ce as foremost naval power. In addition to this war,
Cromwell undertook an expedition to the Mediterranean, to punish the
piratical states of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. The fleet was commanded
by Blake, and was completely successful in its operations, which
resulted in a security for British commerce with the Levant that had
never been known before. Admiral Penn was at the same time entrusted
with the command of a powerful expedition to the Spanish West Indies.
The annexation of Jamaica followed, and British commerce in the West
increased. In fact, with the progress of the national navy the commerce
of the country also extended itself, and the increased experience thus
obtained in shipbuilding, both for the war and trading fleets,
necessarily resulted in great improvements in the art.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--The _Royal Charles_. 1673.]

The expenditure on the navy in the time of the Commonwealth was enormous
relatively to the total national revenue. In the year 1656-57
four-fifths of the income of the country was devoted to the sea service,
in the following year two-thirds, and in 1658-59 nearly three-fifths.
These are figures which have never been approached at any other period.
The ships built during this time were of moderate dimensions. Only four
were of 1,000 tons. These were the _Dunbar_, of 1,047 tons and 64 guns,
built in 1656; the _London_, built in the same year, of the same tonnage
and number of guns, though of different dimensions; the _Richard_, of
1,108 tons and 70 guns, built in 1658; and the _Naseby_, built in 1655,
of 1,229 tons and 80 guns. All four were renamed at the Restoration.

Charles II. and his brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James II.,
both possessed in an eminent degree the fondness for the navy which
distinguished all the members of the Stuart dynasty, though,
unfortunately, after the first naval war waged by Charles against
Holland, the condition of the fleet was allowed to deteriorate very
rapidly. As a sample of the type of warship of the first class built in
this reign, we give, in Fig. 49, the _Royal Charles_, which was
constructed at Portsmouth dockyard in 1673, by Sir Anthony Deane, to
carry 100 guns. This illustration and that of the _Sovereign of the
Seas_ are after pictures by Vandevelde. This ship was the largest in the
navy, excepting always the famous old _Sovereign of the Seas_ and the
_Britannia_. The latter was built at Chatham, by Pett, in 1682, and
carried 100 g