“The Queen’s Highness,” a contemporary historian writes,[19] “hath at this present already made and furnished, to the number of One Hundred and Twenty Great Ships, which lie for the most part in Gillingham Road. Beside these, her Grace hath other in hand also; she hath likewise three notable Galleys, the _Speedwell_, the _Tryeright_, and the _Black Galley_, with the sight whereof, and the rest of the Navy-Royal, it is incredible to say how marvellously her Grace is delighted. I add, to the end that all men should understand somewhat of the _great masses of treasure_ daily employed upon our Navy, how there are few merchant ships of the first and second sort, that being apparelled and made ready to sail, are not worth one thousand pounds, or three thousand ducats at the least, if they should presently be sold. What then shall we think of the Navy-Royal, of which some one vessel is worth two of the other, as the shipwright has often told me.” Queen Elizabeth had, in 1578, twenty-four ships ranging from the _Triumph_, of 1,000 tons, built in 1561, to the _George_, of under 60 tons. When the Spanish Armada arrived in the Channel in 1588, the British fleet, which numbered one hundred and ninety-seven vessels, included thirty-four belonging to the state. The remainder were ships of various kinds and sizes, mostly small, hired by the state or provided by private owners, and fitted out hastily for war purposes by their owners or the ports. The Cinque Ports, it should be remembered, which furnished a considerable number, were obliged by Henry VIII., in return for certain privileges, to supply him with fifty-seven ships, each containing twenty-one men and a boy, for fifteen days once a year at the ports’ expense, and it often happened that the ports had to find a greater number of vessels. After the fifteen days they received state pay. A similar arrangement held good at the time of the Armada. The largest ships in the English force are sometimes stated to have carried fifty-five or sixty guns, and one may have carried sixty-eight guns. The armament of the _Triumph_, which was the heaviest armed English vessel, comprised four cannon, three demi-cannon, seventeen culverins, eight demi-culverins, six sakers, and four small pieces. The _Elizabeth Jones_, of 900 tons, built in 1559, carried fifty-six guns, and the _Ark Royal_, Lord Howard’s flagship, launched in 1587, had fifty-eight guns and a crew of four hundred and thirty men, her tonnage being 800. The principal royal ships and the number of guns they carried were, as far as can be ascertained accurately: _Ark Royal_, fifty-five guns; _Lion_, thirty-eight; _Triumph_, forty-two; _Victory_, forty-two; _Bonaventure_, thirty-four; _Dreadnought_, thirty-two; _Nonpareil_, thirty-eight; _Rainbow_, forty; _Vanguard_, forty; _Mary Rose_, thirty-six; _Antelope_, thirty; and _Swiftsure_, forty-two. The Spanish ships were rather floating fortresses packed with soldiers, and