United East India Company.
The first fleet fitted out by the re-organised Company consisted of four
ships, of 650, 500, 300, and 200 tons burthen respectively. It had to
fight its way with the Portuguese before it could commence to trade. The
Portuguese considered that they were entitled to a monopoly of the trade
with the East, and jealously resented the intrusion of the English
merchantmen, whom they attacked with a fleet of six galleons, three
ships, two galleys, and sixty smaller vessels. They were, however,
ignominiously defeated, and the English merchants were enabled to
accomplish their purpose.

During the last five years of the reign of James I. the strength of the
Royal Navy was increased twenty-five per cent. His son and successor,
Charles I., through all the troubles of his eventful reign, never
neglected this branch of the national defences, and during his reign the
Mercantile Marine grew to such an extent that, at the time of the
outbreak of the Civil War, the port of London alone was able to furnish
100 ships of considerable size, all mounting cannon and fitted up in
every respect for the operations of war.

[Illustration: FIG. 48.--The _Sovereign of the Seas_. 1637.]

The _Sovereign of the Seas_, illustrated in Fig. 48, may be taken as a
sample of the largest type of warship built by Charles. Like the _Prince
Royal_, she was designed by Pett, and was considered to be the most
powerful man-of-war in Europe of her time. Her construction must have
been a great improvement on that of the _Prince Royal_; for, whereas the
latter ship was declared to be no longer fit for service fifteen years
after her launch, the _Sovereign of the Seas_, though engaged in most of
the naval battles of the seventeenth century, remained in good condition
for a period of sixty years, and was then accidentally burnt at Chatham
when about to be rebuilt. She was the first three-decker in the Royal
Navy, but as she proved somewhat crank, she was cut down to a two-decker
in the year 1652. At the Restoration she was renamed the _Royal
Sovereign_.

This very remarkable vessel was of 1,683 tons burthen. Her length of
keel was 128 ft.; length over all, 167 ft.; beam, 48 ft. 4 in.; and
depth from top of lanthorn to bottom of keel, 76 ft. She was built with
three closed decks, a forecastle, a half-deck, a quarter-deck, and a
round-house. She carried in all 102 or 104 guns, and was pierced for
thirty guns on the lower, thirty on the main,