At the commencement of this improvement in shipping England lagged far behind her competitors. The Venetians were regularly voyaging to the North Sea for at least two centuries before there was any established English trade to the Mediterranean. The Portuguese had commercial posts on the Guinea coast a hundred years before Wyndham sailed the first English vessel there; and their successive advances on the route to India, spread over a long period of years and culminating in Vasco da Gama’s arrival at Calicut in 1498, gave them a long start in the acquisition of the experience necessary to the advance of shipbuilding. Yet by the end of the sixteenth century the positions were reversed, and English ships were excelled by none in durability and handiness and general efficiency for the purposes for which they were designed.
It would seem that this rapid advance in excellence was largely due to the interest in the navy displayed by Tudor governments. The development of the warship preceded in most respects that of the merchantman; and, owing to the peculiar conditions of the time, every merchantman which was to be of use for anything beyond mere coasting had to be provided with some fighting gear. For distant voyages in fact, such as those to the Mediterranean, merchants preferred to charter a man-of-war from the State whenever one was available. Throughout the period in question England was exposed to constant wars or threatenings of war with France or Spain, with the result that the improvement of fighting-ships was vigorously pressed. The fleet became a leading care of the State to an extent never before dreamed of; and the mercantile marine, fostered by a system of bounties, shared in the general enlightenment, and steadily extended the scope of its activities to the accompaniment of an unprecedented advance in the construction of ships and the study of all things pertaining to shipping.
Mediaeval vessels fall largely into two classes: the long, low and narrow galley; and the short, broad, almost basin-shaped sailing-ship, propelled usually by a single square sail. In northern waters the galley, common until the twelfth century, gradually gave place to the sailing-ship, on which all progress was concentrated, so that by the close of the Middle Ages the oared vessel was practically extinct outside the Mediterranean. In that sea, however, natural conditions were more favourable to the galley, which survived side by side with the sailing-vessel and which, although costing more in working expenses, was preferred for its swiftness and reliability.
In England the first great improvement of the mediaeval sailing-ship consisted in fitting two or more masts in place of the one which had hitherto been considered sufficient. The exact date of this advance is unknown, but it probably occurred before the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the increasing frequency of voyages to Bordeaux and Iceland began to demand more navigable vessels for their safe accomplishment. A natural concomitant of this change was an increase of length and a modification of the extreme basin-shape of the single-masted cogs, which were only suited for short, fair-wind trips across the narrow seas to France or Flanders. At some time also in the same century occurred the introduction of the lateen sail in place of the square sail on the aftermost mast of the ship. This device doubtless came from the Mediterranean, where small craft were fitted exclusively with such sails.
A modification in the shape of the hull, which was destined to be of long enduring influence, was due to the needs of warfare. In early vessels there was no raised poop or forecastle, but the deck ran in unbroken sweep from prow to stern, at which extremities the timbers of the side curved upwards to a point. For fighting purposes it became customary to fit such ships with raised platforms or castles, built on temporarily at either end, and occupied by archers, slingers, and stone-throwing engines. The latter, from such a high vantage-point, could do great execution on an enemy’s decks and could, moreover, assist in repelling boarders from the waist of their own vessel. The efficacy of the new departure was speedily proved, and it became permanently incorporated into the design. Ships were now built with a strong square forecastle and ‘summercastle’, as the after-edifice was named, as integral parts of the structure. The additional weight thus placed at either end necessitated an increase of length to avoid excessive pitching. The pitching motion was nevertheless very severe, as was proved when a full-sized model of Columbus’s caravel, the Santa Maria, was sailed across the Atlantic in 1893.[[303]]
In a late fifteenth-century manuscript in the British Museum,[[304]] the author of which died in 1491, there are numerous illustrations of ships which may be taken as representing the state of marine construction at the opening of the Tudor period. On folio 5 is a drawing of a sailing-ship, probably the type of vessel with which the longer voyages, such as those to Bordeaux or Spain, were made. She has a platform-shaped forecastle, not of excessive height, and a long poop sloping upwards towards the stern. The masts are three in number, the foremast being very short and the mainmast twice its height. Each of these is intended to carry one square sail, although the mainsail only is shown. The mizen-mast is short and carries one lateen sail. There is a bowsprit but no sprit-sail such as was afterwards used. None of the drawings in this manuscript shows any signs of a sprit-sail yard on the bowsprit; and it is possible that they had not been introduced at that date, although they were in use before the close of the century. The same may be said of top-sails and topmasts; they occur nowhere in these drawings, but they were certainly fitted to warships built for Henry VII not long after his accession. The drawing on f. 5 has been frequently reproduced, but generally so badly as to make it appear that the ship has only two masts instead of three.
On f. 25 of the same manuscript is a very clear drawing showing a large ship in harbour with sails furled. This vessel has a short, high forecastle and a long poop rising in two tiers. The bowsprit and foremast are short. The mainmast is high and very thick, while there are two mizen-masts each with a yard for a lateen sail. When two mizen-masts were fitted to a ship the foremost was called the main mizen and the aftermost the bonaventure mizen. This is the earliest drawing showing a four-masted ship which has been met with. On the other side of the sheet (f. 25b) the same vessel is shown in a storm at sea. There are guns on deck in the waist and a row of oval openings in the poop and forecastle which are evidently intended for ports for smaller pieces. On f. 18b is a representation of a sea fight, one ship engaging two others at close quarters. Long-bows, cross-bows, spears, and stones are the principal weapons used; and marksmen are placed in the tops to sweep the enemy’s decks. The mainmasts, and occasionally the other masts, of ships of the time were fitted with circular tops for fighting and look-out purposes, and large enough for two or three men to stand in. At a later period small guns were mounted in them. All the vessels in this manuscript show an immense advance on the old mediaeval cog, and indicate the great improvements which had been going on during the fifteenth century.
WARSHIP, c. 1485.
From Cott. MS. Jul. E. iv. 6, f. 25.
As was natural during a period of more extended voyages, the size of merchant ships tended to increase. Nine vessels trading between England and Spain in the time of Henry VII, of which the tonnage is mentioned in the State papers, show an average of 142 tons, the largest being 220 tons. The Italians generally built their ships larger than this, and, although we read that in 1488 there was no ship of 1,000 tons in Venice, the reference seems to imply that ships of that size were by no means unknown. The statements as to tonnage must, however, be taken as of very loose application, the same ship being sometimes given as 50 per cent. or more larger than at others. The Henry Grace à Dieu, for example, Henry VIII’s great warship, varies between 1,000 and 1,500 tons, and the Mary Rose, which was of 400 tons when built, is described as of 600 three years later. In English ships the unit of measurement was the tun of Bordeaux wine, which contained 252 gallons and occupied about 60 cubic feet of space.[[305]] When there was a question of hiring merchantmen for war purposes, for which payment was made by the ton, the owner’s estimate was apt to differ considerably from that of the government. In the French war of 1512–13 the navy lists contain numbers of merchantmen whose tonnage varies so astonishingly as to suggest that their hulls were capable of inflation and deflation like balloons.