A Short History of the Royal Navy, 1217 to 1688Hannay, David
History
A Short History of the Royal Navy, 1217 to 1688
Hannay, David
Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History
The correspondence of the Lord Admiral was otherwise interesting. There
was, for instance, admirable sense in the reasons he gives for not
appointing two captains to the vessels fitted as galleys.
"And wher as His Majesties plesser ys to have to capitaynes and
leaders of His Highnes rowyng peces, I do think, yf it may so stande
with His Highnes plesser, that one shall do His Majestie better servis
then too. For if theyr be too rulers, one will have his mynde, thother
wil have his; if any thinge frame a mys, thone will excuse him by
thother; the resydue under theym will excuse theym by two comanders;
'he bed me do that, and tother this.' Yf theyr be butt one, having
chardge, nether he that hath the chardge commytted only to him, nether
thos which be under one, hath any soche excuse."
Lisle's correspondence contains also several incidental notices
of the ships under his command, which are valuable as showing the
unseaworthiness of even the best vessels of the time. Thus, for
instance, he writes on the 20th of August to Lord St. John: "This
shall be to advise you that the King's Majesty's new ship called =The
Mistress= is in such case with labouring in this foul weather, that
she is not able to keep the seas, without spoiling of her masts, and
tackle overboard. Her mainstay is loose in the partners, and the
cross-trestles both of her foremast, and also of her mainmast are
broken." The foul weather of which Lisle complains must have been
experienced between the middle of July and the latter half of August.
At that season it would certainly have been thought extraordinary, in
the eighteenth century, that a new ship should have been so strained
by weather alone as to be under the necessity of returning immediately
to port. It does not appear that Lisle made any complaint of the work
done on the =Mistress=, or that he attached any blame to her officers.
He rather accepted this instant disabling of this vessel, which, be it
observed, was the flagship of the Wing, as a dispensation of Providence
to be borne with patience. Nor was the =Mistress= by any means the
only ship of his fleet which had broken down under the strain of a few
weeks' cruising in summer.
On the 21st Lisle writes again to St. John--
"I trust your Lordshipp have advertised the Kinges Majestie of the
state of the =Mystres=, and of the Gallye =Subtill=, and the foyste,
which I suppose wooll be hable to do no more sarvice, until they be
amended. And if the French armye shuld retourne agayne this yere to
the sees, which verilly I rather thynck they wooll not, we shuld have
no small mysse of those three peeces. There be allso in this armye
dyvers shippes, which, after another storme, wooll be hable to loke
no more abroode this yere. And I thynck our enimies be in as evill
cace, or worse. For emonges such a nomber of shippes, as they have,
and as we have, all cannot be strong, nor all cannot be well tackled."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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