Mars, with sword and shield, Neptune, with his sea-horse, and Eolus on a cameleon. On the stern, a Victory displayed her wings, and bore a scroll with this device: Validis incumbite remis. This vessel had two galleries on each side. These galleries, as well as the whole vessel, were covered with trophies, emblems and scutcheons, of all kinds. Her length from stem to stern was 232 feet. She carried five lanterns, one of which, the largest, could contain ten persons, standing, with ease. She had three decks running from stem to stern, a forecastle-deck, a half-deck, a quarter-deck, and a poop-deck. Her armament was as follows: thirty ports, with large and small guns, in the lower battery; thirty ports, with culverins, in the second battery; twelve ports in the forecastle, and fourteen on the half-deck; finally, thirteen or fourteen swivels, a multitude of port-holes for musketry, ten bow-chasers, and as many stern-chasers. There were twelve anchors. 'The Sovereign of the Seas,' says Charnock, 'was the first large vessel constructed in England. Splendor and magnificence were particularly kept in view in building her. She was in some sort the occasion of the serious complaints made of the expenses of the navy in the reign of Charles I. Cut down one deck, she became one of the best ships of war in the whole world.' It is certain that the suppression of this deck, and the lowering of her deck-cabin, gave her more stability than she had at first. Now, for speed, what she gained in strength by these changes was compensated by the length added to her masts. Topsails at this period were an important addition to ships. Old engravings show us the vessels of the sixteenth century sailing generally under their courses. After the building of the Sovereign of the Seas, this only occurred in particular cases and certain conditions of the elements. Captain Phineas Pett directed the work of building and afterwards improving the Sovereign of the Seas. A learned engineer, he deserves the credit of having done more than any one else to give an impulse to the English navy. The artillery was strengthened, and the crews larger, and better lodged. The entire navy felt this progress. The Sovereign of the Seas gauged 1637 tons, a thing which, according to a historian of the time, deserved the attention of the whole world, since it represented exactly the date of her launch. Notwithstanding the thrice-fortunate augury which the historian saw in this coïncidence, the Sovereign of the Seas met with the fate of the Great Harry. She was destroyed, like the latter, by fire, in a ship-yard, where she was being repaired, in 1696, after sixty years' service. Observe here that Fuller, in his history of the 'Wonders of England,' acknowledges that at the commencement of the seventeenth century, the Dunkirkers furnished the models of the best vessels built at this period in the British ports.
When Louis XIV became king of France, there was no French navy, properly speaking. Voltaire asserts that in 1664 a few frigates and a line-of-battle ship, in poor condition, constituted the entire force. After the siege of La Rochelle, Richelieu, jealous of the growth of the English navy, had given a sort of impulse to naval ideas by arming immediately fifty ships and twenty galleys; but the effect of this impulse was merely momentary. Colbert was the true creator of the French navy. Under him, in less than five years, France possessed a triumphant maritime force. The most renowned of the French ships at this period was the Royal Sun. This vessel was constructed partly on French, and partly on Dutch principles. She was 1600 tons, 150 feet long, 48 broad, and 16 deep. She
