As you paced her spacious decks you would have realised that you were on board some better finished article than belonged to Elizabethan days. The workmanship and decoration would have struck you as of a higher class. From her great ensign flying over the poop to the smaller Union Jack on the sprit-topmast; from her royal standard, flying at the main, to her keel, she would have appeared a massive, substantial creature of wood and able to withstand a good deal of battering even from the Dutch ordnance. You would have noted, too, the many carved emblems pertaining to land and sea which decorated her--the angelic figures holding up devices, the cupids, and “symbols of navigation,” all done in gold and black. You would have wondered at the elaborate figurehead representing a royal personage on horseback prancing over the waves. And finally, when you came round to the stern, you would have remarked the elaborate allegorical picture of Victory, or some other suitable subject, and the five great poop-lanterns--one of them so big that “ten people could stand upright in it”--crowning the whole thing. Seventy-five feet, you would have been told, as you looked over the side, she measured from the keel to her lanterns. The poop-deck ended some distance abaft the mizzen-mast: the quarter-deck came just as far forward as the mainmast. Below the quarter-deck was the upper deck, which ran the whole length of the ship. Next below came the main deck, where the heaviest guns were kept. The forecastle was really a substantial fortress which rose from the upper deck, and, by the aid of its guns already mentioned, could look after itself even when the enemy had boarded the ship and obtained possession of the rest of the decks. Sometimes a light topgallant forecastle was erected above the forecastle. Additional to the guns already mentioned, swivels were also mounted on quarter-deck and poop, and would be very useful in case one of the enemy’s ships came alongside for boarding. The cable of such a ship would be about a hundred fathoms long of 21-inch hemp, her anchors being respectively of 430 lbs., 150 lbs., and 74 lbs. weight. Davis’ quadrant or backstaff was still used, and the log-line was an appreciable assistance. [Illustration: SECTION OF A THREE-DECKER. Showing construction and gun tiers.] [Illustration: NOCTURNAL. Employed at sea for finding the hour of the night by the North Star.]