To replace the _Regent_, and to emulate Francis I. of France, who had built a ship called the _Caracon_ (afterwards burnt at Havre), carrying one hundred guns, Henry ordered the _Henry Grace de Dieu_, of the same tonnage, 1,000 tons, but carrying one hundred and twenty-two guns. It is disputed whether she was built at Erith, as usually stated, or whether she was launched at Deptford and completed at Erith. Her launch took place in 1515. Historians differ as to what became of this vessel. One version is that she rolled incessantly and steered badly, and, having been built rather for magnificence than use, only made one voyage and was disarmed at Bristol and suffered to decay. If this be so, it affords an explanation of the discrepancies in the illustrations of the _Henry Grace de Dieu_, as it is permissible to suppose that another vessel bearing that name was constructed to take its place and that the newcomer afterwards became known as the _Edward_. The _Henry Grace de Dieu_ was sometimes called the _Great Harry_, but must not be confused with Henry VII.’s ship bearing that name. The _Henry Grace de Dieu_ was renamed the _Edward_ after the accession of the next monarch. She had four pole masts; the foremast was placed almost over the stem, an arrangement which must have made her pitch deeply and recover slowly; the mainmast was at the break of the after deckhouse or sterncastle; the mizen or third mast was midway between the mainmast and the stern, and the fourth, or second mizen, was at the extreme stern, as far aft as it was possible to place it. Her forecastle overhung her bows by 12 feet or so, an arrangement which must have made her very uncomfortable in anything like a sea. She is asserted to have been the first four-masted vessel. There was also a fifth mast, if it may so be called, which slanted forward like an immense bowsprit. The first, second, and third masts had two round tops each, and the fourth mast one top, these being for the archers. Her sails and pennants were of damasked cloth of gold. Her armament comprised twenty-one heavy brass guns, and numerous smaller pieces of various types; but when she passed into the possession of Edward VI. she had nineteen brass guns and one hundred and one of iron. [Illustration: GREAT SHIP OF HENRY VIII. (_From a drawing by Holbein._)]