increased to 272, and the tonnage to 159,020 tons.

The permanent navy, begun by Henry VIII. and given its first system of
regular warfare by the Duke of York in 1665, had become well established,
and trading vessels had ceased to form a part of the regular
establishment. King William III., although not so good a friend to the
service as his predecessor, and anything but a sailor, like the fourth
William, did not altogether neglect it. In the Introduction to James'
_Naval History_ we are told that between the years 1689 and 1697 the navy
lost by capture alone 50 vessels, and it is probable that an equal number
fell by the perils of the sea. King William meantime added 30 ships, and
half that number were captured from the French, while several 20 and
30-gun ships were besides taken from the enemy.

Coming back to the first naval expedition to Australia, the ship commanded
by Dampier was the _Roebuck_, as Evelyn tells us, a vessel of 290 tons.
Dampier has left very little description of his ship, but it is not
difficult to picture her, for by this time the ratings of ships had been
settled upon certain lines, and the meaning of the word "rating" as used
at this period is easily ascertainable.

According to Charnock's _Marine Architecture_, the _Roebuck_, lying at
Deptford in June, 1684, was a sixth-rate of 24 guns and 85 men. This was
her war complement; but Dampier himself tells us that he "sailed from the
Downs early on Saturday, January 14th, 1699, with a fair wind, in His
Majesty's ship the _Roebuck_, carrying but 12 guns on this voyage and 50
men with 20 months' provisions."

In 1677, according to James' _History_, the smallest fifth-rate then
afloat corresponds nearest to the _Roebuck_, and, no doubt, by Dampier's