It was not till the year 1475, upon the conclusion of peace between Edward and the French king, Louis, that affairs quieted down in England, and then trade and commerce made most marvellous progress. The king himself was one of the leading merchants of the country, and concluded treaties of commerce with Denmark, Brittany, Castile, Burgundy, France, Zealand, and the Hanseatic League. In the reign of Edward's successor, Richard III., English seaborne trade obtained a firm footing in Italy and other Mediterranean countries.
We, fortunately, possess drawings which show that an enormous advance was made in shipbuilding during the period under discussion, or that, at any rate, the advance had by that time reached England. Fig. [37] illustrates a large ship of the latter half of the fifteenth century. It is taken from a manuscript in the Cottonian Library, by John Rous, the celebrated Warwickshire antiquary and historian. This manuscript records the life and history of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who was born in 1381, and died in 1439. The author of the manuscript, however, lived till 1491, in the early part of the reign of Henry VII., and we may therefore conclude that the illustrations represent ships of the latter half of the fifteenth century. The vessel shown in Fig. [37] was used for war purposes, as four guns were mounted on the broadside. There were also four masts and a bowsprit, and a strongly developed forecastle, which formed part of the structure of the ship. There was apparently very luxurious accommodation provided for passengers and officers in a large deck-house at the poop. The mainsail was of very large dimensions, and was emblazoned with the arms of the Earl of Warwick. In this illustration we see an early approach to the modern type of sailing-ship. There are several other drawings of ships in the same manuscripts, and most of them have the same general characteristics as Fig. [37].
Fig. 37.—English ship. Latter half of fifteenth century.
The reign of Henry VII. (1485 to 1509) was a memorable one in the annals of navigation and commerce. Two years after he came to the throne, the Portuguese sent the expedition, previously referred to, to discover a route to the Indies round Africa. The expedition never reached its destination, but Diaz succeeded in discovering the Cape of Good Hope.
Fig. 38.—Columbus' ship, the Santa Maria, 1492.
A few years later, in 1492, Christopher Columbus made his famous attempt to reach the Indies by sailing west. This expedition, as is well known, resulted in the discovery of the West Indian Islands, and, shortly afterwards, of the mainland of America. The ships which Columbus took with him on his voyage were three in number, and small in size. As Spain had possessed many large vessels for a century and a half before the time of Columbus, it is probable that he was entrusted with small ships only, because the Government did not care to risk much capital in so adventuresome an undertaking.