HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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towards the close of the action, to effect their escape, but being immediatelyattacked by a division of the English fleet, under the orders of the earl ofHuntingdon, were all of them either taken or destroyed. The superior dexte-rity and skill of the English in naval tactics, appear to have purchased thisvictory, the French being at that time very little versed in such contests. Butthe defeat was not effected without considerable loss to the conquerors them-selves : a large ship, together with a galley fitted out from Hull, were sunk bya volley of stones, the whole of their crews perishing with them. The loss onthe part of the English is said to have amounted to four thousand men. Theking, as it were in triumph, kept the sea for three days, and then havingrepaired to the intended place of debarkation, landed his troops, and hastened tojoin his allies.

It is moreover remarked, as a curious circumstance attendant on this en-counter, that gallies and beaked vessels were totally laid aside for the firsttime, since though the use of ships, as vessels of a different construction fromgallies were then called, had been partially adopted for many years, yet r inevery preceding action which had taken place, even in the Atlantic, wherethe use of gallies became most- exploded, they had been intermixed with theloftier vessels, built according to the newly introduced system. On board thelatter, the archers and slingers, supplying the place of the modern musquetrymen, or marines, were stationed near the prow and stern ; the centre or mid-ship was, as before observed, filled with the various engines then in use, con-trived for the purpose of throwing large darts and stones, which were not longafterwards supplanted by the introduction of cannon. The French fleet wasdivided, according to the report of some authors, into three, or as others insist,four divisions, one of which consisted entirely of ships belonging to the Genoese.The whole armament, but particularly the division last mentioned, was abun-dantly provided with every necessary engine and weapon, intended for the annoy-ance of their antagonists, a point of equipment more materially conducive, per-haps, to success, in the state naval tactics were at that time, than even the con-dition*of the ship which bore them : the event of contest not depending so muchon the excellence of the vessels themselves, or the skilful management of them,as on the hardy prowess of the combatants, who, closing with each other, foughtdesperately hand to hand, as had been the custom many centuries earlier, whenRome was in the zenith of its power.

Father