Touching the sails of the _Ark Royal_, she had a bonnet to her spritsail laced on in the manner adopted to-day by the wherry-man of the Norfolk Broads. The mainsail and foresail and main mizzen also had the bonnet, but the others had not, although a topsail bonnet was found rarely. The foresail had a double bonnet with a single drabbler, likewise the mainsail. In the case of the main mizzen the bonnet was a double one. The inventory only includes one topgallant sail, although three are shown in this engraving. This fact is certainly an argument for those who assert that the illustration represents not the _Ark Royal_, although the rest of the evidence is against this assertion. Much more likely is it that the other topgallant sails were added at a later date. The inventory includes a sail for the ship’s boat, and two for the pinnesse. A longboat with a brass sheave in the head and supplied with oars, a pinnesse and a “cocke” (derived from the French _coque_) which was a ship’s boat, as well as an older pinnesse, were carried on board the _Ark Royal_. During the survey at Chatham it was decided to have her overlop in the waist made less curved and more level for the sake of placing the guns in better position, a lesson that had been impressed on them even more forcibly by the ill-success of the fire of the Spaniards. In our illustration it will be noticed that the curve has disappeared. I therefore conclude that this engraving was made after the ship had been altered at Chatham. It seems very probable that it was during this overhaul that the other topgallant sails were added, in which case the argument against the veracity of this engraving is rebutted. Elizabeth’s own royal ships were undoubtedly fine able vessels for their time. They were seaworthy, and at any rate during the time of the Armada did not suffer from leaks. But the same statement cannot be made of the merchant ships that joined the royal fleet from the various English ports. These were far from sound and leaked badly. In a letter from Howard to Walsyngham[81] we find that the merchants besought the former that he and the rest of Her Majesty’s fleet would carry less sail for they could not endure it, while “we,” writes Howard, “made no reckoning of it.” This inferiority is confirmed also by Seymour, who writes to say that the merchant ships in the English fleet were not as good sea-boats as the Queen’s. Before we leave the _Ark Royal_, let us call to the reader’s attention a detail that, if he is a sailorman, he will have already noticed. The furling of the sails, correctly shown here, is very clumsy and bungling. The custom was when the sails were furled to bind them to the yard with rope yarns, and these yarns were cut to loose the sail when getting under way. Thus Sir William Wynter, writing on February 28, 1587, concludes his letter: “Written aboard the Vanguard, being in the Downs, ready to cut sail.”[82]