The evolution of English Shipping Capacity and Shipboard Communities from the early 15th Century to Drake's circumnavigation (1577)

The last quarter of the sixteenth century witnessed much: Drake's circumnavigation (1577-8) and the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588). No wonder this time is seen as pivotal in England's growth as a maritime power. In the popular imagination it is also the time when the Royal Navy emerged as a potent force that helped created Britain's trade empire, a perception embedded into the historical discipline. For example, in October 1880 Professor J. Laughton, historian, wrote that 'it is on the navy that the wealth, safety and strength of kingdom chiefly depend.' With hindsight it is easy to see why nineteenth century historians felt supremely confident of the Royal Navy's role in Britain's growth as a world trading power. At the time Laughton wrote the Royal Navy was still basking in the glory days of Nelson and British warships had subjugated China and India. Interestingly, and notably, Laughton made no reference to the English merchant fleet. Writing at a time when the Royal Navy as an institution was over three hundred years old, and for the most part naval and commercial shipping had become separated, it is easy to see why he overlooked the role the merchant fleet played in the rise of England as a global power. Yet, is worth considering that in 1588 most of the English ships involved in the defeat of the Spanish Armada were privately owned merchant ships manned by seamen eager for booty and fame.

The lack of research on the evolution of England's merchant fleet, and the men who manned it, is staggering because while merchant ships and seamen are afforded little space in the literature their working lives cannot be separated wholly from naval activity. English monarchs relied on merchant seamen and shipping to achieve their martial and political aims. English armies that won famous victories during the Hundred Years War were largely carried to France in English merchant ships. Even when the Royal Navy existed under the Tudors merchant ships still played an enormous role in naval operations.

Today because of the global recession we are more acutely aware of the vital role played by merchant shipping in wealth creation by exporting manufactured goods to overseas markets and, conversely, for the importation of products the West is reliant on. The period covered by this project charts this development. At the start of the time-frame under investigation here (1400) English shippers tended to favour short and less commercially risky coastal voyages. At the end of this project's time-frame Drake had begun his circumnavigation and Walter Raleigh was close to planting England's first colonial settlers on Roanoke Island. How was so much achieved?

By combining naval records, which provide quantitative data on ships, with customs accounts and port books recording maritime trade, and correlating and connecting this with evidence from ship archaeology this project will add significantly to the continuing debate on what factors enabled England's rise as a global maritime power. It will also cover a long time period, thereby revealing the trajectory of maritime developments. It is the contention of this project that only by investigating the evolution of English maritime capacity, and understanding the lives of the men who worked within it, over the period of England's transition from a medieval polity to an early modern state can her rise as a global maritime power (both naval and commercial) be fully appreciated. In seeking to understand the evolution of the English merchant fleet over this time the project has two central aims:

1. To transform our understanding of the evolution of English maritime capacity through a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative assessment of the English merchant fleet over a period of crucial change in seaborne activity and ambition, c.1400-c.1577.
2. To undertake a prosopographical investigation of ship-board communities over this same period, which also witnessed social change.

This project will be run in collaboration with and attached to the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI), an internationally recognized centre of excellence, enabling the proposers to engage with a large community of senior academics across the University and external research bodies. It will also collaborate (in the form of exhibitions and presentations) with Sea City Museum at Southampton and the Mary Rose Trust. In 2015 the research team will also be involved in a public conference at Southampton entitled: 'War on Land and at Sea: Agincourt and Renaissance Warfare in Context'. As part of the 2015 Agincourt conference the project team will organize a session of talks and plenaries on ships and mariners using the findings of this project. As one of the main outputs is a publicly accessible searchable database it is hoped that the wider impact of the project will be considerable. Four groups will benefit from the research and its outputs.

(i) Collaboration with museums and speaking at public conferences will be the principal means of communicating the project to a wider audience. In 2015 the findings of the project will feature as part of exhibition at Sea City Museum in Southampton, ensuring the project has an immediate impact with the public. Through Jon Adams (former Deputy Director of the Mary Rose Trust), we will disseminate our findings at a public speaking event organised through the Mary Rose Trust. As Seafarers serving on the Mary Rose acquired their skills in the merchant fleet, the information contained in the publications and database will add significantly more detail to the career biographies that are representative of the type of mariners that worked aboard ships like the Mary Rose. Similarly, institutions such as the National Maritime Museum will also find the projects resources valuable. In the 2015 a public conference will be held in Southampton entitled: 'War on Land and at Sea: Agincourt and Renaissance Warfare in Context'. The project team will organise a session of talks and plenaries on ships and mariners using the findings of this project.

(ii) Genealogists. The published database will allow searches to be made at person and settlement level. This will benefit bodies such as the Society of Genealogists and with publicity through their magazine (The Genealogists Magazine) will ensure wider use of the database. Other organisations that may wish to exploit the on-line data come under the broad definition of companies that permit members of the public to undertake investigations into 'ancestry,' the most notable being ancestry.co.uk. The proposer's existing datasets have already attracted the attention of History Research, an organisation with a specific interest in Kentish communities.
(www.historyresearch.co.uk). Broadly, it is hoped the database will have an economic impact, enabling genealogists to provide a better service for their clients.

(iii) Public bodies. The National Archive at Kew, could house a link to the database on its website, enabling researchers and members of the public to access this resource effectively. It is worth noting that there is also a heritage dimension to the project. Placing all the data into secure on-line resource ensures that the information contained in these records is preserved for future generations.

(iv) Local historical societies. Coastal communities that have a particular historical relationship to the sea can exploit the information contained within the database to highlight the changing fortunes of their town's ancestors and the growth (or decline) and evolution of their town's nautical past, findings that can feed into local tourism information and museums. Notably, the public body of Rye (Sussex) Council actively promotes its history as a means of attracting visitors and increasing economic vitality (http://www.ryetowncouncil.gov.uk/informationryehistory.aspx). The research can be disseminated to such bodies via press offices.