also had eight standards or other flags similarly charged, and one "banner of council." The Nicholas flew one streamer of St. Nicholas, and four guidons, one of St. Edward, one of St. George, one of the king's arms, and one with the ostrich feathers. And the Katrine flew four guidons, four standards, and streamer of St. Katherine.[1] It will have been noticed that the names of saints were very commonly given to ships. Then, as now, the naming of a king's vessel was accompanied by a religious ceremony or benediction, for, in July, 1418, the Bishop of Bangor blessed the Grace à Dieu, then lately built at Southampton; and received for his expenses £5.[2] But it is probable that the practice of permitting a layman or a lady to "christen" the ship is a much more modern one, and there is no trace, in the fifteenth century, of ship-baptism with wine.
References to artillery and artillery stores become more and more frequent in the accounts and other papers of the period. There were guns of brass and of iron, hand-guns, and guns with chambers; and stone as well as iron or leaden shot were employed.[3] With the compass there seems to have been less progress. The accounts tend to indicate that not every ship carried anything of the sort; and it may be that only flagships or leading vessels were supplied with "dials" and "sailing-needles." The needle itself appears to have been sometimes called the compass; for the Christopher is said to have had "iij compus and j dyoll." Nicolas is of opinion that the ballinger Gabriel of the Tower may have carried an instrument closely resembling a compass in the modern acceptation of the word, seeing that among her stores were "j dioll, j compasse," and "j boxe."[4]
The officers and crews of ships remained as before. There were masters, constables, carpenters, sailors, and boys; and there was a "clerk" in the king's ships, corresponding with the purser and paymaster of later days. But there were changes in the system of appointment to the office of admiral. It has been already noted that under the Angevins it was usual to appoint an admiral of the north, and another of the west, and that only occasionally was there a commander-in-chief, or Admiral of England. From 1406,
