When vessels with two and more decks were constructed, the lower ports were cut so near the water that when the vessel heeled, or even a moderate sea was running, the guns could not be worked. The ports of the _Mary Rose_, which was the next largest ship to the _Regent_, at one time, and had a tonnage variously stated at 500 and 660 tons, though afterwards surpassed by the _Sovereign_, 800 tons, _Gabriel Royal_, 650 tons, and _Katherine Forteless_, or _Fortileza_, were but 16 inches above the water. She was lost, in 1545, through the water entering her lower ports when going about off Spithead, and her commander and six hundred men went down with her; the _Great Harry_ had a narrow escape from a similar disaster at the same time. A report on the Royal Navy in 1552 makes interesting reading. The fleet was overhauled, and twenty-four “ships and pinnaces are in good case to serve, so that they may be grounded and caulked once a year to keep them tight.” This is endorsed, “To be so ordered, By the King’s Command.” Other seven ships were ordered to be “docked and new dubbed, to search their treenails and iron work.” The _Mrs. Grand_, a name which no longer adorns the “Navy List,” a vessel carrying a crew of two hundred and fifty men, and having one brass gun and twenty-two iron guns, lying at Deptford, was recommended to be “dry-docked--not thought worthy of new making”; so she was ordered “To lie still, or to take that which is profitable of her for other Ships.” Six others were stated in the report--a document seemingly the work of a naval reform party--to be “not worth keeping,” but they were ordered “To be preserved, as they may with little charge.” Queen Elizabeth, whose patriotism and naval enthusiasm were about equally in evidence, was careful of her men and ships, raised the pay of her officers and seamen, and took steps generally to have the navy and the naval resources strengthened and conserved. She seems to have had twenty-nine vessels in 1565. She also encouraged merchants to build large vessels, which could be converted into warships as occasion required. The exigencies of trading over sea, however, were such that many of the vessels required little to be done to them in the way of conversion. Vessels were also rated at from 50 to 100 tons more than they measured. [Illustration: BREECH-LOADING GUN RECOVERED FROM THE WRECK OF THE “MARY ROSE.” _In the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution. A spare chamber is shown in the front._]