The Old Regime at Sea
The ships portrayed here show how warship design altered from the seventeenth to
the nineteenth century in Europe. The ship above was built in Holland in 1626; the
ship below was built in France in 1847. The number of guns carried more than
doubled in this span of time, but the fundamental idea of lining up tiers of heavy
cannon along the sides of a stoutly built ship remained unchanged.
E. Van Konijnenburg, Shipbuilding from Its Beginnings (Brussels: Permanent International Associa
tion of Congresses of Navigation, n.d.), figs. 146, 173.
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