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Ships of the 13th Century

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Ken
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Post by Ken » Sun May 31st, 2009, 7:23 am

Hi Annis,

That's the best picture of a cog I have seen so far! Where did you get it?

I can see that it holds quite a number of people, but where did they put the horses??

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Sun May 31st, 2009, 8:33 pm

As someone who enjoys a fair amount of solitude, spending a month or two on that cog would not be my idea of a good time! And it's no wonder sailors thought women aboard ship were bad luck - imagine how difficult and awkward it would be to make sure a woman had sufficient privacy from male gawking.

There's a Roman floor mosaic (somewhere in Sicily, I think) that shows elephants being loaded onto or off ships from Africa. Evidently, they just stood in the middle of the ship. You could only put one or two elephants on a ship. If a group with horses were crossing the Channel, more than one ship would be used to carry the whole party, with one or more dedicated primarily to horse transport. I think there's a scene of horses being transported by ship in the Bayeux Tapestry. Images of the complete Bayeux Tapestry are online at http://hastings1066.com/baythumb.shtml. One has to be a bit cautious about interpreting medieval illustrations, because more often than not, they are not to scale. The size of an element in an artwork was usually more related to importance, with kings being drawn larger than commoners, etc.
Last edited by Margaret on Sun May 31st, 2009, 8:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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annis
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Post by annis » Sun May 31st, 2009, 9:23 pm

Posted by Ken
That's the best picture of a cog I have seen so far! Where did you get it?
Lol! It's actually came from a ship model box :)

Cogs were surprisingly wide and roomy, and some had 2-3 decks. According to the Wikipedia article on horse transports in the Middle Ages, in the 13th century two- and three-deck ships could carry 100 horses (or 600 men).However, the need for fodder and water probably restricted the number of horses that could be carried.

Bernard Cornwell gives a good description in "Azincourt" of the process of loading horses onto a ship before Henry V's fleet set off for France:

Also north of the "Heron" was the "Lady of Falmouth" and she was being loaded with horses that were swum out to the ship’s side and then hoisted aboard in great leather slings. The horses rose dripping, legs dangling limp and eyes rolling white with fear, then were slowly lowered into padded stalls in the "Lady of Falmouth"’s hold. Hook saw his black gelding, Raker, lifted dripping from the sea, then Melisande’s small piebald mare, Dell. Men swam among the horses, deftly fixing the slings. Sir John’s great destrier, a black stallion called Lucifer, glared about him as he was lifted from the sea.

There's some info on putting together a medieval fleet in the book
"Ships, Seafaring and Society " by Timothy J Runyan- see pags 41-2
Last edited by annis on Sun May 31st, 2009, 10:37 pm, edited 7 times in total.

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Ken
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Post by Ken » Mon June 1st, 2009, 10:23 am

Thanks again Annis and Margaret.

As usual, loads of info and interesting leads. Why didn't I think of the use of the sling to pick the horses out of the water and onto the ship? Seems obvious now!! Ahem!

Ken

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