annoneer makes
his Quarter to have two one above another below [_this last passage is a
little obscure, but we take it to mean that at night, when the gunner
slept in his cabin, a lighted match was to be beside him, but that in
the gun-decks below and above his cabin (which was in the half-deck) lit
matches were to be kept ready for immediate use, by those who kept
watch_], that his Granadoes [_black clay, or thick glass bottles,
filled with priming powder, and fired by a length of tow, well soaked in
saltpetre water_] and Firepots [_balls of hard tar, sulphur-meal and
rosin, kneaded together and fired by a priming of bruised powder_] be in
readiness, and 3 or 400 Cartridges ready fill'd, Extrees [?] and Trucks
[_wheels_] to turn often over the Powder Barrels that the Powder do not
spoil; to have a care of Rings [_ring-bolts_] and of the Ports [he here
means port-lids] that they have their Pins and small Rings."

Sir William Monson adds that the gunner was to acquaint himself with the
capacities of every known sort of firearm, likely to be used at sea. He
also gives some professional hints for the guidance of gunners. He tells
us (and Sir Richard Hawkins confirms him) that no sea-cannon ought to be
more than seven or eight feet long; that they ought not to be
taper-bored, nor honey-combed within the bore, and that English
ordnance, the best in Europe, was sold in his day for twelve pounds a
ton.

In Boteler's time the gunner commanded a gang, or crew, who ate and
slept in the gun-room, which seems in those days to have been the
magazine. He had to keep a careful account of the expenditure of his
munitions, and had orders "not to make any shot without the Knowledge
and order of the captain."

_Authorities._--N. Boteler: "Six Dialogues." W. Bourne: "The Art of
Shooting in Great Ordnance"; "Regiment for the Sea"; "Mariner's
Guide." Sir W. Monson: "Naval Tracts." Sir Jonas Moore. R. Norton:
"The Gunner." John Roberts: "Complete Cannoneer."

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SHIP'S COMPANY

Captain--Master--Lieutenant--Warrant officers--Duties and privileges

By comparing Sir Richard Hawkins' "Observations" and Sir W. Monson's
"Tracts" with Nicolas Boteler's "Dialogical Discourses," we find that
the duties of ship's officers changed hardly at all from the time of the
Armada to the death of James I. Indeed they changed hardly at all until
the coming of the steamship. In modern sailing ships the duties of