HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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the chain-pump, which taketh up twice as much water as the ordinary one did.We have lately added the bonnet, and the drabler, to the courses : we haveadded studding-sails—the weighing anchors by the capstern. We have falleninto consideration of the length of cables, and by it we resist the malice of thegreatest winds that can blow. Witness the Hollanders, that were wont to ridebefore Dunkirk with the wind at north-east, making a lee shore in all weathers:for true it is, that the length of the cable is the life of the ship in all extremities ;and the reason is, that it makes so many bendings and waves, as the ship ridingat that length is not able to stretch it, and nothing breaks that is not stretched.”To this information he adds a remark on the improvement* by the mode thennewly brought into use, in constructing ships so that their lower ports wereraised higher above the surface of the water, than had been the practice inthe preceding reigns. The manifest inconvenience and danger of which, heforcibly proves by instancing the melancholy accident which befel the Mary Rose,(temp. Hen. VIII.) as already related.

In these respects only, which certainly we must, nevertheless, in justice allowwere neither inconsiderable nor trivial, consisted every step towards improve-ment, effected by the English either in Marine Architecture, or the equipmentof vessels, during the reign of the House of Tudor. The ships built by Elizabeth,with the single exception of the Triumph, which, in some MS. lists, is said tohave been of eleven hundred tons burthen, exceeded not in size those whichhad composed the fleets of her father Henry. But though after the defeat ofthe Spanish armament, there appeared but little reason to apprehend the repe-tition of any similar attempt, and her reign passed in quietude and tranquillity,undisturbed for some years by any farther semblance of war, some considerableadditions were made to the royal navy. In respect to the service itself, a fewdesultory expeditions were progressively undertaken by small squadrons, eitherbelonging to the queen, or equipped by private adventurers, against the commonenemy, Philip the Second •'}■'. The most formidable of these was the armament

* Notwithstanding this observation, it is very certain the evil was but very imperfectly remedied evenat the time of the restoration, nearly fifty years after the death of Sir Walter.

f Many private adventurers subscribed liberally to the expedition sent against Portugal, in 1589,under the command of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris. Its force consisted of twenty-six shipsof war, and a fleet of transports, the number of which is variously represented, some asserting they didnot amount to threescore, while others swell them up to an hundred and forty. The queen contributedsix of her own ships, sixty thousand pounds in money, and her authority to make the necessary leviesfor die army and fleet employed.

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