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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

having proceeded to Helsingburg, for the purpose of attacking that city by sea,while the army of the Hanse Towns invested it on the land side, was engagedby the Danes with such success, that six of the ships composing it were cap-tured, and a still greater number burnt. The siege was raised; and to finishthe climax, the commanding officer was sentenced, as the only victim thatcould satisfy the fury of the enraged mob, in conformity with the practice ofthe Genoese, to lose his head. These commercial people were not, however,averse to such kind of warfare as did not involve their country in a dispute.The Lubeckers, and the inhabitants of many other among what were termedthe Hanse Towns, entered into the crusades, and the plains of Syria were fre-quently moistened with the blood of these confederates. The Hamburghersalso, the inhabitants of Frizeland, and others, who considering their apparentacquiescence in the fashionable rage of Christendom as materially conducive totheir mercantile interests, were as ready to draw their swords with as muchseeming earnestness in support of their faith, as they would have been in thatof their property.

England, a term under which, in respect to naval history, may be included allthe districts or countries into which the British isles were at that time divided,gained no acquisition of maritime strength from the gallantry and puissance ofWilliam the Norman. Like Mahomet, he was a soldier, and apparently despisedall means, whatever, of advancing his power and dominion, except by militaryvalour and might. Rufus, his son and successor, though possessing less martialprowess, was, during the greater part of his reign, equally inattentive to maritimeaffairs, till roused by an invasion and attack made by the Norwegians, headed,according to some authors, by their prince, but who, in the report of others pre-tending to be better informed, is said to have been of no higher consequence than apirate named Magnus. This fact, if true, considerably lessens the consequenceand probable force of the attack, at the same time that it very materially dimi-nishes that possessed by England, which was unequal to the task of repelling it.Roused from this state of indolent torpidity, the king gave orders for thecollection and permanent establishment of a considerable naval force *, butwas prevented by his untimely death from seeing this salutary measure carriedinto execution according to his wishes. Henry, his brother, seems to havebeen more attentive, for though no specific particulars are given of his fleet,

* One fleet belonging to this prince is said to have been dispersed in a storm. See Preface,page xxxii.

yet