 Chapter 15, Part 2, of The Sea, Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Paral, and Heroism. The Danes, once having a foothold, were never thoroughly expelled till the Norman conquest, and as a maritime race excelled all the nations of the north of Europe. They had two principal classes of vessels, the drakers and hulkers, the former named from carrying a dragon on the boughs, and bearing the Danish flag of the raven. The hulker was at first a small boat, hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, but the word hulk, evidently derived from it, was used afterwards for vessels of larger dimensions. They had also another vessel called a snekker, serpent, strangely so named for it was rather a short, stumpy kind of boat, not unlike the Dutch galliots of the 16th and 17th centuries. Their piratical expeditions, soon increased, and whales and the island of Anglesey were frequently pillaged by them, while in Ireland they possessed the ports of Dublin, Waterford, and Cork, a Danish king reigning in the first two cities. But a king was to arise who would change all this, Alfred the Great and Good, the father of the British navy. On the accession of Alfred the Great to the throne, he found England so overrun by the Danes that he had, as every schoolboy knows, to conceal himself with a few faithful followers in the forests. In his retirement he busied himself in devising schemes for ridding his country of the pirate marauders, and without much deliberation he saw that he must first have a maritime force of his own and meet the enemies of England on the sea, which they considered their own, a special element. He set himself busily to study the models of the Danish ships, and aided by his hardy followers stirred up a spirit of maritime ambition which had not existed to any great extent before. At the end of the four years of unremitting labour and the prosecution of his schemes, he possessed the nucleus of a fleet in six galleys, which were double the length of any possessed by his adversaries, and which carried sixty oars, and possessed ample space for the fighting men on board. With this fleet he put to sea, taking the command in person, and routed a marauding expedition of the Danes then about to make a descent on the coast. The force was larger than his own, but he succeeded in capturing one, and in driving off the rest. In the course of the next year or two he captured or sunk a teen of the enemy's galleys, and they found at last that they could not have it all their own way on the sea. About this time the cares of government occupied necessarily much of his time. His astute policy was to win over a number of the more friendly Danes to his cause by giving them grants of land, and obliging them in return to assist in driving off aggressors. He was nearly the first native of England who made any efforts to extend the study of geography. According to the Saxon chronicler Florence of Worcester, A.D. 897, he consulted Oater, a learned Norwegian, and other authorities from whom he obtained much information respecting the northern seas. Oater had not only coasted along the shores of Norway, but had rounded the North Cape. It was a feat in those days, gentle reader, but now cooks tourists to it, and had reached the bay in which Archangel is situated. The ancient geographer gave Alfred vivid descriptions of the gigantic whales, and of the innumerable seals he had observed, not forgetting the terrible maelstrom, the dangers of which he did not underrate, and which it was generally believed in those days was caused by a horribly vicious old sea dragon who sucked the vessels under. He compared the natives to the Scythians of old, and was rather severe on them, as they brewed no ale, the poor drinking honeymead in its stead, and the rich a liquor distilled from goat's milk. Alfred not merely sent vessels to the north on voyages of discovery, but opened communication with the Mediterranean, his galleys penetrating to the extreme east of the Levant, whereby he was enabled to carry on a direct trade with India. William of Malmsbury mentions the silks, shawls, incense, spices, and aromatic gums which Alfred received from the Malabar coast in return for presents sent to the Nestorian Christians. Alfred constantly and steadily encouraged the science of navigation, and certainly earned the right of the proud title he has borne since, of Father of the British Navy. Time passes and we come to Canute. On his accession to the throne, as the son of a Danish conqueror, he practically put an end to the incursions and attacks of the northern pirates. The influence of his name was so great that he found it unnecessary to maintain more than forty ships at sea, and the number was subsequently reduced. So far from entertaining any fear of revolt from the English, or of any raid on his shores he made frequent voyages to the continent as well as to the north. He once proceeded as far as Rome, where he met the emperor, Conrad II, from whom he obtained for all his subjects, whether merchants or pilgrims, complete exemption from the heavy tolls usually exacted on their former visits to that city. Canute was a cosmopolitan. By his conquest of Norway not merely did he represent the English whom he had subjugated and who had become attached to him, but the Danes, their constant and inverterate foes and rivals, he thus united under one sovereignty the principal maritime nations of the north. And still the writer exerts the privileges conceded to all who wield the pen of passing quickly over the pages of history. The stories, says a writer who made maritime subjects a peculiar study, as to the number of vessels under the order of the conqueror on his memorable expedition, are very conflicting. Some writers have asserted that the total number amounted to no less than three thousand of which six or seven hundred were of a superior order, the remainder consisting of boats temporarily built and of the most fragile description. Others place the whole fleet at not more than eight hundred vessels of all sizes and this number is more likely to be nearest to the truth. There are now no means of ascertaining their size, but their form may be conjectured from the representation of these vessels on the rolls of the famous Bayou tapestry. It is said that when William meditated his descent on England, he ordered large ships to be constructed for that purpose at his seaports, collecting, whenever these could be found, smaller vessels or boats to accompany them. But even the largest must have been of little value, as the whole fleet were by his orders burned and destroyed as soon as he landed with his army, so as to cut off all retreat and to save the expense of their maintenance. This would indicate that the sailors had to fight ashore, and may possibly have been intended to spur on his army to victory. Freeman states in his History of the Norman Conquest, that he finds the largest number of ships in the conqueror's expedition as compiled from the most reliable authorities was three thousand, but some accounts put it as low as six hundred and ninety-three. Most of the ships were presents from the Prelates or Great Barons. William Fitz Osborne gave sixty. The Count de Mortaigne, one hundred and twenty, the Bishop of Bayou, one hundred, and the finest of all, that in which William himself embarked, was presented to him by his own Duchess Matilda, and named Mora. Norman writers of the time state that the vessels were not much to boast of, as they were all collected between the beginning of January and the end of August ten sixty-six. Lindsay, who thoroughly investigated the subject, says that the Norman merchant vessels, or transports, were in length about three times their breadth, and were sometimes propelled by oars, but generally by sails. Their galleys appeared to have been of two sorts, the larger, occasionally called galleons, carrying in some instances sixty men well armed with iron armor beside their oars. The smaller galleys, which are not specially described, doubtless resembled ships launches in size, but of a form enabling them to be propelled at a considerable rate of speed. Boats covered with leather were even employed on the perilous Channel voyage. The conqueror soon added to the security of the country by the establishment of the sink ports, which, as their title denotes, were at first five, but were afterwards increased in numbers so as to include the following seaports, Dover, Sandwich, Hyfe, and Romsey, in Kent, and Rye, Wynchelsey, Hastings, and Seaford, in Sussex. On their first establishment they were to provide fifty-two ships, with twenty-four men on each, for fifteen days each year in case of emergency. In return they had many privileges, part of which are enjoyed by them to-day. Their freemen were styled barons. Each of the ports returned two members of Parliament. An officer was appointed over them, who was Lord Warden of the sink ports, and also Constable of Dovercastle. For more than a hundred years after the conquest, says the writer just quoted, England's ships had rarely ventured beyond the Bay of Biscay on the one hand, and the entrance to the Baltic on the other, and there is no special record of long voyages by English ships until the time of the Crusades, which whatever they might have done for the cause of the cross undoubtedly gave the first impetus to the shipping of the country. The number of rich and powerful princes and nobles who embarked their fortunes in these extraordinary expeditions offered the chance of lucrative employment to any nation which could supply the requisite amount of tonnage, and English ship owners very naturally made great exertions to weep a share of the gains. One of the first English noblemen who fitted out an expedition to the Holy Land was the Earl of Essex, and twelve years afterwards Richard Cure de Lyon, on ascending the throne, made vast levies on the people for the same object, joining Philip II and other princes for the purpose of raising the cross above the Crescent. Towards the close of eleven eighty-nine, two fleets had been collected, one at Dover to convey Richard and his followers, among whom were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Salisbury, and the Lord Chief Justice of England, across the Channel, and a second and still larger fleet at Dartmouth composed of numbers of vessels from Aquitaine, Brittany, Normandy, and Poetu, for the conveyance of the great bulk of the Crusaders. To join Richard at Marseilles, wither he had gone over land with the French King and his other allies. The Dartmouth fleet, under the command of Richard de Camville, and Robert de Sablois, set sail about the end of April eleven ninety. It had a disastrous voyage, but at length reached Lisbon, where the Crusaders behaved so badly and committed so many outrages that seven hundred were locked up. After some delay they sailed up the Mediterranean reaching Marseilles, where they had to stop some time to repair their unseaworthy ships, and then followed the King to the Straits of Messina, where the fleets combined. It was not until seven months later that the fleet got under way for the Holy Land. It numbered one hundred ships of larger kind and fourteen smaller vessels called buses. Each of the former carried, beside her coup of fifteen sailors, forty soldiers, forty horses, and provisions for a twelve month. Vinysouth, who makes the fleet much larger, mentions that it proceeded in the following order. Three large ships formed the van, the second line consisted of thirteen vessels, the lines expanding to the seventh which consisted of sixty vessels, and immediately preceded the King and his ships. On their way they fell in with a very large ship belonging to the Saracens, manned by fifteen hundred men, and after a desperate engagement took her. Richard ordered that all but two hundred of those not killed in the action should be thrown overboard, and thus thirteen hundred infidels were sacrificed at one blow. Off Etna, Sicily, they experienced a terrific gale, and the crew got seasick and frightened, and off the island of Cyprus they were assailed by another storm, in which three ships were lost, and the Vice Chancellor of England was drowned, his body being washed ashore with the great seal of England hanging around his neck. Richard did not return to England till after the capture of Acre, and the truce with Saladin, he landed at Sandwich, as nearly as maybe four years from the date of his start, and this is neither a history of England nor of the Crusades, excepting only as either are connected with the sea. We must pass on to a subject of some importance which was the direct result of experience gained at this period. The foundation of a maritime code, by an ordinance of Richard Curadiline, a most important step in the history of merchant shipping, was due to the knowledge acquired by English pilgrims, traders, and seamen at the time of the Crusades. The first code was founded on a similar set of rules then existing in France, known as the Roe de Allureux, and some of the articles show how loose had been the conditions of the sailor's life previously. The first article gave a master power to pledge the tackle of a ship, if in want of provisions for the crew, but forbade the sale of the hull without the owner's permission. The captain's position, as Lord Paramount on board, was defined. No one, not even part owners or supercargos, must interfere. He was expected to understand thoroughly the art of navigation. The second article declared that if a vessel was held in port, through failure of wind or stress of weather, the ship's company should be guided as to the best course to adopt by the opinion of the majority. Two succeeding articles related to wrecks and salvage. The fifth article provided that no sailor in port should leave the vessel without the master's consent. If he did so, and any harm resulted to the ship or cargo, he should be punished with a year's imprisonment on bread and water. He might also be flogged. If he deserted altogether and was retaken, he might be branded on the face with a red hot iron. Although allowance was made for such as ran away from their ships through ill usage. Sailors could also be compensated for unjust discharge without cause. Succeeding clauses referred to the moral conduct of the sailor, forbidding drunkenness, fighting, etc. Article 12 provided that if any mariner should give the lie to another at a table where there was wine and bread, he should be fined for denier. And the master himself offending in the same way should be liable to a double fine. If any sailor should impudently contradict the mate, he might be fined eight deniers. And if the master struck him with his fist or open hand, he was required to bear the stroke. But if struck more than once, he was entitled to defend himself. If the sailor committed the first assault, he was to be fined one hundred soot, or else his hand was to be chopped off. The master was required by another rule not to give his crew cause for mutiny, nor call them names, nor wrong them, nor keep anything from them that is theirs, but to use them well and pay them honestly what is their do. Another clause provided that the sailor might always have the option of going on shares or wages, and the master was to put the matter fairly before them. The 17th clause related to food. The hardy sailors of Brittany were to have only one meal a day from the kitchen, while the lucky ones of Normandy were to have two. When the ship arrived at a wine country, the master was bound to provide the crew with wine. Sailors were forbidden to take royal fish, such as the sturgeon, salmon, turbo, and sea barbell, or to take on their own account fish which yield oil. These are a part only of the clauses, many others referring to matters connected with rigging, masts, anchorages, pilotage, and other technical points. In bad pilotage, the navigator who brought mishap on the ship was liable to lose his head. The general tenor of the first code is excellent, and the rules were laid down with an evident spirit of fairness, alike to the owner and sailor. The subject of letters of mark might occupy an entire volume, and will recur again in these pages. They were in reality nothing more than privileges granted for purposes of retaliation legalized piracy. They were first issued by Edward I, and the very first related to an outrage committed by Portuguese on an English subject. A merchant of Bayonne, at the time of port belonging to England in Gascony, had shipped a cargo of fruit from Malaga, which on its voyage along the coast of Portugal was seized and carried into Lisbon by an armed cruiser belonging to that country, then at peace with England. The king of Portugal, who had received one-tenth part of the cargo, declined to restore the ship or lading, whereupon the owner and his heirs received a license to remain in force five years to seize the property of the Portuguese, and especially that of the inhabitants of Lisbon, to the extent of the loss sustained, the expenses of recovery being allowed. How far the merchant of Bayonne recouped himself, history saith not. A little later a most important mercantile trade came into existence, that in coal, from archaeological remains and discoveries. It is certain that the Romans excavated coal during their reign on this island, but it was not till the reign of Edward III that the first opening of the great New Castle coal fields took place, although as early as 1253 there was a lane at the back of Newgate called Sea Coal Lane. As in many other instances, even in our own days, the value of the discovery seems to have been more appreciated by foreigners than by the people of this country, and for a considerable time after it had been found. The combustion of coal was considered to be so unhealthy that a royal edict forbade its use in the city of London, while the queen resided there, in case it might prove pernicious to her health. At the same time, while England laid her veto on the use of that very article which has since made her, or helped to make her, the most famous commercial nation of the world, France sent her ships laden with corn to New Castle, carrying back coal in return, her merchants being the first to supply this new great article of commerce to foreign countries. In the reign of Henry V, the trade had become of such importance that a special act was passed, providing for the measurement of ships and barges employed in the coal trade. King John stoutly claimed for England the sovereignty of the sea. He was not always so firm and decided, and decreed that all foreign ships, the masters of which should refuse to strike their colors to the British flag, should be seized and deemed good and lawful prizes. This monarch is stated to have fitted out no less than five hundred ships under the Earl of Salisbury in the year 1213, against the fleet of ships three times that number, organized by Philip of France, for the invasion of England. After a stubborn battle the English were successful, taking three hundred sail and driving more than one hundred to shore, Philip being under the necessity of destroying the remainder to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemies. Some notion may be gained of the kinds of ships of which these fleets were composed, by the account that is narrated of an action fought in the following grain with the French, who, with eighties stout ships, threatened the coast of Kent. This fleet being discovered by Eubid de Berg, governor of Dover Castle, he put to sea with half the number of English vessels, and having got to the windward of the enemy, and run down many of the smaller ships, he closed with the rest, and threw on board them a quantity of quick line, a novel expedient in warfare, which so blinded the crews that their vessels were either captured or sunk. The dominion of the sea was bravely maintained by our Edwards and Henry's in many glorious sea fights. The temper of the times is strongly exemplified by the following circumstance. In the reign of Edward I an English sailor was killed in a Norman port, in consequence of which war was declared by England against France, and the two nations agreed to decide the dispute on a certain day, with the whole of their respective naval forces. The spot of battle was to be the middle of the channel, marked out by anchoring there an empty ship. This strange duel of nations actually took place, for the two fleets met on April 14th, 1293, when the English obtained the victory and carried off in triumph 250 vessels from the enemy. In an action of the harbor of Sloeys, with the French fleet, Edward III is said to have slain 30,000 of the enemy, and to have taken 200 large ships, in one of which only there were 400 dead bodies. The same monarch at the siege of Calais is stated to have blockaded that port with 730 sail, having on board 14,956 mariners. The size of the vessels employed was probably to must have been rapidly enlarging. Chaucer gives us a graphic description of the British sailor of the 14th century, in his prologue to the Canterbury tales. It runs as follows. A shipman was there, wanting for by west, for ought I what he was of Dartamouth? He rode upon a round sea as he coothed. In a gown of folding to the knee, a dagger hanging on a lass had he. About his neck under his armadon, the hoots summer had made his hoon all barone. And certainly he was a good fellow. Full many a draft of wind had he draw. From Bordeaux ward, while that the Chapman sleep, of nice conscious took he no keep. If that he fought, and had the hayer hand, by water he sent whom to every land. But of his craft to Rinewell the tides. His streams and his dangers him besides. His herberg and his main his load, Monage. There was none such from Hull to Cartage. Hardly he was, and wise to undertake, with many a tempest had his bird been shake. He knew well all the havens as they were, from Scotland to the Cape of Finister. And every quick in Britain and in Spain, his barge he clept was the Magdalene. In the reign of Henry V, the most glorious period up to that time of the British navy, the French lost nearly all their navy to us at various times. Among other victories Henry Peech, Admiral of the Sinkports captured 120 merchantmen, forming the Rochelle Fleet, and all richly laden. Towards the close of this reign about the year 1416 England formally claimed the Dominion of the Sea, and a parliamentary document recorded this fact. It was never absolute, says Sir Walter Raleigh, until the time of Henry VIII. That great voyager and statesman adds that whoever commands the sea commands the trade of the world, whosoever commands the trade commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself. The curious poem is included in the first volume of Hockleute's famous collection of voyages bearing reference to the navy of Henry. It is entitled The English Policy, Exorting All England to Keep the Sea, etc. It was written apparently about the year 1435. It is a long poem, and the following is an extract merely. And if I should conclude all by the king, Henry V, what was his purposing? When at Hampton he made the great Dromans, which passed other great ships of the commons, the Trinity, the Grace to Do, the Holy Ghost, and other Moe, which is now be lost. What hope you was the king's great intent of those ships, and what in mind be meant? It is not Ellis, but that he cast to be Lord round about and viren over the sea. And if he had to this time lived here, he had been Prince named without an pier. His great ships should have been put in briefs, to the end that he meant of in chiefs, for doubt it not but that he would have be, Lord and master about the Rand Sea. And kept it sure to stop our enemies hence, and one us good and wisely brought it thence. That our passage should be without danger, and his license on sea to move and steer. End of Chapter 15 Part 2. Chapter 15 Part 3 of the Sea. Its stirring story of adventure, peril, and heroism. Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Sea. Its stirring story of adventure, peril, and heroism. Volume 1. By Frederick Wemper. Chapter 15. The history of ships and shipping interests. Part 3. When the king had determined in 1415 to land an army in France, he hired ships from Holland, Zealand, and Friesland, his own naval means not being sufficient for the transport. Among his other preparations, requisite for so high an enterprise, boats covered with leather for the passage of rivers are mentioned. His fleet consisted of one thousand sail, and left South Hampton on Sunday, the 11th of August of the above-mentioned year. When the ships had passed the Isle of Wight, swans were seen swimming in the midst of the fleet, which was hailed as a happy auspice. Henry anchored on the following Tuesday at the mouth of the Sinai, about three miles from Harfleur. A council of the captains was summoned, and an order issued that no one under pain of death should land before the king, but that all should be in readiness to go ashore the next morning. This was done, and the bulk of the army, stated to have compromised twenty-four thousand archers and six thousand men of arms, was landed in small vessels, boats, and skiffs, taking up a position on the hill nearest to Harfleur. The moment Henry landed, he fell on his knees and implored the divine aid and protection to lead him on to victory, then conferring knighthood on many of his followers. At the entrance of the port a chain had been stretched between two large, well-armed towers, while it was father protected by stakes and trunks of trees to prevent the vessels from approaching. During the siege, which lasted thirty-six days, the fleet blockaded the port, and at its conclusion Henry, flushed with a victory which is said to have cost the English only sixteen hundred and the enemy ten thousand lives, determined to march his army through France to Calais. It was on this march that he won the glorious battle of Agincourt. On the sixteenth of November, he embarked for Dover, reaching that port the same day. Here a magnificent ovation awaited him. The burgesses rushed into the sea and bore him ashore on their shoulders, the whole population was intoxicated with delight. One chronicler states that the passage across had been extremely boisterous, and that the French noblemen suffered so much from seasickness that they considered the trip worse than the very battles themselves in which they had been taken prisoners. When Henry arrived near London, a great concourse of people met him at Blackheath, and he, as one remembering from whom all victories are sent, would not allow his helmet to be carried before him, whereupon the people might have seen the blows and dents that he had received. Neither would he suffer any ditties to be made and sung by minstrels of his glorious victory, for that he would have the praise and thanks altogether given to God. Next year the French attempted to retake Harfleur. Henry sent a fleet of four hundred sail to the rescue under his brother John, Duke of Bedford. The upshot being that almost the whole French fleet to the number of five hundred ships, hulks, caracks, and small vessels were taken, were sunk. The English vessels remained becombed in the roadstead for three weeks afterwards. Southly, who has collated all the best authorities in his admirable naval work, says, the bodies which had been thrown overboard in the action, or sunk in the enemy's ships, rose and floated above them in great numbers, and the English may have deemed it a relief from the contemplation of that ghastly sight to be kept upon the alert by some galleys, which, taking advantage of the comm, ventured as near them as they dare by day and night and endeavored to burn the ships with wildfire. He adds that the first mention of wildfire he had found is by Harding, one of the earliest of our poets in the following passage referring to this event. With oars many about us did they whine, with wildfire off to sail to stay and night, to brand our ships in it that they could or might. Next year we read of Henry's preparing to again attack France. The enemy had increased their naval force by hiring a number of Genoese and other Italian vessels. The king sent a preliminary force against them under his kinsmen the Earl of Huntingdon, who, near the mouth of the Sainah, succeeded in sinking three and capturing three of the great Genoese caracks, taking the Admiral Jacques, the bastard of Bourbon, and as much money as would have been half a year's pay for the whole fleet. These prizes were brought to Southampton. From whence the king shortly set forth with a fleet of fifteen hundred ships, the sails of his own vessel being of purple silk, which lay embroidered with gold, the remainder of Henry's brief reign, for he died the same year, is but the history of a series of successes over his enemies. It must never be forgotten that the navies of our early history were not permanently organized, but drawn from all sources. A noble, a city or port, voluntarily or otherwise, contributed according to the exigencies of the occasion. As we shall see, it is to Henry VIII that we owe the establishment of a royal navy as a permanent institution. In 1546, King Henry's vessels are classified, according to their quality, thus ships, galeacies, pineacies, row barges. A list bearing date in 1612 exhibits the classes as follows. Ships royal, measuring downwards from twelve hundred to eight hundred tons, middling ships from eight hundred to six hundred tons, small ships three hundred and fifty tons, and pineacies from two hundred to eighty tons. According to the old definition, a ship was defined to be a large hollow building made to pass over the seas with sails, without reference to size or quality. Before the days of the great Harry, few, if any, English ships, had more than one mast or one sail. The ship had three masts, and the Henry Grey dedu, which supplanted her four. The galeies were probably a long glow and sharp-built vessel, propelled by oars as well as by sails. The latter probably not fixed to the mast or any standing yard but hoisted from the deck when required to be used, as in the Lugger or Faluka of modern days. The penis was a smaller description of galeies, while the row barge is sufficiently explained by its title. The history of the period following the reign of Henry V, has much to do with shipping interests of all kinds. The constant wars and turbulent times gave great opportunity for piracy in the Channel and on the high seas. Thus we read of Hanokin Lu, an outlaw from Ghent, who had so prospered in piratical enterprises that he got together a squadron of eight or ten vessels well armed and stored. He not only infested the coast of Flanders and Holland and the English Channel, but scoured the coasts of Spain as far as Gibraltar, making impartial war on any or all nations and styling himself the friend of God and the enemy of all mankind. This pirate escaped a vengeance of man, but at length was punished by the elements. The greater part of his people perished in a storm and Hanokin Lu disappeared from the scene. Shortly afterwards we find the Hollanders and Zealander's uniting their forces against the Easterling Pirates, then infesting the seas and taking twenty of their ships. This action, says Southey, was more important in its consequences than in itself. It made the two provinces sensible for the first time of their maritime strength, and gave a new impulse to that spirit of maritime adventure which they had recently begun to manifest. Previously a voyage to Spain had been regarded as so perilous that whoever undertook it settled his worldly and his spiritual affairs as if preparing for death before he set forth, while now they opened up a brisk trade with that country and Portugal. Till now they had been compelled to bear the insults and injuries of the Easterlings without combined attempt at defence. Now they retaliated, captured one of their admirals on the coast of Norway and hoisted a basalm at the mast head in token that they had swept the seas clean from their pirate enemies. And now, in turn, some of them became pirates themselves, more particularly Hendrik von Borselen, Lord of Veer, who assembled all the outlaws he could gather, and committed such depredations that he was enabled to add greatly to his possessions in Walteron by the purchase of confiscated estates. He received others as grants from his own duke, who feared him, and thought it prudent at any cost to retain, at least in nominal obedience, one who might render himself so obnoxious an enemy. This did not prevent the admiral, for he held that rank under the duke, from infesting the coast of Flanders, carrying off cattle from Kadsent and selling them publicly in Zeeland, his excuse was that the terrible character of his men compelled him to act as he did, and the duke admitted the exculpation, being feigned to overlook outrages which he could neither prevent nor punish. A statute of the reign of Henry VI sets forth the robberies committed upon the poor merchants of this realm, not merely on the sea, but even in the rivers and ports of Britain, and how not merely they lost their goods but their persons also, were taken and imprisoned. Nor was this all, for the king's poor subjects dwelling nigh the sea coasts were taken out of their own houses with their chattels and children and carried by the enemies where it pleased them. In consequence, the commons begged that an armament might be provided and maintained on the sea which was conceded, and for a time piracy on English subjects was partially quashed. Meantime we had pirates of our own. Warwick, the king-maker, was unscrupulous at all points, and cared nothing for the lawfulness of the captures which he could make on the high seas. For example, when he left England for the purpose of securing Calais, then belonging to England, and the fleet for the House of York, he having fourteen well-appointed vessels fell in with a fleet of Spaniards and Genoese. There was a very sore and long-continued battle fought betwixt them, lasting almost two days. The English lost a hundred men. One account speaks of the Spanish and Genoese loss at a thousand men killed, and another of six and twenty vessels sunk or put to flight. It is certain that three of the largest vessels were taken into Calais, laden with wine, oil, iron, wax, cloth of gold, and other riches, and all amounting in value to no less than ten thousand pounds. The Earl was a favorite with his sailors, probably for the license he gave them, when the Duke of Somerset was appointed by the king's party to the command of Calais from which he was effectually shut out by Warwick. They carried off some of his ships and deserted with them to the latter. Not long after, when reinforcements were lying at Sandwich waiting to cross the Channel to Somerset's aid, March and Warwick borrowed eighteen thousand pounds from merchants and dispatched John Dynum on a piratical expedition. He landed at Sandwich, surprised the town, took Lord Rivers and his son in their beds, robbed houses, took the principal ships of the king's navy and carried them off, well furnished as they were with ordinance and artillery. From a time Warwick carried all before him, but not a few of his actions were most unmitigated specimens of piracy on nations little concerned with the House of York and Lancaster, their quarrels were wars. But as this is not intended to be even a sketch of the history of England, let us pass to the commencement of the reign of Henry VII, when the great minishment and decay of the navy and the idleness of the mariners were represented to his first parliament and led to certain enactments in regard to the use of foreign bottoms. The wines of southern France were forbidden to be imported hither in any but English, Irish, or Welsh ships, managed by English, Irish, or Welsh sailors. The act was repeated in the fourth year of Henry's reign and made to include other articles, while it was then forbidden to freight any alien ship from or to England with any manner of merchandise, if sufficient freight were to be had in English vessels, on pane of forfeiture, one half to the king, the other to the Caesars. Henry, says Lord Bacon, being a king that loved wealth and treasure, he could not endure to have trade sick nor any obstruction to continue in the gate vein which disperseth that blood. How well he loved riches is provided by the fact that when a speedy and not altogether creditable piece was established between England and France and the indemnity had been paid by the latter, the money went into the king's private coffers. Those who had impoverished themselves in his service or had contributed to the general outfit by the forced benevolence were left out in the cold. From Calais Henry wrote letters to the Lord Mayor and Alderman, which was a courtesy, says Lord Bacon, that he sometimes used, half bragging what great sums he had obtained for the piece, as knowing well that it was ever good news in London that the king's coffers were full. Better news it would have been if their benevolence had been but alone. Scotch historians tell us that Sir Andrew Wood of Largo Scotland had with his two vessels, the flower, yellow carvel, captured five chosen vessels of the Royal Navy which had infested the Firth of Forth and had taken many prizes from the Scotch previously during this reign. Henry VII was greatly mortified by this defeat and offered to put any means at the disposal of the officer who would undertake this service, and great were rewards if Wood were brought to him alive or dead. All hesitated. Such was the renown of Wood and his strength in men and artillery and maritime and military skill. At length Sir Stephen Bull, a man of distinguished prowess, offered himself and three ships replaced under his command, with which he sailed for the Firth and anchored behind the Isle of May, waiting Wood's return from a foreign voyage. Some fishermen were captured and detained in order that they should point out Sir Andrew's ships when they arrived. It was early in the morning when the action began. The Scots, by their skillful maneuvering, obtained the weather gauge, and the battle continued in sight of innumerable spectators who thronged the coast till darkness suspended it. It was renewed at daybreak. The ships grappled, and both parties were so intent upon the struggle that the tide carried them into the mouth of the Tay, into shoal water that the English, seeing no means of extricating themselves, surrendered. Sir Andrew brought his prizes to Dundee. The wounded were carefully attended there, and James, with royal magnanimity, is said to have sent both prisoners and ships to Henry, praising the courage which they had displayed, and saying that the contest was for honour, not for booty. Few naval incidents occurred under the reign of Henry VII, but it belongs nevertheless to the most important age of maritime discovery. Henry had really assented to the propositions of Columbus after Portugal had refused them, had not the latter's brother Bartholomew been captured by pirates on his way to England and detained as a slave at the oar. The Spaniards would not have had the honour of discovering the New World. This and the grand discoveries of Cabot, directly encouraged by Henry, who reached Newfoundland and Florida, the various expeditions down the African coast instituted by Don Juan, the discovery of the Cape and New Route to India by Diaz and Vasco de Gama, the discovery of the Pacific by Balboa and Cape Horn and the Straits of Magellan, will be detailed in another section of this work. They belong to this and immediately succeeding Reigns, and mark the grandest epic in the history of geographical discovery. The use of firearms, says Salfy, without which the conquests of the Spaniards in the New World must have been possible, changed the character of naval war sooner than it did the system of naval tactics, though they were employed earlier by land than by sea. It is doubtful when Canon was first employed at sea. One authority says that it was by the Venetians against the Genoese before 1330. Their use necessitated very material alterations in the structures of warships. The first portholes are believed to have been contrived by a ship-builder at Brest named Zéchagé, and their introduction took place in 1499. They were circular holes cut through the sides of the vessel and so small as scarcely to admit of the guns being traversed in the smallest degree, or fired otherwise than straightforward. Hitherto there have been no distinctions between the vessels used in commerce and in the King's service. The former being constantly employed for the latter, but now we find the addition of another tier, and a general enlargement of the war vessels. Still when any emergency required, merchant vessels, not merely English, but Genoese, Venetian, and from the hands at towns, were constantly hired for warfare. So during peace, the King's ships were sometimes employed in trade, or freighted to merchants. Henry was very desirous of increasing and maintaining commercial relations with other countries. In the commission to one of his ambassadors he says, The earth being the common mother of all mankind, what can be more pleasant or more humane than to communicate a portion of all her productions to all her children by commerce. Many special commercial treaties were made by him, and one concluded with the Archduke Philip, after a dispute with him, which had put a stop to the trade with the low countries, was called the Great Commercial Treaty into Cursus Magnus. It was framed with the greatest care to render the intercourse between the two countries permanent and profitable to both. The first incident in the naval history of the next reign, that of Henry VIII, grew out of an event which had occurred long before. A Portuguese squadron, had in the year 1476, seized a Scottish ship laden with a rich cargo, and commanded by John Barton. Letters of Mark were granted him, which he had not, apparently used to any great advantage, for they were renewed to his three sons, thirty years afterwards. The Bartons were not content with the repaying themselves for their loss, but found the Portuguese captures so profitable that they became confirmed pirates, and when they felt their own strength they seemed with little scruple to have considered ships of any nation as their fair price. Complaints were lodged before Henry, but were almost ignored, till the Earl of Surrey, then Treasurer and Marshal of England, declared at the Council Board that while he had an estate that could furnish out a ship, or a son that was capable of commanding one, the narrow seas should not be so infested. Two ships commended by his two sons, Sir Thomas and Sir Edward Howard, were made ready with the King's knowledge and descent. The two brothers put to sea, but were separated by stress of weather. The same happened to the two pirate ships, the lion under Sir Andrew Barton's own command, and the Jenny Perwin, or Bark of Scotland. The strength of one of them is thus described in an old ballad by a merchant, one of Sir Andrew's victims, who is supposed to relate his tale to Sir Thomas Howard. He is brass within and steel without, with beams on his topcastle strong, and thirty pieces of ordinance he carries on each side along, and he hath a pinnacle dearly tight, St. Andrew's cross it is his guide, his pinnest barith nine score men, and fifteen cannons on each side. Were he twenty ships, and he but one, I swear by Kirk and Bauer and Hall, he would overcome them every one, if once his beams they do downfall. But it was not so to be. Sir Thomas Howard, as he lay in the Downs, described the former making for Scotland, and immediately gave chase. And there was a sore battle, the Englishmen were fierce, and the Scots defended themselves manfully, and ever Andrew blew his whistle to encourage his men. Yet for all that, Lord Howard and his men, by clean force, entered the main deck. There the English entered on all sides, and the Scots fought, sore on the hatches. But in conclusion, Andrew was taken, being so sore wounded that he died there. And then the remnant of the Scots were taken with their ship. Meantime Sir Edward Howard had encountered the other piratical ship, and though the Scots defended themselves like hardy and well stomached men, succeeded in boarding it. The prizes were taken to Blackwell, and the prisoners, one hundred and fifty in number, being all left alive, so bloody had the action been, were tried at Whitehall, before the Bishop of Winchester and a council. The bishop reminded them that though there was peace between England and Scotland, they, contrary to that, as thieves and pirates, had robbed the king's subjects within his streams, wherefore they had deserved to die by the law and to be hanged at the low water mark. Then said the Scots, we acknowledge our offence and ask mercy, and not the law. And a priest, who was also a prisoner, said, my Lord, we appeal from the king's justice to his mercy. Then the bishop asked if he were authorised by them to save us, and they all cried, yay, yay. Well then, said the bishop, you shall find the king's mercy above his justice, for where you were dead by the law, yet by mercy he will revive you. You shall depart out of this realm within twenty days on pain of death if ye be found after the twentieth day, and pray for the king. James subsequently required restitution from Henry, who answered with brotherly salutation that it became not a prince to charge his confederate with breach of peace for doing justice upon a pirate and thief, but there is no doubt that it was regarded as a national affair in Scotland, and helped to precipitate the war which speedily ensued. Some of the edicts of the period seemed strange enough to modern ears. The Scotch Parliament had passed an act forbidding any ship freighted with staple goods to put to sea during the three winter months under penalty of five pounds. In fourteen ninety-three, a generation after the act was passed, another provided that all bergs and towns should provide ships and buses. The least to be of twenty tons, fitted according to the means of said places provided with mariners' nets and all necessary gear for taking great fish and small. The officers in every berg were to make all the stark idle men within their bounds, go on board these vessels, and serve them there for their wages, or in case of refusal, banish them from the berg. This was done with the idea of training a maritime force, but seems to have produced little effect. James IV built a ship, however, which was, according to Scottish writers, larger and more powerfully armed than any then built in England or France. She was called the Great Michael, and was of so great stature that she wasted all the oak forests of Fife, Falkland only accepted. Southie reminds us that the Scots, like the Irish of the time, were constantly in feud with each other, and consequently destroyed their forests, to prevent the danger of ambuscades, and also to cut off the means of escape. Timber for this ship was brought from Norway, and though all the ship rights in Scotland and many others from foreign countries were busily employed upon her, she took a year and a day to complete. The vessel is described as twelve score feet in length, and thirty-six in breadth of beam, within the walls, which were ten feet each thick, so that no cannonball could go through them. She had three hundred mariners on board, six score gunners, and a thousand men of war, including officers, captains, skippers, and quartermasters. Sir Andrew Wood and Robert Barton were two of the chief officers. This great ship cumbered Scotland to get her to sea. From the time that she was afloat and her masts and sails complete, with anchors offering there too, she was counted to the King to be thirty thousand pounds expense by her artillery, which was very costly. The great Michael never did enough to have a single exploit recorded, nor was she unfortunate enough to meet a tragic ending. In fifteen-eleven war was declared against France, and Henry caused many new ships to be made, repairing and rigging the old. After an action on the coast of Brittany where both claimed the advantage, and where two of the largest vessels, the Cordillier with nine hundred Frenchmen and the Regent with seven hundred Englishmen, were burned, nearly all on board perishing. Henry advised a great ship to be made, such as was never before seen in England, and which was named the Henry Grace de Deux, or popularly the Great Harry. There are many ancient representations of this vessel, which is said to have cost eleven thousand pounds, and to have taken four hundred men four whole days to work from Ereth where she was built to Barking Creek. Their masts, says a well-known authority, were five in number, but he goes on clearly to show that the fifth was simply the bowspray. They were in one piece, as had been the usual mode in all previous times, although soon to be altered by the introduction of several joints or top masts, which could be lowered in time of need. The rigging was simple to the last degree, but there was a considerable amount of ornamentation on the hull, and small flags were disposed almost at random on different parts of the deck in Gunwell, and one at the head of each mast. The standard of England was hoisted on the principal mast, enormous pendants or streamers were added, though ornaments which must have been often inconvenient. The Great Harry was of one thousand tons, and in, so far as this writer can discover, the only skirmish she was concerned in the channel, for it could not be dignified by the name of an engagement carried seven hundred men. She was burned at Woolwich, at the opening of Mary's reign, through the carelessness of the sailors. End of Chapter 15 Part 3 End of Section 34 Chapter 15 Part 4 of The Sea Its stirring story of adventure, peril and heroism Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Sea Its stirring story of adventure, peril and heroism Volume 1 by Frederick Wimper Chapter 15 The History of Ships and Shipping Interests Part 4 In the reign of Henry VIII, a navy office was first formed, and regular arsenals were established at Portsmouth, Woolwich, and Deppford. The change in maritime warfare, consequent on the use of gunpowder, rendered ships of a new construction necessary, and more was done for the improvement of the navy in this reign than in any former one. Italian shipwrights, then the most expert, were engaged, and at the conclusion of Henry's reign the Royal Navy consisted of seventy-one vessels, thirty of which were ships of respectable burden, aggregating ten thousand five hundred and fifty tons. Five years later had dwindled two less than one half. Six years after Henry's death, England lost a fort in town which had cost Edward III in the height of his power in obstinate siege of eleven months. But on Elizabeth's accession to the throne, the Star of England was once more in the ascendant. Elizabeth commenced her reign by providing in all points of war that she might the more quietly enjoy peace. Arms and weapons were imported from Germany at considerable cost, but in such quantities that the land had never before been so amply stored with all kinds of convenient armor and weapons. And she also was the first to cause a manufacture of gunpowder in England that she might not both pray and pay for it too to her neighbors. She allowed the free exportation of herrings, and all other sea fish and English bottoms, and a partial exemption from impressment was granted to all fishermen, while to encourage their work Wednesday and Saturday were made fish days. This it was stated was meant politically, not for any superstition to be maintained in the choice of meats. The Navy became her great care, so much that foreigners named her the Restorer of the Glory of Shipping and the Queen of the North Sea. She raised the pay of sailors. The wealthier inhabitants of the sea coast, says Camden, in imitation of the princes, build ships of war, striving who should exceed, in so much that the Queen's Navy, joined with her subjects shipping, was in short time so poesant that it was able to bring forth twenty thousand fighting men for sea service. The greatest and most glorious event of her reign was without cavalry the defeat of the Spanish Armada, at one time deemed and called the invincible. With the political complications which preceded the invasion, we have not to do. It was largely a religious war, in as much as popish machinations were at the bottom of it all. When the conquest became successful, the Spanish government threw off dissimulation and showed a disdainful disregard of secrecy as to its intentions, or rather a proud manifestation of them, which says Southie, if they had been successful, might have been called magnanimous. Philip had determined on putting forth his might, and accounts which were ostentatiously published in advance termed it the most fortunate and invincible Armada. The fleet consisted of a hundred and thirty ships and twenty caravals having on board nearly twenty thousand soldiers, eight thousand four hundred and fifty marines, two thousand and eighty-eight galley slaves with two thousand six hundred and thirty great pieces of brass artillery. The names of all the saints appeared in the nomenclature of the ships, while, says Southie, holier appellations, which ought never to be thus applied, were strangely associated with the great griffin and the sea dog, the cat and the white falcon. Every noble house in Spain was represented, and there were one hundred and eighty friars and Jesuits with cardinal Allen at their head, a prelate who had not long before published at Antwerp a gross libel on Elizabeth, calling her heretic, rebel, and usurper, an incestuous bastard, the bane of Christendom, and firebrand of all mischief. These priests were to bring England back to the true church the moment they landed. The galleons being above sixty in number were exceeding great fair and strong, and built high above the water, like castles, easy to be fought with all, but not so easy to board as the English in the Netherland ships, their upper decks were musket-proof, and beneath they were four or five feet thick so that no bullet could pass them. Their masts were bound about with oakum, or pieces of phaseled ropes, and armed against all shot. The galleons' were goodly great vessels, furnished with chambers, chapels, towers, pulpits, and such like. They rowed, like galleons, with exceeding great oars, each having three hundred slaves, and were able to do much harm with their great ordinance. Most severe discipline was to be preserved. Blasphemy and oaths were to be punished rigidly. Gaming, as provocative of these and quarreling, were forbidden. No one might wear a dagger. Religious exercises, including the use of a special litany in which all archangels, angels, and saints were invoked to assist with their prayers against the English heretics and enemies of the faith, were enjoined. No man, says Southeast, ever set forth upon a bad cause with better will, nor under a stronger delusion of perverted faith. The gunners were instructed to have half butts filled with water and vinegar, with clothes, old sails, etc., ready to extinguish fire. And what seems strange nowadays in addition to the regular artillery, every ship was to carry two boatsloads of large stones, to throw on the enemy's decks, four castles, etc., during an encounter. Meantime Elizabeth and her ministers were fully aware of the danger, and the appeals made to the lords, and through the Lord lieutenants of counties, were answered nobly. The first to present himself before the Queen was a Roman Catholic peer, Viscount Montague, who brought two hundred horsemen led by his own sons, and professed the resolution that, though he was very sickly and in age, to live and die in defense of the Queen and of his country against all invaders, whether it were Pope, King, or Puthentate whatsoever. The city of London, when five thousand men and fifteen ships were required, prayed the Queen to accept twice the number. In a very short time all her whole realm and every corner were furnished with armed men, on horseback and on foot, and those continually trained, exercised and put into bands in warlike manner as in no wage ever was before in the realm. There was no sparing of money to provide horse, armor, weapons, powder, and all necessaries. Thousands volunteered their service personally without wages. Others, money for armor and weapons, and wages for soldiers. The country was never in better condition for defense. Some urged the Queen to place no reliance on maritime defense, but to receive the enemy only on shore. Elizabeth thought otherwise, and determined that the enemy should reap no more advantage on the sea than on land. She gave the command of the whole fleet to Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, Drake being Vice Admiral, and Hawkins and Frobisher, all grand names in naval history being in the western division. Lord Henry Seymour was to lie off the coast of Flanders with forty ships, Dutch and English, and prevent the Prince of Parma from forming a junction with the Armada. The whole number of ships collected for the defense of the country was a hundred and ninety one, and the number of seamen seventeen thousand four hundred and seventy two. There was one ship in the fleet, the triumph, of eleven hundred tons. One of one thousand, one of nine hundred, and two of eight hundred tons each. But the larger part of the vessels were very small, and the aggregate tonnage amounted to only about half that of the Armada. For the land defense over a hundred thousand men were called out, regimented, and armed, but only half of them were trained. This was exclusive of the border and Yorkshire forces. The Armada left the Tagus in the latter end of May, 1588, for Corona, there to embark the remainder of the forces and stores. On the thirtieth of the same month, the Lord Admiral and Sir Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth. A serious storm was encountered, which dismasted some and dispersed others of the enemy's fleet, and occasioned the loss of four Portuguese galleys. One David Gwynn, a Welshman who had been a galley slave for eleven years, took the opportunity this storm afforded and regained his liberty. He made himself master of one galley, captured a second, and was joined by a third in which the wretched slaves were encouraged to rise by his example and successfully carried the three into a French port. After this disastrous commencement, the Armada put back to Corona, and was pursued thither by Effingham. But as he approached the coast of Spain the wind changed, and as he was afraid the enemy might affect the passage to the channel unperceived he returned to its entrance, whence the ships were withdrawn, some to the coast of Ireland and the larger part to Plymouth, where the men were allowed to come ashore, and the officers made merry with revels dancing and bowling. The enemy was so long in making an appearance that even Elizabeth was persuaded the invasion would not occur that year, and with this idea Secretary Walsingham wrote to the Admiral to send back four of his largest ships. Happily for England, and most honourably for himself, the Lord Effingham, though he had relaxed his vigilance, saw how perilous it was to act as if all were safe. He humbly entreated that nothing might be lightly credited in so weighty a matter, and that he might retain the ships, though it should be at his own cost. This was no empty show of disinterested zeal, for if the services of those ships had not been called for, there can be little doubt that in the rigid parsimony of Elizabeth's government he would have been called upon to pay the costs. The Armada now completely refit, sailed from Caruna on July 12th, and when off the lizard were sighted by a pirate, one Thomas Fleming, who hastened to Plymouth with the news, and not merely obtained pardon for his offences, but was awarded a pension for life. At that time the wind blew stiffily into the harbour, but all hands were got on board, and the ships were warped out, the Lord Admiral encouraging the men and hauling at the ropes himself. By the following day thirty of the smaller vessels were out, and the ship was described with lofty turrets like castles, and front like a half-moon, the wings thereof spreading out about the length of seven miles, sailing very slowly through with full sails. The wind says Camden, being as it were weary with wafting them and the ocean groaning under their weight. The Spaniards gave up the idea of attacking Plymouth, and the English let them pass, but they might chase them in the rear. Next day the Lord Admiral sent the Defiance Penis forward, and opened the attack by discharging her ordinance, and later his own ship, the Ark Royal, thundered thick and furiously into the Spanish Vice-Admiral's ship, and soon after Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher gave the Admiral Recalde a very thorough peppering. That Bursar's ship was rendered nearly unserviceable, and he was obliged to crowd on sail to catch up with the others, who showed little disposition for fighting. After a smart action in which he had injured the enemy much and suffered little hurt himself, Effingham gave over, because forty of his ships had not yet come up from Plymouth. During the night the Spaniards lost one of their ships, which was believed by a Flemish gunner, whose wife and self had been ill-treated by the officer of the troops on board. The fire was quenched, and all her upper works had been consumed, but when the Spaniards left the Hulk they abandoned fifty of their countrymen, miserably hurt. This night was remarkable for a series of disasters and contra-tempts, a galleon under the command of one Valdez ran foul of another ship, broke her formast, and was left behind. Effingham, supposing that the men had been taken out without tarrying to take possessions of the prize, passed on with two other vessels that he might not lose sight of the enemy. He thought that he was following Drake's ship, which ought to have carried the Lanthorn that night. It proved to be a Spanish light, and in the morning he found himself in the midst of the enemy's fleet, but he managed to get away unobserved, or at all events un-pursued. Drake, meantime, was mistakenly following in the dark and stormy night a phantom enemy, in the shape of five Easterling vessels. Meantime the English fleet, not seeing the expected light on Drake's ship, lay too during the night. Drake, next morning, had the good fortune to fall in with Valdez, who, after a brief parley, surrendered, and the prize was sent into Plymouth. Drake and his men divided fifty-five thousand golden dukots among them, as part of the spoil on board. The hulk of the galleon was taken to Weymouth, and although burned almost to the water's edge, the gunpowder in the hold remained intact, and had not taken fire. The next day there was considerable maneuvering and skirmishing, but with no very memorable loss on either side. A great Venetianship and some smaller ones were taken from the enemy, while on our side Captain Cook died with honour in the midst of the Spanish ships, in a little vessel of his own. Both sides were wary. Effingham did not think good to grapple with them, because they had an army in the fleet, while he had none. Our army awaited their landing. The Spaniards meant as much as possible to avoid fighting, and hold on till they could effect a junction with the Prince of Parma. Next morning there was little wind, and only the four great Galleuses were engaged, these having the advantage on account of their oars while the English were becalmed. The latter, however, had considerable execution with chainshot, cutting asunder their tacklings and cordage. But they were now constrained to send a shore for gunpowder, with which they were either badly supplied or had expended too freely. Off the Isle of Wight the English battered the Spanish admiral with their great ordinance, and shot away his main mast. But other ships came to his assistance, beat them off, and set upon the English admiral who only escaped by a favour of a breeze, which sprung up at the right moment. Camden relates how the English shot away the lantern from one of the Spanish ships, and the brake head from a second, and that forewisher escaped by the skin of his teeth from a situation of great danger. Still this was little more than skirmishing. The Spaniards say that from that time they gave over what they call the pursuit of the enemy, and they dispatched a fresh messenger to the Prince of Parma, urging him to effect his junction with them as soon as possible, and with all to send them some great shot, for they had expended theirs with more prodigality than effect. On the other hand the English determined to wait till they could attack the enemy in the Straits of Dover, where they expected to be joined by the squadrons under Lord Seymour and Sir William Winter. Meantime Effingham's forces were being considerably increased by volunteers, for the gentlemen of England hired ships from all parts at their own charge, and with one accord came flocking thither as to a set field. Among the volunteers were Sir Walter Rowley, the Earl's of Oxford, Northumberland, and Cumberland. On the evening of the 27th the Spaniards came to anchor off Calais, and the English ships, now 140 in number, all of them ships fit for fight, good sailors, nimble and tight for attacking about which way they would, anchored within cannon shot. A squadron of about 30 ships belonging to the States acting in conjunction with the Admiral of Zealand and his squadron defectually blockaded Dunkirk, and the poor Prince of Parma with his pressed men constantly deserting his flat-bottom boat's leaky and his provisions not ready could do nothing. The Spanish ships were almost invulnerable to the shot and ordinance of the day, and their height was such that our bravest Seyman were against any attempt at warding them. These facts were well understood by Elizabeth's ministers, and the Lord Admiral was instructed to convert 8 of his worst vessels into fire ships. The orders arrived, so apropos of the occasion, and were so swiftly executed that within 30 hours after the enemy had cast anchor off Calais the ships were unloaded and dismantled, filled with combustibles and all their ordnance charged, and their sides being smeared with pitch and resin and wildfire were sent in the dead of night with wind and tide against the Spanish fleet. When the Spaniards saw the whole sea glittering and shining with the reflection over the flames, the guns exploding as the fire reached them, and a heavy canopy of dense smoke overhead obscuring the heavens. They remembered those terrible fire ships which had been used so heavily in the shelled, and the cry resounded through the fleet the fire of Antwerp. Some of the Spanish captains let their horse or slip, some cut their cables and in terror and confusion put to sea, happiest they who could first be gone, though few or none could tell which course to take. In the midst of all this fearful excitement, one of the largest of the Galleuses commanded Hugo de Moncada ran afoul of another ship, lost her rudder, floated about at the mercy of the tide, and at length ran upon Calais Sands. Here she was assailed by the English small craft who battered her with her guns, but dared not attempt boarding till the Admiral sent a hundred men in his boats under Sir Amayas Preston. The Spaniards fought bravely, but at length Moncada shot through the head, and the Galleuses was carried by boarding. Most of the Spanish soldiers four hundred a number jumped overboard and were drowned. The three hundred Galleuses slaves were freed from their fetters. The vessel had fifty thousand Ducats on board. A booty says speed, well fitting the English soldiers' affections. The English were about to set the Galleuses on fire, but the Governor of Calais was refiring upon the captors, and the ship became his prize. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, Admiral of the Spanish Armada, had ordered the whole fleet to weigh anchor and stand out to see when he perceived the approaching fire ships. His vessels were to return to their former stations when the danger should be over. When he fired a signal for the others to follow his example, some of them heard it. Because they were scattered all about and driven by fear, some of them in the wide sea and driven among the shoals of Flanders. When they had once more congregated, they ranged themselves in order off grave lines where the final action was fought. Drake and Fenner were the first to assail them, followed by many brave captains. And lastly the Admiral came up toward Lord Sheffield. There were scarcely two or three and twenty among their ships which matched ninety of the Spanish vessel in size, but the smaller vessels were more easily handled and maneuvered. Wherefore, says Hackloit, using their prerogative of nimble steerage whereby they could turn and wheel themselves with the wind which way they listed, they came oftentimes very near upon the Spaniards and they discharged them so sore that now and then they were but a pike's length asunder and so continually giving them one broadside after another. They discharged all their shot both great and small upon them spending a whole day from morning till night in that violent kind of conflict. During this action many of the Spanish vessels were pierced through and through between wind and water. It was learned that one of her officers having proposed to strike was put to death by another. The brother of the slain man instantly avenged his death and the ship went down. Others are believed to have sunk and many were terribly shattered. One which leaked so fast that fifty men were employed at the pumps, tried to run aground on the Flemish coast where her captain had to strike to a Dutch commander. The ships at last desisted from the contest, from sheer want of ammunition and the Armada made an effort to reach the Straits. Here a great engagement was expected but the fighting was over and that which the hand of man barely commenced the hand of God completed. The Spaniards were now experimentally convinced that the English excelled them in naval strength. Most ships have been lost. Others were greatly damaged. There was no port to which they could repair and to force their way through the victorious English fleet then in sight and amounting to a hundred and forty sail was plainly and confessedly impossible. They resolved upon returning to Spain by a northern route and having gotten more sea room for their huge bodyed bulks spread their mainsails and made away as fast as wind and water would give them leave. Effingham leaving Seymour to blockade the Prince of Parma's force followed what our chroniclers now termed the Vensible Armada and pursued them to Scotland where they did not attempt to land but made for Norway where the English, says Drake thought it best to leave them to those boisterous and uncouth northern seas. Meantime it was still expected assure that the Prince of Parma might effect a landing and it was at this time that Elizabeth who declared her intention to be present wherever the battle might be fought rode to the soldiers ranks at Tilbury and made her now historical speech. Incredible it is, says Camden, how much she encouraged the hearts of her captains and soldiers by her presence and her words. When a false report was brought that the Prince had landed the news was immediately published throughout the camp and assuredly, says Southie if the enemy had set foot upon our shores they would have sped no better than they had done at sea. Such was the spirit of the nation. Sometime elapsed before the fate of the Armada was known. It was affirmed on the continent that the greater part of the English fleet had been taken and a large proportion sunk, the poor remainder having been driven into the Thames all rent and torn. It was believed at Rome that Elizabeth was taken and England conquered. Meantime the wretched Armada was being blown hither and thither by contending winds. The mules and horses had to be thrown overboard, lest the water should fail. When they had reached a northern latitude some two hundred miles from the Scottish Isles the Duke ordered them each to take the best course they could for Spain and he himself with some five and twenty of his best provided ships reached it in safety. The others made for Cape Clear hoping to water there but a terrible storm rose in which it is believed more than thirty of the vessels perished off to the ocean. About two hundred of the poor Spaniards were driven from their hiding places and beheaded through the inhumanity of Sir William Fitzwilliam. Terrified at this the other Spaniards sick and starved as they were committed themselves to the sea in their shattered vessels and very many of them were swallowed up by the waves. Two of their ships were racked on the coasts of Norway and some few got into the English seas. Two were taken by cruisers off Rochelle. About seven hundred men were cast ashore in Scotland were humanely treated and subsequently sent by request of the Prince of Parma to the Netherlands. Of the whole Armada only fifty three vessels returned to Spain. Eighty one were lost. The enormous number of fourteen thousand men of whom only two thousand ships were missing. By far the largest proportion were lost by shipwreck. Philip's behaviour says Southie, when the whole of this great calamity was known should always be recorded to his honour. He received it as a dispensation of providence and gave and commanded to be given throughout Spain thanks to God and the saints that it was no greater. In England a solemn Thanksgiving was celebrated at St. Paul's where the Spanish incense which had been taken were displayed and the same flags were shown on London Bridge the following day it being south work there. Many of the arms and instruments of torture taken are still to be seen in the tower. Another great Thanksgiving day was celebrated on the anniversary of the Queen's accession and one of great solemnity throughout the realm. On the Sunday following the Queen went as in public but Christian triumph to St. Paul's in a chariot made in the form of a throne with four pillars and drawn by four white horses. A lighting from which at the west door she knelt and audibly praised God acknowledging him her only defender who had thus delivered the land from the rage of the enemy her privy council the nobility the French ambassador the judges and the heralds accompanied her the streets were hung with blue cloth and flags the several companies in their liveries being drawn up both sides of the way with the banners in becoming in gallant order thus ended the most serious attempt at the invasion of England. End of Chapter 15