CHARLES I. : THE NAVY 291 



for fishing began about the 20th June, he was to repair to the 

 northwards as soon as his other business would permit. 

 Northumberland received this letter at Plymouth on the 22nd, 

 together with other information that the French fleet had 



o 



passed towards Dunkirk. He thereupon hurried eastwards, 

 arriving at the Downs on 24th June, and finding that the 

 report as to the movement of the French fleet was false, pre- 

 pared for the campaign against the Dutch fishermen. 



The Channel cruise of Northumberland's fleet was thus as 

 barren of result as had been Lindsey's in the year before. He 

 fell in with a few Dunkirk privateers, far too nimble to be 

 caught up by the " great unwieldy " English ships. When in 

 Portland Road, a glimpse was got of eight large ships at a 

 great distance, which were thought to be States' men-of-war. 

 Northumberland stood towards them, but as soon as they per- 

 ceived the movement they tacked about and were speedily out 

 of sight. "They are so well built and fitted for sailing," 

 remarked the Earl, "that I can never come near when they 

 have a mind to avoid, unless by chance." It has indeed been 

 well said that whether Charles was sovereign of the seas or 



o 



not, he could not build ships that would sail. 1 For the same 

 reason the English vessels were unable to find the " Turkish " 

 pirates, which, when the Earl put into Plymouth, came out of the 

 Irish seas, and carried off about thirty English fishermen into 

 captivity. During Northumberland's cruise, Captain Carteret 

 with six ships was busily employed in convoying such trading 

 vessels "as desired it" from the English coast to Dunkirk or 

 Ostend, "taking an acknowledgment in money of strangers." 2 

 But if Northumberland was foiled by the Fabian tactics 

 of Richelieu, as they had foiled Ldndsey, with regard to the 

 striking of the flag, he succeeded in forcing the Dutch fisher- 

 men to take the king's license, a policy which Charles had 

 contemplated long before even the first ship-money fleet was 

 equipped. We have already seen how the Scottish burghs 



1 Gardiner, viii. 157. The English ships were "clogged with timber," which, 

 however, served them well in the first Dutch war when they were pitted against 

 the slighter-built ships of the States. (Oppenheim, op. cit., 254.) 



* State Papers, Dom., clvii. fol. 1416 ; ccxiv. 107. The Earl of Northumberland 

 to the Lords of the Admiralty, cccxxi. 44, 45, 65, 78, 87 ; cccxxii. 16, 40 ; cccxxv. 

 78, 79 ; cccxxvi. 16, 38 ; ccexxvii. 42, 73. The Lords of the Admiralty to North- 

 umberland, 14th June, cccxxvi. 32. 



