The following table gives the equipment in offensive weapons and stores for typical vessels of each rate; the scale was not implicitly adhered to, but it is the first sign of an attempt to establish a permanent relation between guns and tonnage such as became afterwards almost invariable. The paper belongs to 1655, but it is not likely that any material alteration occurred before 1660.[1369] The first establishment of third-rates was 140, of fourth-rates 130, and of fifth-rates 100 men; these were subsequently raised to 160, 150, and 110 men respectively:—
| Vessels | Cannon Drakes | Demi-cannon | Culverins | Demi-culverins | Sakers | Round Shot | Double headed Shot | Barrels of Powder | Muskets | Blunderbusses | Pikes | Hatchets | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st-rates[1370] | Sovereign | 19 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 5 | 2580 | 720 | 330 | 300 | 20 | 200 | 100 |
| Resolution | |||||||||||||
| Naseby | |||||||||||||
| 2nd-rates | Triumph | 6 | 0 | 24 | 4 | 1900 | 740 | 203 | 120 | 12 | 80 | 40 | |
| Victory | |||||||||||||
| Dunbar | |||||||||||||
| 3rd-rates | Speaker | 4 | 2 | 26 | 8 | 2080 | 670 | 180 | 120 | 10 | 60 | 40 | |
| Marston Moor | |||||||||||||
| Fairfax | |||||||||||||
| 4th-rates | Bristol | 24 | 6 | 8 | 908 | 462 | 100 | 60 | 7 | 60 | 40 | ||
| Portland | |||||||||||||
| Dover | |||||||||||||
| 5th-rates | Pearl | 18 | 4 | 660 | 260 | 40 | 0 | 4 | 40 | 20 | |||
| Mermaid | |||||||||||||
| Fagons | |||||||||||||
| 6th-rates | Cat | 8 | 240 | 40 | 14 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 12 | ||||
| Hare | |||||||||||||
| Martin | |||||||||||||
The Fleets.
Of the large number of prizes passed into the service many had not been built as men-of-war, and, as soon as the immediate need had ceased, were sold, if only for the momentary relief the money thus obtained gave the harassed treasury. In one year, ending with October 1654, nine were sold for £6181. Notwithstanding the enormous increase in the strength of the Navy the Commissioners found it hardly equal to the provision of the over-sea fleets, now required, and the fifty or sixty cruisers in the four seas which replaced the half-dozen small vessels formerly considered sufficient, and which number, relatively large as it was, did not succeed in entirely crushing the enterprise of the Dunkirk and Stewart privateers. The recollection of what commerce had suffered from piracy must have remained very lively, and, at the close of the civil war, strong summer and winter ‘guards’ were still maintained; in October 1651 there were thirty-six vessels cruising in home waters.[1371] During the Dutch war every available ship was needed with the fleets, and the Channel was sometimes so devoid of protection that two prizes, taken off the Land’s End in December 1653, were brought up Channel to Flushing without, during the six days occupied in the voyage, and of which one was spent in lying to off Dungeness, meeting a single English man-of-war.
When peace was made with Holland the protective cordon round the coasts was renewed, and increased rather than decreased in strength during the last years of the Commonwealth. To illustrate the way in which the ships were employed one station list for May 1659 may be quoted.[1372] In the Downs, 12, of 232 guns; watching Ostend, 3, of 70 guns; off the mouth of the Thames, 2, of 12 guns; between the Naze and Yarmouth, 2, of 34 guns; off Lynn Deeps, 2, of 20 guns; between Yarmouth Roads and Tynemouth Bar, 3, of 66 guns; on Scotch coast, 2, of 52 guns; with the mackerel boats, 2, of 24 guns; with the North Sea boats, 1, of — guns; in mouth of Channel, 4, of 76 guns; between Portland and Alderney, 2, of 26 guns; on Irish coast, 3, of 50 guns; on convoy service, 8, of — guns; and 6 others have not their duties specified. The large increase in the effective of the Navy diminished the necessity for hired merchantmen, and the need became less as the Dutch prizes were refitted for service. The caste feeling which divides the professional from the amateur fighter was beginning to be strongly marked among officers who had gone through the experiences of the civil war, and who by a succession of events had been retained in the service of the state instead of being returned to mercantile pursuits, as had been the case formerly on the cessation of warfare. Both these causes helped to do away with the use of hired merchantmen, although at one time thirty or forty were in pay. Blake desired that not more than two-fifths of the fleets should consist of hired ships, that they should carry at least twenty-six guns, and be commanded and officered by approved men. The proportion does not appear to have risen to this figure even before prizes became plentiful, and so eager was the government to adapt suitable prizes that it did not always wait for legal condemnation, and sometimes found itself compelled to make terms with the injured owners when the ship had been used and sold out of the service. After long efforts the owners of the Golden Falcon, captured in 1652, obtained, in March 1659, a decree of the Admiralty Court in their favour; but the vessel had been sold a year before, and the Navy Commissioners were ordered to pay her appraised value when taken. Nor is this a solitary instance.[1373]
Merchant Shipping.
In 1652 there was a survey of merchant shipping throughout the kingdom, but the resulting reports have not survived. In December 1653 there appear to have been only sixty-three merchantmen, of 200 tons and upwards, in the Thames suitable for service; but the size of these does not show much advance on the tonnage of the previous generation; one was of 600, four of 500, two of 450, five of 400, twenty-five of from 300 to 400, and the remainder under 300 tons.[1374] According to one (royalist) writer both the merchant navy and trade decreased under the Commonwealth; but the customs receipts directly contradict the latter and inferentially negative the former portion of his statement.[1375] Store ships and transports were paid for at the rate of £3, 15s 6d a month per man, the owners sending them completely ready for sea. If a ship was meant to go into action the state took the risk of loss, paid and provisioned the men, and supplied powder, shot, and any guns necessary beyond the normal number. When stores were sent out as part of an ordinary trader’s cargo, the cost of freight was, to the Straits of Gibraltar, from 40s to 44s a ton; to Alicante, 50s to 54s; to Leghorn, 60s to 64s; and to Jamaica, £4.[1376]
Privateering.
Private enterprise turned naturally towards letters of marque as a lucrative, if hazardous, speculation. In July 1652 letters were restricted to owners able to send out vessels of not less than 200 tons and 20 guns, but it was soon found out that this limitation was almost prohibitive. Such privateers were further placed under the direct control of the admirals, and compelled to keep them and the Council informed of their proceedings.[1377] Afterwards letters of marque were more charily issued, since it was found that they were competing for men against the regular service, much to the disadvantage of the latter, the looser discipline and larger chance of prize money of the privateer being much more to the sailor’s liking. Frequently ordinary trading ships sailed with letters of marque among their papers on the chance of some profitable opportunity occurring; but from 1st August 1655 all such commissions were, without exception, revoked, in consequence of the difficulty their possessors seemed often to find in distinguishing between the ships of enemies and those belonging to friendly states. Thenceforward, although still at war with Spain, Englishmen acting under them were to find themselves in the position, and liable to the punishment, of pirates.
Caroline Ships lost or sold.