BEFORE THE CONQUEST 



into her. In the Gokstad ship these included twelve horses, six dogs, 

 and a peacock. On the other hand a Viking warrior wounded to death 

 would often be put still alive into his ship, with the bodies of his followers 

 who had been killed round him, and the whole set on fire to drift like a 

 huge torch before the wind. They were a people who had a sense of the 

 picturesque and impressive which later permitted them to take civilisa- 

 tion so well, and at the same time a lust and a contempt for death which 

 accounts for at least some of their cruelties. 

 The Saxon Navy. 



King Alfred the Great is generally regarded as being the founder 

 of the Saxon Navy, but as a matter of fact his predecessor, King Athel- 

 stan, did much before his time. Although the Norsemen gave Britain a 

 very bad time with their piratical raids, it must not be forgotten that it 

 was entirely due to them that we became a sea nation, and the Saxons, 

 who followed their King in the preservation of law and order, were 

 only pirates who had settled down to a rather more peaceful life. King 

 Athelstan and Alderman Elchere deserve to be well remembered for 

 having fought what appears to be the first purely English sea fight when 

 they collected a fleet and descended on an invading force that were 

 despoiling the town of Sandwich in Kent. A large army was destroyed 

 on shore, nine of the ships were captured, and the remainder of what 

 appears to have been a very considerable fleet were dispersed. It 

 seems curious that, although the Saxons had been pirates themselves, 

 this was the first occasion on which they used their ships for attacking, 

 and it was not until King Alfred organised his fleet completely that they 

 really tackled their enemies on the water. King Alfred's brother was 

 Saint Neot, who, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, fought on 

 shipboard in the year 851, very probably in this same action. It may 

 very easily have been on Saint Neot's advice, for it is known that he 

 had very considerable influence over his brother, that Alfred built his 

 fleet in the first place, yet he is scarcely remembered in this country. 



King Alfred's Fleet. 



The British have many things for which they should be grateful to 

 the memory of King Alfred, but for none more than his organisation 

 of the fleet into a permanent fighting force. The Romans kept some 

 sort of a patrol in the Channel for the purpose of maintaining com- 

 munications with Gaul, but immediately they had gone this was stopped. 

 Alfred was a stout fighter, and also a man of scientific attainments far 

 in advance of his time. The Saxon Chronicle records that he himself 

 devised new types of ships, making them fully twice as long as those 

 that were generally used in his day. Some of them had sixty oars and 

 some more, but according to other authorities the fleet also included 

 ships of forty oars. Thev were fast and seaworthy — the historian makes 

 particular note of the fact that they were steadier than their con- 

 temporaries, which was no doubt a very gratifying feature to the lands- 

 men who were pressed into the service. Details of their lines have not 

 come down to us, but it appears that they were quite distinct from both 



12 



