A Battle Ship of the Renaissance

Abstract

The article discusses an image of a ship carved in a bench-end in the church of Bishop’s Lydeard in Somerset. The author advances his arguments for considering the ship to be a vessel from the reign of Henry V11. Based on this, the author highlights various features of the picture that show how it embodies some of the improvements in ship design over the course of the 15^th century. The Bishop Lydeard ship is concluded to be a typical ship of the transitional Serpentine period before warships were revolutionized during the reign of Henry VIII with the introduction of portholes and a gun-decks instead of the Bishop Lydeard ship’s castle-like structures fore and aft.

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Filed under: Tudors | Other (location)
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design