which during the latter part of the war assisted them against the Dutch. The _Royal Charles_ of 1673 may be taken as the link between the _Sovereign_ and the eighteenth-century ships of our navy. She was a handsome ship, rather smaller than the _Sovereign_, with a rounded stern at the water-line, instead of its being put in flat like that of an ordinary boat. This not only made ships built in this way, as they always were after this time, stronger, but gave them more graceful lines, as well as better ones for sailing. The French about this time began to turn out ships on much better lines than our own, and throughout the eighteenth century and part of the nineteenth our French prizes were our best-looking and best-sailing ships. However, a writer at the very end of the seventeenth century makes the following comparison between the fighting capacity of the French and British ships of the period: "Our guns, being for the most part shorter," he says, "are made to carry more shot than a French gun of like weight, therefore the French guns reach further, and ours make a bigger hole. By this the French has the advantage to fight at a distance, and we yard-arm to yard-arm. The like advantage have we over them in shipping; although they are broader and carry a better sail, our sides are thicker and better able to receive their shot; by this they are more subject to be sunk by our gun-shot than we." At the beginning of the eighteenth century the exterior of the bulwarks of the upper deck, poop, and forecastle was generally painted blue, though occasionally red. On this broad band, carved devices, generally representing trophies of colours, arms, and guns, were placed between the ports, which on the upper deck were round. Outboard a carved wreath encircled them, which, with the numerous other ornamental carvings at bow and stern, was profusely gilded. Below this broad blue band the sides of the ship were of a yellow tinge, and were finished off, just above the water-line, with a single or double black wale. [Illustration: _Photo. Symonds & Co._ THE _VICTORY_ IN GALA DRESS Nelson's famous flagship, dressed with flags in honour of the visit of the French President to Portsmouth.]