ird, A.D.
1216. Frequent expeditions were fitted out on his demand by the Cinque
Ports, and by other maritime towns, while merchant-vessels were
occasionally pressed into his service to carry him and his troops over
to France. The king himself also possessed a fleet of some importance,
one of his ships carrying, besides the commander and officers and the
regular fighting men, fully thirty mariners. Many merchant-vessels of
the present day of eight or nine hundred tons, do not carry a larger
crew. In those days we read that a number of piratical vessels, both
British and of other nations, scoured the ocean, and committed great
depredations both along the coast and on the peaceable merchantmen who
sailed up and down it.

The great object of the commander of a fleet in those days was to gain
the weather-gage, then to bear down under all sail in order to strike
the broadsides of the enemy's ships; when the one generally attempted to
board the other, if not to throw stink-pots into their antagonists'
vessels, or what were called fire-works, a sort of hand grenades; and
sometimes slaked lime to blind the foe with the vapour. With this
object in view the admiral manoeuvred his fleet for hours together,
rowing and sailing. As guns, when they first came into use, carried no
great distance, they were not fired till ships got close together.
Ships in action very frequently caught fire and blew up, and sometimes
locked in a deadly embrace, were destroyed together. Trumpeters had an
important part to play, not only to make signals, but to create as much
noise as possible. The good ship called the _Matthew Gonson_, of the
burden of three hundred tons, whereof was owner old Master William
Gonson, paymaster of the king's navy, fitted out at this time for a
voyage to the islands of Candia and Chio to bring back wine and other
produce, besides the hundred men of her company, had six gunners and
four trumpeters. Probably men-of-war had many more such musicians.

Edward the First, A.D. 1272, ordained various laws and ordinances for
the government of his navy, which was now, though still furnished
chiefly by the maritime ports, better organised than hitherto. He
claimed, also, the right of England to the sovereignty of the narrow
seas, asserting that from time immemorial it had been undisputed. About
the year 1290, the pennant used at the present day by all ships
commissioned by officers of the Royal Navy was first adopted.

I