[1243] Pennington and his men were paid double wages ‘out of the French king’s moneys’ (Aud. Off. Decl. Accounts, 1698, 63), which throws their intense abhorrence of their work into still stronger relief.
[1244] In this year the Navy and Ordnance offices were £251,000 in arrears (State Papers, lxxxvii, 35).
[1245] Add. MSS., 17,503.
[1246] Includes ‘all incident expenses,’ such as repairs, shipkeepers, administration, etc.; the difference between the totals of the third and fourth columns, together, and the fifth is in great part covered by the cost of the winter fleets.
[1247] And eight pinnaces.
[1248] Summer ‘guard,’ or fleet.
[1249] Winter guard.
[1250] Includes allowance of twenty shillings a month per man to the crews of 48 privateers.
[1251] Includes cost of new ships building.
[1252] Few historical students admire Charles I, but even such a king as he is entitled to the justice of posterity beyond that which he obtained from his contemporaries. Professor Hosmer (Life of Sir H. Vane the Younger, p. 497) says that Vane, ‘had created the fleet out of nothing, had given it guns and men.’ He appears to think that a naval force, with its subsidiary manufactures and establishments, could be created in a few years, but, as a matter of fact, Parliament commenced the struggle infinitely better equipped at sea than on land, and it was so powerful afloat that it did not find it necessary to begin building again till 1646, when the result of the struggle was assured. If Mr Hosmer is referring to a later period, the statement is still more questionable, since the number of men-of-war had been increased and Vane had ceased to have any special connexion, except in conjunction with others, with naval affairs. Allowing for his narrow intelligence and vacillating temperament Charles showed more persistence and continuity of design in the government of the Navy than in any other of his regal duties; for, although relatively weaker as regards other powers, England, as far as ships and dockyards were concerned, was stronger absolutely in 1642 than in 1625. The use made of the ship-money showed that under no circumstances could Charles have been a great naval organiser; but he has at least a right to have it said that he improved the matériel of the Navy so far as his limited views and disastrous domestic policy permitted.