By the use of French colours Paul Beneke succeeded in kidnapping the Mayor of Deal and various other notabilities, who thought they were going on board La Cygne to welcome the Lord Mayor. The two Hanseatic ships then put to sea, intercepted the real French ship and her consort La Madeline of Cannes, took out their distinguished passenger and whatever goods they had on board, and made for the Dutch harbour they had started from. The omniscient Beneke knew that it was being blockaded by thirteen small English ships and one much more powerful than either of his, the St. John, possibly the John Evangelist of Dartmouth. However, thanks to a fog, he got through the blockade undiscovered. Late at night he, with one other companion, pulled out to sea in a fishing-boat, and, under the pretence of being Dutch fishermen, went alongside the big St. John and asked leave to make fast astern while they boiled their "beer soup" for supper. Permission was granted, and, as the "beer soup" in question was in reality molten lead, they had not much difficulty, under cover of the lofty and overhanging stern, in pouring it into the iron joints of the rudder, so that it became immovable. Then, "after supper", having thanked the obliging officer of the watch, Beneke and his confederate made their way back to their own ship. The following morning the two Germans stood out of harbour and attacked the English fleet, and, as none of its ships were big enough to put up any fight against them, with the exception of the St. John, and she was not under control, thanks to Beneke's strategem, they are said to have won a "glorious victory". Veracious or not, this tale has one realistic touch about it in the evident desire to win by underhand means rather than by fair fighting. But we seem to have been blown a bit out of our course, and must get back to our point of departure.
Although Henry VIII is inseparably connected with the Henri Grace à Dieu, this famous ship was by no means the only improved type of fighting-ship which dates from his reign. There were, besides the great ships, such as the Henri, the Jesus of Lubeck,[19] and others, a class known as galleasses, without a raised poop and forecastle, with a single tier of heavy guns, and a protruding spur or "beak" forward. They had fully-rigged main- and foremasts, a mizen and a bonaventure mizen—these last two masts very small and carrying a single lateen sail apiece—and a long bowsprit. There is little doubt that these were an adaptation of the Mediterranean galleys modified to suit Northern seas. Ships were longer-lived in those days than at present, and though many of those in Elizabeth's navy had originally belonged to that of her father, in the newer vessels their constructors endeavoured to combine the best qualities of both the great ships and the galleasses. The ships of this improved type were known as "galleons", a word that is generally, but erroneously, taken to refer only to Spanish ships. The battleships of both nations were galleons at this period, but they differed considerably in their general lines and in their armament.
Generally speaking, the Spanish ships were higher out of the water and carried lighter cannon than our own. An Elizabethan battleship, then, was rather longer than earlier great ships, and, though she still had a comparatively high stern, it was not to be compared in this respect with that of the Henri. The "fore castle" had come down to a very low affair, the bows finishing with a "beak-head" adopted from the galleasse, but with the spur at its extremity replaced by a figurehead—generally a lion, dragon, or unicorn. The general uniformity in colouring which marked the earlier Tudor men-of-war had been replaced by a "go as you please" system, under which one ship had her upper works painted red, another white and green, a third black and white, while a fourth might retain the old regulation timber colour. Considerable sums were expended in carving, gilding, and decoration in colour, not only at the bow and stern, but along the exterior of the bulwarks. As regards the armament carried afloat, at this and later times, particulars will be given in a future chapter.
An old writer of the period takes satisfaction in pointing out the superiority of the English over foreign ships. "As for those of the Portuguese," he says, "they are the veriest drones on the sea, the rather because their seeling[20] was dammed up with a certain kind of mortar to dead the shot." "The French," he goes on to say, "however dextrous in land battles, are left-handed in sea-fights, whose best ships are of Dutch building. The Dutch build their ships so floaty and buoyant, they have little hold in the water in comparison to ours, which keep the better wind and so out-sail them. The Spanish pride hath infected their ships with loftiness, which makes them but the fairer marks to our shot. Besides the wind hath so much power of them in bad weather, that it drives them two leagues for one of ours to leeward—which is very dangerous upon a lee-shore." He states further that the "Turkish frigots", especially those built at Algiers, are much the best foreign ships; being "built much nearer the English mode", and they "may hereafter prove mischievous to us, if not seasonably prevented". The writer was perfectly correct in his last remark, as will be seen in the next chapter.
Here are a few extracts from Sir Walter Raleigh's directions for "clearing for action". The captain is to appoint "sufficient company to assist the gunners", by which it would appear that the number of guns carried had increased faster than the complement of "gonnars" allotted to a man-of-war. If necessary, "the cabins between the decks shall be taken down, all beds and sacks employed for bulwarks". The "musketiers"[21] were to be distributed between the "fore-castell", the "mast", and the "poope". The gunners were ordered not to fire except at point-blank range, that is to say, until pretty close alongside the enemy. An officer was to be specially detailed to see that there was no loose powder carried between decks nor near any lighted gun-matches. About the decks were to be distributed "divers hogsheads" sawn in half and filled with water. No one was to board the enemy's ship without orders; special men were told off to each sail; while the carpenter and his crew were to attend with plugs and sheets of lead, some in the hold, others on the lower deck, in readiness to plug up shot holes between wind and water.
In the early Stuart period there were no very great changes in the construction and appearance of our men-of-war, but they gradually—if we may judge from their pictures—seem to have acquired a more "ship-shape" look, and give one the idea of greater roominess. The bonaventure mizen-mast disappears, so that there are only three masts instead of four, and the mizen is provided with a topsail in addition to its lateen. At the end of the bowsprit, too, appears a little top and top-mast, while a square sail is spread on a yard slung below it. This sail has a large round hole in each lower corner, to let the water run out when it is plunged under water as the ship pitches. The Prince Royal was the show ship of those days, and no less than £441 was spent on her carved decorations, and £868 on gilding them. She was our first three-decker, if we include the upper deck, and had a displacement of 1200 tons.
THE ROYAL GEORGE ENGAGING THE SOLEIL ROYAL IN QUIBERON BAY, 1759
Admiral Hawke in this engagement gained a decisive victory. The Royal George was the first of an improved type of ship. Her end was a tragic one, for she capsized and sank at Spithead, taking 900 people with her.
In 1637 was launched the much more famous Sovereign of the Seas. She was a very handsome vessel, longer and lower in the water than the Prince Royal, and 483 tons bigger. In the Travels of Cosmo III, Duke of Tuscany, through England, about thirty years after she was launched, the following account is given of her: "This monstrous vessel was built in the year 1637 by King Charles I at incredible expense; for, besides the vast size of the ship, which is an hundred and twenty paces in length, it has cabins roofed with carved work, richly ornamented with gold, and the outside of the stern is decorated in a similar manner. The height of the stern is quite extraordinary, and it is hung with seven magnificent lanthorns, the principal one, which is more elevated than the rest, being capable of containing six people. The ship carries 106 pieces of brass cannon, and requires a thousand men for its equipment. His Highness went to the highest part of the stern, and having walked over the whole length from stern to prow as well above as below, stepped into the handsomest cabin in the stern, where there were still evident marks of the sides having been repaired from the effect of cannon-balls, which sufficiently indicated that it had been more than once in action." The Sovereign was coloured outside black and gold, and had an elaborate figure-head representing King Edgar on horseback trampling on seven kings. During the Commonwealth and Restoration there were continuous improvements in ship design, due, no doubt, in some measure, to the constant fighting with the Dutch. Our naval constructors naturally wanted to build better ships; they had the Dutch prizes to study, and our sea officers saw a good deal of the French men-of-war, which during the latter part of the war assisted them against the Dutch. The Royal Charles of 1673 may be taken as the link between the Sovereign and the eighteenth-century ships of our navy. She was a handsome ship, rather smaller than the Sovereign, with a rounded stern at the water-line, instead of its being put in flat like that of an ordinary boat. This not only made ships built in this way, as they always were after this time, stronger, but gave them more graceful lines, as well as better ones for sailing.