ly armed
with the new weapon. The Venetians are usually credited with having been
the first people to employ naval guns; but we do not find them using
artillery against the Genoese till the year 1377.

The introduction of cannon as the armament of ships of war was the cause
of several modifications in the construction of their hulls. Most of the
early vessels fitted with cannon were of the galley type, the guns being
mounted on the upper deck, and fired over the bulwarks, _en barbette_.
Afterwards portholes were cut through the bulwarks. Fig. 31 represents
a Venetian galley of the fourteenth century, as given by Charnock, with
a single gun mounted in the bow.

[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Venetian galley. Fourteenth century.]

The new form of armament of ships involved a considerable raising of the
height of side, and in order to counteract the effect of the high
topside, carrying the weight of guns aloft, the beam of the vessel
relatively to its length had to be much increased. The Venetians were,
however, afraid to make the transverse section wide throughout, lest the
weight of the guns near the sides of the vessel should cause the
connection of the sides with the beams to strain; hence they gave the
sides considerable "tumble home," or fall inboard, as represented by
Fig. 32, which shows the cross-section of a Venetian galleon. It will be
noticed that the width of the upper deck is only about half that of the
greatest beam. This practice was afterwards carried to an absurd extent
by the Venetians and their imitators, even in cases where guns were not
carried aloft, as may be seen from the sketch of a galleon given in Fig.
33. Hence it is evident that the introduction of ordnance on board ship
accounted for a complete revolution in the proportions of hulls hitherto
in vogue. The rig of ships also underwent a considerable development
about this period. The old single mast of the galley was supplemented by
two and in some cases by three others. The sails were still square sails
carried on spars, and the practice of reefing the sails to the spars
aloft, instead of lowering spars and sails together on deck, had now
become common.

[Illustration: FIG. 32.--Cross-section of a Venetian galleon.]

Two years after the action off La Rochelle we find the French commencing
the construction of a Royal Navy at Rouen. This step was taken in
consequence of the strong opinion held by Jean de Vienne, who was
appointed Admiral of Franc