m ship 
when the King executed in person the office of Lord High 
Admiral, and also to James II. until his abdication. His 
minutes and miscellanies relative to the navy are contained 
in a great number of manuscript volumes, which are depo¬ 
sited in the Pepysian Library in Magdalene College, Cam¬ 
bridge. From these papers it appears, that in the thirteenth 
year of Henry VIII., the following were the names and the 
tounage of the Royal Navy :— Tons. 
Henry Grace de Dieu. 1500 
Gabriel Royal. 650 
Mary Rose . 600 
Barbara ., 400 
Mary George . 250 
Henry Hampton. 120 
The Great Galley. 800 
Sovereign. 800 
Catherine Forteleza... 550 
John Baptist . 400 
Great N icholas. 400 
Mary James. 240 
Great Bark . 250 
Less Bark... 180 
Two row barges of 60 tons each—making, in the whole, 
16 ships and vessels measuring 7260 tons. 
The Henry Grace de Dieu is stated in all other accounts, 
and with more probability, to have been only 1000 tons; 
the rule for ascertaining the measurement of ships being still 
vague and liable to great error, was probably much more so 
at this early period. This ship was built in 1515 at Erith, 
in the river Thames, to replace the Regent of the same ton¬ 
nage, which was burnt in August, 1512, in action with the 
French fleet, when carrying the flag of the Lord High 
Admiral. There is a drawing in the Pepysian papers of the 
Henry Grace de Dieu, from which a print in the Archseo- 
logia has been engraved, and of which a copy has been 
taken as a frontispiece to Mr. Derrick’s “ Memoirs of the 
Rise and Progress of the Royal Navy.” From these papers 
it appears, that she carried 14 guns on the lower deck, 12 
on the main deck, 18 on the quarter-deck and poop, 18 on 
the lofty forecastle, and 10 on her stem ports, making alto¬ 
gether 72 guns. Her regular establishment of men is said to 
have consisted of 349 soldiers, 301 mariners, and 50 gun¬ 
ners, making altogether 700 men. Some idea may be 
formed of the awkwardness in manoeuvring ships built on 
her construction or similar to her, when it is stated that, on 
the appearance of the French fleet at St. Helens, the Great 
Harry, built in the former reign, and the first ship built with 
two decks, had nearly been sunk, and that the Mary Rose, 
of 600 tons, with 500 or 600 men on board, was actually 
sunk at Spithead, occasioned, as Ralegh says, “ by a little 
sway in casting the ship about, her ports being within six¬ 
teen inches of the water.” On this occasion the fleets can¬ 
nonaded each other for two hours; and it is remarked as 
something extraordinary, that not less than 300 cannon-shot 
were fired on both sides in the course of this action. From 
the prints above-mentioned, which agree very closely with 
the curious painting of Henry crossing the Channel in his 
fleet, to meet Francis on the “ Champ de drap d’Or,” near 
Calais, (and now in the great room where the Society of 
Antiquaries hold their meetings in Somerset-House,) it is 
quite surprising how they could be trusted on the sea at all; 
their enormous poops and forecastles making them appear 
loftier and more awkward than the large Chinese junks, to 
which, indeed, they bear a strong resemblance. 
Henry VIII. may justly be said to have laid the founda¬ 
tion of the British navy. He established the dock-yards at 
Deptford, Woolwich, and Portsmouth; he appointed cer¬ 
tain commissioners to superintend the civil affairs of the 
navy, and settled the rank and pay of admirals, vice-ad¬ 
mirals, and inferior officers ; thus creating a national navy, 
and raising the officers to a separate and distinct profession. 
The great officers of the navy then were, the Vice-Admiral 
of England; the Master of the Ordnance; the Surveyor of 
the Marine Causes; the Treasurer, Comptroller, General Sur- 
P I N G. 
veyor of the Victualling, Clerk of the Ships, and Clerk of the 
Stores. Each of these officers had their particular duties, 
but they met together at their office on Tower-Hill once a 
week, to consult, and make their reports to the Lord High 
Admiral. He also established the fraternity of the Trinity- 
House, for the improvement of navigation and the encou¬ 
ragement of commerce, and builtthe castles of Deal, Walmer, 
Sandgate, Hurst &c., for the protection of his fleet and of 
the coast. 
At the death of Henry VIII., in 1547, the Royal Navy 
consisted of about 50 ships and vessels of different sizes, the 
former from 1000 to 150 tons, and the latter down to 20 
tons, making in the whole about 12,000 tons, and manned 
by about 8000 mariners, soldiers, gunners, &c. In the short 
reign of his son Edward, little alteration seems to have taken 
place in the state and condition of the Royal navy. But 
the regulations which had been made in the reign of his 
father, for the civil government of naval affairs, were revised, 
arranged, and turned into ordinances, which form the basis 
of all the subsequent instructions given to the commissioners 
for the management of the civil affairs of the navy. In the 
reign of Mary the tonnage of the navy was reduced to about 
7000 tons; but her Lord High Admiral nobly maintained 
the title assumed by England of “ Sovereign of the Seas,” 
by compelling Philip of Spain to strike his flag that was 
flying at the main-top-mast head, though on his way to 
England to marry Queen Mary, by firing a shot at the 
Spanish Admiral. He also demanded that his whole fleet, 
consisting of 160 sail, should strike their colours and lower 
their top-sails, as an homage to the English flag, before he 
would permit his squadron to salute the Spanish monarch. 
The reign of Elizabeth was the proudest period of our naval 
history, perhaps surpassed by none, previous to the Revo¬ 
lution. She not only increased the numerical force of the 
regular navy, but established many wise regulations for its 
preservation, and for securing adequate supplies of timber 
and other naval stores. She placed her naval officers on a 
more respectable footing, and encouraged foreign trade and 
geographical discoveries, so that she acquired justly the title 
of the “ Restorer of Naval Power, and Sovereign of the 
Northern Seas.” The greatest naval force that had at any 
previous period been called together was that which was 
assembled to oppose the “ Invincible Armada,” and which 
consisted, according to the notes of Mr. Secretary Pepys, 
of 176 ships, with 14,992 men; but these were not all 
“ Shippes Royal,” but were partly composed of the contri¬ 
butions of the Cinque Ports and others. The number actu¬ 
ally belonging to the navy is variously stated, but they 
would appear to have been somewhere about 40 sail of ships, 
manned with about 6000 men. At the end of her reign, 
however, the navy had greatly increased, the list in 1603 
consisting of 42 ships of various descriptions, amounting to 
17,000 tons, and manned with 8346 men. Of these two 
were of the burden of 1000 tons each, three of 900 tons, 
and ten from 600 to 800 tons. 
James I. was not inattentive to his navy. He warmly pa¬ 
tronized Mr. Phineas Pett, the most able and scientific ship¬ 
wright that this country ever boasted, and to whom we 
undoubtedly owe the first essential improvements in the 
form and construction of ships. The cumbrous top-works 
were first got rid of under his superintendence. “ In my 
owne time,” says Ralegh,“ the shape of our English ships hath 
been greatly bettered—in extremity we carry our ordnance 
better than we were wont—we have added crosse pillars in 
our royall shippes, to strengthen them; we have given longer 
floors to our shippes than in older times,” &c. The young 
Prince Henry was so fond of naval affairs, that Phineas Pett 
was ordered, by the Lord High Admiral, to build a vessel 
at Chatham in 1604 with all possible speed, for the young 
Prince Henry to disport himself in, above London Bridge; 
the length of her keel was 28 feet, and her breadth 12 feet. 
In 1610 Pett laid down the largest ship that had hitherto 
been built. She was named the Prince Royal; her burden 
1400 tons; her keel 114 feet; and armed with 64 pieces of 
great ordnance; “ being in all respects,” says Stowe, “ the 
greatest 
