DRAKE AND THE TUDOR NAVY
342
CHAPTEE
XII
THE NAVY OF ELIZABETH
THE first official recognition of the new position Drake had achieved was his appointment to serve on a Royal Commission to inquire into the state of the Navy. For some years past there had been continual complaints in various quarters that the Navy Office was being impro perly and even dishonestly conducted. Foremost of the grumblers was Sir Thomas Cotton, the veteran officer who had been ordered to the relief of the loyal Protestants at Plymouth at the time of the flight of Drake's family. Both under Henry VIII. and in the present reign he had held the ancient and lucrative office of Wafterof the "Wool Fleet,' and had been employed in police duty with the Channel '
Guard.
He
had, however, a genius for quarrelling with his and had particularly incurred the displeasure of the Admiralty by persistently reporting disorders in the administration and urging their reformation. Special complaints were made that the money assigned for the upkeep of the ships was not properly applied, that many of the ships were rotten and very few fit for service. 2 During the frequent partial mobilisations that had been trking place, various defects in the system seem to have been discovered, and accordingly when in 1583 war with Spain began to loom as a near and real menace, the Govern ment resolved to take the matter seriously in hand. A Royal Commission was issued to report on the whole state of the superiors,
1
2
Recitals of the Commission.
S.P.
Dom,
clxii. 50.