14 NAVAL SCrENCES. 



superior character, and some of the best specimens of naval architecture 

 are of Dutch origin. We shall describe their peculiarities in another place. 

 We find in the early naval registers of Holland ships of 90, 92, and 94 guns, 

 but we are struck with their comparatively small number of men. The 

 admiral's ship Unie of 94 guns had only 550 men ; the rear admiral's ship 

 Zetland of 90 guns only 425 men ; and the ship of the line Westfriesland 

 of 88 guns only 470 men. In the war between Holland and France and 

 between Spain and France, in which Holland lent her aid to Spain, Holland 

 had 70 ships of the line and 30 frigates in active service. Among them 

 were 14 ships of from 84 to 94 guns, 17 of from 68 to 76 guns, 19 of from 

 60 to 54 guns, the remainder with 54 guns, and the frigates with from 30 

 to 40 guns. In this war the Dutch admirals Van Tromp and De Ruyter 

 gained immortal renown. A peculiar branch of the Dutch navigation was 

 the herring fishery, for which this country in the middle ages had almost 

 a monopoly. The Dutch first engaged in this fishery in the latter part of 

 the 13th century, Edward III. of England having given them permission in 

 1295 to take herring on the English coast. Wilhelm Beukelszoon brought 

 the art of pickling herring to perfection in 1397. In 1644, Holland equipped 

 1054 herring smacks. These were round both in the stem and stern ; they 

 had only one mast and one large sail, except a triangular stay-sail and 

 another light sail on a small mizen-mast. They carried from 350 to 500 

 barrels of herrings. They were manned by about fifteen sailors. The 

 Dutch also engaged in the whale fishery and fitted out voyages to Green- 

 land. The Greenland Company, established in 1614, however, had such 

 ill-success that they surrendered their charter in 1651. 



6. The French. France also assumed an important place among sea- 

 faring nations in the middle ages. Her marine was derived directly from 

 the Greeks, for Massilia, now Marseilles, was a Greek colony and a power- 

 ful rival of Carthage. Marseilles was most distinguished in the time of the 

 crusades. It was her vessels that bore the crusaders and pilgrims to Pales- 

 tine. The business was reduced to a perfect system. On an average, from 

 6000 to 7000 pilgrims were carried annually. The master of the vessel 

 bound himself by an oath to care for the pilgrims, whether sick or well, 

 alive or dead. Each pilgrim was guaranteed a space for sleeping six feet 

 wide, seven feet long, and twenty inches high. Every ship was obliged to 

 be armed, and with a sufficient force to repel the attacks of an enemy. 

 Another landing-place was Aigues Mortes, which, now several miles from 

 the sea, at that time had a good harbor. For a long time navigation made 

 little progress on the north-west coast of France. In 1513 a commercial 

 marine of some importance was established at the port of Harfleur. PL 4, 

 Jig. 4, shows the arrangement of the oars and sails in the galleys during 

 the reign of King Francis I. The construction of ships of war improved 

 with the improvements of the merchant vessels, and (as shown in pi. 3, 

 Jig. 1) they received a more convenient, symmetrical, and elegant form. 

 But the French navy was raised to a formidable degree of power under Col- 

 bert, the celebrated minister of Louis XIV., and at the battle of the Hague^ 

 May 31, 1692, it had a decided supremacy over the maritime force of every 

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