HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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Father Daniel, in the account given by him of this ever memorable encoun-ter, observes, that notwithstanding the vessels composing the armaments on bothsides were built much loftier, and varied materially from gallies, yet the use ofoars was not entirely abandoned. That of sails was however preferred, exceptin cases of necessity, such as the failure of the wind, or a wish to effect achange of situation, when, owing to particular circumstances, sails could not beso readily made use of for that purpose. France indeed had not entirely givenup the use of gallies in the Atlantic, for in a battle fought off Guernsey notlong after the defeat just mentioned, three gallies composed a part of the fleet.Eidward having, soon after this time, determined to carry his arms into thecentre of France itself, collected a fleet for the transport of his army, and theprotection of the vessels specially appointed to that species of service, which aresaid to have amounted to no less than one thousand sail. The battle of Cressv,with its consequent victory, and the surrender of Calais, after having beenblocked up for a considerable time by a fleet consisting of more than sevenhundred vessels, put a temporary stop to the naval enterprises of France, andas a natural consequence, to those of England also, who thus became deprivedof the only antagonist likely to contend with her.

The relation of a fleet so mighty in respect to numbers, employed on a ser-vice apparently of such little consequence as the blockade of a town, would,as may perhaps be the case in other instances where the circumstances are notso indisputably established, excite wonder, if not disbelief, did not the parti-culars given in the Preface serve to point out the vast disproportion betweenthe vessels then termed ships of war, and those which are at present consideredentitled to that appellation. Although the armament alluded to is generallyconsidered more consequential in respect to force, though not to numbers, (ifhistorical reports are to be depended on) than ever quitted the shores of En-gland, yet there are no traces whatever of those immense vessels which hersovereigns, and even Edward himself, is said to have been master of. Thecrew of the Great Christopher, by fair comparison with other vessels whichare more circumstantially described, could not have consisted of less than threehundred men, and this vessel was not the only first rate (if the term be allow-able) which was then in the English navy. From the roll of the fleet employedagainst Calais, it appears, that the vessels in the actual employ of the sove-reign, were inferior in force, to many of those which were supplied by subjects;

although