We consider the ship may be considered three ways—the first in cask, and so two butts or four hogsheads make a ton; the second in feet, and so forty feet of timber make a ton, the third in weight and so twenty hundred weight make a ton.... The first seems most rational to us.... We therefore first prescribe the hold of the ship to be the cavity of the vessel contained between the lines of her greatest breadth and depth withinboard ... supposing the lower edge of the (deck) beams to be pitched at the breadth.... We next consider what quantity of cask may be stowed in this hold first by drawing the bends and the form of the cask in each several bend; but this way being subject to error we sought the true contents thereof arithmetically, allowing 4½ feet to the length of a butt, and 2 ft. 8 in. to the depth of the first tier, but 2 ft. 4 in. for the rest of the tiers. This whole body we reduce into feet, and divide the product thereof by sixty, because we find by calculation that a ton of cask stowed to the best advantage will take up as much room as sixty feet solid, and by these means we produce the whole contents of the Adventure’s hold to be 207 tons.
They then proceed to frame the rule they used in the ‘third way’ of the paper of 1627, and notice that practically the Adventure takes a cargo of about 276 tons of coal, but that this brings her midship port within a foot of the water line and renders her unfit for any service. In June the masters of the Trinity House commented on the preceding statement,[1140] and began by declaring that ‘truly to find the contents of the cavity of the hold in cask is not possible.’ They strongly maintained that vessels should be measured from without board, seeing that a furred ship could carry more than if unfurred, ignoring the fact that one object of the proposed new rule was to insure more accurate designing and building by throwing the loss on the owner. ‘The old rule,’ they said, ‘is less true for lately built ships, which have great floors, but true for old ships with small floors.’[1141] Their protest evoked a derisive reply from the government shipwrights, from which it is unnecessary to quote.[1142] Finally an order was issued, 26th May 1628, that all the King’s ships and those hired by him should be measured by taking ‘the length of the keel, leaving out the false post, the greatest breadth within the plank, the depth from that breadth to the upper edge of the keel,’ multiplying these and dividing by one hundred.[1143]
The result of the change was to make vessels apparently smaller, but whether nearer to, or further from, what we should now consider their real tonnage we have no means of deciding conclusively. The comparative measurements of two ships by the old and the new rules may serve as example of the others:—[1144]
| Keel | Beam | Depth | Gross tonnage | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old rule | New rule | Old rule[1145] | New rule[1146] | Old rule | New rule | Old rule | New rule | |
| ft. | ft. | ft. | ft. | ft. | ft. | |||
| Henrietta Maria | 106 | 106 | 36.5 | 35.9 | 16.6 | 15.8 | 848 | 793 |
| Charles | 106.4 | 105.2[1147] | 36.3 | 35.7 | 16.6 | 16.3 | 848 | 810 |
The Merchant Marine.
The extensive use made of hired ships between 1625 and 1628 led to several lists being drawn up of the available merchant marine. Before, however, dealing with these, there is another source from which information may be gained. The Trinity House certificates, from May 1625 to March 1638, of new ships requiring ordnance, and which were necessarily sent to London to be armed, have fortunately been preserved.[1148] These certificates probably include every new vessel of any considerable size, and in most cases mention the tonnage and place of construction, and from them, therefore, we can draw fairly reliable conclusions concerning the relative importance of the shipping centres where they were built, and the strength of the merchant navy. In these thirteen years some 380 ships come under notice, inclusive of fifteen prizes and twenty-two bought, mostly from the Dutch, but whether new or old is not stated. The following table gives the number each year:—
| 1625, | 5 |
| 1626, | 124 |
| 1627, | 23 |
| 1628, | 5 |
| 1629, | 55 |
| 1630, | 37 |
| 1631, | 18 |
| 1632, | 11 |
| 1633, | 12 |
| 1634, | 12 |
| 1635, | 24 |
| 1636, | 25 |
| 1637, | 24 |
| 1638, | 5 (three months) |
The sudden increase of 1626 is probably attributable to the number of vessels taken up for the royal service, and to the proclamation of 26th April of that year, by which the bounty of 5s a ton on craft of over 100 tons, and suited for warfare, was renewed. The subsequent falling off, besides being a natural reaction, may have been also due to the difficulty owners experienced in obtaining payment for their ships when hired by the King. An analysis of the places mentioned yields, when the port of origin is given, the results tabulated below. The expression ‘River of Thames’ comprises those from various ports, but mostly, perhaps Newcastle colliers sent up for their ordnance; it may also include those from such a place as Bristol, for which one new ship cannot be a complete return. Ships of under 300 tons are not classified, and in some instances the tonnage is not given in the certificate:—