Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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In 1511 war was declared against France, and Henry caused many new ships to be made, repairing and rigging the old. After an action on the coast of Brittany, where both claimed the advantage, and where two of the largest vessels—the Cordelier, with 900 Frenchmen, and the Regent, with 700 Englishmen, were burned—nearly all on board perishing, Henry advised “a great ship to be made, such as was never before seen in England,” and which was named the Henri Grace de Dieu, or popularly the Great Harry.133 There are many ancient representations of this vessel, which is said to have cost £11,000, and to have taken 400 men four whole days to work from Erith, where she was built, to Barking Creek. “The masts,” says a well-known authority, “were five in number,” but he goes on clearly to show that the fifth was simply the bowsprit; they were in one piece, as had been the usual mode in all previous times, although soon to be altered by the introduction of several joints or top-masts, which could be lowered in time of need. The rigging was simple to the last degree, but there was a considerable amount of ornamentation on the hull, and small flags were disposed almost at random on different parts of the deck and gunwale, and one at the head of each mast. The standard of England was hoisted on the principal mast; enormous pendants, or streamers, were added, though ornaments which must have been often inconvenient. The Great Harry was of 1,000 tons, and in—so far as the writer can discover—the only skirmish she was concerned in the Channel, for it could not be dignified by the name of an engagement, carried 700 men. She was burned at Woolwich, at the opening of Mary’s reign, through the carelessness of the sailors.