Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/486

 countries. Thus the "grand fleet," when equipped, sailed under the command of the Duke of Lancaster and besieged St. Malo ineffectually, the natural result being that French cruisers ravaged the coasts of Cornwall, while a combined fleet of French and Spanish galleys sailed up the Thames to Gravesend, plundering and destroying the towns and villages along the Kentish shores.

Here again the merchant service came to the timely aid of the state. The hostile galleys, on their way down the Channel with the view of ravaging every defenceless place on the coast, were met by a fleet of west-country merchantmen, who had united for their mutual defence, and thus, for the present, checked their further course. Though their vessels were generally much smaller than those of the Spaniards and often more than over-matched by their superior equipment, the English far surpassed the seamen of the south in daring skill and hardihood. By the boldness of their attack, especially during inclement weather, they often, as in the present instance, achieved victories over their better found and more scientific adversaries. They had, however, a long career of thankless, though of noble and patriotic, struggles. Heavily taxed for the maintenance of a fleet, too often used for purposes of no concern to the nation, they were still obliged to create one of their own to protect their commerce and to defend their homes, at a time, too, when legislative enactments threw nearly the whole of