Sailing ships

by E. Keble Chatterton

And when Harflew had her siege about,

There came caracks horrible great and stoute....

The reign of Henry VI., at least as regards shipbuilding, was about as unsatisfactory as had been that of Richard II., owing to the scarcity of money consequent on the war with France. Further, the unhappy Wars of the Roses kept men’s minds too tightly gripped to allow of them thinking much about commerce or the ships that were to carry it. But towards the close of Edward IV.’s reign, after peace had been made between England and France, matters began quickly to improve, and in the time of Richard III. England was sending her ships and merchandise to Venice, to Genoa and other Mediterranean ports.

But let us now go back to trace a little more fully the designs of the ships according to the illustrations that have survived through history. Firstly with regard to Southern Europe. The Mediterranean had still maintained her lead in the designing and building of able, roomy vessels. Happily we are helped by the work which one or two Italian painters have left behind them. There is a most interesting picture by Gentile da Fabriano, representing a ship of the early fifteenth century. The original which is in the Vatican is called “The Miracle of St. Nicholas.”[52] She is a fine, strong ship, with a square stern and rudder fixed to the middle of the latter. She has two masts as well as a bowsprit, and the hull is somewhat crescent-shaped. The artist has depicted her scudding before a terrific storm, which has split the mainsail along the foot where the bonnet seems to be laced. Evidently the ship has been caught in one of those sudden squalls not unknown to the Mediterranean, for otherwise the skipper ought not to have carried on so long without unlacing the bonnet. At the stern he is seen praying to St. Nicholas who appears in the clouds coming to his assistance, while amidships a sailor is seen jettisoning some of the cargo. The forecastle resembles that of contemporary English ships with a projecting bowsprit. The mizzen-mast and sail are clearly shown, the latter being furled to its yard as the ship is running before the wind. Pulleys are now prominently indicated, whilst a couple of braces are attached both to the main and mizzen-yard, while the mainsheet leads right aft to the starboard quarter and comes in through a hole in the gunwale pretty much in the same way adopted in a square-rigged ship to-day. Two rope ladders are shown, one at either side, hanging down over the stern, evidently in order to facilitate getting into the ship’s boat (seen towing astern) if the ship herself shall founder. A fighting-top is depicted at her masthead. The picture is altogether most fascinating and instructive.

Carpaccio, the great Venetian artist, whose period is covered by the dates 1450-1522, has left behind more pictures containing ships than any artist of his time. There is in one of his paintings a striking example of a contemporary Mediterranean warship. She is shown as having a mainmast with square sail and very small topsail. Aft she has both a mizzen-mast and bonaventure-mizzen, each carrying a lateen sail. She is fitted also with a small foresail, spritsail, and carries eight oars on each side.[53] Like Memling and other artists, Carpaccio utilises the celebrated story of “The Pilgrimage of St. Ursula,” for some of his best work. It is, indeed, owing to this story, necessitating the introduction of ships into the picture, that we possess much of our knowledge concerning mediæval craft. For instance, in “The Arrival of the Ambassadors,” in “The Return of the Ambassadors,” in “The Arrival at Cologne,” and “St. Ursula taking farewell of her parents,” we have presented many valuable details bearing on our subject of sailing ships. We see a small open boat in the first of these pictures. She has a tiller and one large single lateen sail, coming almost down to the water. In the background we see the big ship in which the ambassadors have travelled. She has a high poop, one mast and square mainsail. In the second picture we see a Mediterranean galley with her enormous sail. She still retains her name “trireme,” and it is remarkable how generally she continues to resemble her Roman ancestor. In the last of the four pictures mentioned above, we see a large ship resembling somewhat the caravel type.[54]

The most famous of all the works of that delightful Flemish painter Memling is the reliquary of St. Ursula. Those who saw the wonderful collection of “Primitives” brought together in Bruges in the year 1902 will recollect the eight exquisite miniatures on the reliquary. Happily no less than four of these contain representations of the ships in which St. Ursula and her accompanying maidens journeyed. The date assigned by Mr. Weale[55] to these paintings is not later than 1489. In Fig. 41 one of these panels is reproduced. We cannot regard these Memling pictures of ships as absolutely truthful: some allowance must be made for the artistic temperament. There is, for instance, no indication of any braces shown in the illustration. But Bruges is not far from the sea, and during the fifteenth century it was the great centre of commercial activity of the prosperous Hanse towns, and Memling would have plenty of opportunity to study the details of contemporary craft. It may fairly be assumed that in spite of a small inaccuracy here and there the general drawing of the ships is nautically correct. From other pictures and MSS. and stained glass windows of this time we know that this is so. Looking at the picture before us we see at once how the Viking lines have been modified. The fore-castle and stern-castles are seen in their latest form: that is to say, they have long since passed the time when they were mere additional structures to the hull of the ship. They have, in fact, now been absorbed into the general design of the whole vessel. There is still one mast supported by backstays, shrouds, and forestays, and there is one large mainsail which furls still to the yard. The lines of the ship are tubby, but we can easily see the progenitors of the Dutch craft which went on developing until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and there halted for ever after. Notice, too, that the rudder is in its proper place. Such a ship as this resembles in many points the one in “The Miracle of St. Nicholas” referred to above. The length of the Viking ship has given way to breadth. Roundness has taken the place of straightness: freeboard has added to her seaworthiness. We shall find this evidence before us confirmed by a certain mediæval Italian illustration[56] in which a Mediterranean ship is being tossed mercilessly about by the Wind, who, with inflated cheeks raises his head above the water and blows vigorously into the sails. Men are seen tumbling into the sea, the mainmast has gone by the board, and general confusion reigns. A somewhat similar kind of ship is also seen in a reproduction from a stained glass window of this period.[57]

Fig. 41. Panel of the Shrine of St. Ursula, after Memling (1489).

In a beautiful French manuscript of the fifteenth century similar ships to those in Memling’s work are shown with considerable ability.[58] Perhaps these French vessels show the Viking influence somewhat more certainly, especially in their bows. We are shown in one illustration a scene of the river Seine at Rouen. A ship with a sterncastle, now modified rather to a square platform, is seen by the shore. She appears to be carvel- and not clinker-built; this is a notable fact. She has shrouds at the sides, a forestay, and also an additional stay coming forward from the mast to a spot midway between amidships and the bow. This may have been in the original ship to act as a further support to the sail or it may only be the product of the artist’s imagination. If the former it would be analogous to the lee-runner but placed forward, and must have chafed the sail a good deal. The latter is furled to the yard in the usual way. We see in the same MS. ships starting forth bound for the Crusades. They are fine, bold vessels, broad of beam, with plenty of freeboard, clumsy but probably good sea-boats. These French craft appear to have a certain amount of overhang at the bows and some of them carry a large fighting-top, partly supported by means of a stay coming up from both bow and stern.