Note 1073 — CHARLES I 1625-1649 PART II—ROYAL AND MERCHANT SHIPPING

State Papers, Dom., lxxi, 65. These remarks must be read in conjunction with those relating to the lack of victuals and stores, and want of competent and willing service on the part of officers and men, made in Part I, and for which Buckingham’s incapacity was principally responsible. But his incapacity was, in this matter, not the only nor even the main factor, since, when in 1627 he applied to Gyffard, Sir Sackville Trevor, and Hervey for suggestions as to freeing the narrow seas from pirates, they agreed that the existing vessels were too slow to catch any but others of their own type (State Papers, Dom., liv, 9, 11-13). In October 1625, the Channel squadron consisted of ten English men-of-war and merchantmen and four Dutch ships, a larger force than had probably ever been employed before for merely protective duties. The conditions were as bad or worse, after his death.