Shipping, mariners and port communities in fourteenth-century England
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Hull
Department Name: History
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Andrew Ayton (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Lambert, C.
(2012)
Fourteenth Century England: VII
Ayton A
(2014)
'A maritime community in war and peace: Kentish ports, ships and mariners, 1320-1400'
in Archaeologia Cantiana
Ayton A
The Fighting Essex Soldier
| Description | During the term of this project, data was collected from English archival sources on over 10,000 'voyages' undertaken from or to English ports during the period 1320-1400, a 'voyage' being defined as the appearance of a ship in a source that either documents a period of naval service or trading activity, or records the existence of the vessel at a specific moment in time. The majority of these voyages concern English vessels. Adding these newly collected data to what had already been assembled brings the overall total of documented 'voyages' to 16,000, undertaken by nearly 6,600 ships and about 5,600 shipmasters. These should be regarded as interim findings, subject to change as new evidence is uncovered and as the core dataset is correlated with other sources to flesh out the working lives and circumstances of ships and masters. Our findings concerning the geographical distribution and overall size of the merchant fleet are also necessarily provisional. That as many as 200 English coastal and estuarine communities provided vessels and crews for the king's fleets at least once during this period has permitted us to examine regional shipping patterns and to compare and contextualise ports of all sizes. For those ports that were regularly called upon to contribute ships and men, the naval records provide an unrivalled guide to maritime resources. Estimates of the size of the merchant fleet depend upon interpretation of 'snap shots' of surviving data from periods of intense and well-documented naval activity. Thus, during the years 1338 to 1342 we find evidence of 866 ships (from 97 ports) in the naval records, which grows to 1,009 when vessels visible only in the commercial sphere are added. Assessment of evidence 'internal' to this sample, combined with an allowance for vessels involved in coastal trade and fishing, suggests that the pre-Black Death merchant fleet consisted of about 3,000 to 4,000 ships. Concentrations of data from 1359 and the 1370s indicate that the population collapse caused by recurrent plague outbreaks was not accompanied by significant shrinkage in shipping capacity or maritime manpower. About a quarter of our 5,600 identified shipmasters can be associated with two or more documented voyages. By matching these career data with other sources, including taxpayer lists, we have begun to explore the socio-economic world of the shipmaster. So much had been anticipated. Altogether more surprising is the potential revealed for prosopographical investigation of the ordinary mariner. We have discovered dozens of crew lists in the naval records, including about forty from the 1370s and '80s: lists of mariners that can be compared with the poll tax returns of 1377-81 and other records of local provenance. Regarding crew sizes and mariner demography: our initial working hypothesis, that ships used as army transports had commercial-level crews, has been confirmed. This has important implications for our understanding of the size and composition of England's maritime workforce, as does what we now know of the supplemented, armed crews on ships assigned a fighting role. Comparison of crew and muster lists has revealed considerable flexibility, with men serving interchangeably as mariners or shipboard fighting men. |
| Exploitation Route | 1. Exploitation of the data assembled during the term of the project: a database ('Shipping, mariners and ports in fourteenth-century England') has been deposited in the UK Data Service: http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=850665&type=Data%20catalogue The database provides details of over 10,000 'voyages' undertaken by English ships and crews during the period 1320-1400. Where possible, the following categories of information for each voyage have been collected and entered into the database: ship's home port; ship name; ship type and tonnage; ship master's name; crew size: numbers of each category of personnel and overall total; date(s) of the voyage; source reference. Additional fields, intended as refinements and aids to analysis, have been created (i) to identify and locate the ships' home ports; (ii) to standardise ship names and masters' surnames (the latter to make the reconstruction of their careers easier); and (iii) to classify the voyages according to the broad categories of sources material used and the nature of the voyage itself. There are 28 fields in the database. The contribution to research (by amateur local and regional historians, as well as university-based professionals) that this database can make is not yet measurable, but its potential will be immediately evident. 2. Consultation of the project team's publications will provide access not only to the detailed findings of the project, but also the methologies that have been developed, which could have wider application. For example, the project's first published article, 'The mariner in fourteenth-century England (in Fourteenth Century England, VII, ed. W.M. Ormrod) proposes a quantitative and prosopographical approach to the study of the shipboard community, the approach being reliant on combined use of naval and commercial taxation records, and the matching of these 'voyage records' with socio-economic evidence (particularly lists of taxpayers) at local level. The extent and characteristics of aggregated national-level data are discussed, and the potential of these sources and methodologies for the investigation of shipmasters is demonstrated through specific case studies concerning Hull and King's Lynn, and the ports of Dorset and the Colne estuary in Essex. Future publications will examine the sources and methodologies required for the quantitative investigation of the fourteenth-century English merchant fleet, with quantitative findings relating to numbers and tonnage of ships, the size of the mariner workforce, the national distribution of shipping and manpower, and change and continuities over time. |
| Sectors | Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Description | The project findings have been disseminated in publications and public lectures that are accessible to (indeed, aimed at) enthusiastic amateur historians and indeed the general public. Several of the lectures (with subsequent publications) were associated with county record offices or archaeological societies, which are in large part concerned with the education and cultural enrichment of local communities. The project team have also fielded a variety of other inquiries from non-academic researchers, and all these public engagement activities will continue in the future. Similarly, the OA shipping/voyages database deposited at the UK Data Service has been downloaded by, and distributed among, serious amateur historians for regional and/or local research. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Title | Shipping, mariners and port communities in fourteenth-century England |
| Description | A database of voyages undertaken by English shipping and seamen during an eighty-year period (1320-1400), drawing on (i) naval and transportation fleet records (1361-1400) and (ii) commercial taxation records (1320-1400) held by the National Archives, British Library and Devon Record Office. The data were computerised using Microsoft Access. Full documentation concerning the database may be downloaded, together with the data, from the UK Data Service: http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=850665&type=Data%20catalogue Each record in the database relates to a single 'voyage' by a single ship, such a 'voyage' being defined as the appearance of a ship in a source that either (i) documents a period of naval service or trading activity, or (ii) records the existence of the vessel at a specific moment in time (e.g. on a ship list drawn up for administrative purposes). There are 10,289 records in the database. Where possible, the following categories of information for each voyage were collected and entered into the database: ship's home port; ship name; ship type and tonnage; ship master's name; crew size: numbers of each category of personnel and overall total; date(s) of the voyage; source reference. Additional fields, intended as refinements and aids to analysis, have been created (i) to identify and locate the ships' home ports; (ii) to standardise ship names and masters' surnames (the latter to make the reconstruction of their careers easier); and (iii) to classify the voyages according to the broad categories of sources material used and the nature of the voyage itself. There are 28 fields in the database. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The database deposited at the UK Data Service has underpinned all the outputs produced by the project team (publications, conference papers, public lectures), and several further research publications are currently being prepared. The database has also formed the foundation for a new project, based at Southampton and funded by the AHRC, which takes the study of the English merchant fleet from c. 1400 to the late sixteenth century. A PhD student funded by the AHRC is basing her doctoral research on the data acquired by both projects. |
| URL | http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=850665&type=Data%20catalogue |
| Description | 'English merchant shipping, 1300-1600'. Ocean & Earth Science at the National Oceanography Southampton Stakeholders Advisory Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Opportunity to present overview of methodology and findings of the ESRC (and subsequent AHRC) project to influential non-academic audience (industrialists/policy units/government developments), plus academics. Important to stress relevance to historical research/understanding to current predicament and future policy making. Difficult to assess in short term. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | A maritime community in war and peace: Kent ports and mariners, 1320-1395. University of Kent, Canterbury, 21 April 2012 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Informed a conference audience on current research developments and stimulated much discussion. Following lively discussion at the time and subsequent inquiries, the editor of Archaeologia Cantiana requested that an extended version of the paper be submitted for publication so that it would reach a wider audience. This paper was published in January 2014. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | A voyage into the unknown : can we really know the size of the English merchant fleet in the fourteenth century? King's College London, 17 May 2012 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | A lecture on the sources and methodologies required for the quantitative investigation of the English merchant fleet in the fourteenth century, together with preliminary findings of the ESRC-funded project: prompted questions from, and discussion with, the audience. King's Seminars, King's College, London. Contributed to the development of our research, which has been (and will continue to be) published. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDQQFjAC&url=ht... |
| Description | Mariners and armed retinues in naval operations during the Hundred Years War. Tower of London, 29 September 2012 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Informed a conference audience in current research developments and stimulated discussion. Lively discussion and subsequent inquiries from those who had attended the conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.royalarmouries.org/assets-uploaded/documents/100_Years_War_Flier.pdf |
| Description | Shipping the troops and fighting at sea: Essex's maritime communities in England's wars, 1320-1400. Essex Record Office, 8 March 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Informed an audience of (largely amateur) local historians about Essex's maritime contribution to the Hundred Years War: much lively discussion and follow-up inquiries. Principally that we were asked to submit an expanded version of the paper for publication in a collection of essays on the 'Fighting Essex Soldier' (University of Hertfordshire Press). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.history.org.uk/resources/general_news_2030.html |
| Description | The English mariner in the fourteenth century. Winchester Historical Association. 17 November 2011 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Outlining current developments in understanding of the late medieval English merchant fleet to an engaged audience of amateur history enthusiasts. Questions and discussion afterwards. Follow-up inquiries; team encouraged to do more of this kind of thing in the future - which we did. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | The merchant fleet of 14th century England. 6th International Congress of Maritime History, Ghent, July 2012 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Informed a conference audience on current research developments (data and methodologies) in this area of maritime history. Lively discussion after paper and subsequently among delegates. Presentation and discussion contributed significantly to our own research agenda, which fed into publications. Subsequent inquiries from conference delegates. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.imeha2012.ugent.be/schedule |
| Description | The naval role of the Cinque Ports: some fresh thoughts, 1320-1453. Winchelsea Archaeological Society. 14 June 2014 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of up-to-date research findings on the important naval and logistical roles played by the Cinque Ports in the Hundred Years War. Great interest shown by a large audience of local history enthusiasts, clearly surprised and excited by our findings as they relate to their region's history. Prolonged questions and discussion after the talk. Apart from the excellent feedback, the most important consequence of this talk has been that we have decided to write it up for publication. The Cinque Ports is a much discussed topic in academic circles and our findings have run counter to some of the received views. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013,2014 |
| URL | http://www.winchelsea.net/community/was.htm |