When an admiral's flag is hoifted on board a first rate, her complement of men is increafed to 875. When a viceadmiral's, to 870. When a rear-admirals to 865.

Ships of the line, fifties, frigates, and royal yachts, are commanded by poft captains; floops of war, bombs, fire ships, armed fhips, ftore fhips, and armes en flute, under fifty guns, by commanders. Schooners, cutters, and other small armed veffels, by lieutenants. Sloops fitted for the conveyance of ftores are occafionally commanded by mafters, and fmall craft by midshipmen who have paffed for lieutenants.

Upon the official regifter of the navy there are no fixty-eights or fifty-fixes; nor any frigates claffed higher than forties.

First and fecond rates have three complete decks or tiers of guns fore and aft. Third and fourth rates, two complete decks or tiers of guns fore and aft. Fifth and fixth rates, which include floops of war and all under, are fome of them rigged with three mafts, as fhips, fome with two mafts, as brigs, &c.

MODE OF PROVIDING SHIPS. In ancient times, as already has been fhewn, the king, by virtue of his prerogative, could call on the fubject to supply vessels for defence of the realm or attack of the enemy; the fea ports, and fubfequently the whole kingdom, were obliged to contribute to the formation of the navy; a mixed fleet was then formed, partly of fhips belonging to the crown and partly of those which were hired from private proprietors; but as the want of a navy became more fenfibly felt, the care of government was more ftrongly directed to it, and public docks and arfenals were established for the building, repairing, and equipping of veffels for the public fervice. It has also been ufual, in late years, to contract for the conftruction of ships at the dock yards of the mercantile fhip builders.

DOCK YARDS. There are fix principal dock-yards in the kingdom; at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portfmouth, and Plymouth.

DEPTFORD was first raised into confideration by Henry VIII. who erected a ftorehouse, and, by a charter dated in the 4th of his reign, established a guild, or corporation, for the increase and better conducting of the royal navy, known by the name of the Trinity Houfe. Camden, who takes no notice of Woolwich, mentions Deptford, as being, at the time he wrote (1607), a noted dock. The area of the yard has been fince more than doubled. A wet dock of two acres for fhips, and another of one acre and half for mafts, have been added. It was at this place that Peter the Great of Mufcovy ftudied fhip building; and in this yard, the little fhip, in which Sir Francis Drake failed round the world, in the year 1580, was laid up by order of queen Elizabeth in remembrance of the voyage,

WOOLWICH,

WOOLWICH. This dock precedes all in point of antiquity; ships of war had been built here before the reign of Henry VIII; but that prince added to the celebrity of this yard, by building, in the fourth year of his reign, his famous fhip of more than one thoufand tons burthen, named Henry Grace de Dieu, but more commonly called the Great Harry. At this dock likewife were built the Prince Royal of fourteen hundred tons, in the 8th of James I. and the Sovereign Royal, a fhip of the first rate, in the 13th of Charle I.; alfo three famous first rate ships of war, called the Charles, the James, and the Saint Andrew, in the reign of Charles II.

CHATHAM yard owes its origin to queen Elizabeth, who, in in the fecond year of her reign, built a dock at a great expence on the spot beneath the church, which, in the next reign was affigned to the office of ordnance; and a more extenfive yard was conftructed, in 1622, on the adjoining bank, where it is now fituated. Gillingham road, on the Medway, juft below Chatham, had early been a principal station for fhips, and is mentioned as fuch by Hollingfhed. It was on that account that Upnor caftle was built in the reign of Henry VIII.

SHEERNESS had no exftence till Charles II. conftructed a fort by means of piles on a fand bank, at this point of the ifle of Sheppey, as a more convenient barrier against the approach of the enemy than Queenborough caftle. An alluvium of foil being foon after collected on the fouth fide around several hulks which were run afhore there, it was deemed a proper place for the establishment of a yard on a small fcale, as an appendage to that at Chatham, for the occafional repair and refitting of fhips, without their going up the Medway, and for the conftruction of fhips of lower rates. The forts were taken and dismantled by the Dutch in 1667, but were foon restored, and Sheerness is now a place of confiderable strength, and celebrated for its well, planned and executed a few years fince by Sir Thomas Page, to fupply what had been its chief defect, the want of fresh water. The principal inconvenience attending the yard is, that it is a thoroughfare to all perfons coming into or going out of the fort; though this is lefs felt than it would otherwise be, from the whole place being the property of the crown.

PORTSMOUTH had been long celebrated for its harbour, and noted as a fortified place, before any dock was established there. The walls were originally of timber and mud; but two towers of freestone at the mouth of the harbour were begun by Edward IV. continued by Richard III. and completed by Henry VII.; and fortifications of freeftone were added by queen Elizabeth. Southfea caftle, and the block-houfe, were built by Henry VIII. who made this one of the principal rendezvous for his navy. The

dock

dock begun in that century (though inconfiderable at first) has been gradually improved and extended, till it has become the most complete naval arfenal in the kingdom; and, with the advantage of the fortifications, the harbour and the roads at Spithead and St. Helens, forms a most eligible station for the royal navy. On the third of July 1768, a dreadful fire broke out at midnight, in the dock-yard, and raged with great fury. It rained very hard all that night, and it was thought the ftores caught fire by the lightning. In the warehouses that were confumed were depofited one thousand and fifty tons of hemp, five hundred tons of cordage, and about feven hundred fails, befides many hundred barrels of tar and oil. A still more dreadful conflagration happened in the dock-yard on the 27th July, 1770; it was first difcovered by the centinels on duty about 5 o'clock in the morning, when the drums beat to arms, and, in a few minutes after the dock-yard was all in a flame. The house where the pitch and tar were lodged was foon reduced to an heap of rubbish, and in a few minutes it broke out in four different parts, and burnt with fuch violence, as to threaten the whole place. The inhabitants were filled with the greateft confternation; but by the wind shifting about, and the affistance of the marines and failors its progrefs was stopped before seven in the evening. The rope houfe was again deftroyed, December the feventh, 1776, when the damage was estimated at fixty thoufand pounds. For this act an incendiary named James Áitkin, but called John the Painter, was found guilty and executed.

PLYMOUTH, though originally a fall fishing town, grew into confequence from the excellence of the havens at the mouths of the Plym and the Tamer, the former of which is mentioned by the hiftorians of the fixteenth century, as being, in their time, walled on each fide of the entrance, and chained across in time of neceffity, and as having a blockhouse on a rocky hill on the fouth fide. At the period of intended invafion by the Spanish armada, it was one of the itations of the English fleet; but the dock-yard is of later date than any of the others, having been established by William III. who began in 1691, and finifhed in 1693, a wet and dry dock, both of confiderable magnitude. The yard is fince greatly increafed, and forms a fmall town, with a separate chapel, and has every appendage that can render it a complete naval arfenal.

There is a naval ftorehoufe at Harwich, and fhips have been occafionally built there, but it has no pretenfions to the title of a dock-yard, and is only calculated for refitting any of the king's fhips, which happen to touch there, for which purpose there is a ftorehouse with offices belonging to it.

Deal and Leith in Great Britain, and Kinfale in Ireland, are in

the

the fame predicament, as are likewife Gibraltar, Antigua, and Greenwich in Jamaica, at each of which there are storekeepers, and at the last, mafter fhipwrights; but at Halifax, in Ñova Scotia, there is a regular dock-yard, though on a small scale, established in the reign of George II., and fuperintended by a refident commiffioner, with proper officers in the different branches.

GOVERNMENT. The dock-yards are all under the general controul and direction of the commiffioners of the navy: those at Deptford and Woolwich are under the immediate infpection of the navy board, and are vifited weekly by the comptroller and furveyor of the navy. The yards at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, are refpectively fuperintended by a refident commiffioner, who conducts the bufinefs under the direction of the admiralty and navy boards, of which latter the refident commissioners are members: the yard at Sheerness is under the charge of the commiffioner refident at Chatham.

OFFICERS. The establishment of each of the dock-yards confists of the five following principal officers. A master, or master's attendant, a master fhipwright, a clerk of the cheque, a ftorekeeper, and a clerk of the furvey; each of whom, as well as the commiffioners refident at three of the vards, have a certain number of clerks employed under them. There are likewise at each yard, a furgeon, a boatswain, and a mafter porter, and at all the yards, except Sheerness, a purveyor; likewife at all except Sheernefs, and Deptford, a clerk of the rope yard, and a master rope-maker.

The Commiffioner, at the yards where one is refident, fuperintends all the works carrying on, and the due performance of the duties incumbent on the officers and workmen; he controuls. the payment of the ships afloat, and those made at the pay-office on fhore; fuperintends the fale of old, and purchase of new ftores when neceffary; examines and proves the entry of feamen, and the discharge of thofe unfit for fervice, alfo the entry of artificers, labourers, &c. for the yard. He caufes the standing orders for the good government of the yard to be read to the officers and workmen quarterly, fees that the proper precautions are taken for the fecurity of the yard, adminifters the oath for qualifying commiffion and warrant officers; and for receiving widows penfions; infpects and tranfmits to the navy board the accounts of the officers of the yard, and correfponds with the admiralty and navy boards on all matters relating to the fhips in port or dock, and on all occurences in his particular depart

ment.

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1

The Mafter Attendant affifts at the furvey of all boatfwain's ftores brought into the yards, and inspects the works

going on in the fail-loft and rigging houfe; examines the state of fhips arriving from fea; vifits occafionally thofe laid up in ordinary; mufters the ordinary; and makes a proper distribution of the men for the fervices on fhore, and on board the fhips in harbour; attends the launching, docking and undocking of all ships of war in the yard the launching of king's fhips built in merchants' yards, and the furvey, valuing, and approving of fuch fhips as are tendered to government for purchase or hire, as tranfports or ftore fhips, and reports his opinion thereon, jointly with the mafter-fhipwright, and clerk of the furvey.

The Mafter Shipwright affists in furveying the quality of all fhipwrights' ftores received into the yard, and certifies the fame; infpects all the fhipwrights' work going on in the yard or elsewhere when required; attends the furvey, valuation and approval of fhips tendered for fervice or hire, and reports his opinion thereon, jointly with the clerk of the furvey and mafter attendant.

The Clerk of the Cheque keeps lifts of all the fhipwrights, artificers, and labourers belonging to the yard, of all the officers, fhip-keepers, and feamen belonging to the ordinary, and of all the officers and feamen belonging to the fhips in commiffion at the ports; mufters the yards daily; the ordinary weekly on board, and monthly on fore; and the fhips in commiffion once or twice a week; makes out quarterly pay-books for the yard and ordinary; and tranfmits to the navy board copies of the mufters of the fhips in commiffion on their leaving the port, and fends to the admiralty and navy boards weekly accounts of them during their ftay. When there are any hired tranfports or veffels at the port, he mufters them daily, and fends accounts to the navy board; he furveys the quantity and quality of all ftores received, and infpects and measures all works performed by contract in the yard; and, on application, makes out bills for the fame: he receives for the treasurer of the navy the money arifing from the fale of old ftores, pays the contingent expences of the yard, of which he makes up a quarterly account.

The Storekeeper infpects, jointly with the other principal officers, all stores ferved into the yard, and upon finding them of proper quality, receives and depofits them in the proper place : he figns bills for all he receives, and iffues none without a warrant figned by two of the principal officers: he keeps an exact account of the receipt, ifiues, and remains of every article, and fends monthly accounts to the navy board.

The Clerk of the Survey grants warrants, jointly with the master attendant and mafter shipwright, for the iflue of all ftores to boatswains and carpenters of ships of war, and keeps a charge