armament, comprising guns of all sizes
and of picturesque but bewildering nomenclature. According to
Corbett,[1] the ordnance may be divided into four main classes
based on caliber, the first two of the "long gun" and the other
two of the carronade or mortar type.

[Footnote 1: DRAKE AND THE TUDOR NAVY, Vol. I, p. 384.]

I. Cannon proper, from 16 to 28 caliber, of 8.5-inch bore and 12
feet in length, firing 65-pound shot. The demi-cannon, which was
the largest gun carried on ships of the time, was 6.5 inches by
9 feet and fired 30-pound shot.

II. Culverins, 28 to 34 caliber long guns, 5 inches by 12 feet,
firing 17-pound shot. Demi-culverins were 9-pounders. Slings, bases,
sakers, port-pieces, and fowlers belonged to this class.

III. Perriers, from 6 to 8 caliber, firing stone-balls, shells,
fire-balls, etc.

IV. Mortars, of 1.5 caliber, including petards and murderers.

The "great ordnance," or cannon, were muzzle-loading. The secondary
armament, mounted in tops, cageworks, bulkheads, etc., were
breech-loading; but these smaller pieces fell out of favor as time
went on owing to reliance on long-range fire and rareness of boarding
actions. Down to the middle of the 19th century there was no great
improvement in ordnance, save in the way of better powder and boring.
Even in Elizabeth's day the heaviest cannon had a range of three
miles.

These advances in ship design and armament were accompanied by
some changes in naval administration. In 1546 the Navy Board was
created, which continued to handle matters of what may be termed
civil administration until its functions were taken over by the
Board of Admiralty in the reorganization of 1832. The chief members
of the Navy Board, the Treasurer, Comptroller, Surveyor of Ships,
Surveyor of Ordnance, and Clerk of Ships, were in Elizabethan times
usually experienced in sea affairs. To John Hawkins, Treasurer from
1578 to 1595, belongs chief credit for the excellent condition of
ships in his day. The Lord High Admiral, a member of the nobility,
exercised at least nominal command of the fleet in peace and war. For
vice admiral under him a man of practical experience was ordinarily
chosen. On shipboard, the only "gentleman" officers were the captains;
the rest--masters, master's mates, pilots, carpenters, boatswains,
coxswains, and gunners--were, to quote a contemporary description,
"mechanick men that had been bred up from swabbers." But owing
to the small proportion of