MARITIME HISTORY repair. 1 Nothing was done for ten years, when another inspection was ordered, followed by further inaction until 1583 and 1584, when some 9,000 was at last devoted to restoring and re-arming the forts. Nothing, however, was allotted for St. Mawes, the captain of the castle being bound to keep it in repair, 2 an obligation which, as inspection was spasmodic and at long intervals, sufficiently explains its ruinous state. The military schemes were intended to defend Falmouth and Plymouth as the two most tempting ports, and it was proposed to concentrate the levies of Somer- set, Devon, and Cornwall at these places. There is a map of this date 3 which, taken in conjunc- tion with some notes of Burghley's, 4 seems to point to a design of defending every possible landing place with barricades and entrenchments. The plans, naval and territorial, remained inchoate to the last, though new proposals were under discussion nearly every week. On I April 1588 the more important coast towns were ordered to equip ships, all to be above 60 tons in burthen ; Fowey and Looe were to send one ship and one pinnace, and Saltash was coupled with Plymouth and Tavistock for three ships and a pinnace. They were to join Drake's fleet at Plymouth. 5 The Saltash ship was the John Trelawney, 150 tons, Captain Thomas Meek ; that from Looe and Fowey the Frances of Fowey, 1 40 tons, Captain John Rashleigh. From a later paper we learn that Rashleigh advanced the money to fit out the Frances, and in July had been able to recover only 100 from the towns. The deputy-lieutenants of Cornwall were directed to assess the adjoining hundreds, as it seems to have been admitted that Looe and Fowey were too poor to bear the expense alone. 6 On Friday and Saturday, 19 and 20 July, the Armada could be watched by the country people flocking from inland to the Lizard, Pendennis, and St. Mawes, 7 and that was all that Cornwall saw of it. Like all the other armed merchantmen the Cornish ships did no more during the historic week up Channel than hamper the movements of the men-of-war, and hover round in the hope of picking up a winged bird. On 17 April, 1589, Norreys and Drake left Cawsand Bay in command of the lamentable Portugal expedition, and the Frances, Captain Dyer, and Minion, Captain Atkins, both of Fowey, were units of the fleet. This great failure deterred Elizabeth from expensive adventures for some years, and the county was not called upon again until 1596 to assist the crown with ships. Sea life was a prosperous occupa- tion during the second half of the sixteenth century for those who survived disease and minor risks, and no doubt Cornish seamen were profitably occupied about their own concerns. Most of the smaller expeditions sent out by Cumberland, Ralegh, and others must have had a quota of Cornish- men among their crews ; and the fact that the Cornish motto ' One and all ' became accepted throughout the royal and merchant services for more than a century as the rallying cry of discon- tented or mutinous crews points to a general infiltration of Cornishmen in both services. In 1591 some armed merchantmen were wanted to strengthen Lord Thomas Howard's fleet destined for the Azores, and Padstow was asked for one, but pleaded that nothing above 23 tons belonged to the town. 8 It was on this voyage that Sir Richard Grenville in the Revenge fought his famous fight. There were probably many Cornishmen among the crew of the Revenge, and we know the name of one, Thomas Benson, ' a canoneer,' who was passed back to the county with an order from the Privy Council that if his story was true he was to be pensioned from the fund for maimed soldiers. 9 During these years Elizabeth was always filled with alarm about invasion, while Spaniards were trembling in dismay of the English fleets, and the year 1591 was characterized by special fears about the Scillies. It was true that the Spanish strategists had had them in mind for twenty years, and continued to bear them in mind ; but that only proved their inability to grasp the conditions of the problem before them. English admirals did not tremble for the Scillies, but the queen seldom paid much attention to their opinions ; and Sir Francis Godolphin, who had obtained a fresh lease of the islands from 1570, and to whose pecuniary interest it was to have a garrison and fortifi- cations there, lost no opportunity of exciting her apprehensions. In May, 1591, Ralegh was sent down with a commission to organize the defence of Cornwall and the Scillies, and the garrison of 1 S. P. Dora. Eliz. xcvii, 9, i. * Ibid, clxx, 91.
- Cott. MS. Aug. 1,1,6. 4 S. P. Dom. Eliz. 17 November, 1587.
- Acts of P. C. I April. These were independent of the ships taken up and paid for by the government.
6 Ibid. 14 July, 1588. Rashleigh has the reputation of having been a successful privateersman, and the Frances is said to have made a fortune for him (Hals). This Rashleigh, or one of the same family, was also a merchant ; in 161 1 a pirate took a trader on the Guinea coast belonging to ' Rashleigh of Fowey.' Another Fowey worthy whose name should be remembered is Edward Rawes, who had been employed by the govern- ment, but at his own risk, to watch the movements of a Spanish fleet. He was taken and died in the prisons of the Inquisition how, is not said. In 1580 his widow was granted the privilege of exporting 200 quarters of corn (Acts of P. C. 26 May). 7 It was in sight from Pendennis on the Saturday (Diary ofTk. Enys),
- Hist. MSS. Cm. (Cecil MSS.) 25 June, 1591.
' Acts of P. C. ii January, 1595-6. 493
