Lines of the Santa Maria.Fig. 40.—Lines of theSanta Maria.
Fig. 40.—Lines of theSanta Maria.
In 1497 the first English expedition was made to America under John Cabot. We have no particulars of the ship in which Cabot sailed, but it could not have been a large one, as it is known that the crew only numbered eighteen. The expedition sailed from Bristol in the month of May, and land, which was probably Cape Breton, was sighted on June 24. Bristol was reached on the return journey at the end of July. In the following year Cabot made another voyage, and explored the coast of North America from Cape Breton to as far south as Cape Hatteras. Many other expeditions in the same directionwere fitted out in the last years of the fifteenth and the first years of the sixteenth centuries.
While Cabot was returning from his first voyage to North America, one of the most famous and most epoch-making expeditions of discovery of modern times was fitted out in Portugal. On July 24, 1497, Vasco da Gama set sail from the Tagus in the hope of reaching Indiaviathe Cape of Good Hope. His squadron consisted of three ships, named theSan Gabriel, theSan Raphael, and theBirrio, together with a transport to carry stores. There is a painting in existence at Lisbon of theSan Gabriel, which is supposed to be authentic. It represents her as having a high poop and forecastle, very like the caravelSanta Maria. She had four masts and a bowsprit. The latter and the fore and main masts were square-rigged. TheSan Gabrielwas, however, a much larger vessel than theSanta Maria. She is said to have been constructed to carry 400 pipes of wine. This would be equivalent to about 400 tons measurement, or, from 250 to 300 tons register.15The other two ships selected were of about the same dimensions, and of similar equipment and rig, in order that, in the event of losses, or accidents, each of the ships might make use of any of the spars, tackle, or fittings belonging to the others.
It may here be mentioned that the ships reached Quilimane, on the east coast of South Africa, on January 22, 1498. After many visits to East African ports, during which they satisfied themselves that the arts of navigation were as well understood by the Eastern seamen as by themselves, they set sail for India early in August, and after a voyage of twenty, or, as some say, twenty-three days, they sighted the coast, and shortly afterwards arrived in Calicut, nearly fourteen months after they started from Lisbon.
About this time the Memlook Sultans of Egypt absolutely cut off the trade which had been carried on for centuries between the Italian Republics and the Malabar coast of Indiaviathe overland route and the Red Sea. It was this fact that gave the discovery of the sea-route to India such enormous importance, and, ultimately, it was one of the causes of the commercial downfall of the Italian Republics. The Cape route became the great high-road of commerce to the East, and remained so down to the present reign, when the re-establishment of the overland route, and, eventually, the successful cutting of the Suez Canal, restored commerce to its old paths.
The discoveries of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, John Cabot, and their successors, had an enormous influence upon shipbuilding, as they not only widened the area of seaborne commerce, but offered strong inducements to navigators to venture on the great oceans, far from land, in craft specially adapted for such voyages. Hitherto, sailors had either navigated the great inland seas of Europe or had engaged in the coasting trade, and the longest voyages undertaken before the end of the fifteenth century were probably those which English merchants made between Bristol and Iceland, and between our Eastern ports and Bergen.
Henry VII. not only encouraged commerce and voyages of discovery, but also paid great attention to the needs of the Royal Navy. He added two warships to his fleet, which were more powerful vessels than any previously employed in this country. One of them, named theRegent, was copied from a French ship of 600 tons, and was built on the Rother about 1490. She carried four masts and a bowsprit, and was armed with 225 small guns, called serpentines. The second ship was named theSovereign, and it is remarkable, as showing the connection at that time between land and naval architecture, that she was built under the superintendence of Sir ReginaldBray, who was also the architect of Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster Abbey, and of St. George's Chapel, Windsor. TheSovereigncarried 141 serpentines.
TheRegentwas burnt in an action off Brest in the reign of Henry VIII., in the year 1512. She caught fire from a large French carrack, called theMarie la Cordelière, which she was attacking. Both ships were utterly destroyed.
TheMarie la Cordelièrewas probably the largest warship of her time. She is said to have carried 1,200 men, and to have lost 900 killed in the action. She was built at Morlaix at the sole cost of Anne of Brittany, then Queen of France.
The Henry Grace à Dieu. Pepysian Library, Cambridge.Fig. 41.—TheHenry Grace à Dieu.Pepysian Library, Cambridge.
Fig. 41.—TheHenry Grace à Dieu.Pepysian Library, Cambridge.
TheRegentwas replaced by a very famous ship called theHenry Grace à Dieu, otherwise known as theGreat Harry. As a consequence, most probably, of the size and force of some of the French ships, as revealed in the action off Brest, theHenry Grace à Dieuwas a great advance on any previous Britishwarship. She was built at Erith, and was probably launched in June, 1514. Her tonnage is given in a manuscript in Pepys' "Miscellanies" as 1,500; but it is generally believed that she did not in reality exceed 1,000 tons.
The Henry Grace à Dieu.Fig. 42.—TheHenry Grace à Dieu.After Allen.
Fig. 42.—TheHenry Grace à Dieu.After Allen.
There are more drawings than one in existence, supposed to represent this famous warship. One of them, shown in Fig.41, is from a drawing in the Pepysian Library, in Magdalene College, Cambridge. Another, shown in Fig.42, is from an engraving by Allen of a picture ascribed to Holbein. The two illustrations differ in many important respects and cannot both represent the same ship. There is very little doubt that Fig.41is the more correct representation of the two, because it is confirmed in all essential respects by Volpe's picture of the embarkation of Henry VIII. at Dover in 1520 on this very ship. Volpe's picture is now at Hampton Court Palace, and shows four other ships of the Royal Navy, which were all built in the same style as the Pepysian drawing ofFig.41, with enormous forecastles and poops. The vessel represented in the picture ascribed to Holbein appears to belong to a later date than 1520, and is, in fact, transitional between the ships of this period and those of the reign of Elizabeth. One of the warships of the latter period is shown in Fig.45.
According to a manuscript, in the Pepysian Collection, theHenry Grace à Dieuwas armed with twenty-one guns and a multitude of smaller pieces. The numbers of the various guns and the weights of their shot are given in the following table:—
The sizes of the guns of this time are pretty accurately known, because one of the ships of Henry VIII., called theMary Rose, built in 1509, went down off Portsmouth in 1545, and several of her guns have been recovered, and are still in existence.
The por-holes were circular, and so small in diameter that no traverse could have been given to the guns. This practice continued to prevail till the time of the Commonwealth. There were five masts in this, as in all other first-rates henceforth down to the time of Charles I. One of the masts was inclined forward, like a modern bowsprit. Each mast was made in one piece, the introduction of separate topmasts having been a more modern improvement.
Genoese carrack. 1542.Fig. 43—Genoese carrack. 1542.
Fig. 43—Genoese carrack. 1542.
The highest development in the art of shipbuilding at thisperiod was reached in the large merchant-ships called Carracks. The competition between the great trading republics of Italy, viz. Venice and Genoa, and the rivalry of Portugal probably accounted for the marked improvement in the character of merchant-ships in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Fig.43gives a representation of a large Genoese carrack of the sixteenth century. It will be noticed that this vessel had four masts, and was square-rigged, the foremost mast having been inclined forward somewhat after the fashion of the modern bowsprit. In the sixteenth century the carrack often attained the size of 1,600 tons. Towards the latter half of this century a Portuguese carrack captured by the English was, in length, from the beakhead to the stern, 165 ft.; beam, 47 ft.; length of keel, 100 ft.; height of mainmast,121 ft.; circumference at partners, 11 ft.; length of mainyard, 106 ft.; burthen, 1,600 tons. This vessel carried 32 pieces of brass ordnance—a very necessary addition to the merchant-ship of the period—and accommodated between 600 and 700 passengers.
The most important maritime event in the sixteenth century was, undoubtedly, the fitting out by Spain, in 1588, of the gigantic expedition intended to invade this country in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. An account of the fleets on either side may therefore be interesting.
Spanish galleass. 1588.Fig. 44.—Spanish galleass. 1588.
Fig. 44.—Spanish galleass. 1588.
The great Armada consisted of no less than 132 vessels, of which only four were galleys, and four galleasses.16Of the remainder, 30 were under 100 tons, and 94 were between 130 and 1,550 tons. The total tonnage of the ships, less the galleys and galleasses, was 59,120. The armament consisted of 2,76117guns. The seamen numbered 7,865 and the soldiers 20,671. The fleet was divided into ten squadrons. The largest vessel was the flagship of the Levant squadron, and was of 1,249 tons, and carried 30 guns. The crew consisted of 80 sailors and344 soldiers. The next largest was of 1,200 tons and carried 47 guns, but the greater number of the vessels were much smaller. The popular belief as to their incredible size and unwieldiness must therefore be dismissed as baseless, for even the largest ships were far exceeded in size by some of the carracks, or merchant vessels, of that day. On the average the Spanish vessels mounted 22 guns apiece, and carried crews of 231 sailors and soldiers. Fig.44is a sketch, taken from the tapestry of the old House of Lords, of one of the galleasses of the fleet. It will be noticed that she carried her guns extremely high, a peculiarity which was common to many of the Spanish vessels; for we read that their fire did more harm to the rigging than to the hulls of the English vessels.
The fleet mustered by Elizabeth was far more numerous, but its tonnage did not amount to one-half of that of the Armada. The total number of vessels sailing under the English flag was 197, of which, however, only 34 belonged to the Royal Navy. The remainder were merchant vessels, hastily fitted out and adapted for purposes of war by their owners, or by the ports to which they belonged. Of the Royal ships the largest was theTriumph, built in 1561. She was commanded by Sir Martin Frobisher, and was only exceeded in size by four of the Spanish vessels. TheTriumphwas between 1,000 and 1,100 tons, but there were only seven ships in the English Navy of between 600 and 1,000 tons, whereas the Spaniards had no fewer than 45. The crew of theTriumphnumbered 500, of whom 300 were sailors, 40 gunners, and 160 soldiers.
TheTriumphcarried 42 guns, of which 4 were cannon, 3 demi-cannon, 17 culverins, 8 demi-culverins, 6 sakers, and 4 small pieces. The greatest number of guns carried by any ship in the fleet was 56, mounted on board theElizabeth Jones, of 900 tons, and built in 1559. The flagship of the Lord High Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham, theArk, was the mostmodern of the English warships, having been built in 1587. She was of 800 tons, carried a crew of 430, and mounted 55 guns.
Of the merchant auxiliaries the two largest were theGalleon Leicesterand theMerchant Royal, each of 400 tons, and each carried a crew of 160 men. In the former of these the explorer Cavendish afterwards made his last voyage. Another of the merchant-ships, theEdward Bonaventure, belonged to the Levant Company, and in the years 1591 to 1593 was distinguished as the first English ship that made a successful voyage to India.
The size of a large number of the merchant-ships was under 100 tons. The total number of the crews of the entire English fleet was 15,551; of these 6,289 belonged to the queen's ships.
As a general rule, the English ships in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, both in the Royal Navy and in the Mercantile Marine, were much inferior in size to the vessels belonging to the great Maritime Republics of Italy and to Spain and Portugal. Hitherto the practice had been general of hiring Genoese and Venetian carracks for mercantile purposes. It is stated that about the year 1578, or twenty years after Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, there were only 24 ships in the Royal Navy and 135 of above 100 tons burthen in the whole kingdom, and but 656 that exceeded 40 tons. Nevertheless, in this reign there was a great development of mercantile activity, in which the sovereign as well as her people participated. Many trading expeditions were sent out to the West Indies and to North America, and warlike descents on the Spanish ports were frequently carried out, and were attended with great success. In Elizabeth's time the first British colony, Virginia, was founded in North America, and Sir Francis Drake undertook his memorable and eventful voyage round the world in a squadron, which consisted, at thecommencement, of five vessels, whereof the largest, thePelican, was of only 100 tons burthen, and the smallest a pinnace of 15 tons. So great was the progress made about this time in English maritime trade that, only four years after the date above mentioned, there were said to have been no less than 135 English commercial vessels of above 500 tons in existence.
In the year 1587 Drake, in his famous marauding expedition in the Spanish seas, captured a great carrack called theSan Felipe, which was returning home from the East Indies. The papers found in her revealed the enormous profits which the Spaniards made out of their trade with India, and afforded such valuable information that the English merchant adventurers were incited to cut in and try to secure some share of this trade for themselves. This led, ultimately, to the founding of the celebrated East India Company, and to the conquest of India by the British. In 1589 certain merchants petitioned the queen to grant them a licence to trade with the East Indies; but Elizabeth, fearing the resentment of the Spanish and Portuguese, would not grant their request for many years, and it was not till the last day of the year 1599 that she gave a charter of incorporation to the Earl of Cumberland and 215 knights and merchants for fifteen years, and thus founded the first East India Company. English adventurers, however, did not wait for a charter before commencing their trading operations with the East, for in 1591 an expedition consisting of three ships was sent out under the command of James Lancaster. Only one of the three—theEdward Bonaventure, which, as already mentioned, had been a merchant auxiliary in the English fleet that opposed the Armada—ever reached the East Indies in safety.
A few weeks after the charter had been granted Lancaster led another expedition to the East. His fleet consisted offive ships; the largest, theDragon, was of 600 tons, and had a crew of 202. After an adventurous voyage the fleet returned to England in September, 1602, having been absent two years and eight months.
There is abundant evidence to show that foreign merchant ships in Elizabeth's reign were often much larger than any built in this country. The following are examples. In 1592 a Portuguese carrack called theMadre de Dioswas captured and brought home. She was of 1,600 tons burthen, 165 feet long from stem to stern, and had seven decks, including the numerous half and quarter decks which formed the poop. In 1594 a Spanish carrack was destroyed which had 1,100 men on board. When Cadiz was taken in 1596 two Spanish galleons of 1,200 tons were captured, and the flagship, theSan Felipe, of 1,500 tons, was blown up. In 1602 a Portuguese carrack of 1,600 tons was captured at Cezimbra. She was named theSan Valentino, and was worth, with her cargo, a million ducats.
The system of striking topmasts appears to have been introduced into the English Navy in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is mentioned by Sir Walter Raleigh as a recent improvement and "a wonderful ease to great ships, both at sea and in the harbour." Amongst the other novelties mentioned by the same authority was the use of chain-pumps on board ship; they lifted twice the amount of water that the old-fashioned pumps could raise; studding, top-gallant, sprit and topsails were also introduced, and the weighing of anchors by means of the capstan. He also alludes to the recent use of long cables, and says that "by it we resist the malice of the greatest winds that can blow." The early men-of-war, pierced with portholes, carried their lower guns very near the water. In some cases there were only fourteen inches from the lower sill of the portholes to the water-line. This practice led to many accidents; amongst others may be mentioned the loss of theMary Rose, one of the largest ships in the Royal Navy in the time of Henry VIII. Sir Walter Raleigh mentions that, in his time, the practice was introduced of raising the lower tier of ports. Nevertheless, this improvement did not become general till the time of the restoration of Charles II. Fig.45is a representation of an English ship of war of the time of Queen Elizabeth, supposed to be of the date 1588. It is copied from the tapestries of the old House of Lords. It shows clearly the recently introduced topmasts alluded to by Sir Walter Raleigh. It is certainly a much more ship-shaped and serviceable craft than the vessels of Henry VIII. There is also in existence a drawing of a smaller Elizabethan warship in the Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian Library; in essential particulars, it confirms Fig.45. Both of these show that the forecastles and poops had been considerably modified.
English man-of-war. About 1588.Fig. 45.—English man-of-war. About 1588.
Fig. 45.—English man-of-war. About 1588.
Venetian galleass. 1571.Fig. 46.—Venetian galleass. 1571.
Fig. 46.—Venetian galleass. 1571.
Another great naval war was waged in the latter half of the sixteenth century, about sixteen years before the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The scene was the Adriatic Sea, and the combatants were Venice, with her allies, Spain and the Papal States, on the one hand, and the Turks on the other. It culminated in the complete defeat of the latter at Lepanto in 1571. The site of the battle of Lepanto is very near to that of Actium, and it is a remarkable circumstance that twice in history a decisive naval battle between the West and East should have been decided at the same spot. The allies possessed a fleet consisting of 208 galleys and 6 galleasses. The Venetians introduced the latter type of vessel in order to meet the Turks on even terms. It was an improved form of galley with three masts, carrying several guns on the broadside, most of them mounted on the upper deck. Fig.46represents one of the Venetian galleasses as used at the battle of Lepanto, to the winning of which engagement they are said to have contributed materially. The galleass was essentially a Mediterranean warship. It was never generally adopted by theWestern powers, but four Neapolitan vessels of this category, carrying each 50 guns, formed a part of the great Armada sent by Spain to effect the conquest of England. The galleass represented in Fig.46had a circular forecastle in which were mounted several guns, to be used in end-on attack.
It is impossible to read the accounts of the battle of Lepanto and of the defeat of the Spanish Armada without noticing the great contrast between the ships used in the two wars at about the same period. In the Mediterranean the single-banked galley was still the prevailing type, while in the Western and Northern seas the bulk of the Spanish and the whole of the British fleets were sailing-ships.
It does not appear that any further novelties, or improvements, worth alluding to were introduced into the practice of shipbuilding till the accession of the House of Stuart in 1603. All the monarchs of this family paid particular attention to the development of the Royal Navy. King James I. had in his service an educated naval architect of the name of Phineas Pett, who was a Master of Arts of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a member of a famous family of shipbuilders who had been employed for two centuries previously, from father to son, as officers and architects in the Royal Navy. Some time after the accession of James, a Royal Commission inquired into the general state and management of the navy, and issued a report in 1618, which was in effect "a project for contracting the charge of His Majesty's Navy, keeping the coast of England and Ireland safely guarded, and his Majesty's ships in harbour as sufficiently guarded as now they are, provided that the old debts be paid, ... and certain assignments settled for the further payment of the navy quarterly." At the time the report was issued there were only seventeen vessels in the navy which had been built during the reign of James. The most important of these was thePrince Royal, built in 1610,and, at the time, considered to be one of the finest men-of-war in the world. Fig.47is an illustration of a man-of-war of the period, which, there is strong evidence for believing, was this very vessel. It was designed and built under the superintendence of Phineas Pett at Woolwich Dockyard, and was given by the king to his son Henry, Prince of Wales, in honour of whom it was named thePrince Royal. It was in many respects a remarkable departure from the prevailing practice of the times, and, if stripped of its profuse carved work, was very similar in outline to the men-of-war built as recently as the commencement of the last century. The designer was bold enough to abandon some of the time-honoured features of ship construction, such as the beak, or prow, derived from the old galleys, and the square buttock, or tuck. The latter feature, however, continued to appear in the ships of most other European countries for some time afterwards. The length of keel of this vessel was 114 ft., and the beam 44 ft. The reputed burthen was 1,400 tons, and the vessel was pierced for 64 guns, whereof she carried 55, the vacant portholes being filled in action from the opposite side, a custom which prevailed down to the last century and was adopted in order to lessen the dead weight carried aft. The great difference between the shape of the quarter galleries and forecastle in this ship and in the earlier types will be noted. The armament of thePrince Royalconsisted of the following guns: On the lower deck six 32-pounders, two 24-pounders, and twelve 18-pounders. The bow and aftermost ports were empty, and in case of necessity the former was filled by an 18-pounder from the opposite side, and the latter by a 24-pounder from the stern-ports. The upper deck was armed with 9-pounders, the aftermost port being vacant, and filled up when required. The quarter-deck and forecastle were provided with 5-pounders.
The Prince Royal. 1610.Fig. 47.—ThePrince Royal. 1610.
Fig. 47.—ThePrince Royal. 1610.
The building of this ship aroused many apprehensions, and a Commission was appointed to report on the design while it was being constructed. It certainly seems that gross errors were made in the calculations. For instance, it was estimated that 775 loads of timber would be required for her construction, whereas 1,627 loads were actually used. The timber also was so unseasoned that the ship only lasted fifteen years, and had then to be rebuilt.
Many complaints were made about this time of the incapacity and ignorance of English shipbuilders. Sir Walter Raleigh laid down the following as the principal requirements of warships: strong build, speed, stout scantling, ability to fight the guns in all weathers, ability to lie to easily in a gale, and ability to stay well. He stated that in all these qualities the royal ships were deficient. He also called attention to the inferiority of our merchant-ships, and pointed out that, whereas an English ship of 100 tons required a crew of thirty hands, a Dutch vessel of the same size would sail with one-third of that number.
Another authority of the time complained that—
"he could never see two ships builded of the like proportion by the best and most skilful shipwrights ... because they trust rather to their judgment than their art, and to their eye than their scale and compass."
"he could never see two ships builded of the like proportion by the best and most skilful shipwrights ... because they trust rather to their judgment than their art, and to their eye than their scale and compass."
The merchant navy of England languished during the early years of the reign of James I. Owing, however, to the patronage and assistance extended by the king to the East India Company, and also in no small measure to the stimulus caused by the arrival of some large Dutch merchantmen in the Thames, the merchants of London abandond the practice of hiring ships from foreigners and took to building for themselves. In the year 1615 there were not more than ten ships belonging to the Port of London with a burthen in excess of 200 tons, but, owing to the sudden development of shipbuilding, the Portof Newcastle in the year 1622 owned more than 100 ships exceeding the above-mentioned tonnage.
In the year 1609 the king granted a new charter to the East India Company, and in the following year a vessel, called theTrade's Increase, was sent out. This ship was the largest merchantman built up to that time in England. Her career, however, was not fortunate. She was careened at Bantam, in order that some repairs to her hull might be effected, but she fell over on her side and was burnt by the Javanese.
Before the year 1613 British merchants had made altogether twelve voyages to the East Indies, for the most part in ships of less than 500 tons. In that year, however, all the merchants interested in the Oriental trade joined together to form the United East India Company. The first fleet fitted out by the re-organised Company consisted of four ships, of 650, 500, 300, and 200 tons burthen respectively. It had to fight its way with the Portuguese before it could commence to trade. The Portuguese considered that they were entitled to a monopoly of the trade with the East, and jealously resented the intrusion of the English merchantmen, whom they attacked with a fleet of six galleons, three ships, two galleys, and sixty smaller vessels. They were, however, ignominiously defeated, and the English merchants were enabled to accomplish their purpose.
During the last five years of the reign of James I. the strength of the Royal Navy was increased twenty-five per cent. His son and successor, Charles I., through all the troubles of his eventful reign, never neglected this branch of the national defences, and during his reign the Mercantile Marine grew to such an extent that, at the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, the port of London alone was able to furnish 100 ships of considerable size, all mounting cannon and fitted up in every respect for the operations of war.
The Sovereign of the Seas. 1637.Fig. 48.—TheSovereign of the Seas. 1637.
Fig. 48.—TheSovereign of the Seas. 1637.
TheSovereign of the Seas, illustrated in Fig.48, may be taken as a sample of the largest type of warship built by Charles. Like thePrince Royal, she was designed by Pett, and was considered to be the most powerful man-of-war in Europe of her time. Her construction must have been a great improvement on that of thePrince Royal; for, whereas the latter ship was declared to be no longer fit for service fifteen years after her launch, theSovereign of the Seas, though engaged in most of the naval battles of the seventeenth century, remained in good condition for a period of sixty years, and was then accidentally burnt at Chatham when about to be rebuilt. She was the first three-decker in the Royal Navy, but as she proved somewhat crank, she was cut down to a two-decker in the year 1652. At the Restoration she was renamed theRoyal Sovereign.
This very remarkable vessel was of 1,683 tons burthen. Her length of keel was 128 ft.; length over all, 167 ft.; beam, 48 ft. 4 in.; and depth from top of lanthorn to bottom of keel, 76 ft. She was built with three closed decks, a forecastle, a half-deck, a quarter-deck, and a round-house. She carried in all 102 or 104 guns, and was pierced for thirty guns on the lower, thirty on the main, and twenty-six on the upper deck; the forecastle had twelve, and the half-deck fourteen ports. She also carried ten chasers forward, and as many aft. She was provided with eleven anchors, of which one weighed two tons.
TheRoyal Sovereignmay fairly be taken as representing the commencement of a better school of ship construction. Her merits were due to the talents of Phineas Pett, who, though not uniformly successful in his earlier designs, was a great innovator, and is generally regarded as the father of the modern school of wooden shipbuilding.
Very little is known, unfortunately, of the character and rigof the smaller classes of trading vessels of the end of the sixteenth and the commencement of the seventeenth centuries. It is, however, tolerably certain that cutter-rigged craft were used in the coasting and Irish trades as far back as 1567; for there is a map of Ireland of that date in existence on which are shown two vessels rigged in this manner.
With the description of theRoyal Sovereignwe close the account of mediæval naval architecture. Thanks to the fostering care of Charles I., to the genius of Pett, and to the great natural advantages conferred by the superiority of English oak to other European timbers, England at this period occupied a high place in the art of shipbuilding. The position thus gained was maintained and turned to the best advantage in the period of the Commonwealth, when successful naval wars were undertaken against the Dutch and other European States. These wars eventually resulted in establishing England, for a time, as the foremost maritime power in Europe.
The naval wars which followed the establishment of the Commonwealth contributed in a very large degree to the progress of shipbuilding. In 1652 war broke out with the United Provinces, headed by the Dutch, who were, prior to that period, the foremost naval and mercantile power in the world. The struggle lasted about two years, and during its continuance the British fleet increased from fifty-five first, second, and third rates, to eighty-eight vessels of corresponding classes, while a proportionately larger increase was made in ships of smaller denominations, and, in addition, the vessels lost in the war were replaced. The war with the Dutch was an exceptionally severe struggle, and ended in the complete victory of this country, which then stepped into Holland's place as foremost naval power. In addition to this war, Cromwell undertook an expedition to the Mediterranean, to punish the piratical states of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. The fleet was commanded by Blake, and was completely successful in its operations, which resulted in a security for British commerce with the Levant that had never been known before. Admiral Penn was at the same time entrusted with the command of a powerful expedition to the Spanish West Indies. The annexation of Jamaica followed, and British commerce in the West increased. In fact, with the progress of the national navy the commerce of the country also extended itself, and the increased experience thus obtained in shipbuilding, both for the war and trading fleets, necessarily resulted in great improvements in the art.
The Royal Charles. 1673.Fig. 49.—TheRoyal Charles. 1673.
Fig. 49.—TheRoyal Charles. 1673.
The expenditure on the navy in the time of the Commonwealth was enormous relatively to the total national revenue. In the year 1656-57 four-fifths of the income of the country was devoted to the sea service, in the following year two-thirds, and in 1658-59 nearly three-fifths. These are figures which have never been approached at any other period. The ships built during this time were of moderate dimensions. Only four were of 1,000 tons. These were theDunbar, of 1,047 tons and 64 guns, built in 1656; theLondon, built in the same year, of the same tonnage and number of guns, though of different dimensions; theRichard, of 1,108 tons and 70 guns, built in 1658; and theNaseby, built in 1655, of 1,229 tons and 80 guns. All four were renamed at the Restoration.
Charles II. and his brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James II., both possessed in an eminent degree the fondness for the navy which distinguished all the members of the Stuart dynasty, though, unfortunately, after the first naval war waged by Charles against Holland, the condition of the fleet was allowed to deteriorate very rapidly. As a sample of the type of warship of the first class built in this reign, we give, in Fig.49, theRoyal Charles, which was constructed at Portsmouth dockyard in 1673, by Sir Anthony Deane, to carry 100 guns. This illustration and that of theSovereign of the Seasare after pictures by Vandevelde. This ship was the largest in the navy, excepting always the famous oldSovereign of the Seasand theBritannia. The latter was built at Chatham, by Pett, in 1682, and carried 100 guns, and measured 1,739 tons. TheRoyal Charlescreated as much sensation in its day as did the famous ship built for Charles I. There is a beautiful model of theRoyal Charlesin the Museum.
The Soleil Royal. 1683.Fig. 50.—TheSoleil Royal. 1683.
Fig. 50.—TheSoleil Royal. 1683.
The following table gives the leading dimensions of theRoyal Charlesand theBritannia:—
Fig.50is an illustration after Vandevelde of a famous French first-rate of the same period, named theSoleil Royal, of 106 guns. She was destroyed in Cherbourg Bay the day after the battle of Cape La Hogue, in 1692. Fig.51is a Dutch first-rate, named theHollandia, of 74 guns. She was built in 1683, and took part in the battle of Beachy Head as flagship of Admiral Cornelis Evertsen.
The Hollandia. 1683.Fig. 51.—TheHollandia. 1683.
Fig. 51.—TheHollandia. 1683.
The chief difference between the British and foreign builds of warship of the latter half of the seventeenth century was that the English vessels were always constructed with the roundedtuck before mentioned, as introduced by Pett, while the Continental ships all had the old-fashioned square tuck, which is well illustrated in Fig.51. The Dutch ships in one respect excelled all others, in that they were the first in which the absurd practice of an exaggerated "tumble home," or contraction of the upper deck, was abandoned. This fashion was still carried out to a very great extent by the English, and to a less extent by the French and Spaniards. The chain-plates in the English vessels were also fixed extremely low, while the Dutch fixed them as high as the sills of the upper-deck ports would allow. In consequence of the shallowness of the Dutch harbours, the draught of their ships was also considerably less than that of the English vessels of corresponding force.
Most of the ships in a seventeenth-century fleet deemed fit to take their station in the line of battle were third-rates. The first and second rates were exceptional vessels, and were only employed in particular services. A comparative table of the dimensions and armament of the various rates, or classes in the year 1688, is annexed:—
The first so-called frigate was designed by Peter Pett, and built at Chatham in 1646. She was named theConstant Warwick. Her dimensions were: length of keel, 85 ft.;breadth, 26 ft. 5 in.; depth, 13 ft. 2 in.; tonnage, 315; guns, 32; crew, 140. She worked havoc amongst the privateers of the time.
The bomb-ketch was originally introduced by a famous French naval architect named Bernard Renan, about 1679. This class of warship was first employed by Louis XIV. in the bombardment of Algiers, where it produced an enormous effect. Bomb-ketches were of about 200 tons burthen, very broad in proportion to their length, and built with great regard to strength, on account of the decks having to bear the downward recoil of the mortars. The latter were placed in the fore-part of the vessel, which was purposely left unencumbered with rigging. The hold between the mortars and keel was closely packed with old cables, cut into lengths. The yielding elastic qualities of the packing assisted in taking up the force of the recoil. The bombs weighed about 200 pounds, and the consternation and terror produced by them may readily be realized when it is remembered that, up to that time, the most dangerous projectile which a warship could discharge at a land fortification was a thirty-two pound shot. These vessels were fitted with two masts, one in the middle and the other in the stern.
While referring to this invention of Bernard Renan, it should be mentioned that France rose to the rank of a great naval power in the reign of Louis XIV., under the famous minister Colbert, in the latter half of the seventeenth century. When Louis succeeded to the throne the French Navy was practically non-existent, as it consisted only of four, or five, frigates. In 1672 he had raised the strength of the fleet to fifty line-of-battle ships and a corresponding number of frigates and smaller vessels. Nine years afterwards, the French marine numbered 179 vessels of all classes, exclusive of galleys. In 1690 the French fleet in the Channel alone numbered sixty-eight ships, while the combined British and Dutch squadrons consisted only of fifty-six, and suffered a defeat at Beachy Head, in which the English lost one vessel and their allies six. This defeat was, however, amply revenged two years afterwards, when the allies succeeded in opposing the enormous number of ninety-nine ships of the line, besides thirty-eight frigates and fireships, to Tourville's fleet of forty-four ships of the line and thirteen smaller vessels, and defeated it off Cape La Hogue, inflicting on it a loss of fifteen line-of-battle ships, including the famousSoleil Royal, of 108 guns, illustrated in Fig.50. From the time of Louis XIV. down to the present date French naval architects have always exercised a most important influence on the design of warships, a circumstance which was largely due to the manner in which Colbert encouraged the application of science to this branch of construction.It may be truly said that, during the whole of the eighteenth century, the majority of the improvements introduced in the forms and proportions of vessels of the Royal Navy were copied from French prizes.