeth, it -must have been at some subsequent 

 date. In December, 1587, Captain Shute was sent to Sussex to advise the local authorities as to 

 the best course of action, but it need hardly be said that all this meticulous care at the last 

 moment was unnecessary because a great fleet like the Armada, bent on invasion, required such 

 shelter and base as only Portsmouth, Plymouth, the Medway, or the Thames could afford, and 

 an open and dangerous coast like that of Sussex would only have been a trap for destruction. 



The experience of 1587 and of later years showed that the brunt of fighting had always to 

 be borne by men-of-war, and that armed merchantmen were, at best, useful only for minor opera- 

 tions. But in 1588 this was understood only by a few seamen ; therefore in that year the whole of 

 the English coast was called upon to help, not by a general impressment but by sending a specified 

 number of ships to join the royal fleet. On 31 March a general embargo on shipping was pro- 

 claimed, the object being not so much to retain the vessels as the men. This was followed the 

 next day by orders to the port towns to furnish ships at their own expense ; all were to be of more 

 than 60 tons. 4 Five ships and a pinnace were required from the Cinque Ports, and one ship from 

 Chichester ; the city was excused on 9 April as being too poor. Unlike most of the other coast towns, 

 which, on various pleas, made desperate efforts to procure a diminution of their assessments, the 

 Cinque Ports set about providing their share with hardly a murmur, and on 15 April resolved that 

 Rye and Tenterden should send one vessel, and Winchelsea and Hastings, with its members, another. 6 

 The Rye ship was the William, 80 tons, Captain Wm. Coxon, and that from Hastings the Anne 

 Bonaventure, JO tons, Captain John Conny ; the John of Chichester, 70 tons, was also with the fleet, 

 the ship being supplied by the Lord Admiral and Chichester, Arundel, Lewes, Shoreham, and Brighton 

 being called upon to pay for wages and provisions for it for three months. 6 Hastings also sent 

 eleven 'crayers,' with 80 men, to act as tenders to the fleet, but these were in service only fifteen 

 days. 7 The county, of course, dispatched many more seamen to serve than were included in the 

 contingent they prepared at their own cost ; from Rye alone there were 350, and the mayor and 

 jurats asked the Council to desire Tenterden to hold assistance in readiness in case of necessity, 

 ' whereunto we know they will be very willing.' 8 On 27 July the Armada was becalmed off 

 Fairlight, and it may have been this ominous appearance which alarmed the Hastings authorities into 

 writing to the Privy Council that so many of their men were away with the queen's fleet that the 

 town was defenceless ; the Council, with a quite unusual clearness of perception, answered that the 

 fleet was their best protection. 9 On the night of 28-29 J u ^7 tne Spaniards had been squibbed with 

 fireships from their anchorage in Calais Roads, on the aQth they were defeated off Gravelines, and 

 on the 3Oth, when the Council reassured the nervous Hastings petitioners, the Armada was flying 

 northwards. The Sussex ships, like all the other merchantmen, did no service during the week of 

 conflict up Channel. 



In 1589 Norreys and Drake led a fleet and army to Portugal to place Don Antonio, the 

 pretender to the Portuguese crown, on the throne, and thus dismember the Spanish empire and end 

 the war. Although the queen gave assistance the expedition was a private adventure on the part of 

 the leaders and their associates ; consequently the Ports were not called upon officially for ships, but 

 upwards of 80 were hired by Norreys and Drake upon the usual terms of 2J. a ton per month. 

 The port of origin of many of the ships is not given, and only two belonging to Sussex one from 

 Chichester and one from Newhaven are known to have taken part in the voyage. Edward Fenner 

 commanded the Chichester vessel, and William Fenner, in a man-of-war, was rear-admiral of the 

 fleet. 10 The failure of this enterprise deterred Elizabeth from further undertakings on a large scale 

 until 1596, when the attack on Cadiz took place, but in the interval the Cinque Ports had some 

 local questions of their own to exercise them. Rye, in 1591, was able to set out two privateers, 

 and in March of the same year lost a ' passage boat ' with goods to the value of 6,OOO crowns on 

 board ; this reference is of interest as showing the established passenger traffic with Dieppe. 11 In 

 1591, also, the question of impressment within the liberties came up again, probably in connexion 



I Holloway, Hist, of Rye, 309. ' Ibid. 65, 353, 354. 



* Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. iv, 92. Sec also post, p. 155. 



4 Acts of P.C. 31 March, i April, 1588. ' Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. iv, 87. 



6 Acts of P.C. xvi, 61. Three of the Fenners Thomas, Edward, and William commanded men-of- 

 war, the Nonpareil, Swiftsure, and Aid respectively. George Fenner was captain of one of the largest of the 

 armed merchantmen. 7 S.F. Dom. Eliz. ccxvi, 68. 8 Lansd. MSS. Ivi, fol. 200. 



Acts of P.C. 30 July, 1588. " S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxiii, 76. 



II A town order of 1575 directed that the passage boats were to take their turn. 



2 153 20 



