No sovereign of England was ever proclaimed with more universal joy than
was Henry the Eighth, when, at the age of eighteen, he succeeded to the
throne of his father, A.D. 1509. Tyrant and despot as he became at
home, he did not neglect the interests of commerce, while he maintained
the honour of England abroad. He made very great improvements in the
work his father had commenced. By his prerogative, and at his own
expense, he settled the constitution of the present Royal Navy. An
Admiralty and Navy Office were established, and commissioners to
superintend naval affairs were appointed by him.
Regular salaries were settled for admirals, vice-admirals, captains, and
seamen, and the sea-service at this time became a distinct and regular
profession.
In 1512, Henry, having entered into a league with Spain against France,
fitted out a fleet under the command of Sir Edward Howard, Lord High
Admiral, and by an indenture, dated 8th of April of that year, granted
him the following allowance:--For his own maintenance, diet, wages, and
rewards, ten shillings a-day. For each of the captains, for their diet,
wages, and rewards, eighteenpence a-day. For every soldier, mariner,
and gunner, five shillings a-month for his wages, and five shillings for
his victuals, reckoning twenty-eight days in the month. But the
admiral, captains, officers, and men had also further allowances, under
the denomination of dead shares. I doubt whether the naval officers and
men of the present day would be satisfied with a similar amount of pay.
Certainly the mariners of those days had more dangers and hardships to
encounter than have those of the present time under ordinary
circumstances. That year Henry's fleet consisted of forty-five ships,
of which the largest was the _Regent_, of 1000 tons; the two next in
size being the _Sovereign_ and the _Mary Rose_, of about 500 tons each.
The Regent and Cordelier.
War was now declared against France, and the English fleet put to sea
under the command of Sir Edward Howard. It carried a considerable body
of land forces, under the command of the Earl of Dorset, which were
landed at the Port of Passages, in Spain. Afterwards, being reinforced
by a number of stout ships, the admiral sailed for Brest, in the hopes
of encountering the French. Sir William Knevet had command of the
_Regent_, and Sir Charles Brandon, who had sixty of the tallest yeomen
of the Guard under him, commanded the _Sovereign_. The fleet arrived
off Brest just as the French fleet, consisting of thirty-nine sail, was
coming out of the harbour. On seeing the enemy, Sir Edward made the
signal for an immediate engagement. Scarcely was the signal seen, than
the _Regent_ and the _Cordelier_, the latter being the largest ship in
the French navy, attacked each other as if by mutual consent. The
_Cordelier_, it is said, carried 1200 soldiers. Undoubtedly her
commander hoped to carry the English ship by boarding. In the course of
the action, when locked in a deadly embrace with their grappling-irons,
another English ship threw into the _Cordelier_ a quantity of
combustibles, or fire-works, as they were called, and set her on fire.
In vain the crew of the _Regent_ endeavoured to free their ship from her
perilous position. The magazine of the _Cordelier_ was reached, and she
and the _Regent_ went up into the air together. In the _Regent_, Sir
William Knevet and 700 men were lost, and in the _Cordelier_, Sir Pierce
Morgan, her captain, and 900 of her crew are supposed to have perished.
After this dreadful catastrophe the action ceased; the French,
horror-stricken, hurriedly making their way into Brest. The ships,
also, of both parties, had received considerable damage.
Although cannon had been employed on board ships since the time of
Edward the Third, this was probably one of the first sea-fights in which
they were used by both parties on board all the ships engaged. Even on
this occasion the combatants seem to have trusted more to their
battle-axes and swords than to their artillery. The French give a
different account of this battle. They say that an English ship having
discharged a quantity of fire-works into the _Cordelier_, she caught
fire, when her Breton commander, finding that the conflagration could
not be extinguished, and determined not to perish alone, made up to the
English admiral and grappled her, when they blew up into the air
together. On this the two fleets separated by mutual consent.
The following year another fleet of forty-two men-of-war, under the
command of the Lord High Admiral, sailed for Brest, when the French
squadron was found at anchor, protected by batteries on shore, and a
line of twenty-four hulks chained together across the harbour's mouth.
The admiral, however, making a feint with his boats, drew the enemy down
to the shore, when he ran up past the batteries, and ravaged the country
round the town. The French had been waiting the arrival of six galleys
from the Mediterranean, under Monsieur Pregent.
I cannot refrain from giving the first account I have met with of what
may properly be called a cutting-out expedition. While the English
fleet were at Brest, Monsieur Pregent arrived on the coast with six
galleys and four foists, and, apprehensive of being attacked by the
enemy, he entered the Bay of Conquet, which was the nearest place to
Brest. He here placed his squadron between two rocks, on which he
mounted cannon and threw up a breastwork. Notwithstanding the
advantageous position of this squadron, the Lord High Admiral resolved
to attack it. He had two galleys in his fleet. He went on board one of
these, and entrusted the other to Lord Rivers. He had, besides, only
two large barges and two boats. With these, on the 20th of April, he
boldly ventured into the Bay of Conquet to attack the French galleys.
He no sooner came abeam of the galley commanded by Monsieur Pregent,
than, ordering his vessel to be lashed alongside, he boarded her sword
in hand, followed only by Don Carroz, a Spanish cavalier, and seventeen
of his men. He appeared at first to be gaining the day; but, by some
accident, his galley swinging loose, he and his followers, deprived of
all succour, were so hard-pressed by the enemy that they were driven
headlong into the sea. Lord Ferrers, who had during this time been
engaging the enemy without success, seeing the admiral's galley fall
off, retreated. When, however, Lord Howard was missed, a flag of truce
was sent to the French commander, who replied that only one seaman had
escaped death, and that the admiral and the rest of his companions had
been forced overboard. After this the English fleet returned home. In
a short time Monsieur Pregent, flushed with success, ravaged the coast
of Sussex; but was driven away by Sir Thomas Howard, who succeeded his
brother as Lord High Admiral. In the year 1514, the ever-active Pregent
again paid the Sussex coast a visit, and burnt Brighthelmstone, as
Brighton was then called. In return for this compliment, Sir John
Wallop was sent with a fleet to the coast of Normandy, where he burnt
twenty-one towns and villages. In consequence of the energetic and
summary way in which he carried out his system of retaliation, those who
have imitated him have been said to "wallop" the enemy. To replace the
_Regent_ destroyed in the terrible way above described, the king built a
ship at Erith in 1515, and called her the _Henri Grace de Dieu_. She
was of 1000 tons burden, and manned with 301 mariners, 50 gunners, and
349 soldiers. Up to that period, when ships were to be manned in a
hurry, soldiers were sent on board to do the duty of seamen as best they
could, and generals were turned into admirals at very short notice.
However, it would be more correct to say that the fighting was done
chiefly by soldiers, and consequently that military officers went to
command them, while the ships were navigated by professional seamen, who
had their own sea-officers, though generally of an inferior grade, over
them. A vestige of this custom still remains in the Royal Navy. On
board every ship, besides the captain and his lieutenants, there is a
sailing-master, who has also his mates or assistants, who have especial
charge of the navigation of the ship. Formerly the captain and his
lieutenants were not of necessity seamen. Now, they are so by
profession, though they still retain a remnant of their military
character. In time, probably, the last representative of the
master-of-the-mariners, as he was called, will disappear from the
British navy--it being the duty of the lieutenants to attend to the
navigation of the ship, as they do now to the management in every other
respect.
One of the wisest acts of Henry the Eighth was making the sea-service a
regular profession--though long after his time ships, and even fleets,
were commanded by men who had hitherto lived and fought only on shore.
About the year 1545 port-holes were generally introduced on board the
larger ships. Before that time the guns were fought over the bulwarks,
or were alone placed on the forecastle, and the aftercastle, which
latter portion of the ship is now called the poop. This word _poop_ is
evidently derived from the Latin _puppis_, as originally the after-part
of a ship was called by the Romans, and thence the name was given to the
ship herself, a part being taken for the whole. The ports were,
however, placed not more than sixteen inches from the water, so close,
indeed, as greatly to peril the ship. It was in consequence of this
faulty construction that the _Mary Rose_ of sixty guns, one of the
largest ships in the British navy, heeling over to a squall while
encountering the French at Spithead, was capsized, when her captain, Sir
George Carew, and upwards of 500 of his men, perished in the waves. As
late as the year 1835, Mr Deane, by means of his ingenious invention,
the diving-bell, was enabled to recover several guns, parts of the
wreck, and some stone-shot of the _Mary Rose_.
Ships generally carried but few guns. A writer, describing a battle
which took place off the Isle of Wight, and which lasted two hours, when
upwards of ninety ships were engaged, speaks of 300 shot being fired, to
prove how desperate was the contest. I have before me an account of the
battle in which the _Mary Rose_ was lost, not, as the French say, in
consequence of their fire, but because it was attempted to keep her
ports open when a considerable sea was running, and a strong breeze had
suddenly sprung up. The French king had sent over a large fleet to
annoy the English coasts. Henry, hearing of the expedition, hurried
down to Portsmouth to hasten the equipment of 100 sail, which he had
ordered to be got ready. The French appearing, the English sailed out
to Saint Helen's to meet them. A squall came on, and the _Mary Rose_
foundering, the _Great Harry_ which was attacked by the French
row-galleys, bore the brunt of the action. The French quickly retired,
though they attempted to make a lodgment on the Isle of Wight, but were
compelled to return to their ships. The English are described as using
pinances, which are vessels of great length and little beam, moving very
rapidly, and fitted both with sails and oars. We hear, also, that the
_Carracon_ the ship of the French Admiral, was destroyed by fire before
the fleet left their coasts. She is described as appearing like a
castle among the other ships of the fleet, and so strong that she had
nothing to fear at sea but fire and rocks. It is stated that she had
100 brass cannon on board; but as she was not more than 800 tons burden,
they must have been very small ones. Still, it is certain that she was
the stoutest ship possessed by the French.
From a French account of one of the attacks made on the English fleet
before Portsmouth, we ascertain the character of the galleys employed by
the French. We are told that they were worked by oars, and we read that
so many galley-slaves were killed. It is said, also, that "the galleys
had all the advantage of working that they could desire, to the great
damage of the English, who, for want of wind, not being able to stir,
lay exposed to the French cannon, and being so much higher and bulkier
than their galleys, hardly a shot missed them; while the galleys, with
the help of their oars, shifted at pleasure, and thereby avoided the
danger of the enemy's artillery." The same writer says that, later in
the day, "the violence of the wind, and the swelling of the sea, would
deprive us of our galleys." We thus see at once that these galleys,
though from their lightness easily manoeuvred in smooth water, were
unfit to buffet with the winds and waves. They were probably similar to
the galleys I have before described, and which for centuries were in use
in the Mediterranean.
Another writer says: "A gale arising, the French galleys were in danger,
the English ships bearing down upon them with full sail, a danger from
which they escaped purely by the skill and experience of their
commanders, and the intrepidity of the _Prior of Capua_, who exposed his
galley with undaunted courage, and freed himself from danger with equal
address." The title of Prior of Capua sounds oddly enough when applied
to a naval commander. From these accounts it would appear that the
English ships were more powerful than those of the French, and were
better calculated to stand the brunt of battle than to chase a nimble
enemy, as the French seem to have been. The larger ships in the British
navy were at that time fitted with four masts, like the _Henri Grace de
Dieu_.
Though the yards and sails were unwieldy, the rigging heavy, and the top
hamper prodigious, we find that they were tending towards the form they
had assumed when Howe, Jervis, and Nelson led our fleets to victory.
They had short stout masts, a vast number of shrouds to support them,
and large heavy round tops on which a dozen men or more could stand.
The sterns were ornamented with a profusion of heavy carved-work, and
they had great lanterns stuck up at the taffrail, as big, almost, as
sentry-boxes, while the forecastle still somewhat resembled the building
from which it took its name. This vast amount of woodwork, rising high
above the surface of the water, was very detrimental to the sailing
qualities of ships, and must have caused the loss of many. What sailors
call fore-and-aft sails had already been introduced, and we hear
constantly of ships beating to windward, and attempting to gain the
weather-gage. In those days a great variety of ordnance were employed,
to which our ancestors gave the odd-sounding names of cannon,
demi-cannon, culverins, demi-culverins, sakers, mynions, falcons,
falconets, portpiece-halls, port-piece-chambers, fowler-halls, and
curthalls. These guns varied very much in length and in the weight of
their shot. When a ship is spoken of as carrying fifty or sixty guns it
must be understood that every description of ordnance on board was
included, so that a very erroneous idea would be formed, if we pictured
a ship of sixty guns of those days as in any way resembling in size a
third, or even a fourth-rate at the end of the last century. An old
author says: "By the employment of Italian shipwrights, and by
encouraging his own people to build strong ships of war to carry great
ordnance, Henry established a puissant navy, which, at the end of his
reign, consisted of seventy-one vessels, whereof thirty were ships of
burden, and contained in all 10,550 tons, and two were galleys, and the
rest were small barks and row-barges, from eighty tons down to fifteen
tons, which served in rivers and for landing men."
Stone-shot had hitherto been used both at sea and on shore, but about
the middle of the century they were superseded by iron shot. About the
same period matchlocks were introduced on board ships.
An Act was passed in this reign encouraging merchants to build ships fit
for men-of-war, such ships being exempt from certain duties, the owners
also receiving from the king, when he required them, twelve shillings
per ton a-month.
Henry the Eighth established an Office of Admiralty, with a Navy Office,
under certain commissioners; and appointed regular salaries, not only
for his admirals and vice-admirals, but for his captains and seamen.
This established the system, pursued with various alterations, for the
maintenance of the Royal Navy. These regulations and appointments
encouraged the English to consider the sea as a means of providing for
their children, and from this time forward we have a constant series of
eminent officers in the Royal Navy, many of them noblemen of the first
distinction. Among the most celebrated in this reign were Sir Edward
Howard, his brother Sir Thomas Howard, afterwards Earl of Surrey, Sir
William Fitzwilliams, afterwards Earl of Southampton, and John Russell,
first Earl of Bedford. The most eminent navigator in the reign of
Edward the Sixth was Sebastian Cabot, son of John Cabot, who, under
Henry the Seventh, discovered Newfoundland. Nothing was done concerning
trade without consulting him; he was at the head of the merchant
adventurers, and governor of a company formed to find out a passage by
the north to the East Indies. Among the regulations for the government
of the fleet destined for the voyage to Cathay were several which show a
considerable amount of worldly wisdom and sound so quaint, that I am
tempted to quote a few of them. Clause 22--"Item--not to disclose to
any nation the state of our religion, but to pass it over in silence
without any declaration of it, seeming to bear with such laws and rites
as the place hath where you shall arrive." Item 23--"Forasmuch as our
people and ships may appear unto them strange and wondrous, and theirs
also to ours, it is to be considered how they may be used, learning much
of their nature and dispositions by some one such person whom you may
first either allure or take to be brought on board your ship." Item
24--"The persons so taken to be well entertained, used, and apparelled,
to be set on land to the intent he or she may allure others to draw nigh
to show the commodities; and if the person taken may be made drunk with
your beer or wine, you shall know the secrets of his heart."
Under the judicious management of Sebastian Cabot, the Russian Company
was established, though their charter was not granted till the year
1555. Among other discoverers and navigators Captain Wyndham merits
notice, having opened up a trade with the coast of Guinea. Both he and
his companion Pintado died, however, of fever, forty only of his crew
returning to Plymouth. Captain Richard Chancellor is another able
navigator of this reign. He sailed with Sir Hugh Willoughby in the
service of the company, at the recommendation of Cabot. He made several
voyages to Russia; in the last, he parted with Sir Hugh Willoughby, who,
putting into a port to winter, was, with all his crew, frozen to death.
His ship was found riding safe at anchor by some Russian fishermen, and
from a journal discovered on board it was found that the admiral and
most of his fellow-adventurers were alive in January, 1554.
During Henry the Eighth's reign the infamous slave-trade was commenced
by Mr William Hawkins of Plymouth, father of the celebrated Sir John
Hawkins. He, however, evidently did not consider the traffic in the
light in which it is now regarded. In his ship, the _Paul_, of
Plymouth, he made three voyages to the Brazils, touching at the coast of
Guinea, where he traded in slaves, gold, and elephants' teeth. At that
time the English, considering themselves lords paramount at sea,
insisted that ships of all other nations should strike their flags in
presence of their fleets. Even when William Lord Howard, Mary's high
admiral, went with a fleet of twenty-eight men-of-war to await the
arrival of King Philip, who soon after appeared in the channel, escorted
by one hundred and sixty sail, the Spanish flag flying at his main-top,
the English admiral compelled him to lower it, by firing a shot before
he would salute the intended consort of the Queen. This determination
of the English to maintain the sovereignty of the seas was the cause
hereafter of many a desperate naval engagement between themselves and
the Dutch, who disputed their right to the honour.
Henry died A.D. 1547. No great improvements were made in navigation
during his reign, but the encouragement he gave to shipbuilding, and the
establishment of a permanent Royal Navy, contributed much to enable
England to attain that supremacy on the ocean which she has ever since
maintained.
During the early part of Edward the Sixth's reign the navy of England
was employed chiefly in operations against the Scotch, but in 1550 the
French formed a plan to capture Jersey and Guernsey, which they
surrounded with a large fleet, having 2000 troops on board. The
inhabitants held out stoutly, and gained time for Captain (afterwards
Sir William) Winter to arrive to their succour. Though he had but a
small squadron, so hastily did he attack the French, that he captured
and burnt nearly all their ships and killed a thousand men, the rest
with difficulty escaping to the mainland.
Mary's reign is a blank, as far as most achievements were concerned,
and, had the miserable queen obtained her wishes, the ships of England,
and all the English hold dear, would have been handed over to the tender
mercies of Philip and the Spaniards.