Thus 207 new vessels were added to the Navy during these eleven years, of which 121 were on the active list in 1660; besides 22 others still remaining of the old Royal Navy and 17 more, originally of the same era, which had been used but had been sold, wrecked, or lost in action between 1649 and 1660. We are told that ‘the principal thing the Long Parliament aimed at was to outsail the Dunkirkers,’[1359] and the large number of light vessels of twenty-two guns, or under, shows how earnestly they set themselves to this task. In a few cases the names of old ships were altered—the Charles to Liberty, the Henrietta Maria to Paragon, the Prince to Resolution, and the St Andrew and St George lost their saintship. The Sovereign is, once or twice, called the Commonwealth, but here the proposed change of name never became an actual one.
Alterations and Improvements.
In October 1651 the Council of State were considering ‘some encouragement to be given to Messrs Pett for their success in contriving and building of frigates.’ The improvements consisted, we may be certain, in moulding the under-water section on finer lines, and probably in reducing the height of the hull above water and lengthening the keel by lessening the rake, fore and aft, and so diminishing the undue proportion the length ‘over all’ bore to the keel. Such alterations would have tended to abate the pitching, from which these old ships must have suffered terribly, to have given them a steadier gun platform, and to make them more weatherly, although from the journal of the Gainsborough it appears that she, at any rate, was nearly unable to beat to windward.[1360] At first the new frigates, of whatever class, were built without forecastles, but experience led to the conclusion that they were advisable in the larger ships, it being found necessary sometimes to run them up at sea, and eventually only fifth- and sixth-rates were still built without them. But this was an advance on the old system, which had constructed the smallest vessels on exactly the same plan as the largest. Beyond Pett’s improvements, which really belong to the period of Charles I rather than to that of the Commonwealth, there was little progress in matters relating to sails and the better adjustment of weights. Fore and aft sails are still rarely mentioned, and then only in connection with small vessels, and there is no record of the introduction of any mechanical appliances calculated to lighten or quicken the physical work necessary in handling a ship. The sail area was still small for the tonnage, nor, in view of the crankness of the ships, did it appear possible to increase it. The Sovereign, cut down in 1652, and then of 100 guns and 2072 gross tonnage,[1361] carried 5513 yards of canvas in a complete suit of sails;[1362] in 1844 the regulation equipment for a second-rate of 84 guns and 2279 tons (the Thunderer), was 12,947 yards. Of course the line-of-battle ship of 1844 would be in reality a much bigger vessel than the Sovereign, but the excess in length and breadth would not alone explain the ability to bear more than double the extent of canvas.
As had been customary for at least 150 years, each ship possessed three boats—long boat, pinnace, and skiff—which were respectively 35 feet, 29 feet, and 20 feet long in those belonging to second-rates, and 33 feet, 28 feet, and 20 feet in third-rates. In no list of equipments or stores are davits mentioned. The long boat was apparently still towed astern; it invariably was in 1625, since the Cadiz fleet of that year lost every long boat in crossing the Bay of Biscay. How the other boats were now hoisted to the ship is uncertain.[1363]
Shipbuilding.
Early in the Commonwealth administration John Holland, one of the Navy Commissioners, recommended that the service shipwrights should not be allowed to keep private yards, seeing that if they were dishonest there was no way of tracing government timber, or other materials, used for their own purposes, a reason which does not say much for government methods of supervision. But the state yards were obviously inadequate to the demands suddenly made upon their capacity, and recourse was necessary to the yards belonging to government shipwrights and to private builders. In 1650 and 1651 the Pelican, Primrose, Pearl, Nightingale, and Mermaid were bought in this way, the first at £6, 10s, the others at £5, 8s a ton.[1364] Vessels built in private yards were subjected to continual inspection at the hands of the government surveyors, and, in many cases, the materials were supplied by the Navy Commissioners, who only desired such prices for them ‘as shall be moderate and fit between man and man.’
During 1651-53 Parliament was continually ordering new frigates to be commenced, and the master shipwrights who possessed building slips seem to have tried to get the work placed in their own yards rather than in the government ones. In April 1652, when two new vessels were to be commenced, Peter Pett and Taylor recommended that they should be given out to contract, as there was not enough timber in the government stores. Whatever may have been the knowledge or sense of duty possessed by some of their subordinates, the Commonwealth Navy Commissioners were the wrong men upon whom to try finesse, more appropriate to the preceding or following administrations. All that Pett and Taylor obtained by their move was an intimation that they, at all events, would not be allowed to compete, and this was followed by an urgent recommendation to the Admiralty Committee that, as there was in reality plenty of timber available, the two men should be ordered to proceed with the work at once in the state’s yards.[1365] On other occasions the London shipwrights combined to put pressure on the Admiralty by refusing to tender below certain rates, and Edmond Edgar, of Great Yarmouth, based a claim to consideration on the fact that he had cut in and broken down the combination.[1366] There are several petitions, like this one of Edgar’s, from shipbuilders, for compensation on account of vessels turned out from their yards larger than had been specified in the original contracts, and thereby exposing them to loss. As the Admiralty tried to be just rather than generous in dealing with contractors, we may suppose that the miscalculations, like those which occurred under Charles I, were due really to ignorance rather than to a not very hopeful attempt to obtain larger profits by deliberately ignoring instructions. Country builders, moreover, sometimes worked under difficulties they could scarcely have anticipated when tendering. Bailey, who built two ships at Bristol, desired the government to authorise him to pay his men more than two shillings a day, and thus free him from the liability to ten days’ imprisonment and a £10 fine incurred, according to the city ordinances, by those who paid more.[1367]
Decoration.
In accordance with the tendency of the time the decoration of ships was reduced to a minimum. Until 1655 the use of gilding appears to have ceased, special orders being in some cases given that vessels under repair were not to have any gold used upon them, and the cost of carved work in fifth-rates was fixed at £45, an amount which was not passed without serious questioning. In 1655 this severe simplicity was, to a certain extent, relaxed, since, in August, Richard Isaacson undertook the gilding and painting of two second-rates at £120 each. So far as the outside was concerned, the figurehead, arms on stern, and two figures on the stern gallery were to be gilt; the hull, elsewhere, was to be painted black, picked out in gold where carved.[1368] The Navy Commissioners held that the decoration ought not to cost more than £80, being unnecessary and ‘like feathers in fantastic caps.’ Figure heads were sometimes exuberant in style. The Naseby’s consisted of Oliver on horseback, ‘trampling upon six nations.’
Relation between Tonnage and Guns.