by 1697 the english royal navy had 323 warships, while scotland was still dependent on merchantman and privateers. in the 1690s, two separate schemes for larger naval forces were put in motion. as usual, the larger part was played by the merchant community rather than the government. the first was the darien scheme to found a scottish colony in spanish controlled america. it was undertaken by the company of scotland, who created a fleet of five ships, including the "caledonia" and the "st. andrew", built or chartered in holland and hamburg. it sailed to isthmus of darien in 1698, but the venture failed and only one ship returned to scotland. in the same period it was decided to establish a professional navy for the protection of commerce in home waters during the nine years' war, with three purpose-built warships bought from english shipbuilders in 1696. these were the "royal william", a 32-gun fifth rate, and two smaller ships, the "royal mary" and the "dumbarton castle", each of 24 guns and generally described as frigates. after the act of union in 1707, the scottish navy merged with that of england and the three vessels of the small royal scottish navy were transferred to the royal navy.