The romance of the ship; the story of her origin and evolution (1911) (14775875851)

Identifier: romanceofshipsto00chat (find matches)
Title: The romance of the ship; the story of her origin and evolution
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Chatterton, E. Keble (Edward Keble), 1878-1944
Subjects: Ships Shipbuilding
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott company London, Seeley and co., limited
Contributing Library: Boston College Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries



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she was so weak andhelpless that she could be boarded with the utmostease. But in process of time the power of the cannongradually began to be appreciated. The principle ofboarding was dying out, and the ship began to be re-garded in her modern aspect as more of a large floatingfort, capable of effecting destruction from a greater dis-tance. Whereas the chase-pieces in the bow and sternhad afforded her chief opportunities of showing thevalue of cannon, during the sixteenth century the trueimport of being able to deliver a powerful broadsidefire came to be recognised, and as early as 1574 it wasa well-known tactic in our navy, the idea being toaim low down with the guns placed in the lowest tier,and so smash the enemys hull. As we know from existing State documents, Eliza-bethan ships were armed with various kinds of guns,which included heavy muzzle-loaders of brass or ironhaving a long range, shorter-range guns, quick-firingbreech-loaders, ^ harquebusses, of which a 400-ton ship 83 I
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^ XH W PQ<N wwt3 3;: ^ O ^- THE SHIP DURING TUDOR TIMES carried as many as eighty, and in addition also bows,pikes, arrows, and bills, as well as murrions and cors-lettes ^ for use as personal armour. It is impossible togive here in such limited space the entire equipment,fascinating in interest though the description of it wouldbe. As one wades through the manuscript records whichcontain the inventories of almost all the vessels of theElizabethan navy, one can picture the individual shipsrising up before ones eyes in entire detail. But ourtask is not so much to show the growth of shipping inone particular period, as to outline its developmentand change through successive periods of the worldshistory. Improvements in shipbuilding had been seriously andcarefully considered by the English naval authorities,and there is no question that Elizabeths royal shipswere fine, staunch vessels, and superior to many of themerchantmen afloat. At the same time, these improve-ments would not have