There was between the naval ships of the ’forties and those of the time of Charles II. a similarity a hundredfold closer than that which can be found to exist between the former and those of King Edward’s ships to-day. With a change in ships came a change in personnel. “The officers of the early ’forties,” writes Admiral Moresby, “with few exceptions, were content to be practical sailors only. They had nothing to do with the navigation of the ship or the rating of the chronometers. That was entirely in the hands of the master, and no other had any real experience or responsibility in the matter. For example—I recall a captain, whose ship was at Spithead. He was ordered by signal to go to the assistance of a ship on shore at the back of the Isle of Wight. In reply he hoisted ‘Inability. The master is ashore.’ He was asked, ‘Are the other officers aboard?’ and signalled ‘Yes.’ But to the repeated order, ‘Proceed immediately,’ he again hoisted ‘Inability,’ and remained entrenched in this determination until a pilot was sent to assist him.” But to come back to the merchant service, to the old East Indiamen “with their stately tiers of sails and splendid crews of trained seamen,” although they were much finer in their lines and less unhandy than the vessels in the Royal Navy of this period, their rig was in most respects akin to the latter.[112] They carried three courses—foresail, mainsail and cro’jack, three topsails (in each of which there were three or four reefs), and three t’gallant sails and royals, or twelve sails on the three masts. The fore-and-aft sails were: on the bowsprit and jib-boom, a fore topmast staysail, an inner jib and outer jib and flying jib. Below the bowsprit was set on the spritsail yard, what the reader has been accustomed through these chapters to know as the “spritsail,” but which in the nineteenth century, even though triangular headsails were more in evidence than before, still continued, though known as a “water sail,” or “bull-driver.” Leslie, in his “Old Sea Wings, Ways and Words in the Days of Oak and Hemp,” says that spritsails were not only used when going free but when on a wind. The reef-points were placed diagonally so that when reefed that part of the sail nearest to the sea was narrower than the upper part. Two circular holes were cut, one in each corner, so that when the ship plunged her bows into a sea the water could run out and not split the canvas. Mr. Bullen says that this sail was not of much use, nor could he understand why it was carried at all, as it always had to be furled as soon as the ship began to pitch a little. However, this last and final relic of mediævalism has at last departed for good, although it dated back for its origin to the artemon of classical times. Even when the sprit topmast had disappeared, the sprit topsail was retained for some time by placing it below the bowsprit instead of above, but further forward of the spritsail proper.