eather. The roundship, dromond, or cargo
boat, was often little more than two beams long, and therefore far too
slow to compete with ships of the galley type. She could stand heavy
weather better than the galley, and she needed fewer hands, and could
carry more provisions, but she was almost useless as a ship of war.

In the reign of Henry VIII. the shipwrights of this country began to
build ships which combined something of the strength, and capacity of
the dromond, with the length and fineness of the galley. The ships they
evolved were mainly dependent upon their sails, but they carried a bank
of oars on each side, for use in light weather. The galley, or longship,
had carried guns on a platform at the bows, pointing forward. But these
new vessels carried guns in broadside, in addition to the bow-chasers.
These broadside guns were at first mounted _en barbette_, pointing over
the bulwarks. Early in the sixteenth century the port-hole, with a
hinged lid, was invented, and the guns were then pointed through the
ship's sides. As these ships carried more guns than the galleys, they
were built more strongly, lest the shock of the explosions should shake
them to pieces. They were strong enough to keep the seas in bad weather,
yet they had enough of the galley build to enable them to sail fast when
the oars were laid inboard. It is thought that they could have made as
much as four or five knots an hour. These ships were known as
galliasses,[18] and galleons, according to the proportions between their
lengths and beams. The galleons were shorter in proportion to their
breadth than the galliasses.[19] There was another kind of vessel, the
pinnace, which had an even greater proportionate length than the
galliasse. Of the three kinds, the galleon, being the shortest in
proportion to her breadth, was the least fitted for oar propulsion.

[Footnote 18: See Charnock's "Marine Architecture."]

[Footnote 19: See Corbett's "Drake and the Tudor Navy."]

[Illustration: AN ELIZABETHAN GALLEON]

During the reign of Elizabeth, the galleon, or great ship, and the
galliasse, or cruiser, grew to gradual perfection, in the hands of our
great sailors. If we look upon the galleon or great ship as the
prototype of the ship of the line, and on the galliasse as the prototype
of the frigate, and on the pinnace as the prototype of the sloop, or
corvette, we shall not be far wrong. They were, of course, in many ways
inferior to the ships which fou