Sailing ships

by E. Keble Chatterton

Photo. W. M. Spooner & Co.

The Henri Grace à Dieu of the time of Henry VIII. had four masts with two decks and topgallant sails on fore, main and main-mizzen masts. On the bonaventure mizzen she carried a topsail above the lateen but no topgallant. The fore and main masts had topsails as well. Happily her inventory is still extant and will be found in Mr. Oppenheim’s volume on the administration of the Navy of the reign of Henry VIII.[69] Her tonnage was 1500, and she represents still another advance in the construction of big ships. Her launching one day in the middle of June had been a memorable ceremony, in the presence of the Court, the ambassadors of both the Emperor and the Pope, as well as a distinguished crowd of bishops and nobles. Her armament, according to her existing inventory of 1514, included 184 pieces of ordnance, of which 126 were brass and iron serpentines.

Two more of Henry VIII.’s ships will be seen in Figs. 48 and 49. Both have been photographed from the coloured drawings of “The Rolle declaryng the Nombre of the Kynges Maiestys owne Galliasses” by Anthony Anthony in the Pepysian Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. The date of the roll is 1546, one part being now in the British Museum and the other half in the Pepysian Library, as stated. Originally, both rolls belonged to Samuel Pepys. Quaint as these representations are, they are contemporary records and of some real interest to us. The Murrian, in Fig. 48, was brought into the Royal Navy in 1545 and sold out in 1551. Her tonnage was 500, and she had 300 men, 10 brass guns and 53 iron guns. The reader will notice the manner of stowing the spritsail which is correctly shown. Along the waist of the vessel the pavesses can just be discerned. The netting spread over the ship’s deck was as a protection against the enemy’s missiles dropped from the fighting-tops. Astern the ship’s biggest boat is seen towing, as was the custom when at sea, except in bad weather, “much as one may see a brig or a topsail schooner to-day with a dinghy dragging astern.”[70] The boat’s coxswain stayed in her as she towed, keeping her clean, fending her off, and looking out for any of the crew who happened to tumble overboard. The Struse of Dawske (i.e. Danzig) in Fig. 49, had been purchased in 1544, and was sold out of the service the same year as the Murrian. She was very similar to the other ship but slightly smaller. Her tonnage was 450, she carried 250 men, 39 iron guns, but none of brass.

Fig. 48. The “Murrian.”

Fig. 49. The “Struse.”
TWO OF HENRY VIII.’S SHIPS.

Another ship in this roll called the Jesus of Lubeck, being of 700 tons, having been purchased by Henry VIII. from the merchants of Lubeck in 1544, shows steel sickle-shaped bill-hooks affixed to the yard arms, so that in battle she could sail alongside the enemy and tear his rigging to pieces, but it was inevitable that the aggressor would injure himself scarcely less than his foe, and these hooks had disappeared before the end of the century, though their origin was of great antiquity. (See also Fig. 56.)

From a delightful volume[71] of this reign entitled the “Book of War by Sea and by Land,” by Jehan Bytharne, Gunner in Ordinary to the King, and bearing date 1543, we are able to verify the truth of the vain display of flags seen in the illustrations of the Murrian and Struse. There is so much interesting matter contained in this work respecting contemporary ships that I make no apology to the reader for dealing with its contents at some length. Although the earliest code of signals belonged to about 1340 and was given out for the guidance of the fleets at Sluys, yet we have now much more elaborate directions.

Bytharne tells us just what we want to know about the decoration of the ships of his time. The external ornamentation from the mainwale to the top of the castles ought to be painted, he says, with the colours and devices of the admiral. Likewise the forecastle and after-castle were to be decorated as splendidly as possible. All the shields—as we saw in the Cordelière—round the upper part of the castles were to be emblazoned with the admiral’s arms and devices also. Above the forecastle on a staff inclining forwards was to be a (pennon) of the admiral’s colours and devices, as also at the two corners of the castle. Amidships there should be two square banners, emblazoned with the admiral’s arms, and on the after-castle high above the rudder he was to have a large square banner larger than any of the others. From the maintop a broad swallow-tailed standard was to be flown, of such a length as to reach to the water, and emblazoned with the admiral’s arms and devices also.