Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/90

78 Lord High Admiral of England to watch for her. At the end of 1605, she was taken in the Channel, and carried into an English port. Her name was the Husband, and she was owned by London merchants. In her hold was some £10,000 worth of the Soderina's cargo. Before this booty had been fully discharged, another ship, the Seraphim, arrived from Tunis with a similar freight. She, too, was arrested, and her cargo, or as much of it as could be proved to be Venetian, was handed back to Giustinian. Ward made one or two more attempts to open up a market in Europe, but the ships were taken, one after another, at Bristol and elsewhere, so that at last he abandoned the scheme. He waited at Tunis for several months for King James's answer to his request for pardon. When the royal refusal reached him, he put to sea again, partly to make more money to offer in bribes and partly to make the merchants more eager for him to be pardoned. At about this time, March 1606, a Royal Proclamation was issued for his suppression.

The cruise of 1608 was an eventful cruise for Ward. He had fitted out the Soderina for a flagship, and had mounted her with sixty or seventy