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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

the quantity of those which were captured, or destroyed, it must have beenimmense, since John, king of England, is reported to have captured three hun-dred of the ships, which were laden with various military stores intended for thecampaign, and after sinking an hundred more, to have blocked up the wholeremainder in the haven, or port. In the ensuing year, Philip, whose armamenteither by the foregoing disasters, or by the enlarged individual consequence of thevessels which composed it, had become reduced to seven hundred vessels , invadedEngland, but though in some degree successful at the commencement of theexpedition, little progress, or subsequent advantage was made of it. Threeyears afterwards, a fleet consisting of fourscore French (as they are stiled) ships,were attacked by one half that number belonging to England, and were totallydefeated, the greater part being sunk or taken ; a discomfiture which seemedto have quieted all similar enterprises, on the part of France, for manyyears.

In the middle of the thirteenth century, however, Lewis, then king ofFrance, having entered, with the greatest zeal, into the views of the crusaders,is said to have collected a force consisting of no less than eighteen hundredvessels, but these were merely transports, no service having been effected bythem whatever, and the whole campaign ending most inauspiciously in thetotal discomfiture of the army, and the capture of the king himself. No fur-ther particular mention is made of any French naval force, till some time after.the commencement of the fourteenth century. In 1339, a fleet fitted out byking Philip, or, to speak much nearer the truth, hired, at least the greater partof it, from the Genoese, attacked the town of Southampton. Ancient reportmakes this armament to have consisted of fifty gallies, and though the attemptwas unfortunate, Philip appeared to feel his desire of becoming a maritimepotentate rather encreased than abated- New exertions were more productiveof success, for ere the conclusion of the year, a squadron consisting of thirteenFrench ships, falling in with five belonging to the English, captured two, whichwere the largest, and, as it appears, both of them what were called royal shij s.Some estimate may be formed of the size and force of them, far as the termforce can be understood to be implied solely by the numbers of the crews, fromthat of the persons who are said to have fallen in the encounter, which con-tinued for nine hours. Six hundred men were killed on both sides ; and recentencounters have taken place within the space of a few years, where though anequal number of ships, mounting on an average seventy-four guns.each, have

been