The boats in which our Saxon and Viking ancestors came to invade the wild little Island of Britain, though of light structure, were superior to the primitive British skiffs; and in the contest which followed they had the upper hand. Later on the Danes, with vessels sixty or seventy feet long, built of heavy timbers and rowed by thirty men apiece, proved in their turn too much for Saxon resistance, at a time when the Saxons had become established as the people of the Island. King Alfred, of noble memory, coming to the throne, found his country a prey to these marauding Danes. He then and there grasped the principle, which still has sway in England’s counsels, that the very existence of Britain as a Nation rests upon the strength of her Navy. With all possible despatch he had a new fleet built, composed of vessels which were for the most part double the size of the largest Danish boats. They were longer, wider, stouter, and were rowed each by from forty to sixty men. The first Naval battle which followed may be looked upon as a foreshadowing of Trafalgar; for the English boats gained a complete victory over those of the enemy, and thereby England obtained command of the sea. In those times no clear distinction existed between war-ships and merchant-ships. All were prepared to defend themselves when need arose; and any might be used, either to carry fighting-men, or to convey merchandise. Not until the reign of Edward I. did a difference grow up, separating those vessels which as a rule kept to more peaceful occupations, merely fighting in self-defence when attacked,--and those vessels which devoted themselves to aggressive warfare. From that date, gradually, the Royal Navy grew into being. Even in the time of Queen Elizabeth the separating line was not very marked. There _was_ a Royal Navy, which took its share in repelling the Spanish invasion; and the whole of that Navy in tonnage was far from equalling one huge ship of modern days, the _Celtic_, White Star Liner. Of the hundred and ninety-seven vessels, however, which met the vast array of the Armada, only thirty-four were in any sense strictly Men-of-War; and of those thirty-four one alone was over a thousand tons in weight. The remaining hundred and sixty-three were Merchant-ships, fitted up as best they might be for warlike purposes; most of them being under four hundred tons. But no mistake existed about the way in which these pigmies set to work, like bulldogs, to worry the great Spanish ships. Century after century the Navy grew, adding in each generation to its size and strength. English sailors found their way hither and thither, in the interests of their country, for war, for exploration, for purposes of trade, discovering unknown lands, penetrating towards the North Pole, mapping out the Ocean.