Increase of the English fleet, A.D. 1066—Its participation in the Crusades to the Holy Land—Departure of the English expedition—Arrival at Messina—Number of ships—Their order of sailing—Arrival at, and capture of, Acre, 10th June, 1191—Richard returns to England—Maritime laws founded on the “Rôles d’Oleron”—Power to pledge ship and tackle—The sailors consulted—Laws relating to hiring—Drunkenness—Sickness—Damage to ship and cargo—Quarrels—Mooring of ships—Partnership in freight—Food—Obligation to carry the ship to her destination—Rules as to sailors—Demurrage—Bottomry—A bad pilot forfeited his head—Punishments—Shares in fishing vessels—Wreckers—Jetsam and flotsam—Royal fish—Timber of wrecks—Remarks on these laws—Code of Wisby—Magna Charta, A.D. 1215—Henry III., A.D. 1216—Naval actions—Cinque Ports—Increase of piracy—Measures for its suppression—Treaty of commerce with Norway, A.D. 1217, and facilities afforded to foreign merchants—English merchants first open trading establishments abroad—Origin of the Hanseatic League, A.D. 1241—Corporate seals—Sandwich—Poole—Dover—Faversham—Stanhope, vice-admiral of Suffolk—Duties of the Cinque Ports—Increased privileges to foreign merchants—Letters of marque first issued—Law for the recovery of debts, and adjustment of average—Shipping of Scotland, A.D. 1249—Extremely liberal Navigation Act—Chief ports of England, and extent of its shipping and commerce—Edward II., A.D. 1307-1327—Edward III., A.D. 1326-7-1377—Extension of English commerce—The discovery of coal—First complete roll of the English fleet, A.D. 1347—Quota of different ports—Pay of soldiers, sailors, &c.—War renewed, A.D. 1354—Death of Edward III., A.D. 1377—State of the merchant navy during his reign—Loss sustained by war, and encouragement afforded thereby to foreign nations—Rapid increase of the trade of Flanders—Trade between Italy and Flanders—Commercial importance of Bruges and Antwerp—Wealth of Flanders, and extent of its manufactures and commerce—Special privileges to her merchants—Progress of the Hanseatic League, and its system of business: its power too frequently abused.
Increase of the English fleet, A.D. 1066.
The accession of William the Conqueror to the throne of England produced important changes in the maritime affairs of that country, and gave to its over-sea commerce greatly increased security and stability. In their anxiety to recover the throne of Canute, the Danes had prepared a fleet for the purpose of invasion, which obliged the Conqueror to summon to his aid the whole of the naval resources of the island. Dover, Sandwich, and Romney were each called upon to provide, at their own expense, twenty vessels, equipped for sea, with crews of twenty-one men and provisions for fifteen days.[526] Rye and Winchelsea rendered similar assistance, and in return had conferred on them privileges similar to those which had been granted to the former places by Edward the Confessor. These ports were then for the first time styled the Cinque Ports, by which distinctive title they have ever since been known. Other ports had also to provide their quota. The fleet thus provided by the Conqueror was so fully maintained by Rufus, his second son and successor, that the learned Selden dates England’s maritime supremacy from that very early period. Still, for more than a century after the Conquest, her ships seldom ventured beyond the Bay of Biscay on the one hand, or the entrance to the Baltic on the other; and there is no record of any long voyages by English ships until the time of the Crusades, which, whatever they may have done for the cause of the Cross, undoubtedly gave the first great impetus to the shipping of England. The number of rich and powerful princes and nobles, who embarked their fortunes in these extraordinary expeditions, offered the chance of lucrative employment to any nation which could supply the requisite amount of tonnage; and English shipowners made great exertions to reap a share of the gains.
Its participation in the Crusades to the Holy Land.
The Earl of Essex appears to have been the first English nobleman who fitted out an expedition for the Holy Land, while, twelve years afterwards, Richard Cœur de Lion, on ascending the throne, made vast levies on the people for the same object; and, with the aid of Philip II. of France and of other princes, resolved to attempt to save the Cross from the grasp of the Infidels. Extraordinary exertions were made throughout both countries to provide the requisite armaments; and, towards the close of 1189, two fleets had been collected, one at Dover, to convey Richard and his followers (among whom were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Salisbury, and the Chief Justice of England) across the Channel; and a second and still larger one at Dartmouth, consisting of numerous vessels from Normandy, Poitou, Brittany, and Aquitaine, for the conveyance of the great bulk of the Crusaders, to join Richard at Marseilles.
Departure of the English expedition.
This expedition from Dartmouth set sail, under the command of Robert de Sabloil and Richard de Camville, towards the end of April 1190, and, after a disastrous voyage, showing clearly the incompetence alike of both officers and ships, succeeded in reaching Lisbon, where they committed such a series of disgraceful outrages upon the inhabitants, that seven hundred of them were for a time imprisoned: thence, they passed on, and at length, on the 22nd of August, reached Marseilles, from which, after a brief delay for necessary repairs, they followed the kings to the Straits of Messina, where they were all assembled on the 14th of September.[527]
Arrival at Messina.
Vinisauf[528] has described in glowing language the appearance of the fleet as it entered Messina. “As soon as the people heard of its arrival,” he says, “they rushed in crowds to the shore to behold the glorious king of England, and at a distance saw the sea covered with innumerable galleys, and the sounds of trumpets from afar, with the sharper and shriller blasts of clarions, sounded in the rear, and they beheld the galleys rowing in order nearer to the land, adorned and furnished with all manner of arms, countless pennons floating in the wind, ensigns at the ends of the lances, the beaks of the galleys distinguished by various paintings, and glittering shields suspended to the prows. The sea appeared to boil with the multitude of the rowers. The clangour of their trumpets was deafening; the greatest joy was testified at the arrival of the various multitudes, when thus our magnificent king, attended by crowds of those who navigated the galleys, as if to see what was unknown to him, or to be beheld by those to whom he was unknown, stood on a prow more ornamented and higher than the others, and, landing, displayed himself elegantly adorned to all who pressed to the shore to see him.”
Number of ships.