An English description of the engagement states that, “All things being ... in order, the Englishmen approached towards the Frenchmen, which came fiercely forward ... and when they were in sight they shot ordnance so terribly that all the sea coast sounded of it.” One of the English ships “bowged,” or rammed, the Cordeliere, and when at last the Cordeliere was boarded, “a varlet gunner, being desperate, put fire in the gunpowder.”[18] The French writer, Guerin, also quoted by the same authority, in his version, says: “In the midst of this general French attack there was to be noted above all others a large and beautiful carrack, decorated superbly and as daintily as a queen. She of herself had already sunk almost as many hostile vessels as all the rest of the fleet, and now found herself surrounded by twelve of the principal English ships.... From the top of a hostile vessel there was flung into her a mass of fireworks. Then, sighting the Regent, she, like a floating volcano, bore down, a huge incendiary torch, upon her, pitilessly grappled her, and wound her in her own flaming robe. The powder magazine of the Regent blew up, and with it the hostile ship ... while the Cordeliere, satisfied, and still proud amid the disaster, and a whirl of fire and smoke, vanished beneath the waves.” The English version, if less vivid, is also less imaginative.
EMBARKATION OF HENRY VIII. ON THE “GREAT HARRY.”
From the Painting by Volpe at Hampton Court Palace. Photograph by W. M. Spooner & Co.
(click image to enlarge)
To replace the Regent, and to emulate Francis I. of France, who had built a ship called the Caracon (afterwards burnt at Havre), carrying one hundred guns, Henry ordered the Henry Grace de Dieu, of the same tonnage, 1,000 tons, but carrying one hundred and twenty-two guns. It is disputed whether she was built at Erith, as usually stated, or whether she was launched at Deptford and completed at Erith. Her launch took place in 1515. Historians differ as to what became of this vessel. One version is that she rolled incessantly and steered badly, and, having been built rather for magnificence than use, only made one voyage and was disarmed at Bristol and suffered to decay. If this be so, it affords an explanation of the discrepancies in the illustrations of the Henry Grace de Dieu, as it is permissible to suppose that another vessel bearing that name was constructed to take its place and that the newcomer afterwards became known as the Edward. The Henry Grace de Dieu was sometimes called the Great Harry, but must not be confused with Henry VII.’s ship bearing that name. The Henry Grace de Dieu was renamed the Edward after the accession of the next monarch. She had four pole masts; the foremast was placed almost over the stem, an arrangement which must have made her pitch deeply and recover slowly; the mainmast was at the break of the after deckhouse or sterncastle; the mizen or third mast was midway between the mainmast and the stern, and the fourth, or second mizen, was at the extreme stern, as far aft as it was possible to place it. Her forecastle overhung her bows by 12 feet or so, an arrangement which must have made her very uncomfortable in anything like a sea. She is asserted to have been the first four-masted vessel. There was also a fifth mast, if it may so be called, which slanted forward like an immense bowsprit. The first, second, and third masts had two round tops each, and the fourth mast one top, these being for the archers. Her sails and pennants were of damasked cloth of gold. Her armament comprised twenty-one heavy brass guns, and numerous smaller pieces of various types; but when she passed into the possession of Edward VI. she had nineteen brass guns and one hundred and one of iron.
GREAT SHIP OF HENRY VIII.
(From a drawing by Holbein.)
As already stated, the great majority of the ships built for mercantile purposes were intended to be able to give a good account of themselves if they should be assailed by a hostile vessel, a contingency which was not at all unlikely in the days when ships roved the seas under the protection of letters of marque and made “mistakes” as to the nationality of the prize when the prospective booty might be held to justify the error. Before the nations took to building vessels especially for war every merchant was liable to have his traders requisitioned for war purposes, and even up to the end of the nineteenth century the inclusion of armed merchantmen in national forces was not uncommon. Letters of marque were permits granted to ship owners whose vessels had been despoiled by the subjects of another nation to recoup themselves at the cost of any vessels belonging to that nation which they could capture, and to continue to do so until the losses were made good. Naturally they found this profitable, much more so indeed than ordinary trading, and did not hesitate to set a low value upon all captures when casting about to find an excuse for another expedition. Piracy, too, was rife, and as at sea every shipmaster was a law unto himself unless there was someone at hand to enforce a change of views, the shipmaster or merchant turned pirate usually nourished exceedingly until captured red-handed, when his shrift was like to be a short one.