Anybody have any info on medieval boats
I need a small boat description that would have been used during 11-12 century
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Boats
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MLE (Emily Cotton)
- Bibliomaniac
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- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
- Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
- Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
- Location: California Bay Area
Google book titled Cogs, Caravels and Galleons in Conway's History of the Ship series. That will give you the basics. If you're ranging further afield than Northern Europe, then the same series has The Age of the Galley, which will take you through Mediterranean shipping.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard nI chasront
'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'
Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal
www.elizabethchadwick.com
-
MLE (Emily Cotton)
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 3565
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
- Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
- Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
- Location: California Bay Area
From London, they'd probably take a cog, also called a 'round ship' because of the shape of the hull. Cogs depended on sails, not oars, although the bigger ones might have a ship's boat that could be used to haul the bigger ship (very laboriously) out of trouble--a nice plot point there, if you need a little excitement.
The viking might prefer a longship, although they didn't tend to ship passengers much, as they needed so many hands for rowing.
The mediterranean was the place for the galley, although they were also used in the Atlantic-- Henry VIII still had 3 galleys in his fleet, but by 1600 they were completely replaced as ocean-going vessels.
By mid 1400's the mediterranean would have seen the beginning of the caravel, or carvel--basically a round ship with more than one mast. The biggest difference between the carvel and the cog was not shape or size, but the manner of construction. carvel-built ships got their strength from a frame, to which the outside timbers were fitted edge-to-edge and caulked. Cog-built ships had no frame, but were made from thicker timbers that ran fore-and-aft, overlapping and pegged together.
Two fun novels set during medieval times that involve a LOT of ship travel are Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon and Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead.
The viking might prefer a longship, although they didn't tend to ship passengers much, as they needed so many hands for rowing.
The mediterranean was the place for the galley, although they were also used in the Atlantic-- Henry VIII still had 3 galleys in his fleet, but by 1600 they were completely replaced as ocean-going vessels.
By mid 1400's the mediterranean would have seen the beginning of the caravel, or carvel--basically a round ship with more than one mast. The biggest difference between the carvel and the cog was not shape or size, but the manner of construction. carvel-built ships got their strength from a frame, to which the outside timbers were fitted edge-to-edge and caulked. Cog-built ships had no frame, but were made from thicker timbers that ran fore-and-aft, overlapping and pegged together.
Two fun novels set during medieval times that involve a LOT of ship travel are Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon and Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead.
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Antoine Vanner
- Reader
- Posts: 70
- Joined: October 2012
- Location: South-East England
Viking Ships
Just Google "Viking Ship" and you will find excellent photographs of reconstructions of Viking longships as well as some splendid videos of them in action. Especially good is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZIzXItrjK8 which shows the Lofitir reconstruction getting under weigh.
http://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/index.php?id=1246&L=1
The link above goes to the Viking Ship Museum in Denmark. There have been a number of reproductions of Scandinavian boats and ships from various eras, built under their guidance.
The beamier trading version of the Viking Long Ship is called a Knarr. Beam:Length ratio approximately 1:3 or 1:4
The link above goes to the Viking Ship Museum in Denmark. There have been a number of reproductions of Scandinavian boats and ships from various eras, built under their guidance.
The beamier trading version of the Viking Long Ship is called a Knarr. Beam:Length ratio approximately 1:3 or 1:4