Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/182

 garter. Ships bearing Christian names seem to have had on board an image of their patron.

In consequence of the deterioration of the navy, the sheriffs of many counties were ordered in October, 1340, to proclaim that no owner of a ship, or other person, should sell or give a ship to any foreigner, upon pain of forfeiting the vessel and his other property. In 1336, and again in 1341 and 1343, the exportation of timber fit for shipbuilding, and of wood and boards, was stringently prohibited.

It was in the reign of Edward III. that the navy first experienced the influence of the invention of gunpowder, and of its application as a propellent to the purposes of warfare. The question of the discovery of gunpowder needs not to be discussed here. It will suffice to say that it appears to have been first used in land warfare in

PRIMITIVE WIRE-WOUND GUN. Europe about the year 1325 or 1326, when the Florentine Republic certainly possessed cannon; and that in June, 1338, three iron cannon with chambers, and hand-gun, figured among the stores of the Christopher of the Tower; that the barge Mary of the Tower had an iron cannon with two chambers, and  brass cannon with one chamber; that the Bernard of the Tower had two iron cannon; and that other cannon existed on board ships of the king. It is probable, though by no means certain, that these weapons were then quite new. Guns, however, were not common in the navy until several years later, and not before about 1373 do entries concerning guns, powder and shot become frequent in naval documents. In the account of John de Sleaford, Clerk of the Privy Wardrobe, of armour, shot, gunpowder, etc., 1372-1374, mention is made of