We need not conclude, however, that she had been either hopelessly ill-maintained or fraudulently sold. The Grand Mistress was a wartime emergency construction, as indeed were all the new ships of 1545. Ships ordered under such conditions were frequently built of unseasoned, "green" timber, and were prone to swift deterioration; shipyards maintained brine ponds in which timber was normally held for seasoning, but stocks wre insufficient for a sudden surge of war-emergency orders. In a much later period, for example, the Continental warships built during the American Revolution likewise proved to be generally short-lived.This episode was a proximate cause of the Anglo-Spanish hostility that would culminate in the Armada, and in that respect the Jesus of Lubeck forms a historical link between the Henrician fleet and the familiar Elizabethan maritime epic. The fate of the Jesus of Lubeck may also have played its part in the evolution of Elizabethan tactics, and for this reason we will return to this ship below. All four of the rowing galleasses survived through the entire reign of Elizabeth. At some point they were evidently rebuilt, with guns taking the place of the lower-deck oars; at least, a drawing of the Tiger in action in 1580--which shows a long, low hull, and therefore is probably more or less accurate--shows her with lower-deck guns. Why did these ships last so long, when their contemporaries vanished so quickly? ________. Fighting Instructions, 1530-1816. New York: Burt Franklin, 1967 (orig. pub. 1905). These ships were older ones, or at least ships of more conventional design. The fate of the most modern Henrician ships, the galleasses of 1545, were less colorful but just as varied, and in some cases even more indicative of the evolutionary trend of the navy. The largest of the galleasses, the Grand Mistress and Anne Gallant, lasted on the navy list for only a few years. The Grand Mistress was sold about 1555 for a nominal sum, an eve |
