The transfer of maritime technology from southern Europe to England c. 1100–c. 1600

Summary

ABSTRACT. In the 12^th century, carvel construction dominated the Mediterranean, whereas in the Nordic seas, clinker construction was used according to Viking tradition. At the start of the 14^th century, the northern cog appeared in the Mediterranean, but technical improvements in naval construction and navigation modes from the South were slow to gain acceptance in England. It was only in the 16^th century that these discrepancies between Mediterranean and Nordic Seas disappeared.

RÉSUMÉ. Au XII^e siècle, le type de construction à franc-bord domine en Méditerranée, tandis que dans les mers nordiques, fidèles à la tradition viking, la construction à clin l'emporte. Au début du XIV^e siècle apparaît la coque nordique en Méditerranée, mais les progrès techniques dans la construction navale et les modes de navigation, venus du sud, sont très lents en Angleterre. Ce n'est qu'au XVI^e siècle que les divergences entre Méditerranée et mers nordiques disparaissent.

In the period immediately before the 12^th century an observant traveller voyaging in both southern waters (the Mediterranean and the Black Sea) and northern waters (the eastern fringes of the Atlantic, the Channel, the North Sea and the Baltic) would have noticed that in both areas there were broadly speaking two types of vessels. In the south there were ships long in proportion to their beam, with a low freeboard and propelled principally by a large number of oars, generally known as ‘galleys’ or ‘long ships’, and other ships with a greater beam and deeper hulls, which relied more on sails than oars, often described as‘round ships’. In more northerly waters the same division between ‘long ships’ and ‘round ships’ seemed to exist but, if the traveller had looked more closely at vessels in both regions, he would have very soon been aware that ships in these two areas in fact differed markedly in design and construction (Figure 1).

SHIP TYPES IN SOUTHERN WATERS

In southern waters, shipbuilders drew on a long-established tradition which reached back to the days of the Greek and Romans.