London Shipbuilding, A.D. 1295

Extract

In the course of last year I was concerned, together with Mr. R. J. Whitwell, in publishing in Archaeologia Aeliana a particularly detailed account of the construction of a galley at Newcastle-upon- Tyne in 1295. The building of this vessel was part of an extensive naval programme due to the war with France begun in the previous year. Although I was able to trace the accounts of many of the vessels built on this occasion, I failed to find those of the two galleys which the City of London was directed to furnish. Quite recently, I came upon the full particulars of the building of the second of these among the ‘Sheriffs' Administrative Accounts’ at the Public Record Office, which are a subdivision of the class of ‘Accounts, etc.’, formed from the ancient miscellanea of the King's Remembrancer of the Exchequer. With this detailed account I found a summary of expenses prepared from it, and a similar summary of the expenses of some repairs done at the same time and place to two barges. In the similar subdivision entitled ‘Works ’ was a like summary of the expenses of construction of the first galley. The accounts which I had previously found had been classified as ‘Army and Navy’, but the circumstances that in London the sheriffs were responsible for the expenses had led to these accounts being separated from those of the other vessels.