In 1515 the great English man-of-war, _Harry Grace à Dieu_, was built by Henry VIII. She had two decks, and carried 14 heavy guns on the lower deck, 12 on the upper deck, and 46 other guns arranged in different quarters of the vessel--a total of 72 guns. The heavy guns weighed from 2,000 to 3,000 lbs., and gave the English ships a distinct advantage over their less heavily armed enemies. She had four masts and a bowsprit, all square rigged. There were two sails on each of the first and second masts (“foer” and “mayne”), and a lateen sail on each of the other two masts (“mayne mizzen” and “bonaventure”). The _Harry_ was estimated at 1,000 or 1,500 tons, the system of measuring a ship at the time being to estimate how many tons or tun casks of wine she could carry. The other ships of war built in this reign were constructed on similar lines to the _Harry_, but on a smaller scale. At this time the larger ships of the Navy were divided into two classes, “ships” and “galliasses,” the latter being huge galleys propelled by sweeps or large oars. As progress was made, the height of the fore-castles was lowered, and the keels of these ships were covered with a lead sheathing. In the reign of Elizabeth there was a considerable improvement in the general construction of the vessels. They were not made of large size, but under the direction of Sir John Hawkins they were built on longer keels, with finer lines and lower superstructures than before, and on account of these improvements they were capable of carrying more sail and sailing more swiftly. The sides of ships were painted black and white or green and white or timber colour. Figureheads (lions or dragons) at the bows and the Royal Arms in gold and colours at the stern were used to decorate them. It is interesting to note that the cooking galley was solidly built of bricks and mortar upon the gravel ballast down in the hold. The large vessels continued to have four masts, and the armament was the same as in the reign of Henry VIII., the largest guns, “great ordnance,” being 12 feet long, with a bore of 8½ inches, and an extreme range of about one mile. The largest ships had from 40 to 60 of these “great ordnance,” and there were also provided for each ship 200 arquebuses or cross-bows, 40 longbows, and 180 sheaves of arrows. It had been the custom for many years to carry a great many soldiers in each ship, in addition to the crew of sailors. The _Great Harry_ carried “soldiers 349, marines 301, and gunners 50.” The soldiers consisted of musketeers and archers, allotted to each ship under their own officers. The captain was not selected for his skill as a sailor; in fact, he was also the King’s Master of the Horse and a soldier by profession.