“MINOTAUR” (AS A FIVE-MASTER) 261 “BELLEROPHON” 269 “ROYAL SOVEREIGN” 273 “WATERWITCH” 277 “CAPTAIN” 289 “VANGUARD” 297 “HOTSPUR” AS ORIGINALLY COMPLETED 309 “DEVASTATION” AS ORIGINALLY COMPLETED 313 PORTRAITS PHINEAS PETT 67 SIR ANTHONY DEANE 93 GENERAL BENTHAM 155 JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL 245 SIR E. J. REED 265 PLANS, DIAGRAMS, ETC. PHINEAS PETT’S “ROYAL SOVEREIGN” 71 POSITIONS OF THE FLEETS AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR 167 EARLY BROADSIDE IRONCLADS 255 REED ERA BROADSIDE SHIPS 281 REED ERA TURRET SHIPS 285 RAMS OF THE REED ERA 301 BREASTWORK MONITORS 305 THE BRITISH BATTLE FLEET. I. THE BIRTH OF BRITISH NAVAL POWER. The birth of British naval power is involved in considerable obscurity and a good deal of legend. The Phœnicians and the Romans have both been credited with introducing nautical ideas to these islands, but of the Phœnicians there is nothing but legend so far as any “British Navy” is concerned. That the Phœnicians voyaged here we know well enough, and a “British fleet” of the B.C. era _may_ have existed, a fleet due to possible Phœnicians who, having visited these shores, remained in the land. Equally well it may be mythical. Whatever share the ancient Britons may have had in the supposed commercial relations with Gaul, it is clear that no fleet as we understand a fleet existed in the days of Julius Cæsar. Later, while England was a Roman province, Roman fleets occasionally fought upon British waters against pirates and in connection with Roman revolutions, but they were ships of the ruling power. Roman power passed away. Saxons invaded and remained; but having landed they became people of the land--not of the sea. Danes and other seafarers pilaged English shores much as they listed till Alfred the Great came to the throne.