Increase of the French fleets.
The London merchants declared that, although the country was nominally at peace, their ships could not venture out of port; but every remonstrance, though made in no measured terms at the courts of Paris and Brussels, and received with courtesy and verbal apologies, was practically ineffectual in suppressing these wanton depredations. Unfortunately, at this juncture, Henry could not afford to declare war, as his exchequer was very poorly furnished; but the country itself had not sunk so low as to be unable to defend its own coasts and its own traders. Sufficient money having, through the aid of the London merchants, been at last found for their immediate purposes, a small but admirably equipped fleet was silently fitted out at Portsmouth, secrecy being observed as far as possible, in the hope of taking the offenders by surprise. Sweeping out into the Channel, this fleet soon fell across four French ships of war which had been plundering English merchant vessels in the vicinity of Mount’s Bay, and closing against heavy odds, sunk one of them and drove the other three from the coast.[98] The time had, indeed, arrived when it became essential to the independence of England that a fleet sufficient to command the Channel should be permanently maintained. France, having resolved on open war, was straining every nerve to humiliate her old and inveterate rival. One hundred and fifty of her ships of war and twenty-five swift galleys had assembled at the mouth of the Seine ready to convoy transports with sixty thousand troops on board; the intention being to occupy the Isle of Wight as a prelude to a further attack on Portsmouth, and the destruction of the small English fleet collecting at Spithead.
Extraordinary exertions of the English to meet the emergency.
The rapidity with which they supplied men and vessels.
To meet this imposing force Henry VIII., warmly backed by his people, made extraordinary exertions. One hundred and forty thousand English soldiers, with a few German contingents, supported his efforts; but there were only sixty available ships of all sorts, though of these several were larger than any of the French. The requisite number was, however, soon supplied. Indeed, throughout the whole history of England there is no instance on record in which her people were not prepared to make any sacrifices to provide a fleet for the protection of their shores, or to redress their wrongs; and now the fact that France was attempting to rival England on her own element, at once supplied all that was wanting. But on this, as on many previous occasions, the royal squadron, that is the ships actually the property of the Crown, formed only a small part of the naval strength of the country. So thoroughly, however, did the English people throw themselves into the scale, that they relinquished in numerous cases their ordinary occupations, and though the Iceland and Irish fishing fleets were about to sail, nearly all the fishermen who had previously been employed in these vessels entered for the navy, their wives and daughters taking their places, and keeping up the necessary supply of fish for the markets, though frequently driven into harbour by the French cruisers.[99] Numerous vessels of various sizes, belonging to Plymouth, Dartmouth, Falmouth, Fowey, Truro, Dittisham, Totnes, Poole, Rye, Bristol, and other places, which, during the winter, had been cruising as privateers, joined the royal fleet, under the Admiral at Spithead, the two services absorbing the whole of the effective male inhabitants of the seaports, amounting to sixteen thousand hands, distributed over one hundred sail of fighting vessels of one sort and another. Some of the best families in England sought employment in this fleet, and in the long muster roll there will be found, either in command of the King’s ships or of privateers equipped by themselves, names which will ever be remembered as famous in the history of their country. On the first occasion when England possessed an organised navy, we find a Russell, a Berkeley, a Clinton, a Seymour, a Dudley, a Willoughby, a Chichester, and a St. Clair proudly rejoicing to occupy their places as leaders.
It is not our province to narrate the desperate actions which ensued on the waters of the Solent, the chief scene of the struggle, or how, after terrible slaughter and numerous engagements, the French were repulsed. It is rather our object to ascertain, so far as is possible, of what nature were the vessels of which the fleets were composed.
Outfit of the ships.
Previously to the reign of Henry VIII. no reliance can be placed on any details with respect to English ships; indeed it was only when in his reign the royal navy became a regular and permanent branch of the government service, that any careful record was kept of the fittings of vessels so employed. Happily one of these accounts has been preserved in the Cottonian collection at the British Museum, and this document derives further elucidation from another manuscript in the Harleian collection, explaining, as this does, many antiquated or obsolete words in the former. In [Appendix (3)] will be found the substance of the ‘Inventory of the Great Barke,’ which is the oldest account extant of the details of an English ship; but whatever antiquaries may have written about this ‘Great Barque,’ she appears to have been simply a large merchant ship of the period, which on the sixth day of October, in the twenty-third year of the reign of Henry VIII. (A.D. 1531), was viewed or inspected by Christopher Morris, a government officer, for the purpose of being employed in the public service.
The Great Harry.
The largest and most important vessel built at this period in England appears to have been King Henry’s Harry Grace à Dieu.[100] Two representations of this ship are extant, one in the Pepysian Library in Magdalen College, Cambridge, another in an original picture of Hans Holbein, published by Allen in 1756.[101] The drawings however differ so widely that it is probable they refer to different vessels.