Henry VII. founded the first English permanent dockyard at Portsmouth, and built in 1495 the first dry dock in England. During his reign 85 vessels at least were added to the Navy, some being purchased, some taken as prizes, and others (about 46) built.
The first great ship in mediæval times was the _Great Harry_, built by Henry VII. in 1488, and costing £14,000; but up to this time vessels had no portholes from which the guns could be fired.
This was the invention of a ship-builder of Brest, named Descharges, in 1500, and by its adoption, guns could be fired from the lower decks. The early portholes, however, were so small that the guns could consequently only be worked in one direction. This did not matter very much, as it was usual, on account of the difficulties of loading, only to fire the guns once or twice, and then to run alongside the enemy and board him.
In 1515 the great English man-of-war, _Harry Grace à Dieu_, was built by Henry VIII. She had two decks, and carried 14 heavy guns on the lower deck, 12 on the upper deck, and 46 other guns arranged in different quarters of the vessel--a total of 72 guns. The heavy guns weighed from 2,000 to 3,000 lbs., and gave the English ships a distinct advantage over their less heavily armed enemies.
She had four masts and a bowsprit, all square rigged. There were two sails on each of the first and second masts ("foer" and "mayne"), and a lateen sail on each of the other two masts ("mayne mizzen" and "bonaventure").
The _Harry_ was estimated at 1,000 or 1,500 tons, the system of measuring a ship at the time being to estimate how many tons or tun casks of wine she could carry.
The other ships of war built in this reign were constructed on similar lines to the _Harry_, but on a smaller scale. At this time the larger ships of the Navy were divided into two classes, "ships" and "galliasses," the latter being huge galleys propelled by sweeps or large oars.
As progress was made, the height of the fore-castles was lowered, and the keels of these ships were covered with a lead sheathing. In the reign of Elizabeth there was a considerable improvement in the general construction of the vessels. They were not made of large size, but under the direction of Sir John Hawkins they were built on longer keels, with finer lines and lower superstructures than before, and on account of these improvements they were capable of carrying more sail and sailing more swiftly. The sides of ships were painted black and white or green and white or timber colour. Figureheads (lions or dragons) at the bows and the Royal Arms in gold and colours at the stern were used to decorate them. It is interesting to note that the cooking galley was solidly built of bricks and mortar upon the gravel ballast down in the hold.