B.C. 55-A.D. 1805 Being the Story of British Heroism in WITH AN INTRODUCTION TRACING и ритра Em E EDITED BY SPEIGHT, B.A., F.R.G.S. Editor of Hakluyt's English Voyages and The Temple Readers and Joint-Editor of The Imperial Reader and Stories from the Northern Sagas 1 29 Feb 24 KHW NOTE THIS little book is believed to be the first to give a simple concise account of British ships and sea-exploits from early times to the great day on which our sovereignty of the seas was assured. It is necessarily imperfect, inasmuch as for many periods we possess the scantiest of records, while for other periods the material is so abundant that a nice choice is naturally difficult where one is closely limited. We have thought it well to devote a considerable amount of space to the earlier periods, especially in the introduction, since the teaching of history ensures a greater familiarity with naval progress since the Elizabethan days, by reason of the wealth of original records and critical work. Our hearty thanks are due to Miss Fiona Macleod for her vivid picture of the fight between the Vikings and the Gaels, and to Mr. H. P. Biggar, the eminent archivist to the Canadian Government, for his account of Cabot. The paper on shipbuilding in Viking times, written by Mr. Eirikr Magnusson, of Cambridge, and published in a recent number of the Saga Book of the London Viking Club, has given us valuable help. |