laden with too much ordinaunce, and the portes left open, which were verye low, and the great ordinaunce unbreeched; so that when the shipp should turn, (go about,) the water entered, and sodainly she sanke. In her was Sir George Carewe, Knight, Capitaine of the saide shipp, and foure hundred men, and much ordinaunce." It is further stated that the lower-deck port sills of the Mary Rose were only sixteen inches from the water's edge. While the English fleet was standing off the land, the French Admiral was, as stated by M. Du Bellay, forming his fleet in the order before prescribed, to sustain the attack of the English; but it seems that no action took place, the English fleet having, after dispersing and capturing some of the galleys, re-anchored. On the succeeding day, the French Admiral finding, as says the French historian, that the English Admiral did not intend to stand out to the attack, meditated engaging and destroying his enemies at their anchorage. He represented to his crews their extreme valour, and their great superiority over the English, and, as a matter of course, persuaded them of their invincibility; but lo! a difficulty presented itself; the sea commanders and pilots declared it was impracticable without an evident loss. These latter warriors did not fail, if we are to believe M. Du Bellay, in so persuading Admiral D'Annebaut of the serpentine nature of the channel, and the certainty of the destruction of his own fleet should he attempt to pursue his magnanimous design, that he was induced to forego it. Before, however, (owing to contrary winds,) reaching their destination, Boulogne, a second action took place as undecisive as the first, off some part of the English coast, called by the French, Perrais. In this action, the French historian states, that not less than three hundred pieces of cannon were fired on both sides. The conflict was, it appears, very severe, and next morning, a great deal of timber and numbers of dead bodies were found floating. The French then bore up for Havre de Grace, having relinquished the design for the accomplishment of which the fleet had put to sea. These two distinct actions have by many writers been thrown together so as to appear the occurrence of one day, but they were distinct battles, and took place within not less than five or six days' interval. This is generally supposed to have been the earliest action of note in which guns were pointed through port-holes, they having previously been mounted en barbette. The fate of the Great Harry or Sovereign has already been stated. Hollingshed's Chronicle fixes the date of her destruction at the 28th of August, 1553, in the evening, The name does not again occur until the succeeding century, when the celebrated ship, called the "Soveraigne of the Seas," was built by Mr. Phineus Pett, in Woolwich Dockyard. This name gradually merged into that of "Royal Sovereign." The tonnage of this remarkable ship is variously stated; doubtless, in consequence of the different modes of measurement at that time in use; hence we find her tonnage stated by Charnock as 1637, and some years subsequently at 1141, 1543, and 1683, respectively. The keel of this ship was laid in dock on the 21st of December, 1635, and she was launched, or rather we should suppose floated out, on the 13th of October, 1637. "It was the practice," says Derrick, "in the north of England, particularly in Staffordshire, to bark timber standing, and let it remain in that state for a time to season; and the Sovereign of the Seas, built with such timber by way of experiment, was a very durable ship." The vast cost of this ship, however, which had rendered heavy calls upon the unpopular tax termed "ship-money " necessary, was one of the causes of the rebellion. The description furnished of her by Mr. Thomas Heywood, the architect of her decorations, would incline us to the belief that no money was spared, and we might add, that much useless and lavish expenditure was applied. The Sovereign was in length by the keel, 128 feet or thereabouts; her main breadth, 48 feet; extreme length from the foremost part of the beak-head to her taffrail, 232 feet *; her depth from the keel to the top of the lanthorn was 76 feet. She bore five lanthorns, the biggest of which would contain ten persons upright. When stripped of the useless encumbrances of ornament, the Sovereign must have been in other respects a serviceable and most powerful ship. She had three flush decks; a forecastle, half-deck, quarter-deck, and round-house. On the lower deck, she had ports for thirty cannon or demi-cannon, (the weight of the cannon shot is computed at sixty pounds, and of the demi-cannon at thirty-three pounds). Middle-deck, thirty ports for culverins and demi-culverins, (18 and 9 pounders); third deck, twenty-six ports for smaller guns; forecastle, twelve; and on two half-decks, thirteen or more ports within board for murdering pieces, and also ten ports for pieces of ordnance aft, and ten forward for chase guns. It is unreasonable to suppose that guns were mounted in these innumerable port-holes, or the tonnage of the ship could scarcely have endured the weight of ordnance alone; and in the picture referred to, there are only (exclusive of some light chase guns on the forecastle,) guns in eighty-four ports, and even this number must have been more for ornament than use, since it is quite clear there could not have been space below to allow of their being worked. It does not appear that the Sovereign was ever very usefully employed while thus cumbrously armed, and Derrick states, that she was cut down, "taken a deck lower," when the ship became one of the best menof-war in the world. This may at once account for the reduction of her tonnage from 1637 to 1141. The services of so large a ship were not called into requisition until the first war took place with Holland in 1652, and we then find her called the "Royal Sovereign," in a list of the Parliament's Navy, given in Memorials of Penn, vol. i., p. 430, wherein she is described as of 88 guns, and commanded by Capt. Read. On the 28th September, the Sovereign formed one of the fleet of Admiral Blake in the action with Admirals de Witt and Tromp; but as this was simply a running fight, no ship had any particular opportunity of gaining distinction. Several ships touched upon the Kentish Knock in chase of the Dutch, and the Resolution, in which Blake had his flag, grounded. The Sovereign struck several times upon the shoal, but got over into deep water. The English fleet being out of provisions, Blake was obliged to give over his pursuit of the Dutch fleet. We do not meet with any further mention of the Sovereign's services during this war, which terminated in 1653, and it is probable that in the interim the razeeing before alluded to was performed. In the * If the picture of this ship, in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, by Vanderveldt, bears any resemblance to the original, this immense length over all was without doubt correct. two succeeding Dutch wars the Sovereign took her part. In the actions of 1666 she was commanded by Captain Sir John Cox; and on the 28th May, 1673, Prince Rupert shifted his flag to the Sovereign, his own ship, the Royal Charles, being disabled. The Sovereign also bore the Prince's flag in the action which took place on the 11th August following. In 1684, this ship was rebuilt at Chatham; and in the year 1687, a lecturer stated, that "all the ancient timber then remaining in her, was still so hard, that it was no easy matter to drive a nail into it." In 1689-90, the Royal Sovereign, Capt. John Nevell, was present in the fleet commanded by Admiral the Earl of Torrington, on the 30th June, 1690, at an indecisive action with the French fleet. It having been determined, in order to satisfy popular clamour, to give the chief command of the fleet to three Admirals, Sir Richard Haddock, Vice-Admiral Killegrew, and Sir John Ashby, were appointed joint Admirals of His Majesty's fleet, and hoisted the union at the main on board this ship, on the 22nd August. In the action between the English and French fleets, under, Admiral Russell and the Compte de Tourville, in May, 1692, the Royal Sovereign bore Rear-Admiral Sir Ralph Delaval's flag, and gained much distinction from the important part borne by her in that memorable fight. The end of this ship is thus given in Charnock's History of Marine Architecture, vol. ii. p. 287. "January 29th, 1696.-The Royal Sovereign was at first designed only for splendour and magnificence, and was in some measure the occasion of those loud complaints against ship-money in the reign of Charles I.; but being taken down a deck lower, she became one of the best men-of-war in the world, and so formidable to her enemies that none of the most daring among them would willingly lie by her side. She had been in almost all the great engagements that had been fought between England and Holland; and in the last fight between the English and French, (1692,) encountered the Wonder of the World, (Merveilleux,) and she so warmly plied the French Admiral, that she forced him out of his three-decked wooden castle, and chasing the Royal Sun before her, forced her to fly for shelter among the rocks, where she became a prey to lesser vessels that reduced her to ashes. At length, leaky and defective herself with age, she was laid up at Chatham in order to be rebuilt; but being set on fire by negligence, she was upon the 27th of this month devoured by that element which so long and so often before she had imperiously made use of as the instrument of destruction to others." The name was not, however, suffered to fall into desuetude, for at the commencement of the next century we find a Royal Sovereign, of 100 guns, and 1883 tons, again in commission. On the 19th January, 1701-2, the Royal Sovereign was commissioned at Chatham for the flag (union at the main) of Admiral Sir George Rooke; Thomas Ley being his first captain, and John Fletcher, second captain. On the 19th of June, the Royal Sovereign sailed from England with the fleet of thirty English and twenty Dutch sail of the line, besides small frigates, transports, &c., in all 150 sail, bound to Gallicia, in Spain. So large a fleet must have formed a grand spectacle; no less than four English Admirals' and four Dutch Admirals' flags were flying in the fleet. Colonel, (as he is styled in the Royal Sovereign's log,) but more properly Vice-Admiral Thomas Hopson, had his flag (red) in the Royal William, and Sir Stafford Fairborne, Rear-Admiral of the White, his flag in the St. George. The Triumph bore Rear-Admiral John Graydon's flag. This formidable fleet anchored in the bay of Bulls, Cadiz, on the 13th of August; on the 15th, in landing the troops several boats were upset and many people were drowned; and on the 16th, Rota surrendered. After performing all that was practicable, which, by the way, was very little in comparison with the power employed, the fleet was about to return homewards, when Captain Sir Thomas Hardy, of the Pembroke, brought intelligence that the Spanish galleons under convoy of a French squadron, had entered Vigo. Sir George Rooke received these joyful news on the 6th of October, and immediately departed for that place with the fleet. The successful termination of the attack made is well related by Lediard, Campbell, and others, and it will be sufficient to state that three Spanish ships of war, carrying collectively 178 guns, were destroyed; and out of thirteen galleons found in the harbour of Vigo*, four were taken by the English, five by the Dutch, and four destroyed. The French also lost seventeen ships, mounting 960 guns, and having on board 5823 men. The bullion on board this rich fleet was computed at twenty millions of pieces of eight, fourteen millions of which had been removed previously to the attack; but the remainder was either taken or sunk in the galleons. Merchandize of a like value was taken or destroyed. The gallantry of Vice-Admiral Hopson upon this occasion in breaking the boom will ever be remembered. occa The Royal Sovereign was re-commissioned the ensuing year by Capt. Wishart, for Sir George Rooke's flag, but nothing of importance occurred. During the remainder of the war the Royal Sovereign was sionally employed, and at different times bore the flags of Sir John Leake, Admiral Aylmer, and Sir John Jennings. This ship was in the year 1728 rebuilt, and had a very long run, so much so, that we find the name still remaining upon a list of the Navy for 1765. There is occasional mention of the Royal Sovereign during the Seven Years' War, but unaccompanied by any particular service demanding attention, and we may therefore be excused for passing at once to the ship whose deeds we are principally anxious to chronicle. The Royal Sovereign (sometimes termed the "west country waggon" from her dull sailing properties, and probably occasioned by the quantity of timber used in her construction,) was built in the year 1786, by Mr. J. Pollard, at Plymouth Dockyard, Sir John Williams being Surveyor of the Navy, and was of the following dimensions, viz., length of gun deck, 183 feet 10 inches; keel, 150 feet 9 inches; extreme breadth, 52 feet 1 inch; depth of hold, 22 feet 2 inches; tons, 2175. * A ship of the line called the Vigo was built, we presume in commemoration of this splendid achievement, towards the conclusion of the late war, which ship is still in being. THE ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE OF SANDHURST. BY AN OLD CADET. Delightful task! to rear the martial youth, To breathe th' enlivening spirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breast.-THOMSON. WE E now, according to promise*, resume the pen, to give some further notices as to the Royal Military College of Sandhurst. Although the revolving and never-ceasing hand of Time hath on the dial-piece of eternity deeply chiselled the furrows of nearly a quarter of a century (to say nothing of sundry wrinkles on our weather-beaten phiz) since, in the character of a John†, we were first admitted within its honoured walls; although during that long period we have, as the reader may well fancy, (like most of those who have taken the shilling,) been well buffeted and mercilessly kicked about by that capricious lady, Dame Fortune; although at present, . Mute is the bugle which at peep of dawn Memory,-ever vigilant at her post,-faithfully and vividly recals those gone-by days and scenes of our boyhood;-with fond perseverance still cultivates in the mind those flowers of early recollection, which, though long since trodden down, and oft crushed under the heavy footstep of succeeding events, with strange and tenacious perseverance still spring up from the time and way-worn footpath of our present thoughts, and appear once more to flourish in all the sweetness and brilliancy of youthful feeling and recollections. How well, how distinctly, do we even now recal to mind,-for it appeareth but as a thing of yesterday, the cold, bleak, foggy morning in the month of January, of the year of our Lord 18-, when,-with our respected "Governor," we (then a stout urchin, numbering some fifteen summers,) found ourselves fairly booked at the White Horse Cellar, rapidly whirled along amidst the dense atmosphere of a London fog, through Piccadilly, along the Southampton Road, past Hounslow and Staines, and Bagshot, until safely deposited at the hostellerie yclep'd the Duke of York, since promoted to the rank of hotel, and then, as now, the best place of entertainment for man and horse at the little village of York Town, in the immediate vicinity of the Royal Military College. How vivid is our recollection of the events of the succeeding morning! How well do we recal with what feelings of awe we first entered the sacred boundaries of the College domains, passed along the margin of its smooth and silvery lake, here and there dotted with evergreen islets, and even at that inclement season tranquilly embosomed, -like a pearl set in emeralds,-amidst the dark verdure of its pinecovered hills;-with what wonder we next surveyed the broad flight of Vide United Service Magazine for December, 1842. †The College term for a novice, or young hand. |