Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/109

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own people, England is mainly indebted to that monarch for her first organised Royal Navy. Though her merchants' ships had hitherto been her chief means of defence from foreign invasion, and had played a conspicuous part in all her naval engagements, they were frequently dangerous instruments during periods of peace. Commissioned in war "to burn, plunder, and destroy," they were with difficulty restrained from following similar avocations on their own account when peace had been restored. The patriot of to-day too often became the pirate of tomorrow.

In his attempts, however vain, to suppress the lawless acts of his own people, as well as to clear the English Channel of foreign buccaneers, Henry, soon after his accession, saw the necessity of forming a standing royal navy. Among his many and varied abilities, he was his own engineer, and with workmanlike understanding, he likewise planned improvements in the mode of shipbuilding, conducting experiments in the construction of the hulls, and in plans for rigging and sailing. The few ships the government then possessed had fallen into decay, and a royal cruiser carrying the flag of England was rarely seen in the Channel. Ample materials, however, to man a fleet were to be found in the vast numbers of her own fishermen, and especially from among those employed in Iceland, which, before the discovery of Newfoundland, had become the chief rendezvous for these hardy men. Taught by necessity the arts of war as well as of peace, they, in following their usual peaceful employments, were always armed. Yet, though a fleet worthy of the name