Part 2 (1/2)

Edward the First, A.D. 1272, ordained various laws and ordinances for the government of his navy, which was now, though still furnished chiefly by the maritime ports, better organised than hitherto. He claimed, also, the right of England to the sovereignty of the narrow seas, a.s.serting that from time immemorial it had been undisputed. About the year 1290, the pennant used at the present day by all s.h.i.+ps commissioned by officers of the Royal Navy was first adopted.

In the reign of Edward the Second no important maritime event occurred, though squadrons were occasionally sent away on various services.

It is only by examining carefully into the details given by historians of the naval combats which took place in those ages, that we can hope to form a correct guess as to the size and construction of a s.h.i.+p, and the method of manoeuvring her. We are now coming to a very important epoch in naval matters, the reign of Edward the Third. 1327, when the mariner's compa.s.s was discovered, or rather became known in Europe, and cannon were first introduced on board s.h.i.+ps.

Edward gained the t.i.tle of ”The King of the Sea,” and raised the naval glory of England to a higher pitch than it had ever before attained by his many victorious combats on the ocean. The greatest naval engagement which occurred during the middle ages was that known as the battle of Sluys, when Philip the Sixth sat on the throne of France. The English fleet consisted of only 260 s.h.i.+ps fit for warfare. The French, whose fleet amounted to no less than 400 sail, lay securely, as they thought, in the harbour of Sluys. Edward embarked on board the cog _Thomas_, commanded by Richard Fyall, and attended by several n.o.blemen. A cog was a craft larger than those usually designated s.h.i.+ps--the cog _John_, which is spoken of, had a crew of eighty-two men, and probably she carried besides a considerable number of knights and soldiers. Many s.h.i.+ps of the English fleet must have been of small size. Froissart says that the French fleet consisted of 140 large s.h.i.+ps, besides hanquebos with 35,000 men on board, Normans, Picards, and Genoese. The masts of so numerous an a.s.semblage of vessels, as they were seen in the harbour of Sluys, resembled rather a forest than a fleet. Of these s.h.i.+ps, nineteen were remarkable for their enormous size. Besides other implements of warfare, quant.i.ties of large stones were stored in the tops and also in small boats hoisted to the mast-heads, to be hurled on the a.s.sailants. The French had secured their s.h.i.+ps together by chains, to prevent the English from breaking through them. Among the s.h.i.+ps in the leading rank was the _Christopher_, full of Genoese archers, with the _Edward, Katherine, Rose_, and other large cogs which had formerly been captured from the English.

Edward had perfect confidence in the valour and prowess of his seamen and men-at-arms, and, notwithstanding the superiority of the enemy in numbers, he resolved to open a pa.s.sage through them. Having ordered all his s.h.i.+ps to be in readiness, he placed the strongest in the front, and filled those which were at each end of the line with archers. Also between every two s.h.i.+ps of archers he placed one filled with men-at-arms. He likewise ordered another line to be formed on the side, as a body of reserve, and filled those s.h.i.+ps also with archers, that they might be ready to support or relieve any most requiring aid.

The English fleet approaching the haven of Sluys in the manner described, found the French already lying in order of battle, in three divisions, waiting for them. The English having gained the advantage of the wind and sun by their dexterity and management, the king ordered the signal for engaging to be given. The Normans, perceiving the English to tack as they did to get the wind, thought that they were taking to their heels, and began to triumph. But they soon found out their mistake, and, being able seamen and brave combatants, prepared for the fight.

They began the battle by advancing with the _Great Christopher_, and, with a vast noise of trumpets and other instruments, attempted to break the line, to come at the s.h.i.+p in which they supposed the British king to be. They were received with a general shout, and during continual huzzas the English poured such showers of arrows from their long bows into the enemy's s.h.i.+ps as soon covered their decks with dead and wounded men, and put the whole fleet into general consternation. The _Great Christopher_ was taken in the beginning of the battle, and all who were in her were either killed or made prisoners. The English, on this, filled her with archers, and sent her to annoy the Genoese s.h.i.+ps, which formed part of the French fleet. And now death and destruction appeared on every side in their most terrible array. The very air was darkened with arrows, and the hostile s.h.i.+ps rus.h.i.+ng together, the men-at-arms engaged in close fight.

The English, taking advantage of the confusion into which they had put the French at the beginning of the fight, soon boarded them with the help of their grappling-irons, and pursuing their good fortune, obtained a complete victory, though a most b.l.o.o.d.y one, as their loss amounted to 4000 men killed and wounded. Great numbers of the French sailors desperately threw themselves into the sea, and submitted to a certain death rather than abide the repeated showers of English arrows; what also might have contributed more to this desperate resolution was that, on board the s.h.i.+ps captured in the heat of battle, no quarter was given.

The engagement lasted from eight in the morning till seven at night.

The loss on the French side was enormous, 230 of their s.h.i.+ps being captured; only about 30 having escaped. According to the Frenchmen's account of the battle, they lost two admirals, Bauchet, who was killed in action, and De Kernel, who was taken prisoner. King Edward behaved during the whole action with the most inimitable courage and conduct; regarding neither danger nor fatigue, he was always present where the battle raged the hottest.

During the night thirty French s.h.i.+ps, endeavouring to escape, were attacked by the English, and on board of one of them, the _James of Dieppe_, after she had been engaged the whole night with the Earl of Huntingdon, 400 dead bodies were found. Certain old writers remark that the rostrum or beak used by the Romans could not have existed in the English s.h.i.+ps, nor was the manoeuvre employed by which one s.h.i.+p attempts to break the oars of another. From this they conclude that the English fleet must have consisted of high-sided s.h.i.+ps, worked chiefly by sails.

Probably, however, they had oars also.

It is said that nearly 30,000 men were killed in this memorable battle.

So apparently irretrievable was the disaster to the French that none of King Philip's counsellors had the courage to inform him of what had occurred. At length they bethought them of employing the court fool to communicate the disastrous intelligence. Accordingly, that dignified individual took an opportunity of remarking to the king that he considered the English arrant cowards.

”Why so, Master Wisdom?” asked Philip.

”Why does your Majesty ask? because they had not the courage to leap into the sea and be drowned as our brave Frenchmen did the other day, when your Majesty's s.h.i.+ps went to the bottom.”

In 1350 the warrior king, on board his cog _Thomas_, led his fleet to attack the Spaniards, who had ventured into the British Channel; he was accompanied by Edward, the Black Prince, and numerous great personages, with nearly four hundred knights. The king, attired in a black velvet jacket and beaver hat, took post on the bow of his s.h.i.+p, eagerly looking out for the enemy. As they did not appear, to beguile the time he caused his minstrels to play a German dance, and made Sir John Chandos, who had recently introduced it, to sing with them. From time to time, however, he looked aloft at the man stationed in the top of the mast to announce the approach of the Spaniards. At length they were seen, numbering forty large s.h.i.+ps, denominated carricks; strong and handsome were they to behold--each mast was adorned with rich standards and banners, and their tops filled with soldiers and missiles. They, however, it was evident, wished to avoid an action, but the king, leading his fleet, stood down upon them till he reached a heavy s.h.i.+p, when, reckless of consequences, he ordered the helmsman to lay her aboard. So violent was the blow that the masts of the cog _Thomas_ went over the side, the men in the top were drowned, and the s.h.i.+p sprang a dangerous leak. The Spaniard sheering off, Edward grappled another enemy; but now the cog _Thomas_ sinking, the king and his crew took possession of the prize. In her he pushed into the thickest of the fight. The Prince of Wales' s.h.i.+p, also nigh to sinking, had grappled her huge adversary, when the Earl of Lancaster arriving and shouting, ”Derby to the rescue!” boarded and obtained possession of the Spaniard, throwing all who resisted into the sea. Scarcely had the prince and his followers got on board the prize, when his own s.h.i.+p foundered. Sir Robert de Namur having grappled with a huge s.h.i.+p was carried by her out from among the fleet; the two combatants were rapidly leaving the rest of the s.h.i.+ps astern, when Sir Robert's valet, Hannekin, bravely cutting the halliards of the princ.i.p.al sail, the English, taking advantage of the confusion, boarded and drove the Spaniards into the sea. Thus the Spanish fleet was completely beaten, and twenty-six large s.h.i.+ps captured.

The British seem to have been as p.r.o.ne in those days as at present to seek for victory by laying the enemy on board and trusting to the strength of their own arms. At present, instead of battle-axes and clubs, or spears, or two-handed swords they have a fondness for their cutla.s.ses and pistols. In the days, before Britannia could loudly roar with her thunder, naval combats were carried on with all the noise and hubbub the men on either side could create with their voices, as also with the braying forth of trumpets and beating of gongs and drums, in the hope of thus striking terror into the hearts of their enemies. How great is the contrast between such a naval engagement as has been described and one at the present day. In solemn silence the crews grimly stand at their guns, stripped generally to the waist. Not a sound is heard, not a word spoken, except perhaps one hearty cheer, a response to the captain's brief address. Slowly and steadily the hostile fleets approach each other till the signal is given to commence the deadly strife, and then in a moment, like fierce monsters awakened from sleep, they send from their cannons' mouths a quick succession of terrific roars, fire, and smoke, which laugh to scorn all the trumpet braying and shouting of our ancestors.

After the famous battle of Crescy, King Edward laid siege to Calais with a fleet of 738 s.h.i.+ps, having on board 14,956 mariners, each of whom received 4 pence per diem. Of these s.h.i.+ps, no more than 25 belonged actually to the king. The latter carried about 419 seamen only, which was not more than 17 seamen to each s.h.i.+p. Some, however, had 25 seamen, and others less. Many of the s.h.i.+ps furnished by the maritime ports were larger than the king's. The total cost of the war, which lasted one year and 131 days, was 127,101 pounds, 2 s.h.i.+llings 9 pence, for even in those romantic days people could not knock each other on the head free of all charge, it must be remembered. The mention of that 127,101 pounds 2 s.h.i.+llings 9 pence also shows that their accounts must have been kept with most praiseworthy exactness.

Only great nations, to whom victory has generally been awarded by the G.o.d of battles, can afford to talk of their defeats. Though in most cases successful, Edward's arms met with a severe repulse before Roch.e.l.le, to the relief of which place he had sent forty s.h.i.+ps, under the young Earl of Pembroke. ”They were encountered by a French squadron of forty sail of capital s.h.i.+ps,” we are told, ”besides thirteen able frigates, well manned, and commanded by four experienced officers. The earl was taken prisoner, and nearly every s.h.i.+p was captured or sunk.”

Though employed by France, they were Spaniards, supplied by the King of Castile. In addition to the large number of men-at-arms on board the Spanish s.h.i.+ps, whose weapons were crossbows and cannon, large bars of iron and lead were used. The Spaniards bore down upon the small English s.h.i.+ps with loud shouts and great noise; the English shouted in return, but were unable to climb up the lofty sides of the Spaniards. In the first day of the battle the Spaniards lost two barges, and the next day the earl's s.h.i.+p was attacked and captured by four large Spanish s.h.i.+ps full of soldiers, while most of his fleet were either taken or destroyed.

Our national pride will make us examine narrowly to discover the cause of this disaster. In the first place, the earl, though brave, was inexperienced; then some of those forty French s.h.i.+ps were larger than the forty English s.h.i.+ps, and the able frigates were quick rowing galleys, full of men-at-arms, who must have done much mischief. The French on this occasion also made use of balistas and other machines for throwing bars of iron and great stones, to sink the English s.h.i.+ps. They had also in another way got ahead of the English, for they had provided themselves with cannon, which the latter had not as yet got. This was the first naval engagement in which such engines of destruction were employed.

History is read by the naval and military man, and indeed by any one, to very little purpose, unless facts like these are not only carefully noted, but duly acted on; unless we take warning by the errors and neglects of our predecessors. It is not only necessary to be well-armed in appearance, but to be as well armed in reality, as those are with whom we may possibly be called to fight. It is wise not only to adopt new inventions likely to be of service, but if possible to have them already in use before they are adopted by our enemies. The gun of those days was a thick tube of wood, bound together with iron hoops, and probably could send a shot of three or four pounds little more than two or three hundred yards with very uncertain aim. What a contrast to the ”Woolwich Infant” of the present day, with its shot of several hundredweight, whizzing for five miles or more through the air, with almost a certainty of hitting its object at the termination of its journey.

CHAPTER FOUR.

s.h.i.+PS AND COMMERCE TO THE REIGN OF HENRY THE SEVENTH--FROM A.D. 1327 TO A.D. 1509.

In the early part of the reign of Edward the Third, the French introduced cannon on board their s.h.i.+ps, chiefly in consequence of which his fleet, under the young Earl of Pembroke, as I have described, was defeated before Roch.e.l.le. He took care, however, that this should not again occur, and by the year 1338 he appears to have introduced them on board most of his s.h.i.+ps, and by the end of his reign no s.h.i.+ps of war were without them. Their employment, of course, effected a great change in naval warfare, but a far greater revolution was about to take place in the whole system of navigation, by the introduction of the mariner's compa.s.s. I have before stated that if not discovered it was at all events improved by Flavio Gioja, of Amain, in the kingdom of Naples, about A.D. 1300. It was soon discovered that the needle does not point, in all places, truly to the North Pole, but that it varies considerably in different degrees of longitude, and this is called the variation of the needle. It has also another variation, called the declination, or dip. The cause of these phenomena is still utterly unknown. The means of steering with almost perfect accuracy across the pathless ocean, gave a confidence to mariners, when they lost sight of land, which they had never before possessed, and in time induced them to launch forth in search of new territories in hitherto unexplored regions. The English were, however, too much occupied with foreign wars or domestic broils to attend much to navigation. We hear of a certain Nicholas of Lynn, a friar of Oxford, who, A.D. 1360, just sixty years after the use of the compa.s.s became known, sailed in charge of certain s.h.i.+ps to visit and explore all the islands to the north of Europe. He, it is said, returned and laid before King Edward the Third an account of his discoveries in those northern regions, but what they were or what benefit resulted from them, history does not tell us. Father Nicholas's knowledge of navigation was probably somewhat limited and not very practical, and it is just probable that his voyage was not so extensive as it was intended to be; but that, having the pen of a ready writer, he drew on his imagination for a description of the countries he was supposed to have surveyed. At all events, we hear of no voyage undertaken at the sovereign's instigation till nearly two centuries later.

In the reign of Edward the Third, the Island of Madeira is said to have been discovered by a certain Lionel Machin, a citizen of London. The young citizen had been paying court to a lady, Arabella Darcy, whose father indignantly refused his suit; and not without reason, if we may judge of his character by his subsequent conduct. He collected a band of rovers and pursued the fair Arabella, who had gone to live in the neighbourhood of Bristol. He had fixed his eyes on a s.h.i.+p ready prepared for sea, the crew of which were on sh.o.r.e. Securing the lady, he carried her on board the s.h.i.+p, cut the cables, and made sail to the southward, without leave of the captain or owners. He met with due punishment, for, having made the then unknown island of Madeira, and he and Arabella having landed, the s.h.i.+p was driven to sea by a gale, leaving the two alone. She soon died of starvation, and when his companions ultimately returned, they found him in a sinking state, and buried him by the hapless damsel's side. A Portuguese captain hearing from the English pirates of the discovery of the island, sailed thither, and took possession of it in the name of his sovereign, Don John, and the infant Don Henry.

This account of Machin's adventures is doubted by many, but at all events it must be said that it is very much in accordance with the style of doing things in those days. Richard the Second began to reign A.D.