“Captain Guy to dine with me, and he and I much talk together. He cries out on the discipline of the fleet, and confesses really that the true English valour we talk of, is almost spent and worn out.” It was Pepys who urged that ships should be built of greater burden, stronger and beamier, for at that time the men-of-war needed to be girdled round the hull. They were crank-sided, could not well carry their guns on the upper decks, especially in bad weather, and not enough room was left for the carrying of stores and victuals. He gives the following comparison between the two principal ships of the French, Dutch and English: FRENCH _Soll Royall_ (more correctly _Le Soleil Royal_), 1940 tons. _Royall Lewis_ (_Le Royal Louis_), 1800 tons. Besides these, two others were 140 feet long on the keel with 48 feet beam. DUTCH _The White Elephant_, 1482 tons. _Golden Lion_, 1477 tons. The former was 131 feet long on the keel, the latter 130 feet. Both had 46·9 feet beam, drew 19 feet 8 inches of water, and carried three decks. ENGLISH The _Royal Charles_, “with the girdling of 10 inches measure,” was 1531 tons. The _Prince_ (says Pepys) “is full as big now girdled and as long on the gun-deck as the Charles, but having a long rake they measure short on the keel or she would be 1520 tons.” It must be observed in reference to the above figures that the Dutch ships had a greater rake forward and would measure much bigger, being very beamy. Pepys mentions that “the excellent French and Dutch ships with two decks are more in number and much larger than our third-rates.” The _Soleil Royal_ mentioned above was a fine three-masted ship of the line, carrying 108 guns. She was a worthy example of the high state of excellence reached by the French naval architects of this period. She was lost, however, when the combined English and Dutch fleets in 1692 defeated the French off Cape La Hogue. This was a decisive blow to another of those plans for the invasion of England, and the naval battle in which the French fleet was utterly destroyed has been regarded by historians as the greatest naval victory won by the English between the defeat of the Armada and the battle of Trafalgar. [Illustration: FIG. 63. THE “ROYAL CHARLES.” BUILT IN 1672.]