Henry VIII. was the first sovereign in Europe to establish a corps of officers for sea service only and he did more for the navy than any pre ceding monarch, using improved models for Ili, ships and employing many Italian shipwrights (then the best in the world) in their construc tion. lie greatly increased the number of vessels and established the arsenals at Portsmouth, Woolwich. and Deptford. Edward Vl. and Mary paid little attention to the fleet, but Elizabeth recognized its vital importance and increased the number of ships and their size. besides improving the condition of the officers nail gathering vast quantities of naval stores. From her reign to the present day the British navy. though not without rivals, has never been equaled.
In this brief review of the history of ancient and mediaeval navies only those are considered which have been of greatest importance in the different periods. This has excluded a very large number from mention except so far as their his tories are hound up with the histories of others.
The greatest apparent omission is in the case of France. Her navy has always been respectable and occasionally very powerful, lint it has never been paramount, and its prestige suffered at dif ferent times. from defeats brought about by pnv ernmental neglect and mismanagement. It has not been to France what that of Great Britain has been to the British Islands and Empire. an ahsolute necessity. Der fleet has been built up or neglected according to the prevailing policy of the Government.
Modern naval development may he said to have begun with the rapid increase in the size of ships which took place at the close of the fif teenth century (see (1u:Ns. NAVAL) ; and me difeval history finally closed with the battle of Lepanto in 1571. the last great action in which rowing galleys played an impo.tant part. From this time the sail-propelled man-of-war was grad ually improved until early in the nineteenth cen tury. when sails began to give way to steam. During this period the British navy managed to retain its general supremacy, though the tempo rary rise of the Dutch naval power seriously threatened it ; and for a few years Louis XIV.
managed to maintain a French fleet which was superior to the British, and with which Admiral Tourville defeated the combined British and Dutch forces off Beachy Dead (16901. Two years later the French fleet was destroyed at La Hogue by the allied British and Dutch. From this time forward the superiority of the British navy was undoubted. Though it lost many single-ship actions with the French and Americans. no for eign navy could stand before its full st rength.
After the close of the \rapoleonie wars the great naval Powers were I:real Britain and France alone. in the second rank were Spain,
Russia. the Netherlands. and Turkey. In the third were Austria, Denmark. the States. the Two Sicilies. Sarilinin. Portugal. and Prussia. in 1860 the conditions were much the same, except that the United States had risen to the second category. the Netherlands had sunk to the third. the Kingdom of Italy was forming, and that of the Two Sieilies tottering to its fall: while Greece. Brazil. Peru. and Chile had organized naval forces.
During thethe American Civil War the navy of the l'nited States. whose history and present con dition will be found fully treated IDDICT UNITED STATES. became greatly expanded, but from 1865 to Issl it steadily declined, until it reached the point of almost absolute uselessness so far as the ships were concerned. and ceased to be a factor among the naItil armaments of the Powers. In the North tterman Confederation took over the Prussian navy and made some addi tions, and the fleet again received some increase I ti strength in the decade following the forma tion of the Iternitin Empire. Italy began to develop a fleet as soon as the Kingdom was cstablished, but the disastrous battle of Lissa in 1860 caused a temporary check. and it was not until 1872 that she adopted the building policy that in a dozen years brought her up into the tirst rank of naval Powers. Rus sia began to reconstruct her fleet after the close of the Crimean \Vat• and has pursued a steady and unwavering policy of naval increase front that date to the present. In 1881 the states began to rebuild the navy, but it was not until 1890 that battleships of the first class were commenced. After completing four large armorclads in 1878-S1). Germany added little to her tleet until 1888-89, when a programme was adopted which included the construction of 28 ships of various types. dapan organized its navy on a modern footing, soon after the close of the Civil 1Var ill the United States. and slowly added to it until after the battle of the Yalu (1894), when she began to build the line vessels that have made her navy the most powerful outside of Europe, with the exception of that of the United Mates. (If the Powers of the second rank, _\ us tria-llungary is first. After the War of 1860 she did little 11,1' seNeral years. and then (1872-78) built only three ships of much importance. In 1887 she launched two small arithirelads, and in 1S95 !10 three coast defense vessels. Theo was insti tuted a shipbuilding policy which, if persisted in, may soon kilace her among the great maritime Powers. 'turkey, which hail a powerful navy about ISSO, has allowed it to fall into decay. and hail not in 1903 a sing], ',hip of the first or even of the second class.