"I will sell her most willingly, baron, an you are serious," remarked Raleigh. "But I promise you it would be cheaper far to build a new vessel altogether. The Pearl is one of your old-fashioned craft. We have made an hundred improvements in our ships since she was launched—thanks to John Hawkins and other skilled and worthy navigators. We have devised the striking of the topmast, together with the chain-pump. We have invented studding sails, top-gallant sails, sprit sails, topsails. We now weigh our anchors by the capstan. Our hulls are now built on longer keels than formerly, with lowered superstructure and finer lines, which make them swifter and capable of carrying more sail. Compare such a heavy cumbrous ship as the Pearl with our vessels of the newer sort, such as the Revenge. The improvement is too great to admit of controversy."
"Thou'rt right, cousin Walter," said Grenville, advancing a step and seating himself on an oak settle that stood beyond the too-great warmth of the fire. "Wiseacres, who knew less than we, declared that our new ships would be too crank to carry sail, and only fit for smooth water, and they foretold that they would surely founder in the heavy seas of the Atlantic. But the result hath disproved their prophecies."
"The high charging of ships was but a huge mistake," pursued Raleigh. "Those towering castles at stern and prow did but increase the ship's leeway, made her sink too deep in the water, and tended to overset her."
"I am not learned in these matters," remarked Lord Champernoun with some impatience. "But touching that ship the Revenge, which you mentioned just now, Raleigh, did I not hear some weeks since that she had met with some grave disaster?"
Sir Walter Raleigh picked up his quill from the table and began idly to nibble at the feather end, leaving his cousin to answer the question.
"'Twas a small matter, as things have turned out," said Grenville; "and although it might indeed have been serious, yet there was not a single life lost. She was riding at her moorings in the river Medway, off the town of Rochester, with naught but her bare masts overhead, and in a great storm of wind and weather she suddenly turned topsy-turvy, her keel uppermost. Howsoever, they have righted her now, and she is being refitted for her next voyage, whithersoever that may be."
"Her destination hath not yet been decided upon," remarked Raleigh. "But there is talk of her being despatched to join others of Her Majesty's ships that are now lying in wait off the Western Islands to intercept and capture the Spanish plate fleet, which should be returning from Havana at about this time. But I much doubt that 'tis already too late for her to enter upon that journey, and it may be that she will be commissioned for the expedition to Panama."
Sir Richard Grenville slowly rose to his feet, and touching Raleigh on the shoulder, "Look you, cousin Walter," he said, "'tis not often that I do ask you a favour, but an you love me I would beseech you to use your influence with Her Majesty on my account, and advise her with all your eloquence to graciously appoint me to the command of the Revenge."
"Thou shalt have it, Dick; on my honour thou shalt have it," returned Raleigh, turning about and clapping the rough seaman on the broad back.