rdly substance, preventing the warrior
from settling his disputes in the good old fashion of his forbears. In any
case, when you practically had to push the muzzle of your gun against your
enemy's body in order to hit him, it was not a weapon upon which much
reliance was to be placed.

There were, in addition to the galley, the nef and the galeasse; the former
of these was a sailing vessel pure and simple like those remarkable
caravels in which Columbus discovered America.

What these caravels were exactly like it was the good fortune of the writer
to see in the year 1893. This was the date of the great exhibition of
Chicago, and the American Government were most anxious to have, and to
exhibit if possible, an exact replica of these historic craft. They
accordingly communicated with the Spanish Government and inquired if by any
chance they possessed the plans and specifications of the caravels of
Columbus? Search was made in the archives of Cadiz Dockyard and these
priceless documents were discovered. From them the ships were built in
every respect the same as the wonderful originals and then towed across the
Atlantic by the United States cruiser _Lancaster_. On their way they were
brought to Gibraltar, where the writer's ship was then stationed, and were
anchored inside the New Mole. The _Santa Maria_, the flagship of Columbus,
was a three-masted vessel with a very high "forecastle" and "sterncastle"
and very deep in the waist; she had three masts, the foremast carrying one
square sail, the mainmast having both mainsail and main-topsail, the mizzen
was rigged with a lateen sail, on the mainsail was painted the Maltese and
on the foresail the Papal cross, and on deck she carried a brick-built
cooking galley. A most beautiful model of this vessel is to be seen in the
Science and Art Department of the South Kensington Museum.

The nef in its later manifestations became a much more seaworthy vessel
than this, with four masts, the two foremost ones square-rigged and
carrying courses and topsails, the two after ones carrying lateen sails;
the latter from their small size and their proximity to one another could
not have had much effect on the sailing qualities of the ship. The nefs in
the fleet of Don John of Austria in 1571 were rigged in this fashion and
comprised vessels of eight hundred, nine hundred, and even one thousand
tons, while a contemporary English vessel, the _Great Harry_ or _Henri
Grace a Dieu_, was as much