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This content downloaded from 131.94.16.10 on Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:10:15 UTC
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This content downloaded from 131.94.16.10 on Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:10:15 UTC
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This content downloaded from 131.94.16.10 on Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:10:15 UTC
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This content downloaded from 131.94.16.10 on Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:10:15 UTC
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Contents
List of illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations viii
Introduction 1
1 The shipmaster and the law 9
2 The shipmaster and the rise and fall of the admirals’ courts 27
3 The shipmaster as owner, partner and employee 48
4 The shipmaster’s on-shore responsibilities 69
5 The shipmaster’s off-shore responsibilities 95
6 The shipmaster at sea: navigation and meteorology 122
7 The shipmaster at sea – seamanship 157
Conclusion 179
Appendices
1 Transcription and translation of the MS Liber Horn copy of the 183
Lex d’Oleron
2 Transcription and translation of the Inquisition of Queenborough 206
3 A partial transcription and translation of Les Bons Usages et 219
Les Bonnes Costumes et Les Bons Jugemenz de la Commune d’Oleron
4 Transcription and translation of a 1323 charter-party 229
5 Transcription and translation of the chapter ‘de regimen 235
transfretantium’ from Gilbertus Anglicus’ Compendium Medicine
Select Bibliography 239
Index 255
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Illustrations and Tables
Figures
1 The first folio of the Lex d’Oleron from MS Liber Horn 21
2 Front and back of a 1323 charter-party 79
3 Ships in a haven 125
4 An early 32-point compass with ‘lunar times’ 131
5 Hypothetical passage across the Bay of Biscay 149
6 The first folio of the rutter from MS Lansdowne 285 153
7 A ship sounding 168
Tables
1 Comparison of wages and portage values 111
2 The moon as an analogue clock 137
vi
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Acknowledgements
This book is the result of my curiosity of how they did things at sea six hundred
years ago. Many useful conversations have been had during the preparation of
this book with scholars, sailors, lawyers and boat builders, to all of whom I am
indebted. I owe particular thanks to Wendy Childs, Richard Gorski, Vanessa
Harding, Gillian Hutchinson, Maryanne Kowaleski, Susan Rose, Albrecht Sauer
and Richard Unger from various universities and maritime museums in Europe
and America.
Most authors thank members of their families for their understanding and
forbearance during the long and painful gestation of their work; I now understand
why. I salute Kit, my long-suffering wife, for her help with proofreading and in
untangling more than usually opaque sections of text, and her constant support.
My children should also be mentioned – apart from everything else, sailing with
them on the west coast of Scotland and in the Mediterranean has always been the
pleasantest of escapes from libraries. And without the generous help and advice of
Caroline Palmer, Rohais Haughton and Vanda Andrews at Boydell and Brewer,
this book would never have reached the printer.
Despite all that assistance and advice, the errors and omissions remain my
responsibility.
vii
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Abbreviations
BIHR Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research.
Brit. Chron. Handbook of British Chronology, ed. E.B. Fryde, D.E.
Greenway and I. Roy (3rd edn, London, 1986).
CCR Calendar of Close Rolls, 1272–1500, 47 vols (London, 1892–
1956).
CLB Calendar of Letter-Books Preserved Among the Archives of
the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall, Books
A–L (1275–t. Henry VII), ed. Reginald R. Sharpe (London,
1899–1912).
CLMC Calendar of Letters from the Mayor and Corporation of the
City of London, c.1350–1370, ed. Reginald Sharpe (London,
1885).
CLRO City of London Record Office.
Coutumier Les Bons Usages et les Bonnes Costumes et les Bons Jugemenz
de la Commune de l’Oleron, MS Douce 227, Bodleian Library,
Oxford, published as Le Coutumier de L’Ile d’Oléron, ed.
Charles Bémont (Paris, 1919) and in Twiss, Black Book, II, pp.
254–401.
CPMR Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls of the City of London
Preserved Among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of
London, 1323–1482, 6 vols, ed. A.H. Thomas (vols 1–4) and
P.E. Jones (vols 5–6) (Cambridge, 1926–61).
CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls, 52 vols (London 1891–1916).
CRR Chester Recognizance Rolls
Customs Customs of the Sea, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS
Espagnol 124; Twiss, Black Book, III, pp. lix and 35–657
DCRS Devon and Cornwall Records Society.
EcHR Economic History Review.
EHR English Historical Review.
EETS; OS, ES Early English Text Society; Ordinary Series, Extra Series.
Foedera Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae … etc., 1066–1383, ed. Thomas
Rymer, 4 vols (London, 1816–69): 1383 AD ff., 10 vols (The
Hague, 1793–1845).
MM Mariner’s Mirror.
NRS Navy Records Society.
OED Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Edition (Oxford, 1971).
viii
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ABBREVIATIONS
Oleron MS Liber Horn, Corporation of the City of London Records
Office, Guildhall, fos 355v–60r.
Ordinances A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government
of the Royal Household, The Society of Antiquaries (1790).
PP Past and Present.
PRO The National Archives – Public Record Office.
PROI Public Record Office of Ireland.
Queenborough The Inquisition of Queenborough, published in Twiss, Black
Book, I, pp. 132–73
Rot. Parl. Rotuli Parliamentorum ut et Petiones et Placita in Parliamento,
Edward I–Henry VII, ed. J. Strachey, 6 vols and index
(London, 1783–1832).
RS The Rutter of the Sea
SRS Southampton Record Society.
Statutes The Statutes at Large from Magna Charta to the End of the
Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, Anno 1761, ed. Danby
Pickering, 28 vols (Cambridge, 1762–9).
Twiss, Black Book Monumenta Juridica, Black Book of the Admiralty, ed. Sir
Travers Twiss, 4 vols, Rolls Series 55 (London, 1871–76).
Year Book Year Books of Edward II, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV,
Henry v. and Henry VI; variously Selden Society, Chronicles
and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the
Middle Ages, and The Ames Foundation.
York Sessions The Year Books of Yorkshire Sessions of the Peace, 1361–4,
ed. B.H. Putnam, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record
Series C (Wakefield, 1939).
The abbreviations listed above are used throughout the text. Other citations in
the text are printed in full in the footnotes at first occurrence and in an abbrevi-
ated form in subsequent reference. All cited works and those for suggested further
reading are given in full in the Bibliography.
Except in the Introduction and in the transcriptions and translations of manu-
scripts included in the Appendices, footnotes are collated by paragraph and indi-
cated by a single reference number at the end of that paragraph.
ix
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