nce of such a vast reserve in ships and men delayed the progress
of purely naval construction. Only with the coming of steam was the line
drawn sharply and definitely--the branch outgrowing the interlock of the
parent stem.

With partial severance and division of the ships, the seamen--who had
been for so long of one breed, laying down sail-needle and caulking-iron
to serve ordnance and hand-cutlass or boarding-pike--had reached a
parting of the ways, and become naval or mercantile as their habits lay.
The State war vessels, built and manned and maintained for strictly
military uses, increased in strength and numbers. Their officers and
crews developed a new seamanship and discipline that had little
counterpart on the commercial vessels. For a time the two services
sailed, if not in company, within sight and hail of one another. On
occasion they joined to effect glorious issues, but, with the last
broadside of war, courses were set that quickly swerved the fleets
apart.

Longer terms of peace gave opportunity for development on lines that
were as poles apart. The Naval Service perfected and exercised their
engines of war, and drilled and seasoned their men to automaton-like
subservience to their plans. A broadening to democratic freedom,
quickened by familiar intercourse with other nationals, had effect with
the merchantmen in rousing a reluctance to a resort to arms; they
desired but a free continuance of trading relations. Although differing
in their operations and ideals, both services were striving to enhance
the sea-power of the nation. Thomas Cavendish, Middleton, Monson,
Hudson, and Baffin--merchant masters--explored the unknown and extended
a field for mercantile ventures, but that field could have been but
indifferently maintained if naval power had not been advanced to protect
the merchantmen in their voyaging.

[Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF A MERCHANTMAN]

As their separation developed, relations grew the more distant between
the seamen. While certainly protecting the traders from any foreign
interference, the new Navy did little to effect a community of
interest with their sea-fellows. Prejudices and distrust grew up. State
jealousies and trade monopolies formed a confusion of interests and made
for strained relations between the merchants and the naval chancelleries
on shore. At sea, the arbitrary exercise of authority by the King's
officers was opposed by revolutionary instincts for a free sea on the
p