fishing and small sailing craft generally upon the lines of these Dutchmen (notice the cutter shown in Turner’s painting reproduced in Fig. 71). But whilst we have gone ahead from improvement to approximate perfection, from ignorance to knowledge, the ships of the Low Countries remain but little altered since the days of Tromp, when the Dutch were at the height of their maritime progress. The Dutch schuyt, such as may be seen any day lying at her buoy off Billingsgate, is shown in Fig. 83. The Viking influence is written largely over the ships of Holland, but breadth has taken the place of the length beloved of the Northerner. [Illustration: FIG. 83. A MODERN DUTCH SCHUYT.] [Illustration: FIG. 84. “A FRESH GALE AT SEA.” _After the painting by W. Van der Velde, No. 150 in the National Gallery._] If we compare the last-mentioned sketch of a modern Dutchman with that in Fig. 84, which has been copied from the exquisite little Van der Velde in the National Gallery, we shall see how little the hulls of their ships have altered. Van der Velde (the younger) lived from 1633 to 1707, so that he saw the Dutch ships at their very best. As Macaulay says, the Van der Veldes, father and son, produced, when they came over to Greenwich as painters to Charles II., some of the finest sea-pieces in the world. The title given to the present picture is _A Fresh Gale at Sea_ (No. 150). It is extremely interesting to us for its indication of the rig. The ship in the foreground on the port tack will collide with the other if both stand on. But to avoid this she has resolved to bear up. The reader will notice the helm has been put hard over as the other ship is seen staggering out of the squall and mist. Easing off her sheet she has also lowered her peak by slacking off the tackle at the foot of the sprit. In another of Van der Velde’s paintings in the same gallery (No. 149, _A Calm at Sea_) the same peculiar method of lowering sail is seen. We see a ship at anchor in a calm. She has slacked off the tack in the same way, so that the spar comes right across the mast. English ships of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries possessing this characteristic will be found in the paintings of Turner and other contemporary artists. [Illustration: FIG. 85. “RIVER SCENE.” _After the painting by W. Van der Velde. No. 978 in the National Gallery._]