But while narrow prejudices and mistaken legislation depressed the maritime commerce of the country, English sailors continued to maintain, in spite of every national blunder and vicissitude, their superiority in activity and skill. During the whole period from the Conquest to the end of the fourteenth century, they showed the highest genius and daring in navigating their ships, and more and more courage in their contests with the French, as the sphere of their efforts became extended. The testimony of contemporary historians, foreign as well as English, attest this opinion; and the imperishable glory and renown of their exploits, under circumstances of the most adverse character and in the face of apparently insurmountable difficulties, contributed in a great measure to the extension of the maritime power of England over that of most other nations. The splendid victory of England off the Swyn, in 1340, had been mainly owing to the superiority in naval tactics of her seamen, a race, it must be remembered, not trained to fight in the disciplined manner of modern times, but, as has so often been the case on subsequent occasions, chiefly distinguished for their bravery, hearty exertions, and extraordinary, but natural skill.[612]
Chaucer’s description of the seamen of his time.
Among the most graphic descriptions of the character of the English seamen of the fourteenth century, is that of the renowned Chaucer[613] in his “Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.” Although it is the picture of a hardened, reckless “felawe,” who made no scruple to drown the prisoners whom he captured—“by water he sent them home to every land”—it affords an excellent insight into the manners and customs, as well as the dress, of the seamen of his time. Indeed, the poet’s description gives a good idea of the free-and-easy character of seamen at all periods of English history; a class of men scarcely less distinct and peculiar in their habits now than then; and while equally expert and ready in tempestuous weather, no less fond, when at ease on shore, of “their draught of wyn,” or of their glass of grog.
“A schipman was ther, wonyng fer by Weste:
For ought I woot, he was of Dertemouthe
He rood upon a rouncy, as he couthe,
In a gown of faldying to the kne.
A dagger hangyng on a laas hadde he
Aboute his nekke under his arm adoun.
The hoote somer had maad his hew al broun;