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The reign of Edward III., which commenced in 1327, was, in consequence
of the wars with Scotland and France, one of great naval activity. After
some years of desultory naval warfare in the Channel, a famous sea fight
took place at Sluys, in Dutch Flanders, about ten miles north-east of
Blankenberghe, in the year 1340. The English fleet consisted of about
200 ships under the personal command of Edward III. The allied French
and Genoese fleet numbered, according to the English king, 190, and was
composed of ships, galleys, and barges, while some of the chroniclers
have put its numbers at as many as 400 sail, but this would probably
include many small craft. The battle resulted in the capture, or
destruction, of nearly the whole French fleet. The English are said to
have lost 4,000 men killed, and the French 25,000. In one vessel, named
the _Jeanne de Dieppe_, captured by the Earl of Huntingdon, no fewer
than 400 dead bodies were found. The latter figure shows that some very
large vessels were used at this battle.

[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Poole seal. 1325.]

Edward III. caused a gold noble to be struck in 1344 bearing the
representation of a ship almost precisely similar to the vessel on the
seal of Poole, of about twenty years earlier (Fig. 30). It is fitted
with a rudder at the stern, and we may therefore conclude that at this
period the side-rudder, or clavus, had disappeared from all important
vessels. The fore and stern castles were, in most cases, temporary
additions to merchant ships, to adapt them for purposes of warfare. In
fact, nearly all the sailing-ships used in naval warfare down to, and
even after the fourteenth century, appear to have been employed as
merchant vessels in time of peace; and this remark applies even to the
king's ships. It was, no doubt, the introduction of artillery that first
caused the sailing warship to be differentiated from the merchantman.
Although gunpowder for military purposes is said to have been used on
land as early as 1326, and although iron and brass cannon are mentioned
amongst the stores of three of the king's ships in 1338, nevertheless,
the battle of Sluys and the subsequent naval engagements in the reign of
Edward III. appear to have been fought without artillery. It was not
till the last quarter of the fourteenth century that guns became at all
common on board ship.

In the year 1345 Edward III. invaded France, and was accompanied by a
fleet of from 1,000 to 1,100