HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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although there were seventeen Spanish vessels, zabras, or pataches, employed asscouts, or advice boats, and the fleet collected by Elizabeth at last out-numberedthat of the enemy nearly sixty sail, its tonnage never amounted to one half*.This circumstance gave them so manifest an advantage over the small sizedvessels of their opponents, that nothing but the most consummate prudence,joined to an invincible- courage, could possibly have foiled so great and terrifican undertaking.

Such is the short comparative statement of the fleets, but it nevertheless mustnot be forgotten, that of the hundred and ninety-seven vessels composing theEnglish armament, it will be found, thirty-four only could be called the royalnavy. This comprised all the largest and most powerful ships ; of the remainder,which were either hired on the spur of the occasion, or most patriotically offeredby their owners for the public service in that emergency, none exceededfour hundred tons burthen, nor were there more than two even of that magni-tude. I he Spanish fleet, on the other hand, was composed, almost withoutexception, of ships belonging to the king, who had not only totally occupiedhimself for several years in expending the ill-acquired treasures of Mexico andPeru, to the formation of a navy, for the express purpose of gratifying his ambi-tion, and his revenge, but had a short time before acquired a very considerable

* On comparing the number of guns carried by these ships, in proportion to their tonnage, it appears,that the St. Martin, the St. John, and the galleon of Florence, carrying fifty guns each, which were.then considered as first rates, together with the St. Lewis, of forty guns, differed not materially from theBritish ships of the same force now in use. The ship of Andalusia, and the St. Ann, the former beingof 1550, the latter of 1200 tons burthen, carrying the same number of guns, were somewhat largerthan modern fifty gun ships. The Ragazone, of 1295 tons, which mounted only thirty-five guns, theTrinity Valencera, of 1100, or, as some say, a thousand tons, carrying forty-one, and the Gangrina,of 1160, only thirty-six, were also of superior dimensions to the generality of ships in present use, andof the same force. It may be said indeed, almost without a single exception, there does not appearany ship, or, vessel, in the whole armament, above one hundred tons burthen, whose dimensions andcrew were not equal, and, in many cases, superior, id that of any modern British ship, carrying thesame number of guns. But this was by no means the case with regard to other nations : wbh themguns were more numerous, and the crews inferior, with respect to their comparative burthen. Butthe Spaniards having, in the early infancy of their navy, contracted a habit of building vessels extremelylarge, in proportion to their force, have continued their attachment to the same practice, which, in somerespects, certainly possesses peculiar advantages, down even to die present moment.

The Spaniards, though die first object of their hopes was miserably blasted by the defeat of theirgrand armament, by no means relaxed in their endeavours to maintain a formidable marine force ; inso-much, that in the year 1591, the adtniral’s ship, belonging to the Plate fleet, being one of those whichattacked Sir Richard Greenville, in the Revenge, is said to have mounted seventy-eight guns, and tohave been of more than 1500 tons burthen.

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