It seemed almost out of place there, and quite
dwarfed the smaller boats in the harbour, one deck rising above another,
and all painted black and white. We heard afterwards that the real
_Britannia_, which carried the Admiral's flag in the Black Sea early in
the Crimean War, had been broken up in 1870, the year before our visit,
having done duty at Dartmouth as a training-ship since 1863. The ship we
now saw was in reality the _Prince of Wales_, also a three-decker, and
the largest and last built of "England's wooden walls," carrying 128
guns. She had been brought round to Dartmouth in 1869 and rechristened
_Britannia_, forming the fifth ship of that name in the British navy.
[Illustration: H.M.S. _BRITANNIA_ AND _HINDUSTANI_ AT THE MOUTH OF THE
DART.]
It was in that harbour that the ships were assembled in 1190 during the
Crusades, to join Richard Coeur-de-Lion at Messina. In his absence
Dartmouth was stormed by the French, and for two centuries alternate
warlike visits were made to the sea-coasts of England and France.
In 1338 the Dartmouth sailors captured five French ships, and murdered
all their crews except nine men; and in 1347, when the large armament
sailed under Edward III to the siege of Calais, the people of Dartmouth,
who in turn had suffered much from the French, contributed the large
number of 31 ships and 757 mariners to the King's Fleet, the largest
number from any port, except Fowey and London.
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