Sailing ships

by E. Keble Chatterton

Fig. 42. Seal of La Rochelle (A.D. 1437).

Such seals as the following throw light on the ships of England in the fifteenth century. That, for instance, of Richard Clitherowe, Admiral of the West of England, 1406, shows a decorated sail and flies an ensign at her stern. The reason for this flag being always placed aft lies in the fact that the raised poop was the place of honour reserved for the commander. Similar ships are seen in such seals as those of Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, Admiral of England, Aquitaine and Ireland (1416-1426): John Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, Lord High Admiral of England, Ireland and Aquitaine (1435): John Holland, second Earl of Huntingdon, Admiral of England, Ireland and Aquitaine (1435-1442). This last seal shows the Admiral’s lantern hanging over the poop. Similar ships may be seen in the seal of Richard Plantagenet, third Duke of Gloucester, Admiral for Dorset and Somerset (1461-1462); in the seal of Rutherglen (co. Lanark), 1493; in that of the English merchants of Holland—a fifteenth century seal found at Harrow and now in the British Museum—and in various others of this period. Their general characteristics include a crescent-shaped hull with forecastle and sterncastle, fighting-top, sail decorated with the arms of France and England, &c., forestay, two backstays, and a rudder at stern. The seal of Rye, belonging to the fifteenth century, shows three rows of reef-points, an ensign with the cross of St. George as well as streamers on the mast. Fig. 42 represents the seal of La Rochelle of the date 1437. It is interesting as showing that while in England, in Damme, in Paris (see the seal of the city of Paris of the year 1415) and elsewhere, the crescent-shaped ship with castles was in vogue, this town kept strenuously to the original Viking type. The bonnet with three rows of reefs is clearly indicated, and similarly the sheets and stays.

We referred just now to the introduction of cannon as affecting the design of ships. At first they were placed on the upper deck and fired over the bulwarks, a modified pavisado of cloths or wood being hung round to conceal both guns and gunners. Next it was but an easy transition to make a hole through the bulwarks and insert the cannon. Hence we have the origin of the word “gunwale” for the top “wale” or plank. Subsequently this introduction of cannon necessitated a much higher freeboard, and in course of time tier above tier of guns, as in former times there had been tier above tier of rowers, came into being. Owing to the weight of the guns so far aloft an increase of beam became essential, but afterwards the exact opposite occurred. Lest the beams should be strained, considerable tumble-home or fall-inboard was made, so that the width of the upper deck became only about half of the greatest beam.[59] We shall see, too, how in later years this “tumble-home” was greatly exaggerated. As to the effect of the new armament on a ship’s rig, we shall be able to discuss this when we come to the bomb-ketch in Fig. 62.

We have seen how the ships of England have developed into the crescent-shape by now. That, indeed, continued for some time, until the fashion came for bigger and more powerful ships under the Tudor régime. Practically with the end of the fifteenth century we bid farewell to the Viking influence as clearly expressed, although it were perhaps more correct to say that that design was not so much discarded in later years as absorbed: enlarged upon and modified rather than altogether supplanted. The first important addition to the Viking design was that of the fighting castles. From thence it was not a great step to add decks, guns instead of bows and arrows, two masts instead of one, and an increase of beam and subsequently of depth.

CHAPTER VI.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAILING SHIP FROM THE TIME OF HENRY VII. TO THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH (1485-1603).

We enter now upon a period that will always be memorable for the impetus given to maritime matters, and the consequent improvement that took place in sailing ships of all kinds. In the history of the latter there are two centuries that have witnessed the greatest developments in the production of that most beautiful of all things that man ever set himself to fashion out of wood or iron. The first of these eras was the sixteenth century, and the other was the nineteenth. But before we begin to consider the sixteenth, let us briefly sum up all that had been effected by the end of the fifteenth.

We have seen how the early type that prevailed so long in England was that of the Vikings, whilst in the Mediterranean the galley and carack were collateral kinds of craft. Whilst it is true that after the Crusades England did eventually begin to build real ships, yet long before this time out of the ports of Venice, Genoa and Barcelona were sailing big carrying ships of three decks and of several hundred tons burthen. Of enormous freeboard, the carack and caravel were more able to encounter bad weather and to remain in commission both winter and summer. Able, too, to carry considerable quantities of merchandise and large numbers of passengers with a fair chance of making port in safety, they were from the first destined to become the ideal ship for the trader in preference to the galley. In war-time the galley was more handy because she could be manœuvred quickly with oars. But the carack and caravel, when guns were introduced, instantly exercised an undisputed superiority in another respect, for they could carry larger and more numerous cannon, and had the commanding advantage of height, though they were in comparison with the galleys decidedly cumbrous. Slow in stays, top-heavy and decidedly uncomfortable, pitching into every sea, they were far from the ideal. Thus the galley (or its cousin the galleass) remained in existence for fighting, as distinct from merchant service, side by side until after the Armada. An effort was made to re-introduce the galley in the English Navy under Charles II., but though the galley flourished in the Mediterranean until the eighteenth century, it was doomed in England gradually but surely from the beginning of the fourteenth century.