The English lost four thousand men in this battle, and the French and Genoese twenty-five thousand, which leads to the assumption that the latter had a large number of galleys at their disposal.
In 1345, Edward III came again to France at the head of a fleet of 1000 to 1100 ships and, in 1347, a third expedition, having to do with the siege of Calais, was sent against this country.
HOLMES relates (p. 72) that, for this expedition, the greater part of the fleet, which counted 745 units and 15,895 men, came from England; the other vessels were furnished by the Flanders and Spain.
The size of the crews, which reduces to 21 men per vessel shows sufficiently that the boats of the fleet were relatively small. Under these conditions, a pretty exact idea can be had of this fleet by giving a glance at old engravings which show a flotilla of fishing boats, including some busses and a few “Noordvaarders”, putting out to sea.
The castles which ships carried at this time were small and not set up as a permanence.
The medal struck as a commemoration of the battle of the Sluis also shows a “Cog”, or at least a vessel which is exactly like it by its clinker built sides. It may be supposed that the type of vessel shown in this reproduction was the one most widely used at this period; so, once more is shown the great affinity which existed among the northern nations.
Military tactics had forced the peoples of the Mediterranean and, later, Spain and Portugal, their imitators, to increase the height of their ships. This is confirmed by HOLMES in the following quotation relating to the battle fought by Edward III, near Winchelsea, against forty Spanish ships: “The tactics of the English consisted chiefly of boarding, while the Spaniards, whose vessels were much the higher, attacked with crossbows and heavy stones; the latter they hurled from their fighting tops into their adversaries’ ships”.
The history of the Netherlands also mentions this fact.
England first made use of artillery at sea in 1372; the Mediterranean saw it used by the Genoese in 1377.
Shipbuilding was only developed much later in France. Nevertheless, there is proof that ships were already built there in the XIVth century and it appears that they had cannons on board even in 1339. Still, it was only on the shores of the Mediterranean that shipbuilding was regularly carried on, under the impulse, it appears, of Jean de Vienne, who was made admiral in 1373. (Le Musée de Marine du Louvre.)