Coming back to the first naval expedition to Australia, the ship commanded
by Dampier was the _Roebuck_, as Evelyn tells us, a vessel of 290 tons.
Dampier has left very little description of his ship, but it is not
difficult to picture her, for by this time the ratings of ships had been
settled upon certain lines, and the meaning of the word "rating" as used
at this period is easily ascertainable.

According to Charnock's _Marine Architecture_, the _Roebuck_, lying at
Deptford in June, 1684, was a sixth-rate of 24 guns and 85 men. This was
her war complement; but Dampier himself tells us that he "sailed from the
Downs early on Saturday, January 14th, 1699, with a fair wind, in His
Majesty's ship the _Roebuck_, carrying but 12 guns on this voyage and 50
men with 20 months' provisions."

In 1677, according to James' _History_, the smallest fifth-rate then
afloat corresponds nearest to the _Roebuck_, and, no doubt, by Dampier's
time this vessel had been reduced in her rating. The vessel of 1677 is
described as being of 265 tons and 28 guns, "sakers and minions," with a
complement of about 100 men. The largest sixth-rate was 199 tons, 18 guns,
and 85 men. So from these particulars we can take it as correct that the
_Roebuck_ in 1699 was a sixth-rate. It is worth remembering that in
Cavendish's second expedition to the South Sea, in 1591, there was a ship
called the _Roebuck_, commanded by John Davis, and likely enough the
sixth-rate in which Dampier sailed was named after her, those who gave her
the name little thinking at the time of her christening (she was built
before Dampier's voyage, and was certainly not the _Roebuck_ of
Cavendish's fleet) how appropriately they were naming her for her future
service.

[Illustration: THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS, BUILT IN THE YEAR 1637. From a
print in the British Museum by Paine.]

Her armament is a matter of interest, for just about her time--that is,
between the years 1685 and 1716--the naming of guns after beasts and
birds of prey went out of fashion, and they were distinguished by the
weight of the shot fired. James, quoting from Sir William Monson's _Naval
Tracts_, supplies the following table on the subject of sea guns; and, as
they were probably still in use in Dampier's time, we print it here:--

| Bore of | Weight of | Weight of | Weight of
Names. |cannon in | cannon in | shot in | powder in
| inches. | pou