nd 4 small pieces. The greatest
number of guns carried by any ship in the fleet was 56, mounted on board
the _Elizabeth Jones_, of 900 tons, and built in 1559. The flagship of
the Lord High Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham, the _Ark_, was the
most modern of the English warships, having been built in 1587. She was
of 800 tons, carried a crew of 430, and mounted 55 guns.

Of the merchant auxiliaries the two largest were the _Galleon Leicester_
and the _Merchant Royal_, each of 400 tons, and each carried a crew of
160 men. In the former of these the explorer Cavendish afterwards made
his last voyage. Another of the merchant-ships, the _Edward
Bonaventure_, belonged to the Levant Company, and in the years 1591 to
1593 was distinguished as the first English ship that made a successful
voyage to India.

The size of a large number of the merchant-ships was under 100 tons. The
total number of the crews of the entire English fleet was 15,551; of
these 6,289 belonged to the queen's ships.

As a general rule, the English ships in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
both in the Royal Navy and in the Mercantile Marine, were much inferior
in size to the vessels belonging to the great Maritime Republics of
Italy and to Spain and Portugal. Hitherto the practice had been general
of hiring Genoese and Venetian carracks for mercantile purposes. It is
stated that about the year 1578, or twenty years after Queen Elizabeth's
accession to the throne, there were only 24 ships in the Royal Navy and
135 of above 100 tons burthen in the whole kingdom, and but 656 that
exceeded 40 tons. Nevertheless, in this reign there was a great
development of mercantile activity, in which the sovereign as well as
her people participated. Many trading expeditions were sent out to the
West Indies and to North America, and warlike descents on the Spanish
ports were frequently carried out, and were attended with great success.
In Elizabeth's time the first British colony, Virginia, was founded in
North America, and Sir Francis Drake undertook his memorable and
eventful voyage round the world in a squadron, which consisted, at the
commencement, of five vessels, whereof the largest, the _Pelican_, was
of only 100 tons burthen, and the smallest a pinnace of 15 tons. So
great was the progress made about this time in English maritime trade
that, only four years after the date above mentioned, there were said to
have been no less than 135 English commercial vessels of abov