Thus, with every voyage north, south, east or west, with every slump or boom in trade, the English Mercantile Marine was becoming more efficient, less unscientific, and the love of seafaring became greater. Those were the great days when, though the ships were of wood, the men’s hearts were of gold, and nothing daunted them. Their gear was none too good, their ships were roughly built, and yet no adversity ever overcame their fine spirits. They were ready to struggle with any difficulty. Take the case of the Elizabethan ship which got caught in heavy weather one September. She hove-to, but was washed down by almost every sea, and then the rudder was found to be broken and almost falling off. Next day, as soon as the weather eased, a dozen of the crew leapt overboard, remained under water as long as possible, worked at the rudder-planking, bound it with ropes, and finally made such a good job of it that it was again serviceable; but by the time they were got aboard once more they were more than half dead. These ships were always losing anchors, cables, boats and pinnaces; and even when they had charts and globes, they were finding them full of errors; yet they “kept on keeping on” and bringing their seafaring profession out of the dark recesses of ignorance into the light of knowledge. FOOTNOTES: [3] _Mariner’s Mirror_, Vol. V. p. 81. CHAPTER VII FISHERMEN AND MERCHANTMEN Up to the end of the sixteenth century we have seen the progress of the Mercantile Marine influenced by the pilgrim and cargo trade in the south of Europe, and in the Iberian peninsula by the long ocean voyages east and west for the purpose of spreading Christianity, trading, and obtaining greater territory. In the north of Europe we have seen that the crusades, as in the south, had their effect, and that pilgrims and merchandise were regularly carried across the Bay of Biscay.