ccessful capture of
many Spanish treasure ships. Explorer, warrior, enricher of the realm,
he at once became a national hero. Queen Elizabeth, a patriot ruler
who always loved a hero for his service to the state, knighted Drake on
board his flagship; and a poet sang his praises in these few, fit
words, which well deserve quotation wherever the sea-borne English
tongue is known:

The Stars of Heaven would thee proclaim,
If men here silent were.
The Sun himself could not forget
His fellow traveller.

Nine years later the English Navy fought the unwieldy Spanish Armada
into bewildered flight and chased it to its death round the hostile
coast-line of the British Isles.

{53}

Meanwhile the quickened interest in 'sea affairs' had led to many
improvements in building, rigging, and handling vessels. Surprising as
it may seem, most of these improvements were made by foreigners. Still
more surprising is the fact that British nautical improvements of all
kinds, naval as well as mercantile, generally came from abroad during
the whole time that the British command of the sea was being won or
held. Belated imitation of the more scientific foreigner was by no
means new, even in the Elizabethan age. It had become a national habit
by the time the next two centuries were over. English men, not English
vessels, won the wars. The Portuguese and Spaniards had larger and
better vessels than the English at the beginning of the struggle, just
as the French had till after Trafalgar, and the Americans throughout
the War of 1812. Even Sir Walter Raleigh was belated in speaking of
the 'new' practice of striking topmasts, 'a wonderful ease to great
ships, both at sea and in the harbour.'

{54}

CHAPTER IV

SAILING CRAFT: UNDER THE FLEURS-DE-LIS[1]

Every one knows that when Champlain stood beside Lake Huron, wondering
if it had a western outlet towards Cathay, he was discovering the Great
Lakes, those fresh-water seas whose area far exceeds the area of Great
Britain. Every one knows that he became the 'Father of New France'
when he founded Quebec in 1608; and that he was practically the whole
civil and military government of Canada in its infant days. But few
know that he was also a captain in the Royal Navy of France, an expert
hydrographer, and the first man to advocate a Panama canal. And fewer
still remember that he lived in an age which, like our own, had {55}
its 'record-breaking' events at sea. Ba