318 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



English and the Dutch tried to surpass each other 

 in expressing rapture at the termination of a costly 

 and devastating war. 



There is to be seen in the grounds of Greenwich 

 Hospital an old gun, in a remarkably good state of 

 preservation, which bears the following inscription : 



" This gun was found sunk in the sand in St. Mary's 

 Creek, below Chatham. It is of iron, believed to have 

 been cast in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and is 

 supposed to have formed part of the armament of the 

 Matthias, a ship set on fire and sunk by the Dutch under 

 De Ruyter when he sailed up the Medway to attack 

 Chatham, I2th June 1667." 



