their command. But these voluntary gifts were insufficient
to maintain a great navy. The necessity which compelled
modern nations to form permanent state navies, instead of
relying on a levy of ships from the ports, and such vessels as
English nobles and gentlemen sent to fight the Armada, prevailed
in Athens also. The organization of the crews bore a close
resemblance in the general lines to that of the English navy as
it was till the 16th and even the 17th century. The trierarch,
either the citizen named to discharge the duty, or some one whom
he paid to replace him, answered to the captain. There was
a sailing master (κυβερνήτη), a body of petty officers, mariners
and oarsmen (ὑπηρεσία), with the soldiers or marines (ἐπιβάται).
As the ancient warship was a galley, the number of rowers
required was immense. A hundred triremes would require
twenty thousand men in all, or more than the total number of
crews of the twenty-seven British line of battleships which
fought at Trafalgar. And yet this would not have been a great
fleet, as compared with the Roman and Carthaginian forces,
which contended with hundreds of vessels and multitudes of
men, numbering one hundred and fifty thousand or so, on each
side, in the first Punic War.
Until the use of broadside artillery and the sail became universal at the end of the 16th century, all navies were forcibly organized on much the same lines as the Athenian, even in the western seas. In the Mediterranean the differences were in names and in details. The war fleets of the successors of Alexander, of Carthage, of Rome, of Byzantium, of the Italian republics, of the Arabs and of Aragon, were galleys relying on their power to ram or board. Therefore they present the same elements—a chief who is a general, captains who were soldiers, or knights, sailing masters and deck hands who navigate and tend the few sails used, marines and rowers. A few words may, however, be said of Rome, which transmitted the tradition of the ancient world to Constantinople, and of the Constantinopolitan or Byzantine navy, which in turn transmitted the tradition to the Italian cities, and had one peculiar point of interest.
As a trading city Rome was early concerned in the struggle for predominance in the western Mediterranean between the Etruscans, the Greek colonies and the Carthaginians. Its care of its naval interests was shown by the appointment of navy commissioners as early as 311 B.C. (Duoviri navales). In the first Punic War it had to raise great fleets from its own Rome. resources, or from the dependent Greek colonies of southern Italy. After the fall of Carthage it had no opponent who was able to force it to the same efforts. The prevalence of piracy in the 1st century B.C. again compelled it to attend to its navy (see Pompey). The obligation to keep the peace on sea as well as on land required the emperors to maintain a navy for police purposes. The organization was very complete. Two main fleets, called the Praetorian, guarded the coasts of Italy at Ravenna and Misenum (classes Praetoriae), other squadrons were stationed at Forum Julii (Fréjus), Seleucia at the mouth of the Orontes (Nahr-el-Asy), called the classis Syriaca, at Alexandria (classis Augusta Alexandriae), at Carpathos (Scarpanto, between Crete and Rhodes), Aquileia (the classis Venetum at the head of the Adriatic), the Black Sea (classis Pontica), and Britain (classis Britannica). River flotillas were maintained on the Rhine (classis Germanica), on the Danube (classis Pannonica and Maesica) and in later days at least on the Euphrates. All these squadrons did not exist at the same time. The station at Forum Julii was given up soon after the reign of Augustus, and the classis Venetum was formed later. But an organized navy always existed. A body of soldiers, the classici, was assigned for its service. The commander was the Praefectus Classis.
When Constantine founded his New Rome on the site of Byzantium, the navy of the Eastern Empire may be said to have begun. Its history is obscure and it suffered several eclipses. While the Vandal kingdom of Carthage lasted (428–534), the eastern emperors were compelled to attend to their fleet. After its fall their navy fell into neglect Byzantine. till the rise of the Mahommedan power at the end of the 7th century again compelled them to guard their coasts. The eastern caliphs had fleets for purposes of conquest, and so had the emirs and caliphs of Cordova. The Byzantine navy reached its highest point under the able sovereigns of the Macedonian dynasty (867–1056). It was divided into the imperial fleet, commanded by the Great Drungarios, the first recorded lord high admiral, and the provincial or thematic squadrons, under their strategoi. Of these there were three, the Cibyrhaeotic (Cyprus and Rhodes), the Samian and the Aegean. The thematic squadrons were maintained permanently for police purposes. The imperial fleet, which was more powerful when in commission than all three, was kept for war. A peculiar feature of the Byzantine navy was the presence in it of a corps answering to the seaman gunners and gunnery officers of modern navies. These were the siphonarioi, who worked the siphons (σιφῶνες) used for discharging the “Greek fire.” When the Turkish invasions disorganized the Eastern Empire in the 12th century, the Byzantine navy withered, and the emperors were driven to rely on the help of the Venetians.
The Italian republics of the middle ages, and the monarchical states bordering on the Mediterranean, always possessed fleets which did not differ in essential particulars from that of Athens. There is, however, one fact which must not be overlooked. It is that the seamen of some of them, and more especially of Genoa, served the powers of western Europe Medieval. from a very early date. Diego Gelmirez, the first archbishop of Santiago in Gallicia, employed Genoese to construct a dockyard and build a squadron at Vigo in the 12th century.
Edward III. of England employed Genoese, and others were engaged to create a dockyard for the French kings at Rouen. By them the naval science of the Mediterranean was carried to the nations on the shores of the Atlantic. The Mediterranean navies made their last great appearance in history at the battle of Lepanto (1571). Thenceforth the main scene of naval activity was on the ocean, with very different ships, other armaments and organizations.
The great navies of modern history may best be discussed by taking first certain specially important national navies in their earlier evolution, and then considering those which are of present day interest in their relations to one another.
The British Navy.
The Royal Navy of Great Britain stands at the head of the navies of the modern world, not only by virtue of its strength, but because it has the longest and the most consistent historical development. The Norse invasions of the 9th century forced the English people to provide for their defence against attack from oversea. Though their efforts were but partially successful, and great Norse settlements were made on the eastern side of the island, a national organization was formed. Every shire was called upon to supply ships “in proportion to the number of hundreds and from the produce of what had been the folkland contained in it” (Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 116). Alfred and his successors had also ships of their own, maintained out of the royal revenue of which they had complete control. Before the Conquest the system of contribution by the shires had largely broken down. Yet in its main lines the method of providing a navy adopted by Alfred and his immediate successors remained in existence. There were the people’s ships which represented the naval side of the fyrd—i.e. the general obligation to defend the realm; and there were the king’s own vessels which were his property. By the 11th century a third source of supply had been found. This was the feudal array. Towns on the sea coast were endowed with privileges and franchises, and rendered definite services in return.
The Norman Conquest introduced no fundamental difference. In the 12th century the kings of the Angevine dynasty made the military resources of their kingdom available in three ways; the feudal array, the national militia and the mercenaries. Dover, Sandwich, Romney, and the other towns on the south-east coast which formed the Cinque Ports represented the naval part of the feudal array. In the reign of Henry III. (1216–1272) their service was fixed at 57 ships, with 1197 men and boys, for
