Sailing ships

by E. Keble Chatterton

Edward I.’s charter, granted to the Cinque Ports, ordained that each time the king passed over the sea the Cinque Ports should “rigge up fiftie and seven ships” every one of which was to be manned with twenty armed soldiers. These were to be maintained at the ports’ own cost for fifteen days together. In this charter we come across the expression, so familiar to us now, “before the mast.” Thus it adds: “And that they be free of all their owne wines for which they do travaile of our right prise, that is to say, of one tunne before the mast, and of another behind the maste.”

Fig. 40. Seal of Dam (West Flanders) (A.D. 1309).

About the time of Edward I. two-masted ships became more general. One of the first acts of his reign was to revive the wool trade between England and Flanders: this necessarily made for the extension and progression of shipping. Fig. 40 represents the seal of the town of Dam in West Flanders. The actual date of the seal in the British Museum, from which this has been drawn, is 1309, or two years after the death of Edward I. This represents one of the larger or barge class of ships. The most striking feature is her apparent modernity, for if we were to remove the fore- and stern-castles and rig her as a ketch by adding a mizzen-mast and triangular headsails we should have before us one of those black traders which even the most casual observer must have looked at many times during his summer holidays by the sea. She marks a very decided departure now from the Viking type, but we must remember that she represents only one species of ship. The prevailing type elsewhere in Northern Europe continued to be a modification of the Norwegian. The ship before us would be rigged with the usual single squaresail. Perhaps also she used a smaller square headsail occasionally, as the bowsprit is present, but the most important feature of all is the change that has come in the steering arrangement. Hitherto we have always seen the rudder at the side; but now we get to that stage where the rudder is placed at the extreme stern of the ship, where it has remained ever since. Such a ship as this in the North Sea would be no doubt the counterpart of the Mediterranean buzzo of the same century. I believe this ship of Dam (spelt also Damme) to be the earliest illustration of any North European vessel showing the rudder thus placed, although the seal of Poole dated 1325 has her rudder also in this position. The Viking ships of Norway did not adopt this steering method until the beginning of the fourteenth century also. In England there is an additional example in a man-of-war built for Edward III. at Lynn, Norfolk, in 1336. She was named La Félipe. It is worth remembering that it was off Damme that the English fleet in the reign of John inflicted a severe defeat upon the French.

The ship shown in the Poole seal marks another development in the fore- and stern-castles, which by now appear to be not so much superstructures as part of the hull itself. We shall see as we continue through the ensuing centuries how this “castle” idea increases. Another point of interest exhibited in the Poole design is a large anchor hanging from the bows. This now has a stock in the usual place as distinct from that in the illustration by Giotto’s pupil. This Dorset craft has some resemblance to the previous Viking type, but instead of being after the pattern of the “longships” she shows the tendency towards crescent-shape. As evidence that the pure Viking influence was still extant in Europe let us take the seal of San Sebastian, Spain, which is to be seen in the British Museum. The date is 1335, and it is remarkable that this type should have spread so far south as the other side of the Bay of Biscay. She has the high stem and stern with a stern-castle, but not a forecastle. She has one mast with a streamer, the sail being furled by two men along the yard as usual. The mariner steers with a rudder to starboard, and the braces as well as the bowsprit are shown.

In the reign of Edward III. the current gold coin called a noble showed a ship-design still more crescent-shaped than the Poole seal. By now the sterncastle has come right down on deck, the rudder hung on pintles is seen at the extreme stern, and the backstays lead not into the hull but to the top of the sterncastle. The actual length on the water-line is much smaller now and the overhang greater. The date of the noble is 1360. An imitation of this coin, and bearing a similar ship, was struck by David II. of Scotland in 1357.[50] In the seal of Boston belonging to the year 1375 the sterncastle is seen to have come down to the deck, the sheer of the ship coming up, so to speak, to meet it. The forecastle has also come lower, but projects away ahead of the vessel. There are three masts and three fighting-tops, and the shrouds come outside of the hull. Edward III. admirably continued the example of the kings of England and helped forward the steady improvement of the navy, while the glorious victory in the Battle of Sluys, in which the French fleet was utterly routed, gave the English seamen their opportunity of showing their superiority.

From the “Black Book of the Admiralty” of the reign of Edward III. we see that the admiral’s ship carried two lanterns at her masthead when sailing at night in order that the masters of other ships of the fleet could see the course being taken by the flagship. The king’s ship was to be distinguished by three lanterns arranged triangular-wise. As to the armament of this period, they consisted of bows and arrows, archers from the fighting-tops and castles at bow and stern being able by means of their superior height to do considerable damage. Cannon were introduced in 1338, and before the close of the fourteenth century guns and gunpowder were becoming common, but the influence which cannon had on the design of ships we shall notice presently.

Nor did the enterprising spirit imbued through the Crusades perish. As early as 1344 an Englishman, of the name of Macham, sailed as far south as to discover the Island of Madeira, but unfortunately his lady-love had fallen a victim to sea-sickness during the voyage, and after going ashore with some of his company, the ship either dragged her anchor or parted her cable and “with a good winde made saile away, and the woman died for thought.” However, after building a chapel over her grave, Macham, according to the account of Antonio Galvano given in Hakluyt, “ordeined a boat made of one tree (for there be trees of a great compasse about) and went to sea in it, with those men that he had, and were left behinde with him, and came upon the coast of Afrike, without sail or oare.” It was the information given by Macham and his men that induced the French to voyage thither and also to discover the Canary Isles.

In 1360 Nicholas of Lynn, “a Franciscan Frier, and an excellent Mathematician of Oxford,” a good astronomer and experienced in the use of the astrolabe, “went in companie with others to the most Northern Islands of the world, and there, leaving his company together, hee travailed alone, and purposely described all the Northerne Islands with the indrawing seas.” We get some idea of the speed of the ships of olden days by the statement made that from Lynn (Norfolk) to Iceland is not more than a fortnight’s voyage with an ordinary wind. Reckoning the distance between the two as roughly a thousand miles this would give the day’s run at about seventy miles. It was from this same Lynn that sixteen ships and 382 mariners were contributed to the enormous fleet of English ships which Edward III. had in 1347, when he besieged Calais. Some idea of the development that had gone on since Arthur’s time may be obtained when we recollect that the English ships at Calais numbered 700 and the mariners over 14,000, without including the assistance of Ireland, Spain, and other helpers.

We pass over the reign of Richard II. as being anything but prosperous for the progress of the sailing ship. His successor, Henry IV., however, entered into commercial treaties with Prussia and the Hanseatic League, much to the advantage of shipping. Piracy had become so rampant on the North Sea as to cause merchants to abstain from sending their goods across from the one country to another. This Henry did his best to stop. He endeavoured to remove all hindrances to the herring fishery, and all English merchants were to have full liberty to arrive with their goods and ships at any port in Prussia. The list of claims for satisfaction and recompense set forth in the agreement between Henry IV. and the Hanseatic Towns throws a light on the ships of the time. Thus we find reference to “a ship of Newcastle upon Tine called Godezere ... being of the burthen of two hundred tunnes ... which ship together with the furniture thereof amounteth unto the value of foure hundred pounds.” Mention is also made of the Shipper Berline of Prussia, belonging to the port of Hull; of a ship called the Cogge, belonging to William Terry of Hull, carrying a cargo of both broad and narrow cloth. Another ship from the same port was called the Trinitie; another bore the name of the Hawkin Derlin of Dantzik. Among other acts of piracy, that perpetrated near Plymouth on “a certaine barge called the Michael of Yarmouth,” is mentioned. Another vessel, braving superstition, bears the name Friday, another which was robbed of her “artillerie, furniture, and salt fishes,” and herself captured and taken to Norway, was named the Margaret. A similar misfortune had happened to the Nicholas and also to the Isabel. Other unfortunate vessels included the Helena; a certain ship classed as a “crayer,” and named the Peter; and two fishing vessels called respectively the Doggership and the Peter of Wiveton. Another fishing ship also called the Dogger was robbed of her fish and “furniture,” while she was at anchor and her crew were fishing near by. Another “crayer” is mentioned called the Buss of Zeland, and still a further one called the Busship. One ship was of 300 tons burthen—this being measured by tuns of wine—and carried a crew of forty-five.