The illustration in Fig. 50 is of the _Ark Royal_, from a contemporary print in the Print Room of the British Museum. Built for Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587, she was sold while on the stocks to Queen Elizabeth for £5000. Her name was to have been the _Ark Ralegh_, but on being purchased it was changed as above. Her name was, after the end of this reign, changed to the _Anne Royal_, and in 1625, while returning from Cadiz, she began to leak like the proverbial lobster-pot and only reached home with difficulty. In 1636, while lying in the Thames, she bilged on her own anchor and sank. It was this _Ark Royal_ that was Elizabeth’s flagship of the fleet that defeated the Armada, and for this reason, if for no other, she is deserving of a more complete consideration than we have room to devote to other ships of this period. Sir William Monson,[79] who was already a captain by 1587, gives her tonnage as 800, and the number of her crew as 400. Happily the complete inventory of the _Ark Royal_ is still in existence, and the reader is referred to the “State Papers Relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, anno 1588.”[80] It was compiled in September 1588 after the _Ark Royal_ had come in for a survey, having been out in the Channel in the memorable victory. All the tackle and spars and sails, every item of the inventory down to the kettles for the cooking-room is mentioned. From this list we find that the spritsail, besides its yard, had clew lines, braces, sheets, halyards, and “a false tye.” Sir Henry Manwayring, who also fought in the fleet against the Armada, in his “Seamen’s Dictionary” defines ties as four-strand ropes, hawser-laid, being the ropes by which the yards hang. But the spritsail yard having no ties, was made fast by a pair of slings to the bowsprit. Among the items of the rigging of the foremast are included the “fore pennants,” and both the falls and pennants of the “swifters.” Referring to Manwayring’s “Dictionary,” we find that “swifters doe belong to the maine and foremast, and are to succour the shrowdes and keep stiffe the mast. They have pendants, which are made fast under the shrowdes at the head of the mast with a double block, through which is reeved the swifter.” Mention must be made of the “forebolings” and main bowlines. Our ancestors made great use of these bowlines in order that these great square sails might set quite flat. Until the triangular head sails came in about the middle of the eighteenth century, the foremast was stepped very far forward, for the spritsail was only used off the wind and when getting under way. The manner in which the spritsail in this illustration of the _Ark Royal_ is shown in the head stowed is quite correct.