A history of the administration of the Royal Navy and of merchant shipping in relation to the Navy from MDIX to MDCLX, with an introduction treating of the preceding period

by M. Oppenheim

The following list of the men-of-war of the reign, has for convenience been thrown into a tabular form, which, however, gives it a fuller and more final appearance than it is intended to claim. The records are not sufficiently complete or detailed to enable the inquirer to be certain in all cases of the exact year of building, rebuilding or purchase, and a further element of uncertainty is introduced by the changes of name which occurred, and continuity of name in what may be supposed to be new ships, but of whose building there is no distinct evidence. The dates printed in heavier type may be taken as exact; the others can only be regarded as likely to be correct, and the tonnage varies at different times in nearly every ship. From the preceding reign came the Regent, Sovereign, Mary and John, (or Carvel of Ewe), Sweepstake and Mary Fortune.

	Built	Bought	Rebuilt	Prize	Tonnage
Sovereign[132]			1509		600
Peter Pomegranate[133]	1509		1536		450
Mary Rose[134]	1509		1536		500
Gabriel Royal[135]		1509			700
Mary James[136]		1509	1524		300
Mary George[137]		1510			300
Lion[138]				1511	120
Jennet Pyrwin[139]				1511	70
John Baptist[140]		1512			400
Great Nicholas[141]		1512			400
Anne Gallant[142]		1512			140
Dragon[143]	1512				100
Christ[144]		1512			300
Lizard[145]	1512				120
Swallow	1512		1524		80
Kateryn Fortileza[146]		1512			700
Great Bark[147]	1512				400
Less Bark[148]	1512				160
Kateryn Galley[149]	1512				80
Rose Galley[150]	1512
Henry Galley[151]	1512
Lesser Barbara[152]		1512			160
Great Barbara[153]		1513			400
Black Bark[154]		1513
Henry of Hampton[155]		1513			120
Great Elizabeth[156]		1514			900
Henry Grace à Dieu[157]	1514		1540		1000
Mary Imperial[158]	1515		1523		120
Mary Gloria[159]		1517			300
Kateryn Plesaunce[160]	1518				100
Trinity Henry[161]	1519				80
Mary and John[162]		1521
Mawdelyn of Deptford[163]	1522				120
Great Zabra[164]	1522				50
Lesser Zabra[165]	1522				40
Fortune or Hulk[166]	1522				160
Bark of Morlaix[167]				1522	60
Mary Grace[168]				1522
Bark of Boulogne[169]				1522	80
Primrose[170]	1523		1536		160
Minion[171]	1523				180
New Bark[172]	1523				200
Sweepstake[173]	1523				65
John of Greenwich[174]				1523	50
Mary Guildford[175]	1524				160
Lion[176]	1536				160
Mary Willoby[177]	1536				160
Jennet[178]	1539				200
Mathew[179]		1539			600
Sweepstake[180]	1539				300
Less Galley		1539			400
Great Galley[181]		1539			500
Salamander				1544	300
Unicorn[182]				1544	240
Pauncye[183]	1544				450
Mary Hambro[184]		1544			400
Jesus of Lubeck[185]		1544			600
Struse of Dawske[186]		1544			400
L’Artique[187]		1544			100
Swallow[188]	1544				240
Dragon[189]	1544				140
Fawcon[190]	1544				100
Galley Subtylle[191]	1544				300
Marlion[192]				1545	70
Mary Thomas[193]				1545	100
Mary James[194]				1545	120
Mary Odierne[195]				1545	70
Hind[196]	1545				80
Grand Mistress[197]	1545				450
Anne Gallant[198]	1545				400
Greyhound[199]	1545				200
Saker[200]	1545				60
Brigandine[201]	1545				40
Less Pinnace[202]	1545				60
Hare[203]	1545				30
Roo[204]	1545				80
Morian[205]		1545			400
Galley Blancherd[206]				1546
Christopher[207]		1546			400
George[208]		1546			60
Phœnix		1546			40
Antelope[209]	1546				300
Tiger	1546				200
Bull	1546				200
Hart	1546				300
13 Rowbarges[210]	1546				20

We are accustomed to the general statement that Henry VIII enlarged the navy, but the foregoing list shows a much more extensive increase than is implied by a general expression and, if so far as number is concerned it errs at all, it errs on the side of omission. A little indulgence in admitting names could have extended it considerably. No foreign purchased merchantman has been inserted without the authority of a definite statement, or unless it appears in lists later than the reign under consideration; but there are foreign ships omitted as only temporarily hired which may really have belonged to the crown. Other vessels which occur in almost indistinguishable fashion among men-of-war have been left out in view of the custom which frequently obtained of describing hired ships as king’s ships while they were in the royal service, and in some cases it has been found impossible to satisfactorily trace particular vessels. For instance, during the first half of the reign a ‘great galley’ of 600 or 800 tons, flits in a most puzzling way through some, but not the most reliable, of the papers. I take it to have been an indefinite designation applied at various times to various ships,[211] but that opinion may be altogether wrong and it may be the actual name of a large vessel which has left no other indication of its existence. Again, the Earl of Southampton, for four years Admiral of England, bequeathed Henry his ‘great ship’ by his will dated September 1542. The Earl died in 1543, but which is the ship in question, or whether it appears at all in the foregoing list, cannot be determined.

Activity in Construction and Purchase of Ships.

Exclusive of the thirteen rowbarges, there are eighty-five vessels, and of these forty-six were built, twenty-six purchased, and thirteen were prizes. The periods of greatest activity synchronise with war with France 1512-14, war with France and Scotland 1522-5, with the possibility in 1539 of a general alliance on religious grounds against England, and with war against France and Scotland in 1544-6. But allowing for uncertainty of dates, possibility of omissions, and our almost entire ignorance of the repairs and rebuildings which must have been progressing uninterruptedly, there is no cessation of vigorous action throughout the reign. The existing dockyards could have hardly been equal to the demands on them for repairs alone, and this is doubtless one reason for the large number of ships purchased, a course which was also probably cheaper for the moment. All Henry’s foreign purchases seem to have been Italian or Hanseatic. During 1511-14 he hired several Spaniards and tried to buy some, but his desires were vain in face of the strict Spanish navigation laws. In 1513 the Spanish envoy, de Quiros, was instructed to inform the king that the sale of Spanish ships abroad was forbidden under heavy penalties, and that his government could not permit them to be sold even to Henry.[212] In fact we find from another source that the sale of ships was forbidden to foreigners even though they were naturalised Spanish subjects, and as, from October 1502, a bounty of 100 maravedis a ton was given up to 1500 tons it is hardly surprising that their sale to aliens was sternly interdicted.[213] In 1513 Knight wrote to Henry that the whole of a Spaniard’s goods had been confiscated for selling a carrack to him. Under these circumstances the king had to buy in the North German ports, and, judging from the small number of years most of them remained in the effective, many must have been built for the purpose of sale to him.

Royal Ships:—Build and Rigging.

The vessel which has the chief place in popular memory is the Henry Grace à Dieu, but she probably differed little in size, form, or equipment, from others nearly as large. Her total cost, with the three small barques built with her, was £8708 5s 3d, but out of the 3739 tons of timber used 1987 cost nothing being presented by several peers, private persons, and religious bodies. According to the accounts she was constructed under the supervision of William Bond, but if a nearly contemporary letter may be trusted Brygandine, the clerk of the ships designed and built her.[214] Bond’s connection with her may have been merely financial and confined to payments of money. Fifty-six tons of iron, 565 stones of oakum and 1711 lbs of flax were other items. She was a four-master and possibly a two-decker with fore, main and mizen top-gallant sails, but with only two sails on the other masts, and with two tops on each of the three principal masts.[215] All ships but the very smallest had four masts, the two after ones being called, respectively, the main and bonaventure mizens. There was nothing exceptional in the Henry’s fittings, top-gallant sails being known to have been used in the previous reign, and, as at that time, the topmasts were not arranged for lowering. An equivalent to the ease given a labouring ship by striking the topmasts was obtained by lowering the fore and main yards to the level of the bulwarks. As most of the guns were carried in the poop and forecastle ships must have been ‘built loftie’ on the Spanish model and presented a squat and ungainly appearance. Vessels were now mostly carvel built, and those clench, or clinker, built, were regarded as too weak to stand the shock of collision when boarding was intended. Speaking of some foreign ships brought into Portsmouth, Suffolk wrote that some of them were ‘clenchers, both feeble, olde, and out of fashion,’ and therefore not to be taken up for service with the fleet.[216]

Spritsails were now coming into more common use and, with the spanker on the bonaventure mizen or fourth mast and sometimes with another on the main mizen, served the purpose of the later fore-and-aft sails. Vessels were now, although still slowly and clumsily, able to work more closely to windward. There is one entry which runs ‘eight small masts at 6s 8d the pece ymploied in the Great Bark and other the Kynges shipps for steddying saills.’[217] It can only be said that there is no mention in the inventories, or any sign in the drawings of ships of this century, of what are now called studding sails.