Merchant ships, and ships of war.The obscurity in which our early naval history is involved is due probably to the fact that, before the invention of gunpowder, but little attention was paid to the building of ships for war purposes. The fighting forces were commonly put on board merchant ships, from which arrows could be shot almost as well as from any ships specially constructed. This—the chief—origin of our Navy left its mark even down to the nineteenth century. The 'Master' was long responsible for the navigation of a ship of war, just as for a merchant ship, though the Captain was in supreme command; and the Master's Journal and Log-Book were considered of very high authority.
The High Court of Admiralty.Out of the use of merchant ships for war as well as other purposes appears to have grown the jurisdiction of the High Court of Admiralty, which eventually extended to prizes taken by force of arms at sea, as well as to disputes touching merchant vessels.
The Admiralty Department of the Government.A matter of more general interest than the growth of the High Court of Admiralty is the growth of the Admiralty considered as a Department of the Government. There is nothing to indicate the existence of such a Department, in the modern sense of the term, before the reign of Charles II. There are some early accounts relating to naval affairs; there was a Treasurer of the Navy as early as the year 1544, whose functions were transferred to the Paymaster-General in the reign of William IV; and there were various subordinate officers responsible to the Lord High Admiral. In the reign of Charles I, after the murder of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham—a very young High Admiral, who, according to Clarendon, had 'learnt the exercises of riding and dancing, in the last of which he excelled most men'—there were appointed some Commissioners of the Admiralty. The papers relating to their administration were found in the old State Paper Office; and this may indicate that they were regarded as belonging to the Council. During the Commonwealth there was