Archive Results For: High Middle Ages
Book Review-‘Schifffahrt, Hanse und Europa im Mittelalterby’ R. Paulsen
he Roman historian Tacitus wrote in the preface to his Annales that historians should write sine ira et studio (without anger or zeal). This maxim should be taken seriously even in the twenty-first century. This is what we teach our students in the first term at university. The author of the book under review obviously […] Read More
Filed under: Late Middle Ages | High Middle Ages
Subjects include: Strategy & Diplomacy
Book Review-‘Maritime Wales in the Middle Ages: 1039–1542’ by K. Lloyd Gruffydd, ed. M. D. Matthews
The circumstances surrounding the publication of this book are remarkably poignant. The life’s work of Ken Lloyd Gruffydd was centred on the maritime history of medieval Wales; he contributed many articles on the subject to Cymru a’r Môr / Maritime Wales, a journal which deserves to be much better known outside the principality, and these […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Late Middle Ages | High Middle Ages
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design
Figureheads and Symbolism Between the Medieval and the Modern: The ship Griffin or Gribshunden, one of the last Sea Serpents?
The Griffin or, as it was sometimes called, Gribshunden (griffin hound) was a ship that belonged to the Danish–Norwegian King Hans. The ship sank in 1495 and was one of the largest and most modern warships of its day. In 2015 a peculiar figurehead carving was raised from the wreck. It is shaped like a beast swallowing a man […] Read More
Filed under: Baltic | High Middle Ages | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Ship Models & Figureheads | Shipbuilding & Design
The Law and Language of Private Naval Warfare
Piracy and privateering figure very extensively in history, and in current affairs, but much of the discussion is undermined by the common failure to define the terms and understand the legal distinctions between them. Moreover it is essential to consider with care the translation of languages and legal systems. The paper attempts to clarify the […] Read More
Filed under: High Middle Ages | Other (Early Modern) | Pirates | Other (Eighteenth C) | Other (location)
Subjects include: Administration | Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers
Tactics of Sixteenth Century Galley Artillery
The use of artillery in Mediterranean galley warfare was often perceived as being restricted to the firing of single salvos at very short range before ramming and boarding the enemy ship enabled the main fight in close combat. The article contests the reasons contemporary literature gives for this tactic and argues that it was both […] Read More
Filed under: High Middle Ages | Other (Early Modern) | Mediterranean
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies | Weapons
The Jade Dragon Wreck: Sabah, East Malaysia
A shipwreck was recently discovered by fishermen divers just off the northernmost tip of Borneo. While it was heavily looted in the space of a couple of months, an official excavation has resulted in some important discoveries. The ship, dated to about 1300 AD, was of the South East Asian lashed-lug tradition and the ceramics […] Read More
Filed under: High Middle Ages | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Merchant Marines
The Whipstaff
John Harland described the way in which our understanding of the working of the whipstaff has changed over the period of the publication of the Mirror, and outlined the ways in which the whipstaff was used in vessels of steadily increasing size until the value of the lever was outweighed by the method becoming impractical. […] Read More
Filed under: High Middle Ages | Other (location)
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design
‘Ignorant of Nautical Matters?” The Mariner’s Mirror and the Iconography of Medieval and Sixteenth Century Ships
This article focuses on the period Ad400-1600 to indicate how ship representations from this period have always been important sources for research, alongside documentary and archeological evidence. The Mariner’s Mirror has reproduced a number over the years, and they remain an important source for research. Ship graffiti is also mentioned as a research tool, highlighted […] Read More
Filed under: High Middle Ages | Other (location)
Subjects include: Art & Music | Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration
Digs and Documents: Gaps in our Knowledge of Medieval Shipping
The article traces the contributions in The Mariner’s Mirror to our understanding of medieval ship building, using visual and documentary evidence. The Grace Dieu is cited as an example of how the study of such ships has developed since 1911. The Newport Ship was an example of a contrasting method, where the ship was dismantled, scanned […] Read More
Filed under: High Middle Ages | Other (location)
Subjects include: Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration
Between Venice and the Levant: Re-evaluating Maritime Routes from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century
John H Pryor in Geography, Technology and War in 1988 claimed that technological constraints and weather patterns led medieval seaman to choose narrow coastal routes following the Northern Shore in the Eastern Mediterranean between Venice and the Levant. Braudel takes a similar view of 16th and 17th century routes albeit for different reasons. These conclusions […] Read More
Filed under: Late Middle Ages | High Middle Ages | Other (Early Modern) | Mediterranean
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Ship Handling & Seamanship