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RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS.

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ANCIENT NAVY OF ENGLAND.

History mentions a great fleet of Julius Caesar; a fleet of King Edgar, consisting of 3,600 sail; a fleet of Lewis, son to Philip King of France, of 600 sail, that arrived at Sandwich, to assist the English Barons against King John;—­but those, doubtless, were but as so many cottages to castles, in respect of the present ships of war.

Henry the Eighth, in the fifth year of his reign, built a ship, then accounted the greatest that had ever been seen in England, and named it Henry Grace de Dieu, or the Great Henry:  it was of a thousand tons.

In the eighth year of King James was built, by the Londoners, a ship of 1,200 tons, and called the Trades Increase; which being lost in the East Indies, King James caused another to be built, of 1,400 tons; which being given to Prince Henry, was by him named The Prince.

King Charles the Martyr, perceiving the great increase of shipping in our neighbour nations, and that the sovereignty of these seas was like to be disputed, amongst other great ships of war, built one greater than any ship of war either in England or in any other country of Europe, and named it the Royal Sovereign, which, for its size, etc., shall be more particularly described.  The Royal Sovereign, being a ship of the first rate or rank, built in the year 1637, is in length, by the keel, 127 feet; in breadth, by the beam, 47 feet; in depth, 49 feet; her draught of water, 21 feet; of burden, in all, 2,072 tons; and 1,492 tons, besides guns, tackle, etc.  This mighty moving castle has six anchors:  whereof the biggest weighs 6,000 lbs., and the least 4,300.  It hath 14 cables:  whereof the greatest is 21 inches in compass, and weighs 9,000 lbs., her least cable being eight inches in compass, weighing near 1,300 lbs.  To the Royal Sovereign belong eighteen masts and yards:  whereof the greatest, called the mainmast, is 113 feet long, and 38 inches diameter; her main yard 102 feet long, and 23 inches diameter; and her main top, 15 feet diameter.  She hath ten several sorts of sails of several names (as every ship of every one of the sixth rate has):  whereof her greatest sail, called her maincourse (together with her bonnet) contains 1,640 yards of canvass, Ipswich double; and the least sail, called fore-top-gallant-sail, contains 130 yards of canvass.  The charge of one complete suit of sails for the Sovereign is 404l.  Stirling money; the weight of the sea store, in point of ground tackle and other cordage, is sixty tons, eight hundred and odd pounds.  She carries a long-boat of fifty feet, a pinnacle of thirty-six feet, and a skiff of twenty-seven feet long.  The weight of her rigging, three and thirty tons.

She hath three tier of guns, all of brass:  whereof there are forty-four upon her upper tier, and twenty-two in her lower tier—­in all, one hundred guns.  She carries, in all, of officers, soldiers, and mariners, eight hundred and fifty men.  Finally, her whole charges for wages, victuals, ammunition, wear and tear, for every month at sea, costs the king 3,500l. stirling, as hath been computed by a very skilful person.