It has been seen that this fact occurs not only in Norway but among all nations. There is nothing to cause astonishment in again finding the most ancient models in fishing boats. No class is more conservative than are fishermen, who build their barks as their forefathers did and on whom necessity alone can force new forms.
Aside from the specimens discovered in the North, little is left of the oldest types of ships. There is nothing left of them save a few vague descriptions and imperfect reproductions. In this order of ideas, the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam is the best known document which the Netherlands supplies. WITSEN’s work contains, on page 362, several reproductions of these arms dating from different epochs.
HOLMES reproduces, besides, the ships which figure on an old Bayeux tapestry (1066), as well as the “Sandwich Seal” of 1238, the “Dover Seal” of 1284 and the “Pool Seal” of 1325 (pp. 67 and 68). These three seals agree with the oldest of the arms of Amsterdam and the ship which they carry is, in every respect, similar to that of the said city. Too much importance cannot be attached, however, to this detail, because, just as the lion of heraldry is very little like a real lion, it is to be supposed that the heraldic ship is not a faithful reproduction of the real type.
The old illustrated Bible of 1200-1220, preserved in the Royal Library of The Hague, and which seems to have come from Northern France, contains also a remarkable reproduction; the type of boat which it gives is also like the preceding ones.
The identity of all these figures allows it to be supposed that a single type of ship ruled in Western Europe; while the clearly pointed out timbers of the planking shows clinker built work.
The reproduction of the Bayeux tapestry shows, besides, that the sail was very early in use; the pilot of one of the ships shown there holds the sheet in his hand. Besides—and this fact is worthy of notice—these vessels all have sensibly vertical stems and sternposts, just as they are still found in our times on a few Norwegian fishing boats.