THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAILING SHIP FROM THE EIGHTH CENTURY TO THE
YEAR 1485.
It is the custom of some writers concerning mediæval ships to deplore
the existing information as being too scanty to afford us any
adequate idea as to vessels that sailed the seas during the first
half of the middle age. For myself I think that such a statement
cannot be maintained.
The evidence on which we are able to construct afresh in our minds
the ships of this period, is scarcely as slender as has been
supposed, though not unnaturally we must make allowances for obvious
inaccuracies, for exaggerations, and for ignorance. But, even when
we have done this we shall find the sources of information far from
shallow. I have used as the basis for this chapter, the evidence of
mediæval seals, both English and Continental: England, Scotland,
France, Spain and Flanders all affording interesting details of
ships by this means. I have gone carefully through old coins, and
though representations of ships thereon depicted have necessarily
had to suffer through the limitations imposed on the artist by the
size and shape of the coin, yet this evidence used collaterally
with the rest, goes a long way towards completing the picture we are
endeavouring to paint.
During the eleventh century, certain merchants from Bari on the
Adriatic made an expedition to Lycia and brought back the remains
of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, who had lived and suffered
persecution in the fourth century under Diocletian. Thence grew up
a wide-spread cult of this saint. Not only did he become patron
saint of Russia, but of all sailormen throughout Christendom. In
ancient pictures we sometimes see a ship caught in a terrible storm
with sails and gear carried away, Boreas or his colleague, raising
his head above the waters, blowing with inflated cheeks at the
helpless ship, while above the picture, St. Nicholas appearing in
the clouds, comes to the aid of the skipper seen praying on the poop
for deliverance from the horrible seas. In England this cult was not
wanting either. There are between three and four hundred churches
in our land dedicated in St. Nicholas’ honour, and the reader as he
journeys along the coast, will frequently find that in an old seaport
the parish church bears this dedication. We need not go too far
into this matter, but the famous parish church of that very ancient
seaport of Great Yarmouth (whose seamen used to have goodly quarrels
with the men of the Cinque Ports, and who, long prior to the coming
of William the Conqueror, were busy with the herring fishery), and
also of Brighton, are notable instances of this devotion to the
sailor’s saint. The font of the Brighton church and of Winchester
Cathedral—although the design in each case is conventionalised—cannot
fail to assist us. The date of the former belongs to somewhere
between the years 1050 and 1075: as to the latter, Dean Furneaux
informs me that the date is about 1180.
Mediæval manuscripts both English and foreign have happily
preserved to us not merely actual facts, but exquisitely coloured
illustrations of ships. We see the vessels in every conceivable
way—in course of construction, ashore, afloat, with sails spread,
with sails stowed. We see them on rivers and seas, embarking and
disembarking. We see them in peace and in war, bound for the
Crusades, or ramming each other, grappling, hurling darts and arrows
from their elevated fore-castles and stern-castles, or casting
destruction down on to one another’s decks from the fighting top
above.
We have, too, some slight evidence in contemporary stained glass,
which by reason of the demands of an exceptionally conventionalised
art must be regarded with caution and only to confirm other evidence.
We have the clear and valuable evidence of certain mosaics in St.
Mark’s Venice, which help us more than a little with regard to
the fourteenth century, and, few though they be as we remarked
in Chapter I., there are some artists whose pictures of ships in
mediæval times can be relied upon, after making certain allowances
already indicated. In this class we may include especially Carpaccio,
Giorgione and Memling. The more artistic the mode of expressing these
ships becomes, however, so much the more prone to inaccuracy does the
evidence incline, and to this category belong the tapestries, models
in precious metals, paintings on china and earthenware and tiles. In
most cases the distortion of truth has been in respect of length,
breadth, and height.
When we remember how thoroughly the Vikings harassed the shores of
France and England sailing up the Seine and the rivers and creeks
of our own land, committing piracy on the sea and pillage ashore,
and finally settling down and conquering the territory, it is not to
be wondered that their sway in naval architecture and construction
should have been universal in northern Europe. We have in the
previous chapter already dealt with the primitive craft of early
Britain, and it is generally supposed that the ships which were
sent from this country to assist the Veneti against Cæsar had by
this time become wooden and not skin-ships. With the Roman invasion
of Britain would come the introduction of Roman craft, and there
can be little doubt that the Deal “galley” of to-day, which is the
characteristic ship of that part of England which was so frequently
the landing-place for visitors from Gaul, is a relic, much modified,
from the Roman times. After the withdrawal of the Roman influence
from these shores, the Saxons and Angles coming in their double-ended
Viking craft quickly banished almost all the customs that the Britons
had learned under the Romans. And having effected this complete
transformation the Saxons settled down and practically forsook the
sea and shipbuilding.
But now from the year 787 until the coming of William the Conqueror
our forefathers were constantly being invaded by the Northmen in
the kind of ships that we discussed in the last chapter. But before
the end of the ninth century Alfred succeeded to the throne after
the country had been ravaged and despoiled by these raiders along
the north-east coast as far west as Southampton Water. Acting on
that blessed maxim which alone preserves our country to-day, that
he who would be secure on land must first be supreme on sea, he set
himself the task of improving on the Viking ships. This he carried
out by making his longships—so the Saxon Chronicles inform us—twice
as long as the Danish, and swifter, steadier and with more freeboard
than any war vessels that had hitherto been seen in England. Nor
did he neglect such important details as the seasoning of the
timber. But to show how utterly lacking his subjects were in all
knowledge of seamanship, his oarsmen—some of his ships carrying as
many as sixty—were all hired pirates from the seafaring district
of Friesland. Still, for all that, he succeeded in his object and
defeated the cruel foe.
Hakluyt quotes from one Octher, who voyaging to “the Northeast parts
beyond Norway reported by himselfe unto Alfred the famous king of
England, about the yere 890” that he “tooke his voyage directly North
along the coast, having upon his steereboard alwayes the desert land
and upon the leereboard the maine Ocean: and continued his course
for the space of 3 dayes. In which space he was come as far towards
the North, as commonly the whale hunters use to travell.”... “The
principall purpose of his traveile this way, was to encrease the
knowledge and discoverie of these coasts and countreyes, for the more
commoditie of fishing of horse-whales, which have in their teeth
bones of great price and excellencie: whereof he brought some at
his returne unto the king. Their skinnes are also very good to make
cables for shippes, and so used.” We see, therefore, that if the
Saxons had sunk in maritime pursuits this Octher from “Helgoland” was
one of a class in the northernmost parts of Europe that was wont to
sail far across the seas. From the same traveller we learn that it
was evidently at this time the custom for a ship on a passage and not
making port before to “lay still by the night.”
Edgar, too, who reigned from 959 to 975, took a keen interest in
his navy. In fact, I would much rather call him the first of our
yachtsmen than bestow the title on Charles II. as is customary. For
“this peaceable king Edgar,” says Hakluyt, “(as by ancient Recordes
may appeare) his Sommer progresses and yerely chiefe pastimes were,
the sailing round about this whole Isle of Albion, garded with his
grand navie of 4000 saile at the least, parted into 4 equall parts of
petie Navies, eche one being of 1000 ships, for so it is anciently
recorded.” From the same source we learn that the number was 4800,
although it has been also estimated at 3600. One thousand two hundred
were kept on the east coast (“in plaga Angliæ Orientali”), and
similar numbers to the west, the south and the north respectively,
for the defence of his kingdom. Under Edgar’s rule every three
“hundreds” (probably only of those along the coast-line), were
compelled to furnish a ship. Nor must we suppose that the mercantile
marine was entirely at a standstill, for there is frequent mention of
the English fleets after the time of Athelstan, and whilst the men of
Kent were busily engaged in the herring fishery, trade was regularly
being carried on with France and Flanders. Under the reign of Edward
the Confessor the merchant navy grew very greatly.
The Anglo-Saxon ships of the eleventh century were less of the
Gogstad or _skuta_ type, than of that bigger class to which the
“Long Serpent” or _snekja_ belongs. We do know from a certain
Scandinavian Edda what the Viking ships of about the year 1000 were
like in dimensions. We learn that the “Long Serpent” was 117 feet
long, and carried as many as 600 men aboard. She was decked after
the manner described in the last chapter, and had the five cabins
already mentioned. As in the Mediterranean the ships of burthen
developed from the ships of war, so in the Anglo-Saxon times the
merchantman differed from the battleship only in being more beamy,
and consequently not quite so fast as the longships.
As to the Scandinavians, they did not confine their activities to
fighting. Their fleets voyaged as far away as the Levant in the south
and Iceland in the north, and further still to Greenland. It is
from the colony of Iceland that they are said to have sailed across
to the New England States in North America. As to their sails at
this period, there is a Scandinavian coin of the ninth century of
our era[45] which shows that the usual lines of a Viking ship were
continued, with high poop and bow. The mast is shown supported by
three backstays and one forestay, whilst pavisses of shields hang
round as in the Gogstad ship. The sail is particularly interesting,
as it much resembles that of the Mediterranean boats found on the
Althiburus mosaics, the surface giving the appearance of net-work.
This is no doubt the joining of the stripes of coloured material
plus the rows of reef-points. In addition to the different classes
of ships enunciated in the previous chapter, there were also during
Anglo-Saxon times vessels called “ceols.” These came from Saxony,
and it is not without interest to remark that the same word “keel”
is still given to those somewhat beamy ships, carrying one huge
Viking-like square sail, that to-day are seen navigating the canal
that connects South Yorkshire with the same river Humber up which the
Saxons sailed.
We come now to the year 1066, when William setting forth from St.
Valery-sur-Somme on the evening of September 27, with a fair wind,
disembarked before midday on the following morning. Before starting
there was trouble with the reluctant crews, and even when lying at
anchor off St. Valery several ships foundered. Happily details of
William’s ships are preserved to us by the Bayeux tapestry, which
is supposed to have been worked by his consort, Queen Matilda. From
certain variations between this interesting, painstaking work and
contemporary records we know that it is not absolutely correct.
Nor, indeed, should we have expected otherwise from the work of
imaginative ladies unlearned in maritime matters. But having made due
allowance for that, the Bayeux tapestry taken in conjunction with
the other evidence is most valuable. The photographs which are here
reproduced have been taken from the copy of this tapestry in the
South Kensington Museum.
[Illustration: FIG. 32. HAROLD’S SHIPS.
_From the Bayeux Tapestry._]
In Fig. 32 we see the striped ships of Harold. To the left of the
picture the ship is being “quanted” off from the shore in the manner
we saw adopted by the Greeks. Two men are wading out to her; while on
board one of the crew, having just got the anchor up, is keeping a
look-out. Three others are ready to row as soon as in deep water,
while another sailor is stepping the mast. The ship next to her has a
backstay and forestay as well as shrouds. Behind her she tows a small
rowing boat for going ashore. Some excitement appears to be going on
aboard her judging by the man forward of the mast who is shouting
to the helmsman—possibly informing him that they are getting into
shoal-water, for the man in the bows is seen to be sounding with a
pole. Notice that a part of the crew has collected aft, the sheets
having been eased. In the next ship it is clearly shown that these
sailors have come to the stern in order to put their weight on to
the shrouds so that the mast may be lowered away gently. The sail
and mast will be seen to be partially lowered, a look-out man being
still up the latter, and the man forward is about to drop the anchor
overboard. The ships, as we have already seen was the Viking custom,
are striped as to their hulls. The present writer has seen a modern
Scandinavian boat of this type though smaller with stripes of black
and yellow. The pavisses are seen in both ships, being apparently
coloured alternately. The sail, too, is striped in accordance with
the prevailing custom. The shield-like forms hanging down over the
stern outside may probably be the North European equivalent of the
aphlaston as a protection against ramming. The decoration of a
dragon’s head on stem and stern will be easily seen.
In Fig. 33 we see another ship of this kind, with rudder still
affixed to the starboard, and tiller. We see also that William’s men,
having been commanded to build ships specially for the purpose of
sailing across the Channel, are felling trees. They are seen to be
stripping off the bark and planing the wood, whilst other shipwrights
are engaged in putting the craft together. Very interesting is the
mode of launching shown here. A line attached to the bows is taken
through a ring on a stake, and five men haul away on that. Excepting
that nowadays the ship would also be put upon a cradle and a capstan
or tackle would be used, the same method is used for hauling ashore.
Finally, in the same picture also we see the weapons and armour
and wine being carried down to the ships (see Fig. 34). It is an
historical fact that this wine played no small part in urging the
unwilling men to embark on this expedition.
Touching the size of the Norman ships, they did not exceed thirty
tons burthen, and as we have seen from the above illustration they
were put together on the beach. We have seen, too, that the mast was
lowered _forward_, not aft, and with the sail and yard fixed to the
mast. This practice is confirmed by an illustration shown in an old
manuscript, in which the sailors have gone aft for the purpose of
either raising or lowering the mast. Hanging on to the stays they
are even standing right out on the top of the stern-post. The yard
is clearly seen from these illustrations to have been kept fixed to
the mast and not lowered separately, so that to furl the sail when
the mast was not taken down the sailors climbed the rigging and tied
the sail to the yard. In the Brighton—or as this old fishing village
was then called, Brighthelmston—font this is shown quite clearly, as
also is a figure holding a tiller, which is correctly shown to be on
the starboard side. The high bows and stern are typical of the Viking
type, while the construction appears to be clinker. As we shall see
from seals and other illustrations while we go down through time this
may be regarded as the characteristic ship of Northern Europe until
the end of the fifteenth century, although the tendency was gradually
to get away from the “longship” idea and to develop into a crescent
form. In the Winchester font which is about a hundred years later
than the Brighton one, this newer shape is most noticeable. Both
fonts refer to a scene in the life of St. Nicholas.
[Illustration: FIG. 33. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR’S SHIPS.
_From the Bayeux Tapestry._]
At the masthead of the ships of this period, the chief ship of the
fleet carried a vane or flag. The Bayeux tapestry also shows the
_Mora_, William’s flagship. The truck is surmounted by a cross,
and there appears to be a lantern immediately below of somewhat
similar appearance to that on the Bœotian ship in Fig. 11. We do
not know to what exact knowledge of seamanship the crews of William
the Conqueror had attained,[46] but they would, at least some of
them, have crossed many times between the two countries before in
connection with trade, and they would have been able to acquire by
experience and observation, the necessary knowledge of the strong
channel tides which, although the coast-line between Pevensey to
the eastward has altered since the eleventh century, probably were
not much different from what they are to-day. They would have an
excellent mark in Beachy Head whereby to make a good land-fall, and
a sandy beach further to the eastward on which to disembark in the
bay, nicely sheltered from westerly winds. William, having once
landed in this country and vanquished Harold, did not neglect the
care of the navy. By 1071, or roughly the date when the font was
being placed in Brighton church just a few miles to the westward,
there was a fleet in being. Trade, too, between France and England
would now be even less fettered than before, and this would naturally
make for an increase in the merchant shipping. Nevertheless the
crews of William’s fleet would be more Norman than English. Nor was
shipbuilding neglected in other parts of Great Britain, for Hakluyt
gives a chronicle of the Kings of Man, in which we find that Godredus
Crovan, who gathered together a fleet of ships and sailed to the Isle
of Man, vanquished its people, and subdued Dublin, and “so tamed the
Scots that none of them durst build a ship or a boate with above
three yron nailes in it.”
Under Henry I. the maritime industry prospered much, and the king
collected a squadron of great size. Up to this time it had been the
custom that any cargo cast ashore from a wreck became _ipso facto_
the property of the king. But Henry caused a law to be put into force
that should any one escape from a wreck alive, the ship should not be
treated as lost, and her contents should not have ceased to belong
to her owner. In this reign too, we learn of _La Blanche Nef_, a
fifty-oared vessel that had as many as three hundred souls on board
when she foundered on the rocks off the race of Catteville in the
year 1120.
Portsmouth, even as early as this period, was springing into
importance as a naval port, and under Henry II.’s reign, London and
Bristol, which in after years were to come into such prominence
and to witness so many fine expeditions setting forth to explore
all parts of the unknown world, now became the two chief ports of
England. Ships were gradually getting bigger and bigger, until we
read of one in the year 1170 carrying as many as 400 people. Henry
II. contributed his share in encouraging the progress of shipping by
good naval legislature, for it was he who enacted that no one should
buy or sell any ship that was to be carried away from England.
[Illustration: FIG. 34. LADING ARMS AND WINE.
_From the Bayeux Tapestry._]
In the next reign we reach an important stage in the history of
sailing ships. Richard I. had set his mind on undertaking a Crusade
to the Holy Land, and this expedition had lasting effects on the
design of the ships that subsequently were built. Instead of coasting
to Ireland or France or the Orkneys, or even to Norway, England
now sends her first expedition across the Bay of Biscay to the
South, the beginning of that wonderful series of great voyages of
the English nation which in Elizabethan times made our country so
famous through her enterprising mariners. I have already referred
in our first chapter to the influence that was effected by the
opportunity afforded to English sailor-folk of seeing the ships
of the Mediterranean. The ships of this Sea had developed on two
separate lines. There was first the galley type, which had remained
wonderfully similar to the galley of Greek and Roman times. She was
essentially a rowed vessel, having sails as auxiliaries. In after
times all sorts of adaptations resulted from this, which we shall
see as we proceed through the Elizabethan period. The root of the
word “galley” is found in the various craft designated “galleass,”
“galliot,” and “galleon,” but it was the first of these three that
represented the rowed ship in her largest dimensions. The other two
were sailing ships, although preserving some similarity in name.
The second class of Mediterranean craft consisted of a rounder,
broader type of vessel—the descendant of the classic merchant vessel
as distinct from the “longship.” This in fact has been the general
division in the history of sailing ships through all times. Under
this heading will come the various classes of Mediterranean sailing
_ships_—not galleys—designated respectively “caracks,” “great ships,”
“busses” or “buccas,” “caravels,” “barks,” and “dromons.” If we keep
these two classes distinct in our minds—“galleys” and “ships”—we
shall not get far wrong during the ensuing centuries. Sailors in
all ages have always had an unfortunate habit of mixing the various
classifications of vessels, and we shall see as we proceed to what
inconvenience this has attained.
In the records of the Crusades we find mention made of the larger
and second class of the Mediterranean ships of sail. Near to
Beirut the English espied in the distance a great ship with three
tapering masts, strongly built, painted green and yellow, with 1500
men aboard. On being hailed she pretended at first to belong to
Richard’s colleague in the Crusade, the King of France, whose flag
indeed she was flying, but she was soon discovered to be a Saracen
ship, and after some difficulty was rammed and sunk by the English
Viking-shaped and smaller vessels. In Hakluyt’s account of this
ship she is described as a “carack.” She was probably not very much
different from the caravel shown in Fig. 43. The three tapering
masts which astounded the Englishmen in their one-masted Viking
ships and the tall sides of the carack which gave Richard’s men so
much difficulty in assault from their comparatively small vessels
of low freeboard, would not fail to bring forth changes in English
shipbuilding as soon as internal and external peace was assured
and sufficient technical skill had been acquired. This big ship or
carack class—call it what you will—marks a determined stand in naval
architecture to build real ships as distinct from big boats. From her
evolved the vessels that sailed across the Atlantic with Columbus,
that carried Elizabethan explorers to all points of the compass, that
fought the Armada and the Dutch, and became adapted in time to such
wooden walls as the _Victory_ and others, and which are not radically
dissimilar from the modern full-rigged ships, though made of iron
instead of wood, with steel rigging and a much larger spread of
canvas.
Although the carack class was not rare in the Mediterranean in the
twelfth century, it was some time in making itself felt in English
naval architecture. We must needs wait for another three centuries.
But what seem to have had an almost immediate effect were the castles
on the Mediterranean galleys at bow and stern. These may have come
into use in England during the remaining years of Richard’s or
during John’s reign. I have seen no illustration of either of these
reigns which shows these castellated constructions; but in the reign
of Henry III. in the seal of Sandwich this structure is shown in
the bows, at the stern and at the top of the mast. And we can be
quite sure that unless it were a prevailing type it would not have
figured in the port’s official seal. Fashions moved but slowly in
those days, so that it is not unreasonable to suppose that these
castellated structures had been in use for some years prior to the
date of the seal—the year 1238. At the same time the seal of the
City of Paris, which represents the first seal of its “Merchants of
the Water,” belonging to the year 1210, shows the Viking shape pure
and simple—without any germ of the castle—as were the ships of this
type which accompanied the rest of Richard’s fleet to the South. The
high stem- and stern-post, the clinker-build, the three stays forward
to support the mast, and three aft, seen in the seal, show how
determinedly the Viking type had overrun the north coast of France.
But there is nothing surprising in the French not having adopted the
fighting castles by this date.
Richard having despatched his navy by the “Spanish seas” to meet him
at Marseilles, himself travelled overland, and having waited eight
days in vain at Marseilles, “for his Navie which came not he there
hired 20 Gallies, and ten great barkes to ship over his men, and so
came to Naples” and eventually to Messina in Sicily, where to his
great joy he found his fleet had arrived. After the departure of the
French King from Messina, Richard followed “with 150 great ships and
53 great gallies well manned and appointed.” They were caught in
a strong southerly gale, but only two of his fleet appear to have
foundered. Later on, in the account included in Hakluyt, we find that
the whole fleet that was gathered at the port of Lymszem consisted of
“254 tall shippes, and above threescore galliots.”
[Illustration: FIG. 35. MEDITERRANEAN WARSHIP OF THE THIRTEENTH
CENTURY.]
Fig. 35 represents a Mediterranean warship of the thirteenth century
and well shows how far ahead the Southerners still were of the
North Europeans. Notice especially the sterncastle and forecastle.
The former is open at the sides and differs not very much from the
sterncastle in the clay model shown in Fig. 17. In the forecastle
of the thirteenth-century ship before us will be seen a warrior
standing ready to hurl down spears at the galleys over which his
ship towered so high. The large cage-like fighting-top is used as
well for steadying the unwieldy yard of the mainsail as for purely
war-like purposes. The rope ladders are also seen, and the rig
consists of a large squaresail on the main with a lateen on the
mizzen. The latter, having been for many hundreds of years seen up
and down the Mediterranean, would but naturally find its way into
the rig when a second mast was added. It would be very acceptable
as being far handier than the big squaresail and capable of being
easily stowed in a breeze. When her commander was endeavouring to
sail a tubby old craft like this as close to the wind as she could
get, the help of the lateen mizzen by sending her head up into the
wind would counteract the tendency to fall off from the breeze. I
attach considerable importance to this illustration as it is the
earliest picture I know of giving us anything of a satisfactory idea
of the kind of ships, other than the galley class, that sailed the
Mediterranean during about the time of Richard’s crusade. Perhaps
this is one of those “great ships” already alluded to. At any rate
she belongs to the sailing ship days. The method of stowing her
anchor is clearly shown. Very interesting, too, is the manner of
bending the sails to the yard. No lacing of any kind seems to be
employed, but strips of the sail appear to pass round the yard and
then meet the cloth again on the other side.
This is a Venetian ship, and when we consider that at this time
Venice was the foremost maritime power in the world, it is not
surprising that her vessels subsequently influenced Spain and thence
Northern Europe to a wonderful extent, as soon as the latter nations
had begun to discard the Viking type which had so long been the model
of their shipbuild. This illustration is from the work of one of
Giotto’s pupils.
[Illustration: FIG. 36. A FOURTEENTH-CENTURY DROMON.]
As to the other ships which Richard had with him besides the Viking
type, there were the Mediterranean galleys, somewhat similar to those
shown in Figs. 57 and 58. A “dromon” or “dromond” is also mentioned,
but this word was used very loosely, as for instance the word
“barge” and other examples already given in our own times. Sometimes
“dromon” referred to a vessel of large tonnage, but the reader will
see in Fig. 36 a much smaller ship bearing the same appellation. This
mosaic is taken from the ceiling in St. Mark’s, Venice, and belongs
to the year 1359. The incident depicted is that of bringing St. Mark
to Alexandria from Egiddo. The rig is lateen and the rake of the mast
is about the same as seen in the modern dhow-rigged yacht shown in
Fig. 101. In the dromon St. Mark is at the stern sheltered from the
following sea by a bulwark that would seem to have been super-added
to the hull. Notice, too, that by this time a rudder has been fixed
to the ship at the extreme stern, and that it appears to be worked
by means of a rope leading in through a hole in the gunwale. Of the
crew of two one is holding on to the vang, which comes down from the
peak of the sail, a relic, no doubt, of the brace of the squaresail,
while the man forward has just hoisted up the sail. Nowadays, that
part of the mast seen to project beyond the sail would be cut off in
a dhow-rigged vessel, the yard coming flush with the truck of the
mast.
There was also in the fleet of Mediterranean craft which joined
Richard, a ship of the class called a _buss_, _bucca_, or _buzzo_.
This was a Venetian type of merchant ship, bluff-bowed and highly
useful as a transport. Levi[47] derives the name, not from the
Italian word meaning “stomach,” although she has a hold capable of
stowing away much cargo, but from _buco_ meaning a hole or small,
dark room, into which the cargo was thrown. The various kinds
of galleys are spoken of under the names of gallion, galliot,
galleass—though in course of time a different and distinctive meaning
has been assigned to each of these words—and the _visser_ was a
shallow transport perhaps not differing much from the _hippago_
of the Althiburus mosaic. A “barge” was probably more like one of
those tar-covered “coasters” that one sees loading in every port—in
hull, that is, but with a square-sail and of course no triangular
headsails.[48] Of the Viking class Richard had with him some of
the _esneccas_ or “Long Serpent” type as well as some “Cogs.” The
latter class was also of Scandinavian origin and probably somewhat
bigger than the skuta type. Hakluyt includes a letter sent from our
King Henry III. to Haquinus, King of Norway, granting permission to
Norwegian merchants to come and go freely into English ports. “Wee
will and command all bailifes of Portes,” reads the mandate, “at
which the Cog of Norway (wherein certaine of the king of Norwaie his
souldiers, and certain Merchants of Saxonie are coming for England)
shall touch, that when the fore-said Cog shall chance to arrive at
any of their Havens, they doe permit the said Cog safely to remain
in their said Havens, &c.” Perhaps she was a new type of Viking ship
and, like the “Long Serpent,” gave her name to the class of ships
built after her model.
On a MS. in the possession of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
we see a couple of galleys ramming each other with the spur some
distance above the waterline. The largest of Richard’s galleys in the
Mediterranean had thirty oars, and the Viking type of steering paddle
was still used, since the rudder affixed to the farthest end of the
stern had not yet been introduced into ships of North Europe. Masts
and sails were carried as usual. The larger ships of Richard’s fleet
that we have mentioned also carried engines for projecting darts as
well as terrible explosives. The banner under which they fought at
this time was that of St. George. As to the equipment of this first
great English fleet the chief vessels had each three spare steering
paddles, thirteen anchors, thirty oars, two sails, three sets of
all kinds of ropes, and duplicates of all gear except the mast and
boat. There are not wanting plenty of references to the _esnecca_
or “Serpent” class. Thus there is a record of payment “to the men
of the esnecca” (Pipe Roll, 5 Henry II., p. 45. Pipe Roll Socy.);
“paid out to me of the snecca for the Queen’s passage and that of
Henry FitzGerald with the treasure and of Nicholas de Sigillo £30 :
10” (Pipe Roll, 6 Henry III., p. 47); “to the sailors of the snecca
twenty shillings by the king’s writ” (Pipe Roll, 8 Henry II., p. 35).
The ship that was reserved for carrying royalty across from England
to France was always at this period called the “esnecca.”
The resulting effects on England of this crusade were not confined
to her naval architecture. Although it was not the first time
that a North European or even an Englishman had sailed in the
Mediterranean, it was the first instance of a naval expedition on a
large scale setting forth from these shores to the Levant. It gave
our sailors in a smaller way just that experience which the recent
world-cruise of the fleet of the United States from the Atlantic
to the Pacific and back again has obtained for American sailormen.
It made deep-sea sailors of the men who had only been coasters,
and showed them in what directions their ships could be improved
upon. But its effect on the trade of England was to expand it, to
create new sources of imports and fresh outlets for her exports.
England owes a great debt to Richard I., besides, for his attention
to maritime legislature. Hakluyt gives a list of the laws the king
ordained for his navy during this expedition, as, for instance, that
any one who killed another on board ship should be tied to the dead
man and thrown overboard: and that if he killed him on land he should
in like manner be tied “with the partie slaine, and be buried with
him in the earth.” It was from the Levant that Richard brought a roll
of laws regulating maritime affairs, and which, being held in high
honour on the Southern sea, he ordered to be observed in English
waters. Very drastic were these laws of Oleron, framed for the
benefit of the merchant service. Thus if a pilot from ignorance or
otherwise lost the ship entrusted to his navigation and the merchants
thereby sustained damage, the pilot was to make full satisfaction
if he had means, and if he lacked these he was to forfeit his head.
It is interesting to note the care that was taken to prevent ships
fouling each other’s anchors, for it was enacted that all anchors
were to be indicated by buoys. But no modern sailor will read without
a smile the regulation that if a vessel were wind or weather-bound,
the master, when a change in the conditions had occurred, was to
consult his crew, saying to them, “Gentlemen, what think you of this
wind?” and to be guided as to whether he should put to sea by the
opinion of the majority. It is not difficult to imagine what the
verdict of such a consultation would be to-day on a big barque, for
instance, after the men have returned from their carouse ashore, if
the law were still in force. The “gentlemen’s” opinion of the wind
would be something unprintable.
During the reign of John, ships reached a size as big as eighty tons.
Hakluyt contains a reference to the time when Louis invaded England
to aid Archbishop Langton. “Hubert of Borough (then captaine of
Dover) following the opinion of Themistocles in the exposition of the
oracle of the woodden walls, by the aide of the [Cinque] Port townes,
armed fortie tall ships, and meeting with eightie saile of French men
upon the high seas, gave them a most couragious encounter, in which
he tooke some, sunke others, and discomfitted the rest.” Under John
the English navy was considerably improved, and this was the first
of our sovereigns to retain seamen with permanent pay. Instead of
being alternately pirates, fishermen and fighting men of the state,
the sailor became endowed with a higher status. The privileges first
granted to the Cinque Ports by Edward the Confessor, William the
Conqueror and their successors, did much to assist the progress of
the sailing ship; but in addition to the ships supplied to him by
these south coast ports, John had also ships of his own. This reign
is notable, too, as the first instance of our country claiming to be
“The Sovereign of the Seas.”
Nor under Henry III. was this progression in maritime matters
arrested. Every year the size of ships was becoming greater. Thanks
to the Mediterranean influence they were getting away from the Viking
type to a more protected and seaworthy kind. Decks and cabins and
more than one mast were introduced, and in 1228 a vessel that was
sent to Gascony with the king’s effects had expended on her a certain
sum of money “for making a chamber in the said ship to place the
king’s things in.” In 1242 there is a direction for the cabins of
the king and queen to be wainscotted. The seal of Sandwich, one of
the Cinque Ports, of the date of 1238, shows the customary Viking
hull, as usual, clinker-built. But some notable additions have been
made. Both in the bows and stern a raised structure has been added to
enable the men to hurl the same destruction from a height that they
had seen the Mediterraneans operate during the Crusade. The space
underneath the stern-castle was used as a kind of roofed deck-house
or cabin, but open at the sides, and we see one of the barons of
Sandwich sitting in a dignified manner under this shelter, while a
couple of the crew are aloft on the yard, evidently about to unfurl
the sail. At the top of the mast has been placed a fighting-top. A
very thick forestay, two backstays, and four shrouds are shown, but
possibly the two halyards did duty also as backstays. A small rowing
boat is seen carried on board, as well as two more crew.
[Illustration: FIG. 37. SEAL OF WINCHELSEA (END OF THE THIRTEENTH
CENTURY).]
Fig. 37 has been sketched from the seal of Winchelsea in the British
Museum. For detail of information it is pre-eminent: the date is the
end of the thirteenth century. The reader, after making allowances
for the limitations of space and shape imposed on the artist, will
at once remark the similarity of the lines, especially at bow and
stern, between this and the Gogstad ship. The stem- and stern-post
are depicted very high. Forward is seen the forecastle taking its
Gothic curves from the architecture on shore. Above, floats a flag.
Below the stern-castle sits the baron or commander protected by the
roof and arches, whilst over him two trumpeters are pealing forth. We
have seen this trumpeting at the stern also depicted in the ancient
Mediterranean ship coming into harbour (Fig. 22), and the practice
was evidently still a common one in the middle ages when entering
or leaving port so as to give due warning to approaching vessels.
Hakluyt contains a reference to Richard when he had wearied of
waiting at Marseilles and had sailed to Messina. “After that he had
heard that his ships were arrived at Messana in Sicilie, he made the
more speed and so the 23. of September entred Messana with such a
noyse of Trumpets and Shalmes, with such a rout and shew, that it was
to the great wonderment and terror both of the Frenchmen, and of all
other that did heare and behold the sight.”
The rigging, the sail furled to the yard, and the two braces are so
clearly shown as to need no comment. But two other points are of
considerable interest to us. Firstly, notice that the rudder, on the
starboard side, is almost identical with that of the Gogstad ship.
From the hull projects a bracket to support the rudder, while above,
the tiller or _clavus_ fits in at right angles and comes inboard to
the helmsman. Secondly, notice that the two men forward are getting
up the anchor and that the cable leads aft to a winch—probably a
great wooden drum like that found on the Dutch schuyts of to-day—for
the two men in the stern are clearly shown working away with their
handspikes, which would fit into the windlass drum in the manner the
reader will notice any day he likes to take a stroll and look at
the Dutch craft lying off Billingsgate. In a few moments the ship
will be under way, for one of the crew has been sent aloft to unfurl
the sail. The fighting-top is not shown on this seal, but that is
possibly accounted for by the fact that the artist was cramped for
space. Winchelsea, or as Hakluyt speaks of it, “Frigmare Ventus”—and
not inaptly so-called, as those who have been caught in the nasty
chilly squalls off this ancient shore will agree—was one of the
original five Cinque Ports before the others were added, and in
the time of Edward I. had to provide ten ships, though during the
reign of the third Edward this was increased to twenty-one with five
hundred and ninety-six mariners.
[Illustration: FIG. 38. SEAL OF HASTINGS (THIRTEENTH CENTURY).]
Fig. 38 has been drawn from the seal of Hastings in the British
Museum. The date is the thirteenth century, and although no
forecastle is shown, the erection in the stern scarcely requires any
further comment. The high stem and stern are seen again, and what is
of considerable interest, the three rows of reef-points. This seal
depicts an incident in one of the many engagements that took place
about this time along the coast between Beachy Head and the North
Foreland. Both ships, it will be noticed, are sailing, and one has
rammed his enemy and cut his ship down to the water. An unfortunate
warrior is seen swimming in the foreground of the picture. On the
banners at bow and stern of the victorious ship are shown the arms of
the Cinque Ports. All three warriors are seen clad in mail.
The seal of Dover, another of the Cinque Ports, of the date of 1284,
bears out the general characteristics we have been discussing. The
castles at bow, stern and top of mast: the trumpeters—this time at
the bows: the two men getting in the cable: the one man going aloft
to unfurl the sail—these details are all depicted. Both Dover and
Sandwich seals contain a bowsprit after the manner of that seen in
the Roman merchant ship moored alongside the quay in Fig. 21. It is
therefore probable that a small square sail was used occasionally at
this time for tilting the ship’s head off the wind.
[Illustration: FIG. 39. THIRTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH SHIP.]
The model by Mr. Frank H. Mason, R.B.A., reproduced in Fig.
39, was in the Franco-British Exhibition and is now in the South
Kensington Museum. It may perhaps assist the reader to obtain a
more living picture of the ships of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. The castles will be at once recognised. Frequently the
sail was decorated as shown. The detachable “bonnet,” still used by
the sailors of Scandinavia and Norfolk, can just be seen below the
decoration. The steering oar, or rudder, is attached to the starboard
side, but the reader can just see the handle coming up. The massive
wooden fenders were both to strengthen the ship and for a protection
when going alongside an enemy. Since so frequently the same ship that
was used for fishing or trading was also employed as a battleship or
even pirate, the unwieldy, top-heavy castles were made so as to allow
of them being removed in times of peace. The ship before us probably
represents one of the larger, esnecca type, and the snake’s head
coming inboard from the stern-post is very noticeable.
From the masthead of the commander-in-chief’s ship by day flew a
banner, and by night a lantern hung in order to direct the sailing
of the fleet. The officers of the Cinque Ports were ordered to cut
adrift the banner of a hostile commander in an engagement, so that
the whole of the enemy’s fleet might be thrown into confusion. Before
the close of Henry II.’s reign another crusade was undertaken,
but the ships of the Southern sea seem to have reached to larger
dimensions by now. There is a record of a ship built in Venice for
France in the year 1268. She was 110 feet long, 40 feet broad, and
11½ feet deep in the hold. She had also 6½ feet of head-room on her
main deck. Her crew totalled 110 officers and men, and she was of
about four or five hundred tons burthen.[49] The English ships had
another opportunity of testing their sea-going qualities in the
Mediterranean, for during a storm in the year 1270 the English
squadron was the only part of the allied fleet that escaped without
loss.
During Henry II.’s reign the magnet seems to have been first commonly
used in navigation. From an old MS. in Corpus Christi College
Cambridge we see the derivation of that anchor which is also freely
used by balloons nowadays and which seamen find extremely useful when
dragging for a lost anchor or cable—the grapnel with its several
flukes projecting from a common centre. The MS. mentioned illustrates
a sea-fight, and sailors are seen keeping the enemy’s galley close
alongside by means of one of these anchors or grappling irons. The
other anchors, as will have already been noticed by the reader in
the illustration of the warship by Giotto’s pupil in Fig. 35, were
stockless.
Edward I.’s charter, granted to the Cinque Ports, ordained that each
time the king passed over the sea the Cinque Ports should “rigge up
fiftie and seven ships” every one of which was to be manned with
twenty armed soldiers. These were to be maintained at the ports’ own
cost for fifteen days together. In this charter we come across the
expression, so familiar to us now, “before the mast.” Thus it adds:
“And that they be free of all their owne wines for which they do
travaile of our right prise, that is to say, of one tunne before the
mast, and of another behind the maste.”
[Illustration: FIG. 40. SEAL OF DAM (WEST FLANDERS) (A.D. 1309).]
About the time of Edward I. two-masted ships became more general. One
of the first acts of his reign was to revive the wool trade between
England and Flanders: this necessarily made for the extension and
progression of shipping. Fig. 40 represents the seal of the town of
Dam in West Flanders. The actual date of the seal in the British
Museum, from which this has been drawn, is 1309, or two years after
the death of Edward I. This represents one of the larger or barge
class of ships. The most striking feature is her apparent modernity,
for if we were to remove the fore- and stern-castles and rig her as
a ketch by adding a mizzen-mast and triangular headsails we should
have before us one of those black traders which even the most casual
observer must have looked at many times during his summer holidays by
the sea. She marks a very decided departure now from the Viking type,
but we must remember that she represents only one species of ship.
The prevailing type elsewhere in Northern Europe continued to be a
modification of the Norwegian. The ship before us would be rigged
with the usual single squaresail. Perhaps also she used a smaller
square headsail occasionally, as the bowsprit is present, but the
most important feature of all is the change that has come in the
steering arrangement. Hitherto we have always seen the rudder at the
side; but now we get to that stage where the rudder is placed at the
extreme stern of the ship, where it has remained ever since. Such a
ship as this in the North Sea would be no doubt the counterpart of
the Mediterranean _buzzo_ of the same century. I believe this ship
of Dam (spelt also Damme) to be the earliest illustration of any
North European vessel showing the rudder thus placed, although the
seal of Poole dated 1325 has her rudder also in this position. The
Viking ships of Norway did not adopt this steering method until the
beginning of the fourteenth century also. In England there is an
additional example in a man-of-war built for Edward III. at Lynn,
Norfolk, in 1336. She was named _La Félipe_. It is worth remembering
that it was off Damme that the English fleet in the reign of John
inflicted a severe defeat upon the French.
The ship shown in the Poole seal marks another development in the
fore- and stern-castles, which by now appear to be not so much
superstructures as part of the hull itself. We shall see as we
continue through the ensuing centuries how this “castle” idea
increases. Another point of interest exhibited in the Poole design
is a large anchor hanging from the bows. This now has a stock in the
usual place as distinct from that in the illustration by Giotto’s
pupil. This Dorset craft has some resemblance to the previous Viking
type, but instead of being after the pattern of the “longships” she
shows the tendency towards crescent-shape. As evidence that the pure
Viking influence was still extant in Europe let us take the seal of
San Sebastian, Spain, which is to be seen in the British Museum. The
date is 1335, and it is remarkable that this type should have spread
so far south as the other side of the Bay of Biscay. She has the high
stem and stern with a stern-castle, but not a forecastle. She has
one mast with a streamer, the sail being furled by two men along the
yard as usual. The mariner steers with a rudder to starboard, and
the braces as well as the bowsprit are shown.
In the reign of Edward III. the current gold coin called a noble
showed a ship-design still more crescent-shaped than the Poole seal.
By now the sterncastle has come right down on deck, the rudder hung
on pintles is seen at the extreme stern, and the backstays lead not
into the hull but to the top of the sterncastle. The actual length
on the water-line is much smaller now and the overhang greater. The
date of the noble is 1360. An imitation of this coin, and bearing a
similar ship, was struck by David II. of Scotland in 1357.[50] In
the seal of Boston belonging to the year 1375 the sterncastle is
seen to have come down to the deck, the sheer of the ship coming up,
so to speak, to meet it. The forecastle has also come lower, but
projects away ahead of the vessel. There are three masts and three
fighting-tops, and the shrouds come outside of the hull. Edward III.
admirably continued the example of the kings of England and helped
forward the steady improvement of the navy, while the glorious
victory in the Battle of Sluys, in which the French fleet was utterly
routed, gave the English seamen their opportunity of showing their
superiority.
From the “Black Book of the Admiralty” of the reign of Edward III.
we see that the admiral’s ship carried two lanterns at her masthead
when sailing at night in order that the masters of other ships of
the fleet could see the course being taken by the flagship. The
king’s ship was to be distinguished by three lanterns arranged
triangular-wise. As to the armament of this period, they consisted
of bows and arrows, archers from the fighting-tops and castles at
bow and stern being able by means of their superior height to do
considerable damage. Cannon were introduced in 1338, and before the
close of the fourteenth century guns and gunpowder were becoming
common, but the influence which cannon had on the design of ships we
shall notice presently.
Nor did the enterprising spirit imbued through the Crusades perish.
As early as 1344 an Englishman, of the name of Macham, sailed as far
south as to discover the Island of Madeira, but unfortunately his
lady-love had fallen a victim to sea-sickness during the voyage, and
after going ashore with some of his company, the ship either dragged
her anchor or parted her cable and “with a good winde made saile
away, and the woman died for thought.” However, after building a
chapel over her grave, Macham, according to the account of Antonio
Galvano given in Hakluyt, “ordeined a boat made of one tree (for
there be trees of a great compasse about) and went to sea in it, with
those men that he had, and were left behinde with him, and came upon
the coast of Afrike, without sail or oare.” It was the information
given by Macham and his men that induced the French to voyage thither
and also to discover the Canary Isles.
In 1360 Nicholas of Lynn, “a Franciscan Frier, and an excellent
Mathematician of Oxford,” a good astronomer and experienced in
the use of the astrolabe, “went in companie with others to the
most Northern Islands of the world, and there, leaving his company
together, hee travailed alone, and purposely described all the
Northerne Islands with the indrawing seas.” We get some idea of the
speed of the ships of olden days by the statement made that from
Lynn (Norfolk) to Iceland is not more than a fortnight’s voyage with
an ordinary wind. Reckoning the distance between the two as roughly
a thousand miles this would give the day’s run at about seventy
miles. It was from this same Lynn that sixteen ships and 382 mariners
were contributed to the enormous fleet of English ships which
Edward III. had in 1347, when he besieged Calais. Some idea of the
development that had gone on since Arthur’s time may be obtained when
we recollect that the English ships at Calais numbered 700 and the
mariners over 14,000, without including the assistance of Ireland,
Spain, and other helpers.
We pass over the reign of Richard II. as being anything but
prosperous for the progress of the sailing ship. His successor, Henry
IV., however, entered into commercial treaties with Prussia and the
Hanseatic League, much to the advantage of shipping. Piracy had
become so rampant on the North Sea as to cause merchants to abstain
from sending their goods across from the one country to another. This
Henry did his best to stop. He endeavoured to remove all hindrances
to the herring fishery, and all English merchants were to have full
liberty to arrive with their goods and ships at any port in Prussia.
The list of claims for satisfaction and recompense set forth in
the agreement between Henry IV. and the Hanseatic Towns throws a
light on the ships of the time. Thus we find reference to “a ship
of Newcastle upon Tine called _Godezere_ ... being of the burthen
of two hundred tunnes ... which ship together with the furniture
thereof amounteth unto the value of foure hundred pounds.” Mention is
also made of the _Shipper Berline of Prussia_, belonging to the port
of Hull; of a ship called the Cogge, belonging to William Terry of
Hull, carrying a cargo of both broad and narrow cloth. Another ship
from the same port was called the _Trinitie_; another bore the name
of the _Hawkin Derlin of Dantzik_. Among other acts of piracy, that
perpetrated near Plymouth on “a certaine barge called the _Michael
of Yarmouth_,” is mentioned. Another vessel, braving superstition,
bears the name _Friday_, another which was robbed of her “artillerie,
furniture, and salt fishes,” and herself captured and taken to
Norway, was named the _Margaret_. A similar misfortune had happened
to the _Nicholas_ and also to the _Isabel_. Other unfortunate vessels
included the _Helena_; a certain ship classed as a “crayer,” and
named the _Peter_; and two fishing vessels called respectively the
_Doggership_ and the _Peter of Wiveton_. Another fishing ship also
called the _Dogger_ was robbed of her fish and “furniture,” while she
was at anchor and her crew were fishing near by. Another “crayer” is
mentioned called the _Buss of Zeland_, and still a further one called
the _Busship_. One ship was of 300 tons burthen—this being measured
by tuns of wine—and carried a crew of forty-five.
Other ships of the following reign were the _Jesus_ (1000 tons),
the _Holigost_ (760 tons), the _Trinity Royal_ (540 tons), and the
_Christopher Spayne_ (600 tons). In the navy were also seven caracks,
barges (see Fig. 40), as well as the “ships” that had taken the
place of the Viking galley. The largest caracks were between six and
five hundred tons burthen, the barges a hundred tons, whilst a class
of vessel called “ballingers,”[51] ranged between one hundred and
twenty, and eighty tons. It was during Henry V.’s reign also that,
the Battle of Agincourt having been fought, the king set forth two
years later from Southampton for a fresh invasion of France, having
caused to be built for this purpose ships the like of which was to
be found nowhere, “naves quales non erant in mundo,” as the old
chronicler quoted by Hakluyt expresses it.
“The Libel of English policie, exhorting all England to keepe the
sea,” contains in the following rhyme some references to the vessels
we are considering:
And if I should conclude all by the King
Henrie the fift, what was his purposing,
Whan at Hampton he made the great dromons,
Which passed other great ships of all the commons:
The Trinitie, the Grace de Dieu, the Holy Ghost,
And other moe, which as nowe bee lost....
or again:
And when Harflew had her siege about,
There came caracks horrible great and stoute....
The reign of Henry VI., at least as regards shipbuilding, was about
as unsatisfactory as had been that of Richard II., owing to the
scarcity of money consequent on the war with France. Further, the
unhappy Wars of the Roses kept men’s minds too tightly gripped to
allow of them thinking much about commerce or the ships that were to
carry it. But towards the close of Edward IV.’s reign, after peace
had been made between England and France, matters began quickly to
improve, and in the time of Richard III. England was sending her
ships and merchandise to Venice, to Genoa and other Mediterranean
ports.
But let us now go back to trace a little more fully the designs of
the ships according to the illustrations that have survived through
history. Firstly with regard to Southern Europe. The Mediterranean
had still maintained her lead in the designing and building of able,
roomy vessels. Happily we are helped by the work which one or two
Italian painters have left behind them. There is a most interesting
picture by Gentile da Fabriano, representing a ship of the early
fifteenth century. The original which is in the Vatican is called
“The Miracle of St. Nicholas.”[52] She is a fine, strong ship,
with a square stern and rudder fixed to the middle of the latter.
She has two masts as well as a bowsprit, and the hull is somewhat
crescent-shaped. The artist has depicted her scudding before a
terrific storm, which has split the mainsail along the foot where
the bonnet seems to be laced. Evidently the ship has been caught in
one of those sudden squalls not unknown to the Mediterranean, for
otherwise the skipper ought not to have carried on so long without
unlacing the bonnet. At the stern he is seen praying to St. Nicholas
who appears in the clouds coming to his assistance, while amidships
a sailor is seen jettisoning some of the cargo. The forecastle
resembles that of contemporary English ships with a projecting
bowsprit. The mizzen-mast and sail are clearly shown, the latter
being furled to its yard as the ship is running before the wind.
Pulleys are now prominently indicated, whilst a couple of braces are
attached both to the main and mizzen-yard, while the mainsheet leads
right aft to the starboard quarter and comes in through a hole in the
gunwale pretty much in the same way adopted in a square-rigged ship
to-day. Two rope ladders are shown, one at either side, hanging down
over the stern, evidently in order to facilitate getting into the
ship’s boat (seen towing astern) if the ship herself shall founder. A
fighting-top is depicted at her masthead. The picture is altogether
most fascinating and instructive.
Carpaccio, the great Venetian artist, whose period is covered by
the dates 1450-1522, has left behind more pictures containing ships
than any artist of his time. There is in one of his paintings a
striking example of a contemporary Mediterranean warship. She is
shown as having a mainmast with square sail and very small topsail.
Aft she has both a mizzen-mast and bonaventure-mizzen, each carrying
a lateen sail. She is fitted also with a small foresail, spritsail,
and carries eight oars on each side.[53] Like Memling and other
artists, Carpaccio utilises the celebrated story of “The Pilgrimage
of St. Ursula,” for some of his best work. It is, indeed, owing to
this story, necessitating the introduction of ships into the picture,
that we possess much of our knowledge concerning mediæval craft. For
instance, in “The Arrival of the Ambassadors,” in “The Return of the
Ambassadors,” in “The Arrival at Cologne,” and “St. Ursula taking
farewell of her parents,” we have presented many valuable details
bearing on our subject of sailing ships. We see a small open boat in
the first of these pictures. She has a tiller and one large single
lateen sail, coming almost down to the water. In the background we
see the big ship in which the ambassadors have travelled. She has a
high poop, one mast and square mainsail. In the second picture we
see a Mediterranean galley with her enormous sail. She still retains
her name “trireme,” and it is remarkable how generally she continues
to resemble her Roman ancestor. In the last of the four pictures
mentioned above, we see a large ship resembling somewhat the caravel
type.[54]
The most famous of all the works of that delightful Flemish painter
Memling is the reliquary of St. Ursula. Those who saw the wonderful
collection of “Primitives” brought together in Bruges in the year
1902 will recollect the eight exquisite miniatures on the reliquary.
Happily no less than four of these contain representations of the
ships in which St. Ursula and her accompanying maidens journeyed.
The date assigned by Mr. Weale[55] to these paintings is not later
than 1489. In Fig. 41 one of these panels is reproduced. We cannot
regard these Memling pictures of ships as absolutely truthful: some
allowance must be made for the artistic temperament. There is, for
instance, no indication of any braces shown in the illustration. But
Bruges is not far from the sea, and during the fifteenth century it
was the great centre of commercial activity of the prosperous Hanse
towns, and Memling would have plenty of opportunity to study the
details of contemporary craft. It may fairly be assumed that in spite
of a small inaccuracy here and there the general drawing of the ships
is nautically correct. From other pictures and MSS. and stained glass
windows of this time we know that this is so. Looking at the picture
before us we see at once how the Viking lines have been modified. The
fore-castle and stern-castles are seen in their latest form: that
is to say, they have long since passed the time when they were mere
additional structures to the hull of the ship. They have, in fact,
now been absorbed into the general design of the whole vessel. There
is still one mast supported by backstays, shrouds, and forestays,
and there is one large mainsail which furls still to the yard. The
lines of the ship are tubby, but we can easily see the progenitors
of the Dutch craft which went on developing until the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries and there halted for ever after. Notice, too,
that the rudder is in its proper place. Such a ship as this resembles
in many points the one in “The Miracle of St. Nicholas” referred
to above. The length of the Viking ship has given way to breadth.
Roundness has taken the place of straightness: freeboard has added to
her seaworthiness. We shall find this evidence before us confirmed by
a certain mediæval Italian illustration[56] in which a Mediterranean
ship is being tossed mercilessly about by the Wind, who, with
inflated cheeks raises his head above the water and blows vigorously
into the sails. Men are seen tumbling into the sea, the mainmast has
gone by the board, and general confusion reigns. A somewhat similar
kind of ship is also seen in a reproduction from a stained glass
window of this period.[57]
[Illustration: FIG. 41. PANEL OF THE SHRINE OF ST. URSULA, AFTER
MEMLING (1489).]
In a beautiful French manuscript of the fifteenth century similar
ships to those in Memling’s work are shown with considerable
ability.[58] Perhaps these French vessels show the Viking influence
somewhat more certainly, especially in their bows. We are shown in
one illustration a scene of the river Seine at Rouen. A ship with a
sterncastle, now modified rather to a square platform, is seen by the
shore. She appears to be carvel- and not clinker-built; this is a
notable fact. She has shrouds at the sides, a forestay, and also an
additional stay coming forward from the mast to a spot midway between
amidships and the bow. This may have been in the original ship to act
as a further support to the sail or it may only be the product of
the artist’s imagination. If the former it would be analogous to the
lee-runner but placed forward, and must have chafed the sail a good
deal. The latter is furled to the yard in the usual way. We see in
the same MS. ships starting forth bound for the Crusades. They are
fine, bold vessels, broad of beam, with plenty of freeboard, clumsy
but probably good sea-boats. These French craft appear to have a
certain amount of overhang at the bows and some of them carry a large
fighting-top, partly supported by means of a stay coming up from both
bow and stern.
[Illustration: FIG. 42. SEAL OF LA ROCHELLE (A.D. 1437).]
Such seals as the following throw light on the ships of England in
the fifteenth century. That, for instance, of Richard Clitherowe,
Admiral of the West of England, 1406, shows a decorated sail and
flies an ensign at her stern. The reason for this flag being always
placed aft lies in the fact that the raised poop was the place
of honour reserved for the commander. Similar ships are seen in
such seals as those of Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, Admiral of
England, Aquitaine and Ireland (1416-1426): John Duke of Bedford,
Regent of France, Lord High Admiral of England, Ireland and Aquitaine
(1435): John Holland, second Earl of Huntingdon, Admiral of England,
Ireland and Aquitaine (1435-1442). This last seal shows the Admiral’s
lantern hanging over the poop. Similar ships may be seen in the seal
of Richard Plantagenet, third Duke of Gloucester, Admiral for Dorset
and Somerset (1461-1462); in the seal of Rutherglen (co. Lanark),
1493; in that of the English merchants of Holland—a fifteenth century
seal found at Harrow and now in the British Museum—and in various
others of this period. Their general characteristics include a
crescent-shaped hull with forecastle and sterncastle, fighting-top,
sail decorated with the arms of France and England, &c., forestay,
two backstays, and a rudder at stern. The seal of Rye, belonging to
the fifteenth century, shows three rows of reef-points, an ensign
with the cross of St. George as well as streamers on the mast.
Fig. 42 represents the seal of La Rochelle of the date 1437. It is
interesting as showing that while in England, in Damme, in Paris
(see the seal of the city of Paris of the year 1415) and elsewhere,
the crescent-shaped ship with castles was in vogue, this town kept
strenuously to the original Viking type. The bonnet with three rows
of reefs is clearly indicated, and similarly the sheets and stays.
We referred just now to the introduction of cannon as affecting the
design of ships. At first they were placed on the upper deck and
fired over the bulwarks, a modified pavisado of cloths or wood being
hung round to conceal both guns and gunners. Next it was but an easy
transition to make a hole through the bulwarks and insert the cannon.
Hence we have the origin of the word “gunwale” for the top “wale” or
plank. Subsequently this introduction of cannon necessitated a much
higher freeboard, and in course of time tier above tier of guns, as
in former times there had been tier above tier of rowers, came into
being. Owing to the weight of the guns so far aloft an increase of
beam became essential, but afterwards the exact opposite occurred.
Lest the beams should be strained, considerable tumble-home or
fall-inboard was made, so that the width of the upper deck became
only about half of the greatest beam.[59] We shall see, too, how
in later years this “tumble-home” was greatly exaggerated. As to
the effect of the new armament on a ship’s rig, we shall be able to
discuss this when we come to the bomb-ketch in Fig. 62.
We have seen how the ships of England have developed into the
crescent-shape by now. That, indeed, continued for some time, until
the fashion came for bigger and more powerful ships under the Tudor
_régime_. Practically with the end of the fifteenth century we bid
farewell to the Viking influence as clearly expressed, although it
were perhaps more correct to say that that design was not so much
discarded in later years as absorbed: enlarged upon and modified
rather than altogether supplanted. The first important addition to
the Viking design was that of the fighting castles. From thence it
was not a great step to add decks, guns instead of bows and arrows,
two masts instead of one, and an increase of beam and subsequently of
depth.