SHIPS AND SHIPPING
. In the Middle Ages, boats allowed the movement of relatively large amounts of goods
and troops less expensively than did land transport, which
Ships being loaded for transport, from
a 14th-century manuscript. BN fr.
4274, fol. 6. Courtesy of the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
was unwieldy and costly. Although the crown lacked access to them in the early Capetian
period, France had vast coastlines with many ports. Royal fleets, notably under the
Carolingians and later Capetians, played an important role in military engagements, such
as the hostilities before Bouvines or in the crusades of St. Louis.
For North Sea and Atlantic travel, medieval sailors used the cog, a clinker-built ship
with single mast and square sail. In the Mediterranean, galleys and carvel-built round
ships (nefs) having two masts with lateen sails were common, though there was some
technology transfer between north and south in the high and late Middle Ages. The cog
with a lateen sail came to be used in both areas. Shipping via the Atlantic between the
Mediterranean and North Sea ports was recorded in the late 13th century. Ship
technology underwent considerable evolution in the 15th century, with the addition of
masts on a vessel called a carrack, which carried upward of 1,500 tons. River transport
involved smaller river barges, which plied the Seine, Loire, Somme, Rhône, Garonne,
Oise, Saône, and lesser arteries. While more convenient than overland transport, rivers,
like roads, were plagued by toll stations.
Kathryn L.Reyerson
[See also: MEDITERRANEAN TRADE; NAVAL POWER]
Mollat, Michel. Études d’histoire maritime. Turin: Bottega d’Erasme, 1977.
Pryor, John. Commerce, Shipping and Naval Warfare in the Medieval Mediterranean. London:
Variorum Reprints, 1987.
Waghenaer, Lucas. The Mariners Mirrour. London: Charlewood, 1588. Repr. Amsterdam.
The Encyclopedia 1663