Ships were lost during these dark voyages, and said to have had the
misfortune to get entangled in the nets of herring drifters, which
could not be avoided under the conditions which then prevailed.
With these exceptions the number of ships in use before 1800 had been
increased considerably, the total tonnage had been much increased, and
also the tonnage that was owned in the different countries. Thus it is
probable that at the close of the century, or just at the end, it was
probably the largest tonnage ever possessed by the maritime powers of
any one age. If anything like this statement be well founded, there
can be little doubt that this new order of things indicated the
practical extinction of the ancient system of sea-power by making
subsidies to the kings of a single nation necessary for the general
peace of the waters, and for keeping the ships ready in order to make
the necessary use of them.
In England also, after the establishment of the Northumberland ship
and others of the same kind, followed by an improved construction of
the navy itself by the introduction of the smaller guns, the
increased tonnage and the increased power of the navy were the direct
causes of the establishment of convoys to protect the merchant ships
from all privateers and privateersmen, whether they were acting as
private citizens or for the king, for the same purpose.
The change in the construction of ships also caused a change in the
number and the kind of seamen required in their crews. It had already
been noticed that the old ship was almost a town; it needed a staff of
officers and petty officers for its government and maintenance, and a
crew of seamen to work it, manning its various parts. The early ships
were very heavily manned, some carried 500 and 600 men, and in the
wars with the Dutch the fleet was largely increased in this way. The
convoy system also increased the number of seamen required to man
ships, and increased the number of guns and the size of cannon, which
added to the number of officers, petty officers, and seamen, for each
ship. The old system also required a crew of some experience, who knew
their work from habit and familiarity with their ship, and with which
the ship could be kept in order. The introduction of the system of
manning the ship by contract, in which the contract sailors were often
drawn from the criminal and uneducated classes, caused the introduction
of new men, not trained to their duty, and without the experience to
carry them through the dangers of storms and other accidents which were
so common in these ships, in a manner to keep them in order and ready
for action. A good illustration of this fact is the experience of Sir
James Lancaster, who commanded a ship in the Mediterranean in the
second decade of the century. He says that he saw no fewer than five
captains in the cabin from a storm which overtook them at sea. It is
scarcely necessary to add that these people, untrained to the duties of
command, could only add to the danger of the ship. He also says, “Our
seamen were by no means what they should be; they were only sailors.
They had seen no service, and knew nothing about the management of a
vessel. They were wholly unacquainted with the various evolutions, and
were therefore in their duty, only acquainted with the commonest kinds
of work; they had learned nothing; they were not much better than
landsmen; their knowledge of navigation could not be told, they could
not tell you where to steer, in the event of meeting a squall; and, as
they were totally unacquainted with the use of the compass, or
instrument of any kind, they were in a worse situation even than if
they had known nothing at all.” There can be no question that the
introduction of this new kind of seamen also greatly increased the
safety of ships, but it also increased the danger. No sooner had a new
race of seamen learned their duties than the custom grew up of making
one set of men for the whole voyage; and when the old rule was restored
to allow of rotation, it was not according to the same number of
seamen; but the new men took their places with the first expedition,
and therefore not only deprived the ship of experienced officers, but
actually threw officers overboard who had been for a year, or longer,
in charge of a ship. In the same manner the crew was cut off from a
variety of experience and instruction in various emergencies of which
there was a constant demand. The system of rotation not only increased
the number of officers and seamen in an average ship, but the
increase of officers, coupled with the increase of officers required to
manage the ship, and of men to row the ship, all these men added to
the dangers of the crew. By the system of rotation it was the last man
whose experience counted. But the experience of this new crew, in which
any sailor had his chance to see, with all its temptations, would
almost invariably result in neglect and anarchy in the management of
the ship. To this it may be added that the increase of the naval
service led to an increase in the size of the ship. The increase of
guns, and the increased size of the guns, was the result of the
increase of size of ships, and of the increase of guns in them. The
increase of guns led to an increase in the number of officers
accompanying them, as each gun required officers, and each officer
required his subordinate. The increase of the number of guns required
more powder, lead, etc., and these being carried in the ship, in the
shape of shot, etc., increased the weight of the ship; and as it was
always necessary to keep the ship free from the water, the increase of
weight caused a corresponding increase in the weight of water which the
ship took in to float it; and as this increased, it was necessary to
increase the size of the ship. The increase of the vessel also led to
the substitution of iron for wood. When ships were small it was
unnecessary to carry iron, but with the increase of size it was
impossible to carry it without an enormous increase in the quantity of
wood which was necessary. As all the naval material came from one
place, England, it was necessary to transport it by foreign ships, and
thus, as early as the end of the eighteenth century, arose an almost
unlimited traffic between England and Norway in American oak for ships.
A great many millions of American dollars were expended in this
pursuit. Thus, the great war of 1756, known as the French and Indian
War, began by an English merchant vessel being captured by the French
or Americans, and was then a war with France to protect English
shipping by war with America. The war began by France attempting to
stop the importation of ships of America from Norway; but it soon
degenerated into a war between the Americans, whose trade in Europe was
to be destroyed, and the French, in order to destroy the American
trade. It was impossible for France to meet the demands of England
simultaneously, but a large portion of the French vessels in the
Mediterranean was put under a French admiral, who was sent out there
with orders to attack the American trade. The American vessels were
smaller, but better armed, and therefore more easily avoided, so that
the French could not be attacked at once. These vessels, therefore,
were driven into the port of the Mediterranean and there made prizes of
by the French, who then became the enemy of all merchant vessels
engaged in the trade of England. They made their prizes as they found
them, and carried them off to Marseilles, where they were sold or
bartered for prize money, and thus the American navy gained its name,
“The Quasi-War,” because all these captures were made by the French.
Before this war was over the number of ships in the navy of England
had increased almost fifty per cent., so that the American vessels were
left to the mercies of France. This war led to the increase in the
number of the ships of the line of Great Britain and France, as well
as of those of the other nations, as the result of the war between
England and France and Spain in 1793.
It may be well to give some indication of the rate of increase in the
number of the ships in different parts of the world in the last few
decades. The increase in the number of ships of all classes in Russia
within the last few years has been very marked. The number of vessels
of all kinds employed by Great Britain has also increased very
considerably since about 1807, when the maritime treaty between England
and France, which had been in force since the second war with France
over the revolt of the colonies, ceased to be of effect. The increase
of all kinds of vessels in France is probably somewhat greater than the
increase in Great Britain.
Spain and Portugal have in all probability about as many men-of-war as
when the last war with England broke out, and the same can be said with
regard to Denmark and Sweden. They have not increased so much as has
been
