Nature furnished abundance of materials to the mariners of the north for the building of their vessels; indeed, to this day, the primeval forests of Norway and Sweden supply vast quantities of timber, for ship-building and other purposes, to the European markets. The outfit of these vessels seems to have been singularly inexpensive—even provisions were supplied to them but scantily—their commanders being constantly in the habit of landing in the course of their passage to replenish their limited stock of meat, wine, and beer. Indeed this practice became a constant tax upon the people of the countries they visited, and whom they but too frequently pillaged of their whole stock of provisions. Nor was this all: it was customary in Sweden and Norway to compel the people of the maritime districts to hold in readiness a stated number of ships for the use of the king and, nominally, for purposes of defence: these vessels were, however, not unfrequently used for warlike and predatory expeditions, a custom which doubtless led to many of the unwarrantable attacks, whereby England and other parts of Europe were in succession, and for many ages, laid waste. From this marauding and unconquerable race, the daring and hardy sailors of England had their descent; and the adventures of this progeny of the Scandinavians, in more recent times, show that they have retained for many ages the adventurous, and too often lawless, spirit of their ancestors.
Increase of the northern marauders.
Language of the Northmen still spoken by mariners in the North.
The piratical expeditions of the Northmen were more easily suppressed in France than in England, where, among the numerous islands contiguous to her coasts, their vessels could take refuge. Thus Wales suffered severely from their marauding attacks; the island of Anglesey was more than once pillaged by them; while, in Ireland, they long held the ports of Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork. A Danish king resided in Dublin and in Waterford; and the invaders preserved their warlike spirit and predatory habits long after the remaining portions of the kingdom had acquired peaceful habits.[478] The Scandinavian language survived the independence of the Northern pirates; and, centuries after these had ceased to dominate the seas, a Norse dialect was still spoken. Even to this day remnants of this original language remain in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands, and is often used among the seafaring population, especially for the ordinary nautical expressions employed on board of their ships.
Accession of Alfred the Great, A.D. 871:
his efforts to improve navigation, and to extend the knowledge of geography.
When Alfred ascended the throne, he found England overrun by the Danes, so that for a short time he was obliged to dissemble and to conceal himself, with the few faithful subjects who had not deserted him. In his retreat, however, he was the better able to arrange future plans, as he at once perceived that without an effective maritime force his island must be ever at the mercy of every piratical adventurer. He accordingly determined to meet the enemies of England on the sea, and having studied the best models of the Danes, and added many improvements of his own, his efforts were in the end completely successful. His galleys are said to have been twice as long as those of the enemy, and to have carried sixty oars. They were also loftier and better built, and proved of much greater speed.[479]
Alfred, who, by the attention he devoted to maritime pursuits, has justly earned the title of the “Father of the British Navy,” was also the first native of Britain who made an attempt to extend the science of geography. Having obtained information from Ohthere, a Norwegian,[480] and from other sources, of the Baltic Sea and adjacent countries stretching to the extreme northern regions of Europe, he corrected many of the prevailing errors of geographers. Ohthere, who had coasted along the country of the Fins, now known as Lapland, and had passed the North Cape and penetrated into the bay where Archangel now stands, speaks of the vast abundance of whales and seals along that northern coast, and gives a description of the mode of life of the natives, which is not unlike that of the ancient Scythians. They brewed no ale; mead was the ordinary drink of the poorer classes; while the rich drank a species of liquor prepared from the milk of goats.
Foundation of a royal and commercial navy.
But though Alfred was successful in raising, after four years’ labour, six small vessels, with which he put to sea and overcame seven of the Danish ships, capturing one and driving back the rest, intestine troubles compelled him for a considerable time to neglect maritime affairs: after some years, however, having induced those of the Danes whom he had brought under subjection to embrace Christianity, he assigned them lands in the kingdom of the East Angles, and made it their interest to defend that portion of Britain with which, from their own repeated descents upon it, they were most familiar. These newly settled people possessed many vessels, were skilled in ship-building, and excellent mariners, and thus aided him effectually in fitting out a powerful fleet with which he encountered, with varied success, the Danish ships who still claimed the dominion of the northern seas. Many of his subjects were likewise persuaded to acquire the art of navigation, to study for themselves the best mode of conducting naval warfare, and to devote their attention to commercial and maritime pursuits, which, while they increased the number of merchant vessels, laid at the same time the surest foundation for the creation and maintenance of a royal navy.