Ancient and Modern Ships, Part 1: Wooden Sailing Ships

by Sir George Charles Vincent Holmes

Fig. 44.—Spanish galleass. 1588.

The great Armada consisted of no less than 132 vessels, of which only four were galleys, and four galleasses.[16] Of the remainder, 30 were under 100 tons, and 94 were between 130 and 1,550 tons. The total tonnage of the ships, less the galleys and galleasses, was 59,120. The armament consisted of 2,761[17] guns. The seamen numbered 7,865 and the soldiers 20,671. The fleet was divided into ten squadrons. The largest vessel was the flagship of the Levant squadron, and was of 1,249 tons, and carried 30 guns. The crew consisted of 80 sailors and 344 soldiers. The next largest was of 1,200 tons and carried 47 guns, but the greater number of the vessels were much smaller. The popular belief as to their incredible size and unwieldiness must therefore be dismissed as baseless, for even the largest ships were far exceeded in size by some of the carracks, or merchant vessels, of that day. On the average the Spanish vessels mounted 22 guns apiece, and carried crews of 231 sailors and soldiers. Fig. [44] is a sketch, taken from the tapestry of the old House of Lords, of one of the galleasses of the fleet. It will be noticed that she carried her guns extremely high, a peculiarity which was common to many of the Spanish vessels; for we read that their fire did more harm to the rigging than to the hulls of the English vessels.

The fleet mustered by Elizabeth was far more numerous, but its tonnage did not amount to one-half of that of the Armada. The total number of vessels sailing under the English flag was 197, of which, however, only 34 belonged to the Royal Navy. The remainder were merchant vessels, hastily fitted out and adapted for purposes of war by their owners, or by the ports to which they belonged. Of the Royal ships the largest was the Triumph, built in 1561. She was commanded by Sir Martin Frobisher, and was only exceeded in size by four of the Spanish vessels. The Triumph was between 1,000 and 1,100 tons, but there were only seven ships in the English Navy of between 600 and 1,000 tons, whereas the Spaniards had no fewer than 45. The crew of the Triumph numbered 500, of whom 300 were sailors, 40 gunners, and 160 soldiers.

The Triumph carried 42 guns, of which 4 were cannon, 3 demi-cannon, 17 culverins, 8 demi-culverins, 6 sakers, and 4 small pieces. The greatest number of guns carried by any ship in the fleet was 56, mounted on board the Elizabeth Jones, of 900 tons, and built in 1559. The flagship of the Lord High Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham, the Ark, was the most modern of the English warships, having been built in 1587. She was of 800 tons, carried a crew of 430, and mounted 55 guns.

Of the merchant auxiliaries the two largest were the Galleon Leicester and the Merchant Royal, each of 400 tons, and each carried a crew of 160 men. In the former of these the explorer Cavendish afterwards made his last voyage. Another of the merchant-ships, the Edward Bonaventure, belonged to the Levant Company, and in the years 1591 to 1593 was distinguished as the first English ship that made a successful voyage to India.

The size of a large number of the merchant-ships was under 100 tons. The total number of the crews of the entire English fleet was 15,551; of these 6,289 belonged to the queen's ships.

As a general rule, the English ships in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, both in the Royal Navy and in the Mercantile Marine, were much inferior in size to the vessels belonging to the great Maritime Republics of Italy and to Spain and Portugal. Hitherto the practice had been general of hiring Genoese and Venetian carracks for mercantile purposes. It is stated that about the year 1578, or twenty years after Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, there were only 24 ships in the Royal Navy and 135 of above 100 tons burthen in the whole kingdom, and but 656 that exceeded 40 tons. Nevertheless, in this reign there was a great development of mercantile activity, in which the sovereign as well as her people participated. Many trading expeditions were sent out to the West Indies and to North America, and warlike descents on the Spanish ports were frequently carried out, and were attended with great success. In Elizabeth's time the first British colony, Virginia, was founded in North America, and Sir Francis Drake undertook his memorable and eventful voyage round the world in a squadron, which consisted, at the commencement, of five vessels, whereof the largest, the Pelican, was of only 100 tons burthen, and the smallest a pinnace of 15 tons. So great was the progress made about this time in English maritime trade that, only four years after the date above mentioned, there were said to have been no less than 135 English commercial vessels of above 500 tons in existence.

In the year 1587 Drake, in his famous marauding expedition in the Spanish seas, captured a great carrack called the San Felipe, which was returning home from the East Indies. The papers found in her revealed the enormous profits which the Spaniards made out of their trade with India, and afforded such valuable information that the English merchant adventurers were incited to cut in and try to secure some share of this trade for themselves. This led, ultimately, to the founding of the celebrated East India Company, and to the conquest of India by the British. In 1589 certain merchants petitioned the queen to grant them a licence to trade with the East Indies; but Elizabeth, fearing the resentment of the Spanish and Portuguese, would not grant their request for many years, and it was not till the last day of the year 1599 that she gave a charter of incorporation to the Earl of Cumberland and 215 knights and merchants for fifteen years, and thus founded the first East India Company. English adventurers, however, did not wait for a charter before commencing their trading operations with the East, for in 1591 an expedition consisting of three ships was sent out under the command of James Lancaster. Only one of the three—the Edward Bonaventure, which, as already mentioned, had been a merchant auxiliary in the English fleet that opposed the Armada—ever reached the East Indies in safety.

A few weeks after the charter had been granted Lancaster led another expedition to the East. His fleet consisted of five ships; the largest, the Dragon, was of 600 tons, and had a crew of 202. After an adventurous voyage the fleet returned to England in September, 1602, having been absent two years and eight months.

There is abundant evidence to show that foreign merchant ships in Elizabeth's reign were often much larger than any built in this country. The following are examples. In 1592 a Portuguese carrack called the Madre de Dios was captured and brought home. She was of 1,600 tons burthen, 165 feet long from stem to stern, and had seven decks, including the numerous half and quarter decks which formed the poop. In 1594 a Spanish carrack was destroyed which had 1,100 men on board. When Cadiz was taken in 1596 two Spanish galleons of 1,200 tons were captured, and the flagship, the San Felipe, of 1,500 tons, was blown up. In 1602 a Portuguese carrack of 1,600 tons was captured at Cezimbra. She was named the San Valentino, and was worth, with her cargo, a million ducats.