1920 SIXTEENTH CENTURY 507 Obviously the English navy had not found the galley a really serviceable type of vessel ; what were the reasons for this ? In the first place, so early as 1546, Selve had clearly pointed out how unsuited they were to the tempestuous seas of the north : coste mer estoyt plus rude que celle de Levent ou Mydy et qu'en ung instant il s'y levoyt souvent grosses tempestes ausquelles lesdictes galleres n'estoint pas pour resister, que quand telz accidens leur survenoint elles estoient perdeues s'elles estoint loing de port.^ This opinion Soranzo echoes eight years later : ' They do not use galleys owing to the great violence of the ocean.' ^ As a natural consequence of this susceptibility to weather conditions, the season during which it was safe to use galleys was extremely short, the summer at the most, and not always the whole of that. But this disadvantage was insignificant in comparison with the twin difficulties of cost and of manning. However they were manned, whether by voluntary or by forced labour, they required large crews whom it was always difficult to obtain, and these large crews necessitated heavy expenses for their upkeep.^ As Mr. Oppenheim has pointed out, a large ship like the Dreadnought of 1588 could be kept at sea for about £303 per month, while the Bonavolia cost £514 per month,^ and it was quite definitely on the ground of their expense that the galleys had been paid off in 1551.^ And, indeed, though possibly con- temporaries did not fully realize it, galleys were really alien to the whole tendency of English shipbuilding during the sixteenth century, which was to develop the broadside armament, a feature that was rendered quite impossible in a galley by the position of the oars. Ultimately, as happened for example to the Bonavolia, galleys were reduced to a sort of river patrol, where their light draught and independence of the wind would give them decided advantages. There remains but to consider the problem of the method adopted in order to obtain crews for the galleys. Were they freely enlisted men, or were they criminals, as they usually were abroad ? There never had been the slightest moral objection to the use of criminals or slaves in the navy. As early as 1513 ^ Selve to the king, 14 July 1646 (Corresp. de Selve, p. 11).
- Soranzo' 8 report to the Venetian Republic, August 1554 {Cal. of State Papers,
Ven., V. 934, 548) ; the editor translates this 'strong tide of the ocean ', but ' gran forza ' surely means ' great violence ' ; but compare Barbaro's Report, ibid., p. 351-2. ' Compare the note against the names of the three galleys in the navy list of 1570 (State Papers Dom., Eliz., Ixxi. 70) : ' The season of the year doth pass away for any service to be had of them, who in time of service requireth 1,000 men for their full furniture.' And in the margin there is written in another hand : ' If no galleys come what advantage in furnishing our galleys — this to be debated.'
- Oppenheim, p. 125, quoting State Papers, Dom., Eliz., ccix. 85.
' See above, pp. 503-4.
