HE seamanship, the navigation, and the gunnery of the Elizabethan age will ever be memorable2, not merely because they attained3 such excellence4 after centuries of imperfection, but because by a combination of these three arts the whole future of England was mapped out, her supremacy6 assured, and her colonial expansion begun.
A four-masted warship7 of her reign8 was not a handy creature to control. She could fight and she could ride out an Atlantic gale9, but she was clumsy; she was—even the best of her class—much addicted10 to rolling, owing to the fact that she possessed11 such immense weights above the water-line. She was certainly an improvement on the ships of Henry VII and VIII, but she was too cumbrous to be considered in any degree satisfactory. Before we proceed to discuss the way they were handled, let us briefly13 survey the principal types of vessels15 on board which the men of this reign had to serve.
Sixteenth-Century Four-Masted Ship.
By a Contemporary Artist.
Elizabethans Boarding an Enemy’s Ship.
There was, firstly, the “high-charged” man-of-war with her lofty poop and forecastle. A contemporary illustration shows such a vessel14 with guns protruding187 from the stern and two tiers of guns running along either side of the ship. There were light guns in the forecastle as well. That portion on the main deck between the break of the poop and forecastle was the waist, where the crew moved about and the ship’s boats were stowed. In those days, when so much of188 the fighting was done at close quarters, and the enemy endeavoured so to man?uvre his ship as to come alongside and pour his men on the other’s deck, dealing16 out slaughter17 to all who should bar his way, it was the aim of the attacked ship to catch the invaders18 between two fires. The poop and forecastle being so well guarded and, by reason of their height, so difficult to assault, the enemy might possibly board the ship at the waist. But inasmuch as the after bulkhead of the forecastle and the forward bulkhead of the poop were pierced for quick-firing guns, the boarding party was likely to meet with a warm reception. As an additional obstacle to boarding, it was customary before a fight to stretch long red cloths over the waist. These cloths were edged on each side with calico, says an Elizabethan writer, and were allowed to hang several feet over the side all round the ship, being sometimes ornamented19 with devices or painted in various colours. Wooden barriers, called “close-fights,” were also built across the ship’s deck for repelling20 boarders, and were loopholed like the bulkheads. Furthermore, nettings were stretched across the ship to prevent any falling spars from dealing death to the crew.
The tumble-home on these ships was excessive, but since they carried so many decks it was essential that the topmost should be as light as possible. But just as on a modern steamship21 the master can survey everything forward from the eminence22 of his bridge, so the Elizabethan captain, standing23 on the poop, was able to command the whole ship, to see ahead and to keep an eye on his men. There was no uniform colour for painting the Elizabethan hulls24, Mr. Oppenheim says. Black and white, the Tudor colours green and white, red, and timber colour were all used. Sometimes a dragon or a lion gilded26 was at the beak27-head, with the royal arms at the stern. On either side of the stern189 was a short gallery, on to which the captain could emerge from his cabin under the poop. The long tiller from the rudder came in under the poop, and was controlled by a bar or whipstaff attached to this same tiller. “The roul,” says James Lightbody in his “Mariner28’s Jewel,” published in 1695, “is that through190 which the whipstaff goeth, which is a piece of wood the steersman holdeth in his hand to steer29 withal.” The man received his orders, as a rule, from the master of the ship, but when entering port the pilot would instruct him how to steer.
There was not very much room in the fo’k’sle—just enough to sleep a few of the crew and for stowing coils of rope and the like. The galley33 was erected34 at the bottom of the hold on a brick floor. Below the upper deck came the main deck. Here were disposed the heavier guns, and here the crew were berthed35. Between this and the hold was a false orlop, where the bread-room and the cabins of the petty officers were placed. But what was perhaps especially noticeable about these ships was the extent to which the poop and the beak projected away from the hull25. Consequently, not only did these craft roll, but they pitched considerably36 as well. The interiors of the cabins were painted green, and there was a certain amount of carving37 externally both at beak and stern. So much for the “high-charged” type of ship.
But there was also the pinnesse or flush-decked species, such a craft as brought home to England the body of Sir Philip Sidney, and such a craft as often formed a unit in those long, perilous38 transatlantic voyages of discovery. These craft had no raised forecastle other than a small platform, and only a short quarter-deck. There was no such thing as triangular39 sails on the full-rigged ships of those days. There was, indeed, a spritsail, which was a squaresail set on a yard depending from the long, steeved bowsprit, and this was the only headsail. The foremast and mainmast each set a course and topsail, while the mizzen and bonaventure each carried a lateen fore12-and-aft sail. The fore-topmast and main-topmast could be struck if necessary. Elizabethan prints show, situated40 just above191 the lower yard on the bigger ships, a round top or platform from which quick-firing guns and arrows could be fired. At the yard-arms were sometimes fitted hooks, which, catching41 the enemy’s rigging and sails, would do him considerable damage.
Sixteenth-Century Ship Chasing a Galley.
By a Contemporary Artist. The lead of the ropes, the parrals round the masts, the rigging and other details are here most instructively shown.
The following represent the different types of “great ordinance” carried by a ship of war at this period:—
Armament of an Elizabethan Ship
in lbs. Shot
in lbs.
Demi-cannon 6000 32
Culverin 5500 18
Demi-culverin 4500 9
Saker 3500 5?
Falconet 500 1?
But it was seldom that any ordnance greater than a demi-cannon was used on board ship.
The guns were made of brass46 or iron, and were mounted on wooden carriages which had four wheels. They could be run in and out by means of tackles. In his interesting little book, “The Arte of Shooting in Great Ordnance,” by William Bourne, published in 1587, the author significantly speaks of “this barbarous and rude thing called the Art of Shooting in great Ordnaunce.” This was the period, you will remember, when arrows, bills, and pikes had not yet lost their admirers. He tells you in his preface that he has written this book because “we English men haue not beene counted but of late daies to become good Gunners, and the principall point that hath caused English men to be counted good Gunners hath been for that they192 are hardie or without fear about their ordnaunce: but for the knowledg in it other nations and countries haue tasted better therof, as the Italians, French, and Spaniardes, for that the English men haue had but little instruction but that they haue learned of the Doutchmen, or Flemings in the time of King Henry the eight.”
Waist, Quarter-deck, and Poop of the “Revenge.”
(Elizabethan period.)
Sixteenth-Century Three-Masted Ship.
By a Contemporary Artist. The date on the stern is 1564. Notice the man in the maintop dowsing maintopsail.
He goes into the subject with great thoroughness and points out that allowance must be made for the wind, and how to secure good aim. The cannon are to be placed so as to be right in the middle of the ports of the ship, and care is to be taken that the wheels of the gun-carriage are not made too high. He advises that when shooting from one ship at another, if there is any sea193 on it is essential to have a good helmsman “that can stirre steadie.” The best time to fire at the other vessel is when the latter is “alofte on the toppe of the sea,” for then “you have a bigger marke than when she is in the trough.” If the ship rolls, “then the best place of the ship for to make a shotte is out of the head or sterne.” The shorter ordnance is to be placed at the side of the ship because they are lighter47, and if the ship should heave “wyth the bearyng of a Sayle that you must shutte the portes,” then you can easily take the guns in.
“In lyke manner,” he proceeds, “the shorter that the peece lyeth oute of the shyppes syde, the lesse it shall annoy them in the tacklyng of the Shippes Sayles, for if that the piece doe lye verye farre oute of the Shyppes syde, then the Sheetes and Tackes, or the Bolynes wyll alwayes bee foule of the Ordnaunce, whereby it maye muche annoy them in foule weather.” Therefore the long guns are best placed so that they are fired from the stern. But a gun so placed must be “verye farre oute of the porte, or else in the shooting it may blowe up the Counter of the Shyppes sterne.”
In another equally delightful48 volume entitled “Inventions or Devises,” the same author tells his reader how to “arme” (i.e. protect) a “ship of warre.” You are to keep your men as close as you may, and have the bonnet49 off the sail or other canvas stretched along the waist and decks, as I have shown on an earlier page. The forecastle and poop, Bourne says, you may “arm” with “manlets or gownes” “to shaddow your men”; so also the tops, “but now in these daies,” he adds, “the topfight is unto little effect, since the use of Calivers or Muskets50 in Ships,” for the latter could do so much damage. He therefore advises against having many men in the tops. After alluding51 to the netting, which I explained just now, Bourne suggests194 that the captain must send the carpenter “into the holde of the Ship” “to stop any leake if any chance. And also to send downe the Surgion into his Cabin, which ought and must be in the holde of the ship.”
The supreme52 head of the ship was the captain, who was not necessarily a navigator nor even a seaman1; but he was the wielder53 of authority and discipline. He it was who had to keep under control a crew that was prone54 to swearing, blasphemy55, violence, mutiny, and other sins. Sir William Monson has left behind in his most interesting “Naval56 Tracts” many an entertaining detail of sea life during the Elizabethan period, and tells that a captain might punish a man by putting him in the “billbows during pleasure,” ducking him at the yard-arm, hauling him from yard-arm to yard-arm under the ship’s keel (otherwise known as keel-hauling), fastening him to the capstan and flogging him there, or else fastening him at the capstan or mainmast with weights hanging about his neck till his poor heart and back were ready to break. Another brutal57 punishment was to “gagg or scrape their tongues for blasphemy or swearing.”
Elizabethan captains, says Monson, “were gentlemen of worth and means, maintaining their diet at their own charge.” In a fight the lieutenant58 had charge of the forecastle. It was not till the latter part of Elizabeth’s reign that the rank of lieutenant was created for the training of young gentlemen destined59 ultimately for command. He came aboard quite “green” in order to learn what seamanship he could, and to assist the captain in the discipline of the ship; but he was not allowed to interfere60 with the navigation, which was entirely61 the work of the master. Not unnaturally62 there was a good deal of friction63 between the lieutenant and the master. Even the common seaman had an ineradicable contempt for this landlubber, more especially195 in the seventeenth century during the Anglo-Dutch wars.
Riding Bitts on the Gun Deck of the “Revenge.”
(Elizabethan period.)
In his “Accidence, or The Path-way to Experience necessary for all Young Seamen64,” written by Captain John Smith, the first Governor of Virginia, we have a great deal of information which tells us just what we should wish to know. Of the captain and master we have already spoken. The latter and his mates are to “commaund all the Saylors, for steering, trimming, and sayling the Ship.” The pilot takes the ship into harbour, the Cape66-merchant and purser have charge of the cargo67, the master-gunner was responsible for all the munitions68, while the carpenter and his mate looked after the nails, pintles, saws, and any caulking69 of seams as well as the splicing70 of masts and yards. The boatswain had charge of the cordage, marlinespikes, and sails, etc., while his mate had command of the longboat for laying196 out kedge anchors and warping71 or mooring72. The surgeon had to have a certificate from the “Barber-surgeons Hall” “of his sufficiency,” and his medicine-chest must be properly filled. The marshal was to punish offenders73, and the corporal was to see to the setting and relieving of the watch. Every Monday the boatswain was to hear the boys box the compass, after which they were to have a quarter can of beer and a basket of bread.
The men messed in fours, fives, or sixes, and the steward’s duty was “to deliuer out the victuall.” The quartermasters had charge of the stowage, while a cooper was carried to look after the casks for wine and beer, etc. The large ships had three boats, viz. (1) the boat, (2) the cock, and (3) the skiff. These were respectively put in charge of (1) the boatswain, (2) the cockswain, and (3) the skiffswain. Hence the origin of these designations. A cook was carried, and he had his store of “quarter cans, small cannes, platters, spoones, lanthornes,” etc. The swabbers’ duties were to wash and keep clean the ship. But the first man that was found telling a lie every Monday was indicted74 of the offence at the mainmast and placed under the swabber to keep the beak-head and chains clean. The sailors were the experienced mariners75 who hoisted76 the sails, got the tacks77 aboard, hauled the bowlines, and steered78 the ship; while the younkers were the young men called “foremast men,” whose duty it was to take in topsails, furl and sling79 the mainsail, and take their trick at the helm.
Longitudinal Plan of an Early Seventeenth-Century Ship.
This contemporary design conveys an excellent idea of the interior of an ocean-going vessel. Notice the pilot’s place at the stern; the tiller and whip-staff; the capstan; the lower deck; the holds, etc.
In those days the custom of dividing a ship’s company into watches was already in vogue80. “When you set sayle and put to sea, the Captaine is to call up the company; and the one halfe is to goe to the Starreboord, the other to the Larboord, as they are chosen: the Maister chusing first one, then his Mate another,197 and so forward till they bee diuided in two parts.” In those days the reckoning by tonnage was far from reliable as indicating the true size of a ship. Columbus, after his second voyage across the Atlantic, writes to Captain Antonio de Torres of the ship Marigalante, and refers to the freighting of ships by the ton “as the Flemish merchants do,” and this, he suggests, would be a better and less expensive method than any other mode. But when after the capture of a prize the division of shares was made, it was to the advantage of198 the crew to make the tonnage as big as possible. The custom was to allot81 the share in proportions. The ship took a third, the victualler took another third, and the remaining third was divided up among the crew. Of this latter third the captain received nine shares, the master seven, and so on down to the boys who had one share, and there was a reward given to the man who first descried82 the sails of the ship ultimately captured. A reward was also paid to the first man who rushed on board the enemy.
According to Monson, every man and boy was allowed 1 lb. of bread a day and a gallon of beer a day, viz. a quart in the morning, a quart at dinner, a quart in the afternoon, and a quart at supper. On flesh-days each man could have 1 lb. of beef or else 1 lb. of “pork with pease.” Flesh-days were Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The other days were fish-days, and on these every mess of four men was allowed a side of salt fish, “either haberdine, ling, or cod,” 7 oz. of butter, and 14 oz. of cheese. Fridays were excepted, for on these days they had but half allowance. Monson was naturally prejudiced against the Spanish ships, which he accused of being badly kept—“like hog-sties and sheep-coats”—and of giving an allowance of diet far too small. Every man cooked for himself and there was no discipline, although they carried more officers than the English ships. In the latter the captain inspected his ship twice a day to see that she was kept sweet and clean “for avoiding sickness,” but the holds were so badly ventilated, dark, and smelly, the beer was so frequently bad, the food so often putrid83, and the crew themselves so lacking in habits of cleanliness, that scurvy84, dysentery, and other diseases frequently broke out and men died in large numbers. One has only to look through the logs of some of the Elizabethan voyages of discovery to see this for oneself.
A Sixteenth-Century Warship at Anchor.
By a Contemporary Artist. Showing method of embarkation85 and many fascinating details.
199 In addition to the officers already mentioned must be given two more. These were first the ship’s chaplain, who celebrated86 the Holy Communion on Sundays, read prayers two or three times on week-days, preached, and visited the sick and wounded. And secondly87 a trumpeter, who blew on his silver instrument when the ship went into action, at the changing of the watches, and at the coming and going of a distinguished88 guest. His place was on the poop, and it was customary for “himself and his noise to have banners of silk of the admiral’s colours.” The watch was set at eight, and so on through the night and day. When on these occasions the trumpeter sounded his blast he was to “have a can of beer allowed for the same.”
And now that we have got some idea in our minds of the details of the seaman’s life on board an Elizabethan ship, let us be rowed off from the shore in one of her three boats which is bringing water and wood and provisions. The good ship is lying to her anchor in the roadstead about to get underway. Transport yourself, then, in imagination to that epoch89 when England’s seamen made such wonderful history, and endeavour to believe that the cock-boat actually bumps up alongside the English galleon90. You clamber up the ship’s side and find yourself on her deck, where the crew are standing about ready to hear the commands of the master. And now let us watch them get under way. I shall quote not from fiction of to-day, but from an account written by an Elizabethan, this same Captain John Smith, as he wrote it for the edification of young seamen.
“Bend your passerado to the mayne-sayle, git the sailes to the yeards, about your geare on all hands, hoyse your sayles halfe mast high, make ready to set sayle, crosse your yeards, bring your Cable to the Capsterne. Boatswaine, heave a head, men into the tops,200 men upon the yeards. Come, is the anchor a pike? Heave out your topsayles, hawle your sheates. What’s the Anchor away? Yea, yea. Let fall your fore sayle. Who’s at the helme there? Coyle your cable in small slakes91. Hawle the cat, a bitter, belay, loufe (= luff), fast your Anchor with your shanke painter, stow the boate. Let falle your maine saile, on with your bonnets92 and drablers, steare study before the wind.
“The wind veares, git your star-boord tacks aboord, hawle off your ley sheats ouerhawle the ley bowlin, ease your mayne brases, out with your spret-saile, flat the fore sheat, pike up the misen or brade (= brail) it. The ship will not wayer, loure the maine top saile, veare a fadome of your sheat. A flown sheate, a faire winde and a boune voyage! The wind shrinks. Get your tacks close aboord, make ready your loufe howks (= luff hooks) and lay fagnes, to take off your bonnets and drablers, hawle close your maine bowline.
“It ouervasts. We shall have wind. Sattle your top sailes, take in the spret sayle. In with your topsayles. Lower your main sayles, tallow under the parrels, in with your maine sayle, lower the fore sayle. The sayle is split, brade up close all your sayles, lash93 sure the Ordinances94, strike your top masts to the cap, make them sure with your sheepes feete. A storme, hull,47 lash sure the helme a ley, lye to try out drift.48 How capes95 the ship? Cun the ship, spoune before the winde. She lusts96, she lyes under the Sea. Trie her with a crose jacke, bowse it up with the outlooker. She will founder97 in the Sea, runne on shore, split or billage on a Rocke, a wracke. Put out a goose-winge, or a hullocke of a sayle.
Drake’s “Revenge” at Sea.
“Faire weather! Set your fore sayle. Out with all your sailes. Get your Larboard tackes aboord, hawle201 off your Starboord sheats, goe large, laske, ware98 yawning. The ship’s at stayes, at backe-stayes. Ouer-set the ship, flat about, handle your Sayles, or trim your sayles. Let rise your tacks, hawle of your sheats. Rock-weede, adrift, or flotes! One to the top to looke out for Land. A ship’s wake, the water way, the weather bow, weather coyle. Lay the ship by the Ley, and heave the lead, try the dipsie (= deep-sea) line.202 Bring the ship to rights, fetch the log-line to try what way shee makes. Turne up the minute glasse, observe the hight. Land, to make land, how beares it. Set it by the Compasse. Cleare your leach-lines, beare in, beare off, or stand off, or sheare off, beare up.
“Outward bound, homeward bound, shorten your Sailes, take in your Sailes, come to an Anchor under the Ley of the weather shore, the Ley shore, nealed too, looke to your stoppers. Your anchor comes home, the ship’s a drift, vere out more Cable. Let fall your sheat Anchor, land locked, mo(o)re the ship. A good Voyage, Armes, arme a skiffe, a frigot, a pinnace, a ship, a squadron, a fleete. When you ride amongst many ships, pike your yards.
“To the boat or skiffe belongs oares, a mast, a saile, a stay, a halyard, sheats, a boat-hook, thoughts (= thwarts), thoules (thole-pins), rudder, irons, bailes, a trar-pawling or yawning, carlings, carling-knees, for the David (davit), the boates-wayles, a dridge. To row a spell, hold-water, trim the boate, vea, vea, vea, vea, vea, who saies Amen, one and all, for a dram of the bottle?”
Impressionist-writing you describe all this? Yes, certainly. But it has the effect, has it not, of conveying just what we are attempting, a general idea of the life of Elizabethan sailors at sea? “Many supposeth,” writes this same author, “any thing is good enough to serve men at sea, and yet nothing sufficient for them a shore, either for their healthes, for their ease, or estates, or state.” ... “Some it may bee will say I would have men rather to feast than fight. But I say the want of those necessaries occasions the losse of more men than in any English fleet hath bin5 slaine in any fight since (15)88: for when a man is ill sicke, or at the poynt of death, I would know whether a dish of buttered Rice, with a little Cinamon and Sugar, a little203 minced99 meate, or roast beefe, a few stewed100 Prunes101, a race of greene-ginger102, a flap Jacke, a can of fresh water brued with a little Cinamon, Ginger and Sugar, be not better than a little poore John, or salt fish, with oyle and mustard, or bisket, butter, cheese or oatemeale pottage on fish dayes, salt beefe, porke and pease. This is your ordinary ship’s allowance, and good for them are well, if well-conditioned, which is not alwayes, as seamen can too well witnesse: and after a storme, when poore men are all wet, and some not so much a cloth to shift him, shaking with cold, few of those but will tell you a little Sacke or Aquvit? is much better to keepe them in health, then a little small beere or cold water, although it be sweete.”
The sea literature of the Elizabethan period is rich in illustrations of the ways employed. Shakespeare, whom some critics verily believe to have been a sailor—so unfailingly accurate are his numerous sea terms—here and there, and especially in “The Tempest,” reflects a good deal of the life on board ship. In such logs as the voyages of the great Arctic explorer John Davis, there is many a nautical103 expression that cannot fail to arrest our attention. And in order to complete the impressionistic sketch31 of Captain John Smith, permit me here to bring to the reader’s notice some of the phrases which I have collected from other sources of this period.
There were various expressions used to mean heaving-to: thus “strake suddenly ahull” to signify “suddenly hove-to.” So also “tried under our maine course, sometimes with a haddock of our sail,” as Davis has it, or “a hullocke of a sayle,” as Smith expresses it. Perhaps it was thus that the synonym104 “try-sail” originated, signifying a small handkerchief of canvas with which to lie comfortably hove-to. “The third day being calme, at noone we strooke saile, and let204 fall a cadge105 anker.” “Cadge” is spelt “kedge” nowadays. They used to “let slippe” their cables—made of hemp—from the “halse” or hawse-pipe. But sometimes “the cable of our shut (= sheet) anker brake.” “For the straines (= strands) of one of our cables were broken, we only road by an olde junke!” (Junk is still sailor’s slang for worn-out rope.) In those days when there was no such thing as telegraph or post, when ships traversing the ocean were so few as unlikely to meet except rarely, months and years went by without news of mariners. But sometimes when an outward-bound English ship met a fellow-countryman homeward-bound, an effort was made to send letters back. There was an instance of this during Davis’s third voyage when two days out from Dartmouth. They met the Red Lion of London sailing home from Spain. So they hailed the latter and asked her master to carry letters back to London. “And after we had heaved them a lead and a line, whereunto wee had made fast our letters, before they could get them into the ship, they fell into the sea, and so all our labour and theirs was also lost.”
Happily there still exists the “Traverse-Booke,” which Davis made during his third voyage, when he set out to discover that north-west passage which was only found in the present decade by Captain Roald Amundsen, who also was the first to reach the South Pole. And I cannot believe that even a brief extract of Davis’s sailing will fail to be of the greatest interest to modern seamen, whether amateur or professional. I have therefore thought fit to append the following, which covers the first nine days beginning from the time when his little fleet of three, consisting of the “barke” Elizabeth, the “barke” Sunneshine, and the “Clincher” Helene, weighed their anchors and set sail from Dartmouth.
205
A Traverse-Booke made by M. John Davis in his third voyage for the discoverie of the North-West passage, Anno 1587.
Moneth.
Deg. Mins.
19 W S W Westerly 50 30 N E This day we departed from Dartmouth at two of the clocke at night.
20
21 35 W S W Westerly 50 50 N E This day we descried Silly N W by W from us.
22 15 W N W 14 N E by E This day at noone we departed from Silly.
22 6 W N W 6 N E by E
22 3 W N W 2
23 15 N W by W 18 N E
3 W N W 2 N N E
6 N W by W 5 N E by N
3 W N W 3 N N E
12 W N W 12 N E
Noone
the 24 24 W N W Northerly 25 51 16 The true course, distance and latitude.
3 W N W 3 N N E
3 W N W 2? N by E
6 W by N 5 N
6 W by N 5 N
2 S ? N Now we lay upon the lee for the Sunshine,
which had taken a leake of 500 strokes in a watch.
The phrase “lay upon the lee” is just another way of saying they hove-to. “A leake of 500 strokes in a watch” was identical with saying that they had to206 work the pumps to that number in such a period. It should be added, further, that by “elevation of the pole” is, of course, meant the ship’s latitude.
Some of the vessels of the sixteenth century were terribly slow creatures. There was a nickname given to those lethargic109 coasters which, because they could not do much against the current and had to proceed from one roadstead to another and there anchor till the tide turned, were known as “roaders.” No one who has made himself familiar with their long and trying voyages could ever accuse the Elizabethan seamen of cowardice110 in bad weather. Once, Davis relates, when his ship was fighting her way through a storm, her mainsail blew right out of her; whereupon the master of the ship crept along the mainyard, which had now been lowered down to the rails, and gathering111 the sail as it was hauled out of the sea, gallantly112 fought with it and succeeded in bending it again to the yard, “being in the meane while oft-times ducked over head and eares into the sea.”
The reader will remember just now in the extract from Smith the expression “she lusts” for “she lists.” Among hundreds of our English seamen in this twentieth century “lust” is still used to mean “list.” Smith, as we saw, also wrote “spoune before the wind.” Davis, too, related that “we spooned before the sea,” the exact meaning being that they drove before the gale under bare poles. The latter also uses the expression “a mighty113 fret114 of weather” to mean “a mighty squall.” Those who are familiar with the language of the fishermen on the north-east coast of England will call to mind their word “sea-fret” to denote a fog approaching the land.
Sixteenth-Century Seamen Studying the Art of Navigation.
After a Contemporary Artist.
Notice the compass, the hour-glass, globes, cross-staff, charts, etc.
Few nautical words are so well known to us as “skipper.” Before the sixteenth century was ended the Dutch seamen had fraternised a good deal with207 the sailors of England. The Low Countries were fast becoming great shipbuilders and navigators, and not unnaturally some of their phrases began to be used by our men. The Dutch word to this day which is used to mean captain is still “schipper,” and among the English seamen at the end of the sixteenth century the equivalent “shipper” was employed to refer to the same personage. There were other slang phrases prevalent, such as a “light-horseman” to mean a fast-pulling gig. So also Davis speaks of a “trade” wind to mean regular and steady. “The wind blowing a trade,” he remarks. But some of these phrases employed by seamen of those days are a little less obvious. “Tressle-trees,” for example, might puzzle many a modern sailorman. “This night we perished our maine tressle-trees, so that wee could no more use our maine top-saile.” These trestle-trees were just a couple of strong pieces of wood, or of iron, and were fitted one on either side of the lower masthead so as to support the heel of the topmast. Such expressions as “ground-tackle” are as frequently employed to-day as then, but over and over again we find that a ship “came roome,” “bare roome with her,” to mean that the former came to leeward115, put up her helm and bore away.
Anxious as he naturally was concerning a thousand matters, the life of the captain at sea was many degrees happier than that of his crew. At least he had a decent cabin and bed in which to sleep and take his meals and sip116 his punch, otherwise known as “Rosa Solis,” consisting of brandy, spices, and hot water. But the seamen’s comforts were disgracefully neglected, with the result that they died in dozens. Some more humane117 captains such as John Smith did their best for the men; but this was exceptional. And yet it was a thoroughly118 unsanitary age. Davis himself admits208 that many of his crew were “eaten with lice” as big as beans. Monson includes among the causes of the discouraging of seamen the inexperienced commanders who were put over them, the bad victuals119 which they had to endure, the dishonesty in serving them—the beef, for instance, given so that five men had to partake of four men’s allowance—and the delay which was made in paying their wages. Especially were these abuses noticeable during the early years of the seventeenth century. Men were impressed into the service even in those days, though there were volunteers as well. At the time of the Armada our sailors received as wages fourpence a day, but this was paid quarterly. In addition, of course, there was sometimes prize money in the proportions already mentioned. In Monson’s time complaint was made of the kind of foremast men who were pressed into the service “to pleasure friends.” Such men as “taylors, porters, and others of that rank, unworthy of the hatches to lie on,” were brought aboard and given no less than ￡1 11s. a month. And yet, when opportunity allowed, the captain used to send his crew ashore120 in the ship’s boats “to walk in the fields ... to take the air.” But among the officers there was too much “excessive banqueting on board” and a great waste of powder, as, for instance, when guns were fired at the drinking of a man’s health.
And the same authority has something very interesting to tell us concerning the ceremonial wearing of the flag on board ship. I have no intention of confusing our chronological121 sequence, but I must ask the reader for a moment to recall that incident which was one of the indirect if not the real causes of the first Anglo-Dutch wars. It will be remembered—which English schoolboy does not remember it well?—that when Captain Young, one May Day in 1652, was bound209 down Channel and met a convoy122 of Dutchmen coming up, he was angered to find the foreigner declined to salute123, and an engagement immediately followed. Now, writing long before that incident had ever occurred, Monson definitely states that if a foreign fleet should pass on our seas and meet our admiral’s ship, the former were expected to acknowledge our sovereignty by coming under the lee of the admiral, by striking their topsails and taking in their flag. “And this hath never been questioned,” he adds, except out of ignorance, as in the case of Philip II, when he met the Lord Admiral of England when the former was sailing to England in order to marry Queen Mary. The custom was that if any foreign ship were to arrive in one of our ports or to pass a fort or castle, she must, as she entered, and before coming to anchor, take in her flag three times “and advance it again.” But should the English admiral be in the harbour, the foreigner was not to display his flag at all.
Prior to the reign of James I, all admirals wore the St. George’s flag at the topmast head. But when the union of Scotland had been effected there was added the cross of St. Andrew. An admiral at anchor took in his flag in the evening and fired a gun and set the watch. “The flag carried under the poop of a ship,” he remarks, “shews a disgrace,” and is never used except when it is won or taken from an enemy.
Jealousy125 of Spain and greed of gold had as much to do with the impetus126 given to English seamanship and navigation during Elizabethan times as any inherent love of the sea. To meet this new zeal127 various writers, some of whom we have already mentioned, set to work to write treatises129 that would turn raw agricultural labourers and tavern-haunters into fighting sailors and navigators. William Bourne, from whom we have already quoted, in his “Regiment for the Sea” was the first to210 give a book on navigation written by an Englishman. This was in the year 1573, and a rare example of this little work is still preserved in the British Museum. In it he pointed130 out the various ways for finding the variation of the compass, exposed the errors of the plane charts, and advised mariners in sailing towards high latitudes131 to keep their reckoning by the globe, as in those regions the plane chart was most likely to land them into trouble.
In 1594 John Davis, the Arctic explorer, published his “The Seaman’s Secrets.” This book became very popular, and took the place of the Spanish Martin Cortes’ handbook, which had been used in the English translation. There is a vast amount of matter in Davis’ “Secrets” which is worth perusing132 even by the modern navigator. He speaks of “great Circle navigation,” and gives a whole host of valuable practical hints. “The Instruments necessarie for a skilfull seaman,” he explains, “are a Sea Compasse, a Cross staffe, a Quadrant, an Astrolabe, a Chart, an instrument magneticall49 for the finding of the variation of the Compasse, an Horizontall plaine Sphere, a Globe, and a paradoxall Compasse”50 ... “but the Sea Compasse, Chart and Crosse staffe are instruments sufficient for the seaman’s use, the astrolabie and quadrant being ... very uncertaine.” In this book he gives instruction as to tides, stars, and how to use the astrolabe. And it is worth noting that he speaks of the English Channel after the fashion of our Gallic neighbours, who still refer to “La manche.” “Our Channell,” he explains, “commonly called the Sleue” (sleeve).
Chart of A.D. 1589.
Showing the dividing line between the Old World and the New.
It will be recollected133 that the Pope had drawn134 an imaginary line North and South, a hundred leagues west of the Azores, leaving all that lay east thereof to the Portuguese135, and all that lay west to the Spanish.
Everyone knows that longitude136 is the distance east or212 west of a given meridian137. In those days Greenwich did not enter into the matter: the observatory138 there had still to be founded. When Davis wrote in the year 1594 there was no variation at St. Michael’s in the Azores, and so the longitude was reckoned from there. “Longitude,” he defines, “is that portion of the Equator contained betweene the Meridian of S. Michel’s, one of the Assores, and the Meridian of the place whose longitude is desired: the reason why the accompt of longitude doth begin at this Ile is, because that there the compasse hath no variety.”
Be it remembered, also, that it was Davis who improved the cross-staff and superseded139 the clumsy astrolabe for taking meridian altitudes at sea. It was commonly spoken of as Davis’s quadrant, and was afterwards improved by Flamstead with the addition of a glass lens. Subsequently it was further improved by Halley, and as such was used almost exclusively till the year 1731, when it was in turn superseded by Halley’s quadrant. When we read again the entrancing narratives140 given in Hakluyt and elsewhere of the Elizabethan voyages into the unknown, let us note that reposing141 somewhere in the high poop of these ships there were most probably all the following instruments for navigating142 the trackless seas. There was a calendar, an astrolabe, a cross-staff, a celestial143 globe, a terrestrial globe, a universal horloge for knowing the hour of the day in every latitude, a nocturne labe for telling the hour of the night, one or more compasses, a navigation chart, a general map, and a printed chart.
Ship Designer with his Assistant.
This illustration belongs to the latter half of the sixteenth century, or the beginning of the seventeenth, and is among the Pepysian MSS. in Magdalene College, Cambridge. Pepys’ own title for this is “Fragments of Ancient English Shipwrightry.”
It was in 1599 that Edward Wright published his “Haven-finding Art.” In his volume “Certaine Errors in Navigation,” he complains of the errors in the proportions of the existing charts. These consisted in wrongly showing the distances of places. He speaks213 also of sailing “by a great Circle, which is to bee drawne by those two places,” and asserts that this is a better method than sailing always at right angles to the meridian. In practically all the charts of this age the surface was ruled with rhumb-lines from the thirty-two points of the compass, as is still the case to-day on certain Dutch charts. The origin of the word “rhumb” was Portuguese, and doubtless these lines appeared on the earliest Portuguese charts. In the first of these two books, Wright also furnished a table of variations of the compass in different parts of the world.
As to the practical side of navigation, Bourne exhorted144 his mariners to remember that the earth is a globe and not a “platforme,” as “generally the most parte of the seamen make their account.” The meridians145, he reminded them, grow narrower towards the two poles. If one had occasion to voyage northward146 it were better to sail by the globe, he suggested. Therefore you should keep a perfect account of the ship’s course. Then resort to your globe and consider what place and parallel you are in (by means of the sun at day and the stars at night). Knowing where you are, set your globe to the elevation of your pole, and then turn to the place of your zenith and seek the opposite of it in your parallel, for then you know that in the same parallel is your east and west line. Then the just quarter of that circle to the pole must be divided into the eight points of your compass, doing so likewise on the other side.
From the southern voyages the “plats or cardes for the sea” were recommended. Bourne strongly advised against painting their compasses with so many colours on these charts and so many flags on the land, but bade them use the vacant places left on the paper for better objects, such as the time of high water at certain states of the moon, and the elevation of the land, in214 order that the appearance of the latter might not be mistaken. The use of sea cardes for navigating during long voyages he regards as very necessary for three reasons: they show you (1) how one place bears from another; (2) the distances between the places; (3) in what latitude any place is. But the master or pilot of the ship is also to bear in mind the effect of tides, currents, the surging of the sea or scantiness147 of the wind, which might put the ship to leeward of her course. Also in long voyages the wind might shift ahead, so the mariner must keep a perfect account of his courses and mark each new course on the chart, and pay regard to the “swiftnesse” or “slownesse” of the ships. If the weather be clear he was to take the true altitude of the pole, which will correct the ship’s course and give “a very neare gesse” how the port of destination bears and how far.
The compass was variously known in the Elizabethan age as the “sea-directorie,” the “nauticall box,” and the “sea-compasse.” Lightbody describes the bittacles as “little wooden pins for nailing the compass-box withal.” The first atlas148 was published in Dutch at Leyden in 1585 by Wagenaer. In this are to be found excellent coloured charts of the Narrow Seas. It is evident from these that there was a system of buoyage even in those days. There are barrel buoys149, for instance, and basket beacons150 such as you can still find in use to-day in different parts of Holland. The sands on the port hand of the Swin Middle at the entrance to the Thames Estuary151 are shown marked by staff-and-triangle marks. This excellent atlas was soon translated into English, so that the elaborate sailing directions and the admirable little contours of the coast—crude but useful—could be placed at the service of English mariners. This English version was known as Wagenaer’s “Mariner’s Mirrour,” and there was215 also “The Sea Mirrour,” translated from the Dutch of William Johnson Blaeu by Richard Hynmers in 1625, which was another of the numerous nautical books of this time, containing instruction in practical navigation, sailing directions, charts, and contours.
A Chart of the Thames Estuary.
(Dover to Orfordness.) This is taken from the first Atlas ever published, viz., in 1585.
“How you may at one Station Measure uppon an Heigth with a Geometricall Square a Longitude uppon Plaine.”
This is from Lucar’s sixteenth-century treatise128 on gunnery, and illustrates152 the use of the “geometricall square” for finding the distance between the galley and the ship, viz. 300 yards. This instrument was made of metal or cypress153, the quadrant being divided into 90 degrees. It was used for measuring “altitudes, latitudes and profundities,” and so very valuable for all gunnery work.
The hourly or half-hourly glasses used on board were turned by the sentry154, who struck the ship’s bell at every half-hour just as on shipboard to-day. The only means216 of keeping correct time in those days was by observing the heavenly bodies, and this gave time at ship. But frequently the navigators were many miles out in their longitude, since the latter is found by comparing the exact time at ship with the time by a chronometer155 showing the time at the prime meridian.
Nicholas Tartaglia, in his “Three Bookes of Colloquies156 concerning the Arte of Shooting,” published in the year of the Armada, gives an interesting illustration to indicate how one could know by the help of a gunner’s circle the number of miles or feet any ship lying in the roadstead was distant; and also how to measure height with a geometrical square. And Bourne, in his “Treasure for Traueilers” (1578), had a method for ascertaining157 the “waight of any shyp swimmyng on the water.” The reader will remember that when we were discussing Columbus we pointed out the lack of that useful instrument, the log and line, for indicating the distance which a vessel sailed. It was William Bourne who first published an idea for overcoming this difficulty in a somewhat ingenious manner. In his “Inventions and Devices” (1578), he gives a method whereby “to know the way or going of a ship, for to knowe how fast or softly that any ship goeth.” The idea is too complicated to be given here in detail, but practically it amounted to towing astern a tiny boat containing a paddle-wheel which revolved158, and so by a species of clockwork registered the speed. Excepting that the patent log of to-day is helicular, there is much resemblance between the old and the new in at least the bare idea. But a little later—in the year 1637—Richard Norwood published, in his “Seaman’s Practice,” a whole chapter on the subject “Of dividing the Log-line and reckoning the Ship’s way.” The log-line was to be used in conjunction with the glass, and this method217 was little altered until the nineteenth-century invention of the patent log had to be brought about owing to the great speed of steamships159.
Sixteenth-Century Ship Before the Wind.
By a Contemporary Artist. Notice the square lids over the portholes.
Before we conclude this chapter we must not omit to say something of the improvement in naval strategy, tactics, and discipline during the Elizabethan period. You will remember that important campaign of 1587, when Drake took an expedition out to Cadiz, sunk and burnt an enormous quantity of the enemy’s tonnage, repulsed160 the attacks of the Mediterranean161 galleys162—completely beating this type of craft at her own special game and in her own waters—captured large quantities of supplies intended for the Armada, and demonstrated himself to be no man of medieval conceptions, but a modern strategist by waiting at Cape St. Vincent, where he held the real key to the situation—able to prevent the fleets from Cartagena and Cadiz from reaching Lisbon. You will remember, too, that after terrorising the Spaniards and their galleys he set a course for the Azores, captured the mammoth163 San Felipe, homeward bound from the East Indies with a cargo that, reckoned in the money value of to-day, was worth over ￡1,000,000; and what was more, discovered from the ship’s papers the long-kept secrets of the East Indian trade. Finally, during that same historic voyage, when friction broke out between the modern strategist Drake and his medieval-minded vice-admiral William Borough164, the latter was promptly165 court-martialled, tried on board the flagship by Drake, Fenner, and the other captains, and deposed167 from his command.
Now, what was the net result of all this? We may sum the matter up in the following statement. It gave the death-blow to the medieval methods of fighting and inaugurated the scientific idea of strategy. It demonstrated the fact that even in those circumstances when the big sailing ship was at her worst, viz. fighting in218 sheltered waters and in a flat calm, when the galley was certainly at her very best, yet the former could annihilate168 the latter. Contrariwise, the capture of the San Felipe showed that even the biggest ship afloat could be made a prisoner if only the captor went about the matter in the right way. And, finally, it inaugurated real naval discipline, even for the highest placed officer, and instituted the Court Martial166.
And yet during the time of Elizabeth, though her admirals realised the value of strategy, yet they failed to understand fleet tactics. There was no regular order of battle. Howard’s fleet against the Armada in 1588 had been in action twice before it was organised into proper squadrons. During that nine days’ fighting the old idea of boarding, that had continued from the Greek and Roman days, through Viking and medieval times till the sixteenth century, was clearly giving way to the practice of broadside gunnery. But what is important to note is the fact that though the Elizabethan admirals were realising the superiority of the gun to the boarding pike, yet they had not become sufficiently169 logical to devise a battle order for enabling their guns to be used to the best advantage. Nevertheless, there was a partial appreciation170 of this important principle. The idea of fighting in line-ahead was certainly in their minds, and there was a tendency for the fleet to break up into groups, each group delivering its broadsides in succession on an exposed part of the enemy’s formation. A contemporary chart depicting171 the Armada and the English fleet at the different stages of fighting in the English Channel unquestionably shows the Queen’s ships standing out in line-ahead formation from Plymouth Sound, getting the weather gage124 of the enemy, and then firing into them from the windward side. Spanish evidence admits that the English were “in very fine order.” And it is quite219 curious to observe that though Spain and Portugal had led the way towards scientific seamanship and navigation, and England had followed, yet the Spaniards still looked upon gunnery as a dishonourable practice, still retained the medieval idea that gentlemen would fight only with swords; and therefore these South Europeans, unable to fight at a distance, used their best endeavours to close with our ships and carry on the contest after the manner of the tactics which Greek and Roman and Viking and Crusader had adopted.
Early Seventeenth-Century Ship of War.
By a Contemporary Artist.
It is true, also, that the Portuguese showed no little courage and enterprise in their shipbuilding. Some of their fifteenth-century caracks were four-deckers, of fifteen hundred and two thousand tons, with forty guns and a thousand sailors, soldiers, and passengers. And, even if they were not by disposition172 and natural endowment great sailors, yet they were splendid navigators. But they were never great shipbuilders in the scientific sense, since they built by rule of thumb. The Portuguese had, indeed, done much for cartography, and yet until the Dutch Gerard Mercator introduced his “Mappemonde” in 1569, containing a new method of projecting a sphere upon a plane, the problem of how to sail in a straight line over a curved figure still lacked solution. The Dutch Wagenaer, of whom we spoke65 just now, historically certainly owed a great deal to the achievements of the Portuguese and Spanish, but already by the year 1577 he had written on navigation. His charts of Dutch harbours and of the Narrow Seas were, for their limited purpose, of more value than any charts which had come from the South of Europe.
It has been well said by a careful writer that British seamanship has been historically the cause of British supremacy, and that most British sea fights have been decided173 by bringing single ships to close action, laying220 ship against ship. If this statement is true, it is especially applicable to the Elizabethan period, when seamanship was our strong point and tactics our weakest. Never before had English sailors reached such a high degree of proficiency174 therein; never in so short a time had it done so much to mould national history, and to lay the foundations of an Empire.
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1
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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7
warship
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| n.军舰，战舰 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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14
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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repelling
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| v.击退( repel的现在分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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steamship
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| n.汽船，轮船 | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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hulls
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| 船体( hull的名词复数 )； 船身； 外壳； 豆荚 | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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replica
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| n.复制品 | |
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galley
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| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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berthed
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| v.停泊( berth的过去式和过去分词 )；占铺位 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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triangular
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| adj.三角（形）的，三者间的 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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ordnance
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| n.大炮，军械 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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minion
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| n.宠仆；宠爱之人 | |
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falcon
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| n.隼，猎鹰 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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48
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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49
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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50
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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51
alluding
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| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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52
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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53
wielder
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| 行使者 | |
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54
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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55
blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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56
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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57
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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58
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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59
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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60
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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61
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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62
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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63
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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64
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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65
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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66
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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67
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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68
munitions
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| n.军火，弹药；v.供应…军需品 | |
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69
caulking
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| n.堵缝；敛缝；捻缝；压紧v.堵（船的）缝( caulk的现在分词 )；泥…的缝；填塞；使不漏水 | |
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70
splicing
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|
| n.编接（绳）；插接；捻接；叠接v.绞接( splice的现在分词 )；捻接（两段绳子）；胶接；粘接（胶片、磁带等） | |
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71
warping
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|
| n.翘面，扭曲，变形v.弄弯，变歪( warp的现在分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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72
mooring
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| n.停泊处；系泊用具，系船具；下锚v.停泊，系泊（船只）(moor的现在分词) | |
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73
offenders
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| n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物） | |
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74
indicted
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| 控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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75
mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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76
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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77
tacks
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| 大头钉( tack的名词复数 )； 平头钉； 航向； 方法 | |
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78
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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79
sling
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|
| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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80
Vogue
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|
| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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81
allot
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| v.分配；拨给；n.部分；小块菜地 | |
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82
descried
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|
| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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83
putrid
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|
| adj.腐臭的；有毒的；已腐烂的；卑劣的 | |
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84
scurvy
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|
| adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病 | |
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85
embarkation
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| n. 乘船, 搭机, 开船 | |
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86
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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87
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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88
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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89
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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90
galleon
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| n.大帆船 | |
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91
slakes
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| v.满足( slake的第三人称单数 ) | |
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92
bonnets
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| n.童帽( bonnet的名词复数 )；（烟囱等的）覆盖物；（苏格兰男子的）无边呢帽；（女子戴的）任何一种帽子 | |
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93
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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94
ordinances
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| n.条例，法令( ordinance的名词复数 ) | |
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95
capes
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|
| 碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬 | |
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96
lusts
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|
| 贪求（lust的第三人称单数形式） | |
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97
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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98
ware
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| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
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99
minced
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|
| v.切碎( mince的过去式和过去分词 )；剁碎；绞碎；用绞肉机绞（食物，尤指肉） | |
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100
stewed
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|
| adj.焦虑不安的，烂醉的v.炖( stew的过去式和过去分词 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
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101
prunes
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|
| n.西梅脯，西梅干( prune的名词复数 )v.修剪（树木等）( prune的第三人称单数 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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102
ginger
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|
| n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气 | |
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103
nautical
|
|
| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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104
synonym
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|
| n.同义词，换喻词 | |
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105
cadge
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| v.乞讨 | |
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106
elevation
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|
| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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107
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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108
latitude
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|
| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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109
lethargic
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|
| adj.昏睡的，懒洋洋的 | |
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110
cowardice
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|
| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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111
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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112
gallantly
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|
| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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113
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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114
fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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115
leeward
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|
| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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116
sip
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| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
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117
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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118
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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119
victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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120
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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121
chronological
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| adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的 | |
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122
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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123
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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124
gage
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| n.标准尺寸，规格；量规，量表 [=gauge] | |
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125
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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126
impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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127
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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128
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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129
treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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130
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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131
latitudes
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| 纬度 | |
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132
perusing
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| v.读（某篇文字）( peruse的现在分词 )；（尤指）细阅；审阅；匆匆读或心不在焉地浏览（某篇文字） | |
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133
recollected
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|
| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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134
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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135
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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136
longitude
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| n.经线，经度 | |
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137
meridian
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| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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138
observatory
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| n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台 | |
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139
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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140
narratives
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| 记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分 | |
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141
reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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142
navigating
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| v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃 | |
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143
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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144
exhorted
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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145
meridians
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| n.子午圈( meridian的名词复数 )；子午线；顶点；（权力，成就等的）全盛时期 | |
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146
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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147
scantiness
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| n.缺乏 | |
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148
atlas
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| n.地图册，图表集 | |
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149
buoys
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| n.浮标( buoy的名词复数 )；航标；救生圈；救生衣v.使浮起( buoy的第三人称单数 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神 | |
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150
beacons
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|
| 灯塔( beacon的名词复数 )； 烽火； 指路明灯； 无线电台或发射台 | |
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151
estuary
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| n.河口，江口 | |
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152
illustrates
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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153
cypress
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| n.柏树 | |
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154
sentry
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| n.哨兵，警卫 | |
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155
chronometer
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| n.精密的计时器 | |
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156
colloquies
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| n.谈话，对话( colloquy的名词复数 ) | |
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157
ascertaining
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的现在分词 ) | |
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158
revolved
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
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159
steamships
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| n.汽船，大轮船( steamship的名词复数 ) | |
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160
repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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161
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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162
galleys
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| n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房 | |
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163
mammoth
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| n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的 | |
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164
borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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165
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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166
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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167
deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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168
annihilate
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| v.使无效；毁灭；取消 | |
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169
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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170
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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171
depicting
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| 描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述 | |
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172
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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173
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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174
proficiency
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| n.精通，熟练，精练 | |
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