HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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yet the spirit of crusading which at the accession of this prince had reached aformidable height, seems to have caused the equipment of a navy which couldnot have been inconsiderable in numbers or dimensions, having sufficed to trans-port seven thousand soldiers, with their necessary stores and military engines, toJoppa. Some judgment may also be formed in respect to the individual bur-then of ships built at this time, from the melancholy accident which befelWilliam, eldest son to the king, and recently created duke of Normandy.This noble personage having embarked on board a new vessel, built under his owndirection, for the purpose of conveying himself and suite, inconsiderately at-tempted to outsail that of the king, his royal father, in consequence of which itunfortunately ran so near to the shore, that it struck on a reef of rocks. Theboat was immediately hoisted out, and the prince, with some of his attendants,might have preserved their lives, had he not been induced by fraternal affectionto return, in the hope of preserving his sister. On this opportunity, so manypersons crowded in, that the boat itself sunk, as well as the vessel. On thisdreadful occasion, the whole crew, amounting to two, or as some authors say,three hundred persons, were drowned, no one being saved except the butcher,who, almost miraculously, preserved his life by clinging to the main-mast. Theindolence and neglect of Stephen, the successor to Henry, may fairly beinferred from the good fortune which attended an invasion made on the northerncoast of England by Robert, earl of Gloucester, bastard brother to the empressMaud, whose fleet, though superior to all the force the king could collect,amounted to no more than fifty-two small vessels.

Henry, sonrto Geoffrey Plantagenet, earl of Anjou, and Maud, the empress,daughter to Henry the First, succeeded Stephen as king of England by thetitle of Henry the Second. Being possessed of very considerable dominions andterritories, independent of his crown, he was perhaps a more powerful princethan had ever before been seated on the English throne. He possessed Nor-mandy, Main, Anjou, Touraine, and Aquitain, in his own right. He was inthe prime of life, being only twenty-eight years old when he became king, andwas considered one of the bravest, as well as most accomplished princes inEurope. All these circumstances appeared to promise his realm not merely anuninterrupted tranquillity, but a grandeur of character to which it had neverbefore reached.

Nothing very material occurred till the thirteenth year of his reign, when anevent nearly similar in its disaster and extent to that which had taken place in

the