Reference has been made to the guns used on shipboard at various times, and to the establishment of dimensions or rates to be observed in building the ships employed in the British Navy. The guns about to be described were used in all navies; the establishments referred to are peculiar to the British Navy, though the vessels themselves differed but little from those belonging to other nations. It must also be remembered that though the names of the guns were retained through century after century, very little is known of the earliest weapons, and that their names came to be applied to guns which had little in common. The establishments, as they were called, were adopted to secure uniformity in types, and it is well to bear these details in mind, or at least to refer to them, in studying the history of the achievements of the British Navy in order that an approximately correct idea may be obtained of the ships and weapons used by and against Great Britain which have had so great an influence on the world’s history. The principal establishments were ordered in 1677, 1691, 1706, 1719, and 1745, and certain proposals were also made in 1733 and 1741, which were not of quite so far-reaching a character as the others. The establishment of 1745 was not adhered to for many years, and there has been no cut-and-dried establishment since, the requirements of modern warfare and the inventiveness of all nations having militated against adherence to a rigid standard. Ships of one hundred guns were in length on the gun-deck in 1677, 165 feet; in 1719, 174 feet; in 1745, 178 feet; their extreme breadth was 46 feet in 1677, and 51 feet in 1745, and the burthen increased from 1,550 tons in the first-named year, to 2,000 in the last. The ships of ninety guns had lengths on the gun-deck of 158 feet, 164 feet, and 170 feet in the three years respectively; their extreme breadth was 44 feet, 47 feet 2 inches, and 48 feet 6 inches, and their tonnage 1,307, 1,569, and 1,730 tons. The three-deckers of eighty guns first appear in the 1691 establishment; they were 156 feet on the gun-deck, 158 feet in 1719, and 165 feet in 1745; their extreme breadths at the three dates were 41 feet, 44 feet 6 inches, and 47 feet, and their burthens 1,100, 1,350, and 1,585 tons. Seventy-gun ships increased from 150 feet in length in 1677, to 160 feet in 1745, their breadth from 39 feet 8 inches to 45 feet, and their burthens from 1,013 tons to 1,414 tons. Ships of sixty guns were 144 feet in length in 1691, and 150 feet in 1745, with respective breadths of 37 feet 6 inches, and 42 feet 8 inches, and tonnages of 900 and 1,191 tons. Fifty-gun ships appear in the ratings of 1706 with a length of 130 feet, and in 1745 of 144 feet; then-respective breadths being 38 feet and 41 feet, and tonnages 704 and 1,052 tons. In the same year also, 40-gun ships are recorded with a length of 118 feet, an extreme breadth of 32 feet, and a tonnage of 531 tons; these dimensions had