The stories as to the number of vessels under the orders of the Conqueror on this memorable expedition are very conflicting. Some writers have asserted that the total number amounted to no less than three thousand, of which six or seven hundred were of a superior order, the remainder consisting chiefly of boats temporarily built, and of the most fragile description. Others place the whole fleet at not more than eight hundred vessels of every sort, and this number is likely to be the nearest to the truth. There are now no means of ascertaining their size; but their form may be conjectured from the representations of these vessels on the famous roll of tapestry still preserved at Bayeux, from which the following has been copied.[508] [Illustration] It is related that when William meditated his descent upon England, he ordered for that purpose “large ships” to be constructed at his seaports, collecting, wherever they could be found, smaller vessels or boats to accompany them. But even the largest must have been of little value, as the whole fleet were by his orders burned and destroyed as soon as he landed with his army, so as to cut off all retreat and to save the expense of their maintenance.[509] Those of our readers who have visited the north of Scotland, during the herring-fishery season, will readily notice the resemblance to the traditional form of the war vessels of the Saxons in the eleventh century exhibited by the larger boats owned by the present Wick or Lerwick fishermen. But as we have more than once had occasion to observe, though we are greatly indebted to antiquaries for their researches, the few drawings of ancient vessels preserved are scarcely objects of instruction. Even the vessels on the Bayeux tapestry give us little that is definite, and we can hardly infer from them more than that we see in them an ideal but imperfect representation of the boats which were hastily constructed for William the Norman; while we may at the same time feel sure that the Saxon and Danish ships in ordinary use must have been stronger and better adapted to encounter stormy weather and rough seas than the vessels of a similar size and class in the Mediterranean. All details respecting them must, however, be conjectural; and a drawing of one class, even if accurate, may give as faint an impression of ships of another class, as the collier of to-day would afford of a modern Indiaman or Ocean-Steamer.