ansion. In
Portugal, Spain, and England, "the blue water school" of mariners
speedily created navies whose strife was apparently more decisive for
the future of history than were the battles of armies on land.

When the trade routes of the Atlantic superseded those of the
Mediterranean in importance, naturally methods of navigation changed,
and this involved a revolution in naval warfare greater than that
caused by steam or by the submarine. From the time that Helen's beauty
launched a thousand ships until the battle of Lepanto, the oar had been
the chief instrument of locomotion, though supplemented, even from
Homeric times, by the sail. Naval battles were like those on land; the
enemy keels approached and the soldiers on each strove to board and
master the other's crew. The only distinctly naval tactic was that of
"ramming," as it was called in a once vivid metaphor.

But the wild winds and boisterous waves of the Atlantic broke the oar
in the galley-slave's hand and the muscles in his back. Once again man
harnessed the hostile forces of nature; the free breezes were broken to
the yoke and new types of sailing ships were driven at racing speed
across the broad back of the sea. Swift, yare vessels were built, at
first smaller than the {491} old galleons but infinitely more
manageable. And the new boats, armed with thunder as they were clad
with wings, no longer sought to sink or capture enemies at close
quarters, but hurled destruction from afar. Heavy guns took the place
of small weapons and of armed prow.

It was England's genius for the sea that enabled her to master the new
conditions first and most completely and that placed the trident in her
hands so firmly that no enemy has ever been able to wrest it from her.
Henry VIII paid great attention to the navy. He had fifty-three
vessels with an aggregate of 11,268 tons, an average of 200 tons each,
carrying 1750 soldiers, 1250 sailors and 2085 guns. Under Elizabeth
the number of vessels had sunk to 42, but the tonnage had risen to
17,055, and the crews numbered 5534 seamen, 804 gunners and 2008
soldiers. The largest ships of the Tudor navy were of 1000 tons; the
flagship of the Spanish Armada was 1150 tons, carrying 46 guns and 422
men. How tiny are these figures! A single cruiser of today has a
larger tonnage than the whole of Elizabeth's fleet; a large submarine
is greater than the monsters of Philip.

SECTION 4. PRIVATE LIFE AND MANNERS

Of a