Although the English cast-iron cannon almost at once achieved such a reputation that they sold in Amsterdam for £40 a ton, for £60 in France, and for no less than £80 in Spain, though costing only £12 a ton in this country; and though they were bought so freely at these high prices by foreigners that in 1574 their export was totally forbidden, yet it would appear that the Royal Navy was then using nothing but brass guns, except perhaps in the case of the smaller pieces. But the merchantmen used iron guns. Thus when James I sent an expedition of six men-of-war and a dozen armed merchant-ships against the Algerines in 1620, all the former carried brass and all the latter iron guns. The men-of-war were heavily gunned, so much so, indeed, that it was not unusual for their captains to dismount a few of their heaviest pieces and stow them as ballast for the safety of the ship. The _Prince Royal_, for instance, carried a battery of two "cannon perriers" (i.e. throwing stone shot), six demi-cannon, twelve culverins, thirteen sakers, and four light pieces. The famous _Sovereign of the Seas_ in the next reign mounted twenty cannon, eight demi-cannon, thirty-two culverins, and forty-two demi-culverins--all brass guns--and probably some small iron falconets as well. On each gun was engraved the rose and crown, the sceptre and trident, anchor and cable. The engraving cost £3 per gun, but we must remember that the _Sovereign_ was a "show ship". According to an artilleryman who wrote in the first half of the seventeenth century, three shots an hour was about as much as an ordinary gun would stand, "always provided that after 40 shots you refresh and cool the piece[40] and let her rest an houre, for fear lest 80 shots should break the piece". But I think we may credit our seamen with being able to fire their guns a bit faster than that. Constant running out of powder seems to have been the great trouble in the English fleet engaged in the discomfiture of the "Invincible" Armada. And not only did the English ships carry heavier ordnance and fire heavier broadsides than the Spaniards, so that the British cannon "lacked them through and through", but our gunners are said to have fired their pieces three times to the Spaniards' one. This is a Spanish estimate, and it is abundantly evident that our gunnery proved at least as superior as it did over that of the Germans in Sir David Beatty's victory off the Friesland coast in January, 1915. Later on, at the battle of La Hogue (1692) the British ships were able to fire three broadsides to every two of the French. [Illustration: Early Attempts at Maxim Guns In all probability each barrel of the first gun had to be loaded separately and fired by hand, one after another. In the second case, the eight little cannon are apparently secured to a kind of turntable, to be revolved by hand.]