thfully served him. The pension is stated to
have been given "to John Hoggekyns,
master-carpenter, of special grace, because by long
working at the ships his body was much shaken and
worsted."]

Nor did he confine his labours in this great work to England; he
employed also his Continental resources in forwarding the same object.
A letter from one John Alcestre, from Bayonne,[101] informs us of a
ship of very considerable dimensions then on the stocks at that port,
for the building of which the mayor and "his consorts" had contracted
with Henry. The vessel was one hundred and eighty-six feet in length
from "the onmost end of the stem onto the post behind." "The stem" was
in height ninety-six feet, and the keel was in length one hundred and
twelve feet.

[Footnote 101: Ellis, Second Series, Letter XXI.]

Henry appears also to have acquired the reputation in foreign
countries of having a desire to possess large vessels of his own. An
agent in Spain, for example, after informing one of the King's
officers in England of his unsuccessful endeavour to cause to be
seized for the King's use four armed galleys of Provence, expected to
enter the port of Valencia, and which the King of Arragon's government
had consented to arrest for Henry, but which disappointed them (p. 131)
by not coming to land, mentions that two new carraks (a species of
large transport vessel) were in building "at Bartholem," which the
King might have if he pleased.

The high importance which Henry attached to these rising bulwarks of
his country shows itself in various ways; in none more curious and
striking than (a fact, it is presumed, new to history,) in the solemn
religious ceremony with which they were consecrated before he
committed them to the mighty waters. One of the highest order of the
Christian ministry was employed, and similar devotions were performed
at the dedication of one of the royal "great ships," as we should find
in the consecration of a cathedral. They were called also by some of
the holiest of all names ever uttered by Christians.[102] Thus, on the
completion of the good ship the Grace-Dieu at Southampton, the
"venerable father in Christ, the Bishop of Bangor,"[103] was
commissioned by the King's council to proceed from London at the
public expense to consecrate it.

[Footnote 102: When he sailed from Southampton