HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE

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ment with respect to its history, which is so enveloped in obscurity and surmise,as to render it much safer to be silent, than to hazard the doubtful record ofevents, which, if any trait or semblance of them ever really existed, are in allprobability extremely distorted from a true and genuine statement.

Denmark, however, was in a very different situation and rank: the sea wasopen to it, and its expeditions could be undertaken against every country in theworld, Sweden and Russia excepted, without the danger and difficulty of en-countering the inclement navigation of the boisterous Baltic. The inhabitants,long addicted to praedatory, or, to give them their highest appellation, desultoryenterprises, had acquired an almost habitual propensity to nautical pursuits, apropensity that had been strongly cherished by those occasionally great successeswhich had crowned their arms. While thev considered England as open totheir invasions, an abridgment from these benefits was too great a mortificationto be patiently submitted to, and the charms of plunder outweighed the terrorswhich the military fame of William the Norman impressed them with. Ca-nute, surnamed the Pious, accordingly collected a naval armament consideredas sufficient to attempt the recovery of the Danish power in Britain. Theattempt, however, failed ; and the naval genius of the kingdom appeared tohave received so grievous a shock at the disappointment, as rendered it a workof time ere it could recover its original spirit.

The kingdom appears to have been indebted for the revival of its energy to Ericthe Fourth, and the fourth sovereign also in succession from that Canute whohad proved so unfortunate. The internal disputes which had long distracted thecountry, and indeed almost without intermission since the death of Canute thePious, encouraged the northern Vandals to invade Holstein, where, accordingto their accustomed method of making war, they committed the most barba-rous enormities. To put a stop at once to this scourge, Eric drew together afleet amounting to the enormous number of eleven hundred vessels, and theparticulars cf the force which they were destined to transport, affords, if to becredited, some interesting information as to the individual size and quality of them.It seems pretty clear, that they were nearly all of the same dimensions, as nearas can be calculated, about thirty-six feet in length, without a deck, which, asthe voyage was short, was of no very material consequence, and furnished withone mast nearly in the center, on which was hoisted a square sail. Theseparticulars appear tolerably well confirmed by the collateral evidence of cotem-porary sculpture, or coins, and other rude testimonies, which, though vagu?,Vol. I. T t form