SHIPS AND SEAMEN 



Elizabethan Improvements. 



The long voyages undertaken by the Gentlemen Adventurers in 

 Queen Elizabeth's day naturally led to great improvements in the con- 

 struction of ships, and Sir Walter Raleigh described them as a practical 

 seaman who had had more than a little to do with their conception. 

 " In my own time the shape of our English ships has been greatly 

 bettered. The striking of the topmasts has been devised, together with 

 the chain pump. We have lately added the bonnet and drabler to the 

 courses, we have devised studding-sails and sprit-sails. The weighing 

 of the anchor by the capstan is also new. We have fallen into con- 

 sideration of the length of cables and by it we can resist the malice of 

 the greatest winds that blow : we have also raised our second decks." 

 Many of these improvements still hold, while others have been 

 improved out of existence. For instance, the old and certainly pre- 

 Elizabethan custom of lacing bonnets, or extra pieces of canvas, to the 

 foot of the sail when the weather was fine gave place to reefing, or taking 

 in, canvas when it was foul. The studding-sails, which were set on the 

 outer edges of square-sails, disappeared in the latter part of the nine- 

 teenth century when the competition of steam forced the owners to 

 economise and cut down their crews. The unwieldy sprit-sails, which 

 were set on a yard under the bowsprit and were later joined by sprit- 

 topsails over it, gave way to headsails of the normal shape many years 

 ago. 



Feeding the Seamen. 



The manner in which British seamen were fed, or rather starved, 

 has already been mentioned, and it is not surprising when one con- 

 siders how often the victualling was put out by contract to speculators 

 who were obviously unscrupulous. During the Commonwealth an 

 attempt was made to feed the fleet officially, but it did not last long and 

 soon afterwards the old contract system was restored. Pepys, who had 

 an appreciation of the seaman's qualities beyond his age, did a good 

 deal in the contract form which he drew out in 1677, but the system 

 could not be satisfactory in any circumstances and in 1683 the State 

 Victualling Department was again restored. It is very doubtful 

 whether this was any more satisfactory than the old system, but in 1697 

 efforts were made to put things on a really satisfactory basis, partic- 

 ularly with regard to payments by the victualling office which were 

 generally many months overdue. Although this effected a certain 

 improvement — for one could scarcely blame victuallers for supplying 

 bad food when they could not get paid — it was a long time before the 

 matter was put anything like right. 



The Discipline of the Stuart Ships. 



In the general disorganisation of the fleet in the time of the early 

 Stuarts discipline was hopelessly mixed, very harsh in one point and lax 

 in another. For instance, although England was at war with Spain in 

 1625 it was reported that three big men-of-war were in the Downs with 



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