ry officers went to
command them, while the ships were navigated by professional seamen, who
had their own sea-officers, though generally of an inferior grade, over
them. A vestige of this custom still remains in the Royal Navy. On
board every ship, besides the captain and his lieutenants, there is a
sailing-master, who has also his mates or assistants, who have especial
charge of the navigation of the ship. Formerly the captain and his
lieutenants were not of necessity seamen. Now, they are so by
profession, though they still retain a remnant of their military
character. In time, probably, the last representative of the
master-of-the-mariners, as he was called, will disappear from the
British navy--it being the duty of the lieutenants to attend to the
navigation of the ship, as they do now to the management in every other
respect.

One of the wisest acts of Henry the Eighth was making the sea-service a
regular profession--though long after his time ships, and even fleets,
were commanded by men who had hitherto lived and fought only on shore.
About the year 1545 port-holes were generally introduced on board the
larger ships. Before that time the guns were fought over the bulwarks,
or were alone placed on the forecastle, and the aftercastle, which
latter portion of the ship is now called the poop. This word _poop_ is
evidently derived from the Latin _puppis_, as originally the after-part
of a ship was called by the Romans, and thence the name was given to the
ship herself, a part being taken for the whole. The ports were,
however, placed not more than sixteen inches from the water, so close,
indeed, as greatly to peril the ship. It was in consequence of this
faulty construction that the _Mary Rose_ of sixty guns, one of the
largest ships in the British navy, heeling over to a squall while
encountering the French at Spithead, was capsized, when her captain, Sir
George Carew, and upwards of 500 of his men, perished in the waves. As
late as the year 1835, Mr Deane, by means of his ingenious invention,
the diving-bell, was enabled to recover several guns, parts of the
wreck, and some stone-shot of the _Mary Rose_.

Ships generally carried but few guns. A writer, describing a battle
which took place off the Isle of Wight, and which lasted two hours, when
upwards of ninety ships were engaged, speaks of 300 shot being fired, to
prove how desperate was the contest. I have before me an account of the
battle in which