Ancient and Modern Ships Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27.--One of William the Conqueror's ships. 1066 A.D.]

It must not be supposed that the art of building ships of larger size, which was, as we have seen, well understood by the Romans, about the commencement of our era, was forgotten. On the contrary, though, no doubt, the majority of ships of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were of small dimensions, yet we occasionally meet with notices of vessels of comparatively large size. Such an one, for instance, was _La Blanche Nef_, built in the reign of Henry I., and lost on the coast of Normandy in the year 1120 A.D. This ship was built for Prince William, the son of the King, and he was lost in her, together with 300 pa.s.sengers and crew.

This number proves that the vessel was of considerable size. _La Blanche Nef_ was a fifty-oared galley. Long before her time, at the end of the tenth century, when Ethelred the Unready was King of England, the Viking Olaf Tryggvesson built, according to the Norwegian chroniclers, a vessel 117 ft. in length.

It may here be mentioned that galleys continued to be used, along with sailing ships, in the various European navies till the seventeenth century.

Another instance of the loss of a large twelfth-century ship occurred in the reign of Henry II., half a century later than the wreck of _La Blanche Nef_, when a vessel engaged in transport work foundered with 400 persons.

In the reign of Richard Coeur de Lion a great impetus was given to shipbuilding and to maritime adventure in this country by the expedition which the king undertook to the Holy Land. A fleet of about 110 vessels, according to Peter Langtoft, sailed from Dartmouth in April, 1190 A.D.

It was reinforced considerably in the Mediterranean; for, according to Matthew Paris, Richard was accompanied on his voyage to Palestine by 13 buccas, 100 "ships of burthen," and 50 triremes, and according to Vinesauf, the fleet consisted of about 230 vessels. The buccas, or busses, or dromons, were ships of the largest size, with triple sails.

There were two sorts of galleys; some were propelled by oars alone, and others by oars and sails: the latter were the larger, and, according to Matthew Paris, sometimes carried 60 men in armour, besides 104 rowers and the sailors. He also states that some of them had triple banks of oars like the ancient galleys; but, according to Vinesauf, the majority had not more than two banks of oars, and carried the traditional flying deck above the rowers for the use of the soldiers; they were low in the water compared to the sailing-ships, and they carried beaks, or rams, which, as narrated subsequently, they used to some purpose.

The larger type of sailing-ships carried a captain and fifteen sailors, forty knights with their horses, an equal number of men-at-arms, fourteen servants, and complete stores for twelve months. There were, moreover, three much larger vessels in the fleet which carried double the complement mentioned above.

As an instance of the very large size to which vessels occasionally attained in those days in the Levant, we may refer to a Saracen vessel which was attacked by Richard's fleet near Beirut in Syria, in 1191. It was described by many of the old chroniclers. This ship had three masts, and is alleged to have had 1,500 men on board at the time of the fight.

The attack was carried out with great difficulty, on account of the towering height of the sides of the Saracen vessel, and it was not till ramming tactics were tried by the galleys charging in line abreast, that her hull was stove in, in several places, and she went down with nearly all hands, only thirty-five, or, according to other accounts forty-six, having been saved.

These large ships appear to have been used by other Mediterranean Powers towards the end of the twelfth century. For instance, a great Venetian ship visited Constantinople in 1172 A.D., of which it was stated that "no vessel of so great a bulk had ever been within that port." This vessel is mentioned by Cinnamis, Marino, and Filiasi, and others, but her dimensions are not given. It is, however, known that she had three masts. Cinnamis, who was at Constantinople at this very time, states that she received from 1,500 to 2,000 Venetian refugees on board, and conveyed them to the Adriatic. The Venetians are said to have employed another very large ship at the siege of Ancona in 1157 A.D. On account of its size it was named _Il Mondo_.

The Republic of Venice was, during the time of which we are writing, and for a long subsequent period, the foremost maritime power of the world.

It is highly probable that many of the improvements which found their way into mediaeval ships owed their origin to its great naval a.r.s.enal, which was famed for its resources and for the technical skill of its employes. At one time this a.r.s.enal employed 16,000 workmen, and during the great struggle of the Republic with the Turks at the end of the sixteenth century it turned out a completed and fully equipped galley every day for a hundred days in succession. During the Crusades, Venice and the rival Republic of Genoa secured between them the great bulk of the business involved in transporting troops and stores to the East, and they frequently hired out their war and merchant ships to other Powers.

Shortly after the Crusade of Richard Coeur de Lion the trade and shipping of England appear to have undergone great expansion. In the reign of Henry III. (1216 to 1272) the historian, Matthew of Westminster, writes of them in a strain which might almost apply to our own day:--

"Oh England, whose antient glory is renowned among all nations, like the pride of the Chaldeans; the ships of Tarsis could not compare with thy ships; they bring from all the quarters of the world aromatic spices and all the most precious things of the universe: the sea is thy wall, and thy ports are as the gates of a strong and well-furnished castle."

In another place the same historian writes of the English trade as follows:--

"The Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians supply England with the Eastern gems, as saphires, emeralds, and carbuncles; from Asia was brought the rich silks and purples; from Africa the cinnamon and balm; from Spain the kingdom was enriched with gold; with silver from Germany; from Flanders came the rich materials for the garments of the people; while plentiful streams of wine flowed from their own province of Gascoigny; joined with everything that was rich and pretious from every land, wide stretching from the Hyades to the Arcturian Star."

No doubt this expansion was due, in part, to the very large partic.i.p.ation which the English fleet took in the Crusade. Great numbers of English mariners were thus enabled to penetrate into seas that were new to them, and had opportunities of studying the commercial needs of the countries which bordered on those seas. Another cause which powerfully contributed to the development of navigation, and consequently of shipbuilding, was the introduction of the mariner's compa.s.s into Western Europe during the first half of the thirteenth century.

The English war navy, also at the commencement of the reign of Henry II., appears to have been in a very efficient condition. Matthew Paris gives a description of a great naval fight off the South Foreland, in the year 1217, between a Cinque Ports Fleet under the famous Hubert de Burgh, who was at the time Governor of Dover Castle, and a large French fleet under a monk of the name of Eustace, who was one of the most skilful naval commanders of his day. The English fleet consisted of forty vessels, of which only sixteen were large and manned with trained sailors. The French fleet, which was endeavouring to carry a strong invading army to England, was made up of eighty large vessels, besides numerous galleys and smaller craft. The account of the battle is most interesting, because it throws a flood of light upon the naval tactics and the weapons of offence of the day. The English commander manoeuvred for the wind, and having got it, he bore down on the French fleet, and attacked their rear ships with flights of arrows carrying phials of unslaked lime, which being scattered and carried by the wind, blinded the Frenchmen; boarding was then attempted with perfect success, the rigging and halyards of the French ships were cut away, causing the sails to fall upon their crews. A hand-to-hand combat then took place, which resulted in fearful slaughter of the would-be invaders: several of the French ships were rammed and sunk by the English galleys, and in the end the whole of the hostile fleet, with the exception of fifteen vessels, was taken or sunk. This was one of the most momentous naval battles in English history, and is memorable as having furnished the first recorded instance of a battle having been preceded by manoevres to obtain the weather-gauge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28. Sandwich seal. 1238.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29.--Dover seal. 1284.]

We have, unfortunately, very few ill.u.s.trations of the thirteenth-century ships, and those which we do possess are taken from the corporate seals of some of the Cinque Ports and other southern seaport towns. Fig. 28 is a representation of the seal of Sandwich, and dates from the year 1238.

The circular form of a seal is not very favourable for the representation of a masted ship, but we can at least make out that the vessel in question is of the Scandinavian type used by William I. and his successors. It also appears to have been an open boat, and contains the germs of the castellated structures fore and aft, which, as we shall see afterwards, attained to the most exaggerated dimensions. In the case of the Sandwich ship these castles were not incorporated with the structure of the vessel; they were merely elevated positions for the use of the archers and men-at-arms, and were mounted on columns, and were probably removable. We can also learn from the engraving that the practice of furling sails aloft was practised at that time. Fig. 29 is the seal of Dover, and dates from the reign of Edward I. (1284 A.D.). It does not show much progress over the Sandwich boat of nearly fifty years earlier, but we may notice that the castles are more developed and of a more permanent character. This vessel also possesses a bowsprit.

It was about the middle of this century that cabins appear to have been introduced into English ships. The first mention of them occurs in 1242, when orders were given that "decent chambers" were to be constructed in a ship in which the king and queen were to voyage to Gascony.

There are records in existence of the dimensions of some vessels which were built for Louis IX. of France in the year 1268 A.D. at Venice and Genoa. They are published in Jal's "Archeologie Navale." The Venetian ship which was named the _Roccafortis_ appears to have been the largest.

Her dimensions are given as follows: length of keel, 70 ft.; length over all, 110 ft.; width at prow and p.o.o.p, 40 ft. This latter dimension is hardly credible. The _Roccafortis_ had two covered decks, and a castle or "bellatorium" at each end, and also several cabins. The crew numbered 110.

The Genoese ships were smaller. Two of them were of identical dimensions, viz. length of keel, 49-1/2 ft.; length over all, 75 ft.; beam, 10 ft. The figure given for the beam appears to be too small in this case, if the dimensions of the mast, 70-1/2 ft., are correct, for such a long mast could hardly have been carried in so narrow a boat.

These vessels had two decks, and are said to have had stabling for fifty horses each; but this latter statement cannot be true if the dimensions are accurately given.

We have very little information about the ships of the end of the thirteenth and commencement of the fourteenth centuries. There is a list in existence of Cinque Ports ships which were fitted out in 1299 to take part in the war against Scotland. They were thirty in number. More than half of them had complements of two constables and thirty-nine mariners, and the smallest had one constable and nineteen mariners.

There is also a statement of the tonnage and complements of ships intended for an expedition to Guienne in the year 1324, which throws some light on the size of the vessels employed in the Scottish expedition. From it we learn that a ship of 240 tons had 60 mariners and officers; one of 200 tons, 50; vessels between 160 and 180 tons, 40; of 140 tons, 35; of 120 tons, 28; of 100 tons, 26; of 80 tons, 24; and of 60 tons, 21. From the above we may infer that the largest vessels in the Cinque Ports' squadron of 1,299 were from 160 to 180 tons. The measure of a ton in those early days was probably the cubic s.p.a.ce occupied by a tun of wine of 252 gallons in the hold of a ship.

We possess one representation of an English ship of the date of this expedition to Guienne. It was engraved on the seal of the Port of Poole in the year 1325 (Fig. 30). It is remarkable as the earliest known instance of an English ship fitted with a rudder at the stern instead of the side-rudder, or paddle, which had been in use from the very earliest times. We also notice in this ship a further development of the stern and forecastles, which, however, were not as yet fully incorporated with the structure of the hull.

The reign of Edward III., which commenced in 1327, was, in consequence of the wars with Scotland and France, one of great naval activity. After some years of desultory naval warfare in the Channel, a famous sea fight took place at Sluys, in Dutch Flanders, about ten miles north-east of Blankenberghe, in the year 1340. The English fleet consisted of about 200 ships under the personal command of Edward III. The allied French and Genoese fleet numbered, according to the English king, 190, and was composed of ships, galleys, and barges, while some of the chroniclers have put its numbers at as many as 400 sail, but this would probably include many small craft. The battle resulted in the capture, or destruction, of nearly the whole French fleet. The English are said to have lost 4,000 men killed, and the French 25,000. In one vessel, named the _Jeanne de Dieppe_, captured by the Earl of Huntingdon, no fewer than 400 dead bodies were found. The latter figure shows that some very large vessels were used at this battle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 30.--Poole seal. 1325.]

Edward III. caused a gold n.o.ble to be struck in 1344 bearing the representation of a ship almost precisely similar to the vessel on the seal of Poole, of about twenty years earlier (Fig. 30). It is fitted with a rudder at the stern, and we may therefore conclude that at this period the side-rudder, or clavus, had disappeared from all important vessels. The fore and stern castles were, in most cases, temporary additions to merchant ships, to adapt them for purposes of warfare. In fact, nearly all the sailing-ships used in naval warfare down to, and even after the fourteenth century, appear to have been employed as merchant vessels in time of peace; and this remark applies even to the king's ships. It was, no doubt, the introduction of artillery that first caused the sailing warship to be differentiated from the merchantman.

Although gunpowder for military purposes is said to have been used on land as early as 1326, and although iron and bra.s.s cannon are mentioned amongst the stores of three of the king's ships in 1338, nevertheless, the battle of Sluys and the subsequent naval engagements in the reign of Edward III. appear to have been fought without artillery. It was not till the last quarter of the fourteenth century that guns became at all common on board ship.

In the year 1345 Edward III. invaded France, and was accompanied by a fleet of from 1,000 to 1,100 ships, besides small craft. Two hundred of these vessels were employed after the king's landing in ravaging the northern coasts of France and destroying the hostile shipping.

In the year 1347 Edward organised another great naval expedition against France, this time in order to give him the command of the sea during his siege of Calais. The fleet was drawn from all the ports of the kingdom, and small contingents came from Ireland, Flanders, Spain, and the king's own possession of Bayonne. There are two lists in existence of the numbers of ships and men contributed by each port to this expedition.

They agree very closely. According to one of them, the united fleet consisted of 745 ships, and 15,895 mariners, or an average of about twenty mariners to each ship. This figure, of course, does not include the fighting men. About fifty of these vessels were fighting ships fitted with castles, and the remainder were barges, ballingers (which appear to have been a kind of large barge), and transports. The largest contingents, by far, came from Yarmouth, which contributed 43 ships and 1,950 men; Fowey sent 47 ships and 770 men; and Dartmouth supplied 32 ships and 756 men; while London, independently of the king's own vessels, sent only 25 ships manned with 662 men.

In 1350 Edward III. and the Black Prince fought a famous naval battle off Winchelsea against a fleet of forty Spanish ships. The battle is generally known by the name of L'Espagnols-sur-Mer. Edward was victorious, though he lost his own ship, through its springing a leak when colliding with one of the Spanish vessels. The tactics of the English consisted chiefly of boarding, while the Spaniards, whose vessels were much the higher, attacked with cross-bows and heavy stones; the latter they hurled from their fighting-tops into their adversaries'

ships.

From the foregoing, we can infer that the naval resources of England in the first half of the reign of Edward III. were very great. During the latter half of his reign he neglected his navy, and the French and Spaniards, in spite of all their previous losses, rapidly gained the upper hand at sea, and ravaged the English coasts. In 1372 the Spanish fleet a.s.sisting the French inflicted a severe defeat upon an inferior English squadron which had been sent to the relief of La Roch.e.l.le. This battle is memorable because it was, probably, the first sea-fight in which artillery was employed, the Spanish ships having been partly armed with the new weapon. The Venetians are usually credited with having been the first people to employ naval guns; but we do not find them using artillery against the Genoese till the year 1377.

The introduction of cannon as the armament of ships of war was the cause of several modifications in the construction of their hulls. Most of the early vessels fitted with cannon were of the galley type, the guns being mounted on the upper deck, and fired over the bulwarks, _en barbette_.

Afterwards portholes were cut through the bulwarks. Fig. 31 represents a Venetian galley of the fourteenth century, as given by Charnock, with a single gun mounted in the bow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 31.--Venetian galley. Fourteenth century.]

The new form of armament of ships involved a considerable raising of the height of side, and in order to counteract the effect of the high topside, carrying the weight of guns aloft, the beam of the vessel relatively to its length had to be much increased. The Venetians were, however, afraid to make the transverse section wide throughout, lest the weight of the guns near the sides of the vessel should cause the connection of the sides with the beams to strain; hence they gave the sides considerable "tumble home," or fall inboard, as represented by Fig. 32, which shows the cross-section of a Venetian galleon. It will be noticed that the width of the upper deck is only about half that of the greatest beam. This practice was afterwards carried to an absurd extent by the Venetians and their imitators, even in cases where guns were not carried aloft, as may be seen from the sketch of a galleon given in Fig.

33. Hence it is evident that the introduction of ordnance on board ship accounted for a complete revolution in the proportions of hulls. .h.i.therto in vogue. The rig of ships also underwent a considerable development about this period. The old single mast of the galley was supplemented by two and in some cases by three others. The sails were still square sails carried on spars, and the practice of reefing the sails to the spars aloft, instead of lowering spars and sails together on deck, had now become common.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 32.--Cross-section of a Venetian galleon.]

Two years after the action off La Roch.e.l.le we find the French commencing the construction of a Royal Navy at Rouen. This step was taken in consequence of the strong opinion held by Jean de Vienne, who was appointed Admiral of France in 1373, that vessels built specially for the purposes of war would have a great advantage over the hired merchantmen which had to be adapted for fighting each time they were impressed.

It is highly probable that the latter half of the fourteenth century witnessed many improvements in ships built in the Mediterranean. This was no doubt due, in part, to the intense commercial rivalry that existed at that time between Venice and the other Italian Republics.

Fig. 34 is taken from a MS. Virgil in the Riccardi Library, reproduced in M. Jal's[14] work. It represents an Italian two-masted sailing-ship of this period. This is one of the earliest ill.u.s.trations of a ship with a permanent forecastle forming part of the structure of the vessel. The stern castle also appears to have a permanent, though not a structural character. Ships of somewhat similar type were used in England in the reign of Richard II. at the end of the fourteenth century. Fig. 35 represents one of them, the original being in an ill.u.s.trated ma.n.u.script in the Harleian Library. It was written by a Frenchman of the name of Francis de la Marque in Richard's reign. There are ill.u.s.trations in ma.n.u.scripts still in existence written about this period, which confirm the fact that this type of ship was then prevalent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 33.--Venetian galleon. 1564.]

The reign of Henry V. (1413 to 1422) was one of great naval development.

The king himself took a most ardent interest in the Royal Navy, and frequently inspected the ships during their construction. Under his auspices some very large vessels were built for the fleet. Lists of this king's ships are still in existence. They are cla.s.sified under the names Great Ships, Cogs, Carracks, Ships, Barges, and Ballingers. The largest of the great ships was the _Jesus_, of 1,000 tons; the _Holigost_, of 760; the _Trinity Royal_, of 540; and the _Christopher Spayne_, of 600; the last-mentioned was a prize captured by the Earl of Huntingdon. The majority of the ships were, however, from 420 to 120 tons. The carracks were apparently not English-built ships, as all those in the king's navy were prizes captured in 1416 and 1417. The three largest were of 600, 550, and 500 tons respectively. The barges are given as of 100 tons, and the ballingers ranged from 120 to 80 tons. The total strength of the Royal Navy about the year 1420, as given in the list compiled by W. M. Oppenheim from the accounts of the keepers of the king's ships, is 38; of these 17 were ships, 7 carracks, 2 barges, and 12 ballingers. It is worthy of notice that there were no galleys included in the list.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 34.--Italian sailing ship. 15th century.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 35.--English ship. Time of Richard II.]

Henry invaded France in 1415 with a fleet of 1,400 vessels, which had been raised by impressing every British ship of 20 tons and upwards. The home supply not being sufficient for his purpose, Henry sent commissioners to Holland and Zealand to hire additional vessels. In all 1,500 ships were collected and 1,400 utilised. These figures give us a fair idea of the resources of this country in shipping at that time.

This was the invasion which resulted in the victory of Agincourt and the capture of Harfleur. In the year following (1416) France was again invaded and the fleet was stated by some to have numbered 300, and by others 400 ships. A naval battle was fought off Harfleur. It resulted in a complete victory for Henry. The old tactics and the old weapons seem to have been used. Although, as we have seen, guns had been used in sea-fights nearly forty years previously, there is no mention of their having been employed on either side at this battle.