e trained
men if necessary, was even more numerous than the Armada itself, though the
average size of the ships was smaller. On the list there appear the names
of no fewer than 197 ships, ranging in size from the "Triumph" of 1100 tons
(Frobisher's ship) down to small coasting craft. The flagship, the "Ark,"
or "Ark Royal," was a vessel of 800 tons. Contemporary prints show that she
had a high poop and forecastle, but not on the exaggerated scale of the
Spanish galleons; and that she had four masts, and was pierced with three
tiers of port-holes for guns, besides gun-ports in the stern. She had a
crew of 270 mariners, 34 gunners, and 126 soldiers. Contrary to the system
on which the Armada was manned, the seamen in every ship of the English
fleet exceeded the soldiers in number. "The Ark" carried no less than 44
guns, namely, 4 "cannon" (60-pounders), 4 "demi-cannon" (30-pounders) 12
"culverins" (long 18-pounders), 12 "demi-culverins" (long 9-pounders), 6
"sakers" (6-pounders), and six smaller pieces, some of them mounted inboard
for resisting boarders at close quarters.[8] This was an armament equalled
by few of the Spanish ships, and the fact is that the English ships as a
rule were better armed than the Spaniards.

[8] These old wooden ships had a much longer life than the steel
battleship of to-day, which becomes obsolete and is broken up
after twenty years. The "Ark," launched in 1587 (and built at
the cost of L5000 = L50,000 in the money of to-day), was
refitted and renamed the "Anne Royal" (after James I's queen) in
1608; was the flagship of the Cadiz expedition of 1625, and was
broken up in 1636. Hawkins's ship, the "Victory," was launched
in 1561; she sailed as the "Resolution" in Blake's fleet under
the Commonwealth; was renamed the "Royal Prince" at the
Restoration, and was burned in 1666 during Charles II's Dutch
war. She was then over a hundred years old and still fit "to lie
in the line of battle."

But few of Howard's fleet were of heavy tonnage. There were only two ships
of over 1000 tons; one of 900; two of 800; three of 600; five or six of
500, and all the rest less than 400 tons, many of them less than 100. But
though the English ships were smaller than the Spaniards, they were better
at sailing and manoeuvring, thoroughly handy craft, manned by sailors who
knew how to make them do their best, and who were quite at home in the
rough northern seas.

Th