280
Political Arithmetick.
Experience; I shall not make use of that Argument, having bound my self to shew, that the impediments of France, (as to this purpose) are natural, and perpetual. Ships, and Guns do not fight of themselves, but Men who act and manage them; wherefore it is more material to shew; That the King of France, neither hath, nor can have Men sufficient, to Man a Fleet, of equal strength to that of the King of England. (viz.)
The qualifications of Seamen for defence.The King of Englands Navy, consists of about seventy thousand Tuns of Shipping, which requires thirty six thousand Men to Man it; these Men being supposed to be divided into eight parts, I conceive that one eighth part, must be persons of great Experience, and Reputation, in Sea Service: another eighth part must be such as have used the Sea seven years and upwards; |[55]| half of them, or 4⁄8 parts more, must be such as have used the Sea above a twelvemonth, viz. two, three, four, five, or six years, allowing but one quarter of the whole Complements, to be such as never were at Sea at all, or at most but one Voyage, or upon one Expedition; so that at a medium I reckon, that the whole Fleet must be Men of three The Number of Seamen in France. or four years growth, one with another. Fournier[1], a late judicious Writer, makeing it his business to persuade the World, how considerable the King of France was, or might be at Sea, in the ninety second and ninety third pages of his Hydrography, saith, That there was one place in Britany, which had furnished the King with one thousand four hundred Seamen, and that perhaps the whole Sea-Coast of France, might have furnished him with fifteen times as many: Now supposing his whole Allegation were true, yet the said number amounts but to twenty one thousand; all which, if the whole Trade of Shipping in France were quite and clean abandoned, would not by above a third, Man out a Fleet equivalent, to that of the King of England: And if |[56]|- ↑ Hydrographie contenant la theorie et la practiqve de tovtes les parties de la navigation. Composé par le Pere Georges Fournier. A Paris, chez Michel Soly. M.D.C.XLIII, fo. "Les gens de Mer y sont en telle quantité, que durant le siège de la Rochelle, la Roy tira d'vn seul Bourg quatorze cents Maletots, Soldats, bien que ce lieu ne soit pas (possible) le quinzièsme de cette coste en bonté & reputation." The estimate that the coast could furnish fifteen times as many is omitted from the second edition of Fournier (1667), p. 69.
