Queen Elizabeth’s Boats
Posted: March 1, 2023
Queen Elizabeth the First ruled England between 1558 and 1603. Historians call that time the Elizabethan era.
Back in those days, ships were a really big deal. They allowed Brits to trade goods along the English Channel. (The English Channel is part of the Atlantic Ocean. It separates England from France.) Ships also made exploration possible. In ships, Brits could travel to new parts of the world. They could literally start putting places on the map—all because of boats.
Queen Elizabeth’s navy also defended England from enemies. Spain began gathering warships in 1586. The goal? Invade England. The Spanish built new warships. They supplied old ones with more weapons. The fleet was called the Spanish Armada. Twenty-nine-thousand men crewed 130 ships.
Was this too much for Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Navy?
As they say in Great Britain, “Not a bit!” The Navy wiped out the Armada in 1588. The defeat showed the rest of the world how strong Great Britain had become.
How Old Is This Ship?
Could the underground ship found in Kent really belong to this important time in history? Yes indeed. Archaeologists proved it. They found the ship’s age by counting tree rings in the wood. They studied the way the ship was made. It has a frame-built hull. That was a new invention in the 16th century. Similar ships carried colonists to America.
God gave humans a great ability to learn from nature. Through things like tree rings and sediment, we can discover stories of the past. And as we learn history, we’re learning the story God is telling with the world.
