all that by the 20th day of May the captains and mariners should
take shipping and depart from Ratcliffe upon the ebb, if it so
pleased God. They having saluted their acquaintance, one his wife,
another his children, another his kinsfolks, and another his friends
dearer than his kinsfolks, were present and ready at the day
appointed, and having weighed anchor, they departed with the turning
of the water, and sailing easily, came first to Greenwich. The
greater ships were towed down with boats and oars, and the mariners
being all apparelled in watchet or sky-coloured cloth, rowed amain,
and made way with diligence. And being come near to Greenwich
(where the court then lay), presently upon the news thereof the
courtiers came running out, and the common people flocked together,
standing very thick upon the shore: the Privy Council they looked
out at the windows of the court, and the rest ran by to the tops of
the towers: the ships hereupon discharge their ordnance and shoot
off their pieces after the manner of war and of the sea, insomuch
that the tops of the hills sounded therewith, the valleys and the
waters gave an echo, and the mariners they shouted in such sort that
the sky rang again with the noise thereof. One stood in the poop of
the ship, and by his gesture bids farewell to his friends in the
best manner he could. Another walks upon the hatches, another
climbs the shrouds, another stands upon the main yard, and another
in the top of the ship. To be short, it was a very triumph (after a
sort) in all respects to the beholders. But, alas, the good King
Edward (in respect of whom principally all this was prepared) he
only by reason of his sickness was absent from this show, and not
long after the departure of these ships, the lamentable and most
sorrowful accident of his death followed.

But to proceed in the matter. The ships going down with the tide,