h rigging. The hold
between the mortars and keel was closely packed with old cables, cut
into lengths. The yielding elastic qualities of the packing assisted in
taking up the force of the recoil. The bombs weighed about 200 pounds,
and the consternation and terror produced by them may readily be
realized when it is remembered that, up to that time, the most dangerous
projectile which a warship could discharge at a land fortification was a
thirty-two pound shot. These vessels were fitted with two masts, one in
the middle and the other in the stern.

While referring to this invention of Bernard Renan, it should be
mentioned that France rose to the rank of a great naval power in the
reign of Louis XIV., under the famous minister Colbert, in the latter
half of the seventeenth century. When Louis succeeded to the throne the
French Navy was practically non-existent, as it consisted only of four,
or five, frigates. In 1672 he had raised the strength of the fleet to
fifty line-of-battle ships and a corresponding number of frigates and
smaller vessels. Nine years afterwards, the French marine numbered 179
vessels of all classes, exclusive of galleys. In 1690 the French fleet
in the Channel alone numbered sixty-eight ships, while the combined
British and Dutch squadrons consisted only of fifty-six, and suffered a
defeat at Beachy Head, in which the English lost one vessel and their
allies six. This defeat was, however, amply revenged two years
afterwards, when the allies succeeded in opposing the enormous number of
ninety-nine ships of the line, besides thirty-eight frigates and
fireships, to Tourville's fleet of forty-four ships of the line and
thirteen smaller vessels, and defeated it off Cape La Hogue, inflicting
on it a loss of fifteen line-of-battle ships, including the famous
_Soleil Royal_, of 108 guns, illustrated in Fig. 50. From the time of
Louis XIV. down to the present date French naval architects have always
exercised a most important influence on the design of warships, a
circumstance which was largely due to the manner in which Colbert
encouraged the application of science to this branch of construction.
It may be truly said that, during the whole of the eighteenth century,
the majority of the improvements introduced in the forms and proportions
of vessels of the Royal Navy were copied from French prizes.

[Illustration: FIG. 52. British second-rate. 1665.]

[Illustration: FIG. 53.--Midship section of a fourth-ra