There cannot be any doubt that the earlier fleets comprised many private ships pressed into the king’s service. A fleet of Edward the Confessor in 1049 consisted partly of “king’s ships,” partly of “people’s ships.” In the Black Book of the Admiralty (which is a collection of sea-laws and customs drawn up for the use of the judge of the Court of Admiralty) it is provided that “in case a man be indicted that he hath broken the arrest of his ship, arrested for the king’s service, and be thereof convicted by twelve men, he shall lose his ship unless he obtaineth pardon of the king or the high admiral.” Richard I. at Grimsby expressly combated by an ordinance the notion that ships were not liable to be pressed; and in a mandate of Sir Thomas Beaufort, admiral of England, Ireland, and Aquitania, temp. Hen. IV., are to be found instructions to his lieutenant of the North to arrest twenty-four vessels for service abroad, “upon certain weighty matters.” Orders were sent at the same time to press mariners for one of the king’s barges.

In an action with the French fleet off the harbour of Sluys (1340), Edward III. is said to have slain 30,000 of the enemy, and to have taken 200 great ships, “in one of which only there were 400 dead bodies.” All writers agree in describing the battle as one of the most sanguinary and desperate sea-fights ever known. The same monarch, at the siege of Calais, is stated to have blockaded that port with 730 sail, having on board 14,956 mariners, 25 only of w hich were of the royal navy, bearing 419 mariners, or about 17 men each.

The earlier and middle parts of the reign of Edward III. were particularly famous for the power of the English fleet, and for the dread which it inspired. After a splendid victory over the Spanish fleet in 1350, the title of “king of the sea” was bestowed on the sovereign. Towards the end of that reign, however, naval as well as other affairs were neglected, the seas were left unguarded, the coasts were insulted, and acts of piracy were committed in English waters which a few years before had been impossible. Complaints were loud and frequent. The duke of Lancaster, Edward’s brother, was charged with having misspent a sum of money granted to him for the guardianship of the seas, and the anger of the Commons, unable to vent itself upon him, expended itself in a successful impeachment of some of the king’s ministers. In the next reign attempts were made to improve matters; but, notwithstanding the levies from the Cinque Ports and other towns, the naval force in 1378 was insufficient to keep even English waters free from pirates, and it was due to the private exertions of John Philpot, a London merchant, who fitted out a squadron at his own expense, that John Mercer, a celebrated Scottish pirate, was captured and his career ended. Plymouth and Hastings were burned, Winchelsea was attacked, and two descents were made, with much damage, upon the Isle of Wight. In one of these descents the French possessed themselves of most of the island, but were finally driven to their ships by Sir Hugh Tyrrel, governor of Carisbrooke, and “a spur of incredible sharpness.” Return expeditions were made to French and Spanish towns by the English, who, however, acted rather in the privateer capacity of men who had to take the law into their own hands than as authorized warriors of the English king.

Naval affairs improved under Henry IV., and the reign of Henry V. was most glorious in maintaining the naval superiority over the fleets of France. From a letter of this sovereign to his lord chancellor, dated 12 th August 1417, discovered by Samuel Lysons among the records in the Tower, and of which the following is a copy, it would appear that there was something like an established royal navy in his reign, independently of the shipping furnished by the Cinque Ports and the merchants, for the king’s own use, on occasion of any particular expedition. The letter appears to have been written nine days after the surrender of the castle of Touque, near Honfleur, in Normandy, whence it is dated.

“ Au révérend pere en Dieu Γ Evesquc de Duresme nre Chancelier d'Angleterre.

“By the Kyng—

“Worshipful fader yn God We sende you closed within this letter a cedule conteyning the names of certein Maistres for owr owne grete Shippes Carrakes Barges and Balyngers to the whiche Maistres We have granted annuitees such as is appointed upon eche of hem in the same Cedule to take yerely of owre grante while that us lust at owr Exchequer of Westm r . at the termes of Michelmasse and Ester by even porcions. Wherefore We wol and charge yow that unto eche of the said Maistres ye do make under owr grete seel beyng in yowre warde owr letters patentes severales in forme after th’ effect and pourport of owr said grante. Yeven under owr signet atte owr Castle of Touque the xij. day of August.” [table]

The remainder, to the masters of which pensions were thus granted, consist of 17 “niefs, barges, and bally tigers,” some with three, and others two mariners only. But history informs us that about this time Henry embarked an army of 25,000 men at Dover on board of 1500 sail of ships, two of which carried purple sails, embroidered with the arms of England and France,—one styled the “King’s Chamber,” the other his “Saloon,” as typical of his keeping his court at sea, which he considered as a part of his dominions.

The general orders for the admit ιl of a fleet, contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty, lay it down that “the admirall ought by his office to elect and order for the king’s person, if he be present, otherwise for his lieutenant, the best and most able shipp of the kingdome, which shall be called the chamber of the king or of his lieutenant; and if the king be present then the Comptroller of his household is to make choice of some of the best shipps of the whole ffleete (that is to say) one shipp for the Hall, another for the Wardrobe, the third for the Larder, and the fourth for the Kitchen.” Froissart, writing of the battle of L’Espagnols sur Mer, in 1350, speaks of a ship called “la Salle du Roi, où tous ses hotels étoient.” It would appear from a very curious poem, written in the early part of the reign of Henry VI. (between 1426 and 1438), that the navy of his predecessor was considerable, but that, by neglect, it was then reduced to the same state in which it had been during the preceding reigns.

Shortly after the time when this poem must have been written, it appears from the parliament roll (20th Henry VI., 1442) that an armed naval force, consisting only of eight large ships, with smaller vessels to attend them, was to be collected from the ports of London, Bristol, Dartmouth, Hull, Newcastle, Winchelsea, Plymouth, Falmouth, Ac.; and, of course, the royal ships of 1417, the names of which are. contained in the foregoing schedule, were then either gone to decay or dispersed. We are not to judge of the size of the ships from the few mariners appointed to each. These were merely the ship-keepers, or harbourduty men, placed on permanent pay, to keep the ships in a condition fit for sea when wanted.

The classes of ships and vessels mentioned in the records of what may be called the first period of the British navy are very numerous, varying with the use for which they were designed. Thus there were “cogs,” or large, swift vessels, sometimes of 250 tons, carrying 130 seamen besides archers and soldiers; “barges,” or small cogs, which carried 60 to 80 men; “balingers,” or boats resembling modern barges; “caraks,” large vessels, chiefly used in Continental navies; “crayers,” transport vessels, seldom over 60 tons; “doggers and lodeships,” fishing and pilot boats, with 30 men, which were occasionally impressed into the king’s service; “fluves,” two-masted vessels, used for conveyance of troops (Edward III. commanded the burgesses of Kingston-upon-Hull to build him a “fluve”); “galleys” and “galiots”; “hoc-boats,” cargo or store ships. There were also “lynes,” “persouers,” and “pikards,” or large boats. “Pinnaces,” with 35 men, figured at Sluys, and at the battle of L’Espagnols sur Mer in 1350; and in 1339 two “espinaces” were given to Sir Richard Talbot for the defence of Southampton.

It is very probable that, until English merchants engaged in the Mediterranean trade, and the attention of the Government was turned, in the reign of Henry VII. (about 1496), to imitate Portugal in making foreign discovery, under the skilful seaman Sebastian Cabot, very little was added to the capacity or the power of British ships of war. In his reign was built a ship called the “Great Harry,” the first on record that deserved the name of a ship of war, if it was not the first exclusively appropriated to the service of the state. This is the ship which Camden called the “Henry Grace de Dieu,” but erroneously,—the vessel so named not having been built till the reign of Henry VIII. The “Great Harry” is stated to have cost £14,000; there is reason to suppose that she was renamed the “Regent” on the accession of Henry VIII.

We now come to that period in which England might be truly said to possess a military marine. Some curious details have been preserved in the Pepysian collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge, from which papers it appears that in the thirteenth year of Henry VIII. the following constituted the royal navy :— [table]

There were besides two row-barges of 60 tons each, making in all 16 ships and vessels, measuring 7260 tons.

The “Henry Grace de Dieu” is stated in all other accounts, and with more probability, to have been only 1000 tons. This ship, the better-known “Great Harry,” appears to have been begun at Erith, in August or September 1512, to replace the “Regent,” which was burned in the former month in action with the French fleet, when carrying the flag of the lord high admiral. There is a drawing of the ship in the Pepysian papers. From these papers it appears that she carried fourteen guns on the lower deck, twelve on the main deck, eighteen on the quarter-deck and poop, eighteen on the lofty forecastle, and ten in her stern-ports, making altogether seventy-two guns. Her regular establishment of men is said to have consisted of 349 soldiers, 301 mariners, and 50 gunners, making altogether 700 men. The war ships of this period were awkward to manoeuvre: on the appearance of the French fleet at St Helens, the ti Great Harry,” the first ship built with two decks, had nearly been sunk; and the “Mary Rose,” of 600 tons, with 500 or 600 men on board, was actually sunk at Spithead, as Raleigh informs us, in consequence of “a little sway in casting the ship about, her ports being within 16 inches of the water.” On this occasion the fleets cannonaded each other for two hours; and it is remarked as something extraordinary that not less than three hundred cannon-shot were fired on both sides in the course of this action. From the drawings still extant it is quite surprising how the vessels could be trusted on the sea at all, their enormous poops and forecastles making them appear loftier and more awkward than the large Chinese junks, to which, indeed, they bear a strong resemblance.

Henry VIII. may justly be said to have laid the foundation of the British navy as a permanent or standing force, He established the dockyards at Deptford, Woolwich, and Portsmouth; he appointed certain commissioners to superintend the civil affairs of the navy, and settled the rank and pay of admirals, vice-admirals, and inferior officers, thus creating a national navy, and raising the officers to a separate and distinct profession. The principal officers of the navy then were—the vice-admiral of England, master of the ordnance, surveyor of the marine causes, treasurer, comptroller, general surveyor of the victualling, clerk of the ships, and clerk of the stores. Each of these officers had his particular duties, but they met at their office on Tower Hill once a week, to consult, and make their reports to the lord high admiral. Henry also established the fraternities or guilds of the Trinity House at Deptford, Hull, and Newcastle for the improvement of navigation and the encouragement of commerce, and built thé castles of Deal, Walmer, Sandgate, Hurst Castle, <fcc., for the protection of his fleet and of the coast.

At the death of Henry VIII. in 1547, the royal navy consisted of about 50 ships and vessels of different sizes, the former from 1000 to 150 tons, and the latter down to 20 tons, making in the whole about 12,000 tons, and manned by about 8000 mariners, soldiers, gunners, &c. Thus, as has been well said, “everything was leading up to a time when the perils of the seas should claim all that was most heroic in England’s most heroic age.” In the short reign of his son Edward little alteration seems to have taken place in the state and condition of the royal navy. But the regulations which had been made in the reign of his father for the civil government of naval affairs were revised, arranged, and turned into ordinances, which form the basis of all the subsequent instructions given to the commissioners for the management of the civil affairs of the navy. In the reign of Mary the tonnage of the navy was reduced to about 7000 tons; but her lord high admiral nobly maintained the title assumed by England of Sovereign of the Seas, by compelling Philip of Spain to strike his flag that was flying at the main-top-mast head, though on his way to England to marry Queen Mary, by firing a shot at the Spanish admiral. He also demanded that the whole fleet, consisting of 160 sail, should strike their colours and lower their top-sails, as a homage to the English flag, before he would permit his own squadron to salute the Spanish monarch.

Elizabeth not only increased the numerical force of the regular navy, but established many wise regulations for its preservation, and for securing adequate supplies of timber and other naval stores. She placed her naval officers on a more respectable footing, and encouraged foreign trade and geographical discovery, so that she acquired justly the title of the Restorer of Naval Power, and Sovereign of the Northern Seas. The greatest naval force that had till then been called together was that which was assembled to oppose the Invincible Armada, and which, according to the notes of Pepys, consisted of 176 ships, with 14,992 men; but these were not all “Shippes Royall,” but consisted largely of the contributions of the Cinque Ports and private persons. The number actually belonging to the navy is stated by the commissioners of 1618 in their report (several manuscript copies of which exist) to have been 34 ships of 12,190 tons, carrying 6225 men. Sir Edward Coke (4 Inst. 50) “thinks it matter of boast that the royal navy of England then consisted of 33 ships” (Blackstone). At the end of Elizabeth’s reign, however, the navy had greatly increased, the list in 1603 consisting of 42 ships of various descriptions, amounting to 17,000 tons, and manned with 8346 men. Of these, two were of the burden of 1000 tons each, three of 900 tons, and ten of from 600 to 800 tons.

James I. was not inattentive to his navy. He warmly patronized Phineas Pett, to whom we undoubtedly owe the first essential improvements in the form and construction of ships. The cumbrous top-works were first got rid of under his superintendence. “In my owne time,” says Raleigh, “the shape of our English ships hath been greatly bettered; in extremity we carry our ordnance better than we were wont; we have added crosse pillars in our royal! shippes, to strengthen them; we have given longer floors to our shippes than in older times,” &c. In 1610 Pett laid down a ship named the “Prince Royal”; her burden was 1400 tons, her keel 114 feet, and she was armed with sixty-four pieces of great ordnance, “beingin all respects,” says Stowe, “the greatest and goodliest ship that was ever built in England.”

The state of the navy at the king’s death is variously given by different writers; but on this subject the memoranda left by Pepys are most likely to be correct. From them we learn that in 1618 certain commissioners were appointed to examine into the state of the navy, and by their report it appears there were then only 39 ships and vessels, whose tonnage amounted to 14,700 tons: while in 1624, on the same authority, the number had decreased to 32 or 33, but the tonnage increased to about 19,400 tons. The commissioners had, in fact, recommended many of the small craft to be broken up or sold, and more ships of the higher rates to be kept up.

Charles I. added upwards of 20 sail to the navy, generally of the smaller kind; but one of them, built by Pett, was of a description, both as to form and dimensions, far superior to any that had yet been launched. This ship was the celebrated “Sovereign of the Seas,” launched at Woolwich in 1637. The length of her keel was 128 feet, the main breadth 48 feet, and the length from stem to stern 232 feet. In the description of this ship by Thomas Heywood it is said that she “bore five lanthorns, the biggest of which would hold ten persons upright; had three flush-decks, a forecastle, half-deck, quarter-deck, and round-house. Her lower tier had thirty ports for cannon and demi-cannon; middle tier, thirty for culverins and demi-culverins; third tier, twenty-six for other ordnance; forecastle, twelve; and two half-decks, thirteen or fourteen ports more within board, for murthering pieces; besides ten pieces of chace ordnance forward, and ten right aft, and many loopholes in the cabins for musquet-shot. She had eleven anchors, one of 4400 lb weight. She was of the burden of 1637 tons.” It appears, however, that she was found, on trial, to be too high for a good serviceable ship in all weathers, and was therefore cut down to a deck less. After this she became an excellent ship, and was in almost all the great actions with the Dutch; she was rebuilt in 1684, when the name was changed to that of “Royal Sovereign,” and was about to be rebuilt a second time at Chatham in 1696 when she was totally destroyed by fire. In this reign the ships of the navy were first classed, or divided into six rates, the first being from 100 to 60 guns, the second from 54 to 36, &c.

In 1642 the management of the navy was taken out of the king’s hands, and in 1648 Prince Rupert carried away twenty-five ships, none of which ever returned; and such, indeed, was the reduced state of the establishment that at the beginning of Cromwell’s government he had only fourteen ships of war of two decks, and some of these carried only 40 guns; but, under the careful management of very able men in different commissions which he appointed, such...