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Lives of the British Admirals, and Naval History of Great Britain, Chiefly Abridged From the Work of J. Campbell
Lives of the British Admirals and Naval History of Great Britain Chiefly Abridged From the Work of J Campbell Author:John Campbell General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1841 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. UE3OIY THE SEVENTH ORIGIN OF THE ROYAL NAVY AS A DISTINCT SERVICE HENRY THE EIGHTH -- EDWARD THE SIXTH -- MARY -- SIR JOHN CAROT -- SEBASTIAN CAEOT -- HOWARD -- SIR JOHN DUDLEY. Some writers date what they term the origin of the English navy, from the reign of Henry the Seventh, upon the ground that he was the first who built and maintained, at the public charge, ships of war. It is not disputed, indeed, that before this the sea forces of our kings were hastily assembled upon emergencies, were hired from merchants, and contributed by the then five principal seaport towns, to this day called the Cinque-ports. The hurried equipment and manning of these vessels, formed the only difference between ships of war, and ships of commerce. The introduction of cannon, leading to a great enlargement in the size, and change of the form of ships, contributed to bring on an alteration in this respect, although even later than the time we speak of, we find the royal ships employed occasionally as merchantmen, as in recent times the East Indiamen, and other large merchant vessels, were not unprepared for defence. Our author tells us that Henry laid out .£14,000 in the construction of a new ship, called The Great Harry, and which, properly speaking, was the first ship of the royal nary ; for though he, as well as other princes, hired many ships, exclusive of those furnished by the ports, when he had occasion to transport forces abroad, yet he seems to have been the only king who thought of avoiding this inconve- niency, by raising such a naval force as might be at all times sufficient for the service o...« less