Sailing ships

by E. Keble Chatterton

“Boy, fetch my cellar of bottles. A health to you all fore and aft. Courage, my hearts, for a fresh charge. Master, lay him aboard luff for luff. Midshipmen, see the tops and yards well manned with stones and brass balls. To enter them at shrouds and every squadron else at their best advantage, sound drums and trumpets and St. George for England. They hang out a flag of truce. Stand in with him, haul him amain, abaft, or take in his flag. Strike their sails and come aboard, with the captain, purser and gunner, with your commission, cocket or bills of loading. Out goes their boat. They are launched from the ship side. Entertain them with a general cry. God save the captain, and all the company, with the trumpets sounding. Examine them in particular, and then conclude your conditions with feasting, freedom or punishment, as you find occasion. Otherwise if you surprise him or enter perforce, you may stow the men, rifle, pillage or sack and cry a prize.”

Perhaps we may be allowed to add a word further in explanation of the duties of the officers taken also from this little book. The captain was not necessarily a seaman. His authority was to command the whole company and keep them in order. The lieutenant was to assist the captain and—hence the word—in his absence to take his place. The captain also directed a fight, while the master was really the sailing master and gave orders to the sailors, taking charge of the ship as long as she was on the high seas: but “when they make land” the pilot “doth take charge of the ship till he bring her to harbour.” The duties of the sailors included hoisting sails, getting the tacks aboard, hauling the bowlines and steering the ship. The Yonkers were the young men whose work was to take in the topsails, furl and sling the mainsail, to do all the bowsing or tricing, and take their turn at the helm. In the setting of watches, the master chose one and the mate the other.

As to the ship herself we find that the planking of a vessel of 400 tons was to be four inches thick, ships of 300 tons to have three-inch planking, and small ships two-inch, but never less than this. Between the beams of the deck and the orlop there were to be six feet of head-room, and ten ports on each side upon the lower orlop. A flagstaff was over the poop. A jeer-capstan was only to hoist the sails of big ships, being raised by hand on small vessels. Smith mentions using in a “faire gaile your studding sayles,” and confirms the use of the mizzen topsail. One interesting item that he enumerates is obviously what we now know by the name of drogue or sea-anchor. Smith calls it a “drift sail.” Manwayring describes the drift sail as “a sail used under water, being veered out right ahead, having sheets to it, the use whereof is to keep a ship’s head right upon the sea in a storme. Also it is good, where a ship drives in fast with a current, to hinder her driving in so fast, but it is most commonly used by fishermen in the North Seas.” Smith mentions also the cross-jack yard as being now in use.

During James I.’s reign the East India Company, encouraged by the King, endowed with a new charter, began to flourish considerably. An important new vessel was built for them called the Trade’s Increase, but she was careened whilst abroad at the end of her first voyage, in order to have some repairs made to her hull. She fell over on to her side and was burnt by the Javanese. Her size was 1100 tons, and the loss of so large a vessel in those days was a severe blow. This was not the only occasion in which an English ship was thrown away in this manner. Manwayring, writing of the contemporary practice of careening, says that if a ship wanted attention below the waterline, as for instance her seams to be caulked, when the vessel could not be conveniently put ashore and in ports where the tide does not dry right out, the method was to take out most of the ballast and guns. Then by her side was brought a lower ship to which tackles were attached, by means of which the larger vessel was hauled down on to her side, care being taken at the same time not to strain the masts too much. Some ships which were not naturally top-heavy did not careen without difficulty, but English ships, having still fairly high decks, careened somewhat easily. The Dutch, through the shallowness of the water off their coasts, could not have a deep draught, and in consequence their decks were not built high. And because they were the reverse of top-heavy it was with great difficulty that a Dutchman was careened.

Fig. 60. The “Prince Royal.”

In 1603 James built three new ships for the Navy, and five years later the Ark Royal of Elizabeth’s reign was rebuilt and renamed the Anne Royal. In 1608 the keel was laid for the Prince Royal, a ship of 1200 tons, whose appearance will be found in Fig. 60. This illustration is from a picture in the Trinity House, and is here reproduced by kind permission of the Elder Brethren. She was the largest and finest ship that had ever been designed for the English Navy, and was the finest man-of-war of her time. She was both built and designed under the supervision of Phineas Pett, Master of Arts of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, a distinguished member of a distinguished family which, from the reign of Henry VIII. right down to William and Mary kept up a continuous line of naval builders and architects. An unsuccessful attempt was made to launch her on September 24, 1610, when it was found that the dock head at Woolwich was too narrow to allow her to get through. She was eventually launched successfully, however, at a later date. She was a three-decker in the sense that she had two full batteries and an upper deck armed. Gorgeously decorated with carvings and paintings the Prince Royal was double-planked, and with but slight modifications, chiefly in respect of her decoration, would not be dissimilar to the ships built at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Indeed so slight, comparatively, were the developments that took place between this and the time of the Battle of Trafalgar that the ships of the early Stuarts would not have looked out of place among the ships of Nelson’s fleet. Between now and the close of the eighteenth century the similarity between men-of-war and merchantmen was so close as to make distinction practically impossible. That, too, will account for the fact of the English in the foregoing imaginary encounter by Smith asking whether the Spanish vessel were a merchant or man-of-war. We have made so many changes between the two classes of ships since then that it is a little difficult at first to realise this.

In the design of the Prince Royal, many of the old-fashioned conventionalities went by the board, and, as is always the case with a daring innovation, hostile criticisms were not scarce. Some of these, however, were justified, for when a Commission was appointed to report on the design, it was found that more than double the number of loads of timber were used than had been estimated for. The Prince Royal had a figurehead representing the King’s son on horseback, after whom she was named. Her dimensions were: length of keel, 114 feet; beam, 44 feet. She was pierced for 64 guns and carried 55. This number was restricted in order to guard against the excessive top-weight. In action the vacant portholes would be filled by guns from the opposite side of the ship. The reader will notice how close the similarity is between the hull of this ship and that of the merchantman in Fig. 59, of this period, taken from Furttenbach. The disappearance of the high poop and forecastles is particularly obvious. Three lanterns were carried at the poop, and subsequently this vessel was cut down smaller. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the lowest decks of ships carried the bread and other store-rooms, the cables, the officers’ cabins as well as some of the crew. The second deck was about 6 feet above and pierced with nine ports aside.

By 1624, James’ navy contained four ships of the first rank, viz., the Prince Royal, the Bear, the Merhonour and the old Ark Royal, now called the Anne Royal. Besides these there were fifteen of the second rank, nine of the third, and four of the fourth, as well as some hoys. It is curious to find, too, the existence still, in the navy, of four galleys. They were a source of constant expense, being never used now that the value of big ships had been realised, and they were eventually ordered to be sold out of the service.