204 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Leith.
of May. As history records, Gordon and Arran
could not resist doing a little on their own account
to annoy the English, so they sacked Carrickfergus,
and anchored off Kyle.
Sir-Andrew Wood, with a herald, was sent to take
command of the fleet, but found that it had sailed;
so this little armada, which might have aided in the
invasion of England, was eventually destroyed by
tempests, and the magnificent Michael (which will
be described in a later chapter, in which some
voyage to Bourdeaux, or eke die, rather than be
taken."
His brother Robert was captain of the Great
MichaeZ in I 5 r I.
James IV., stirred by the discovery of America,
was early determined to create a Scottish navy, and
he went about it with all the zeal of a Peter the
Great. In 1512 he had no fewer than forty-six
ships of war ; four of these were of more than 300
tons, and two were of IOO tons. The Lion (Sir
SIGNAL TOWER, LEITH HARBOUR, 1829. (A/w S k ~ ~ . )
account will be given of Newhaven) was suffered
to rot in the harbour of Brest.
Prior to this John Barton had died of fever at
Kirkcudbright, and was buried in the churchyard
of St. Cuthbert; but he left a son named John,
who was captain of the Mav WiZloughby (English
prize), the same ship found in Leith Harbour by
the Earl of Hertford in 1544. " John-a-Barton is
not yet gone to sea," writes Sir Ralph Sadler on
the 25th October, 1543 ; " but it is told me that as
soon as the wind serveth he will go with the Mary
Willoughby and nine sail more, half merchantmen
and half men-of-war, as well furnished of men and
artillery as any ships that went from Scotland these
many years, being determined to accomplish their
Andrew Barton's ship), which was built in 1504,
was, as has beer. said, only inferior to the Greai
Harry, and the MichaeZ was the largest ship in the
world. Some of his galleys had triple banks of
oars raised over each other, and were capable of
containing each sixty inen in complete armour,
besides the rowers, who numbered to each galley
one hundred and four men. Besides the guns
interspersed between the banks of oars, they had
both artillery and small arms planted at the forecastle
and stern.
James encouraged the merchant skippers to
extend their voyages, to fully arm their vessels, to
purchase foreign ships of war, t6 import artillery,
and superintend the construction of large craft at
