k, which in half-an-hour fell down
on their heads, and drove them from their guns. On seeing death on
either side, some leaped overboard, and put themselves on the mercy of
the enemy, while the rest set fire to the powder-room, and blew up the
ship. Those who were received on board the frigates were carried into
Ormuz Island, and the next morning Rufero gave orders to cut off all
their heads, with the exception of one Thomas Winterbrune, whom he sent
with a letter to the merchants at Gambroon. The rest, twenty-six
persons, were immediately beheaded. This will give us some idea of the
mode of proceeding between belligerents in those days. The object of
the Portuguese was to prevent the English and Dutch from interfering
with their trade, and they hoped by such horrible cruelty to intimidate
others from coming out, or else were actuated by a spirit of barbarous
revenge. In 1626 the wages of seamen in the Royal Navy were increased
to twenty shillings a-month, and of ordinary seamen to fourteen
shillings, besides an allowance to a chaplain of fourpence, to a barber
twopence, and to the Chest at Chatham of sixpence per month. A clerk
and a keeper of all the king's stores and storehouses at Chatham,
Portsmouth, Deptford, etcetera, were also appointed.

An arbitrary tax having been imposed in the year 1634, by the name of
ship-money, which compelled all the seaport towns to furnish a fleet to
prevent the Dutch fishing on the coast of Britain; it was now extended
throughout the whole kingdom. The fleet was to consist of 44 ships,
carrying 8000 men, and to be armed and fitted for war; but, as will be
remembered, the unhappy king raised the money, but spent it on other
objects.

In 1637 was laid the keel of the _Royal Sovereign_, of 128 feet, the
first three-decked ship built for the Royal Navy. From the fore-end of
the beak-head to the after-end of the stern she measured 232 feet, and
she had a beam of 48 feet, while from the bottom of the keel to the top
of the stern-lantern she measured 76 feet. She carried 30 guns on her
lower-deck, 30 on the middle-deck, 26 on the main-deck, 14 on the
quarter-deck, 12 on the forecastle, and had 10 stern and bow-chasers.
She was of 1637 tons burden; she carried eleven anchors, the largest
weighing 4400 pounds; she had five stern-lanterns, the centre so large
as to contain ten persons upright. She was built by Peter Pett, under
the inspection of Phineas Pett.

The French, at the