"In Their Eagerness To Get Away Promptly, They [The Leyden Men] Made The Mistake Of Ordering For The SPEEDWELL Heavier And Taller Masts And Larger Spars Than Her Hull Had Been Built To Receive, Thus Altering Most Unwisely And Disastrously Her Trim." He Adds Still More Unhappily:

"We do not hear of these inveterate landsmen and townsfolk [of whom he says, 'possibly there was not one

Man familiar with ships or sea life'] who were about to venture on the Atlantic, taking counsel of Dutch builders or mariners as to the proportion of their craft." Why so discredit the capacity and intelligence of these nation-builders? Was their sagacity ever found unequal to the problems they met? Were the men who commanded confidence and respect in every avenue of affairs they entered; who talked with kings and dealt with statesmen; these diplomats, merchants, students, artisans, and manufacturers; these men who learned law, politics, state craft, town building, navigation, husbandry, boat-building, and medicine, likely to deal negligently or presumptuously with matters upon which they were not informed? Their first act, after buying the SPEEDWELL, was to send to England for an "expert" to take charge of all technical matters of her "outfitting," which was done, beyond all question, in Holland. What need had they, having done this (very probably upon the advice of those experienced ship-merchants, their own "Adventurers" and townsmen, Edward Pickering and William Greene), to consult Dutch ship-builders or mariners? She was to be an English ship, under the English flag, with English owners, and an English captain; why:

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