224 Mineral Trades 



accomodate the handling of coal.' They were carvel-built vessels with 

 square sails; were described as "strong, clumsy, and oval" and carry- 

 ing twenty tons apiece. Besides the use of the square sail for propul- 

 sion, the keelmen, three in number, used long pole-like oars called 

 "puys," with which they, walking along the sides, pushed the keel 

 along, the distal end based on the river bed; while a fourth worked 

 his in the rear both as puy and rudder, or "swape." Special com- 

 missioners were provided by the government to attend the admeas- 

 urement and marking of these keels, with the purpose of preventing 

 frauds.- The keelmen received a compensation for their services 

 which was paid them by the ship owner or master.^ 



The Hostmen of Newcastle opposed the keelmen 's assuming any 

 middleman's function. The keelmen were, in the earlier centuries, 

 servants of the Hostmen. Any Hostman buying of a keelman was 

 dismissed from the Hostman's Company and the keelman dismissed 

 from the service. The books of the Hostman's Company contain 

 many references to orders and fines for keelmen selling coal, and the 

 practice continued into the second quarter of the eighteenth century, 

 if not farther.'* However, it seems the keelmen never attained to 

 much eminence as middlemen in the coal business. 



Fitter. 



The fitters since the seventeenth century formed an important part 

 of the Hostmen's Company. The term fitter does not appear until 

 1634, but in the charter of 1600 "factors" appear along with "serv- 

 ants and apprentices" of the "governor, stewards, and brethren of 

 the same fraternities; at this date they had "their officer and 

 businesses."^ In 1604 the Governor, Stewards, and thirty-seven 

 other Hostmen agreed to appoint eight men as "factors and booke- 

 keepers generall, to deale indifferentlie for the loadinge of all Coles 

 to be vented in shipps and other vessels for and to the use of the 

 persons }'mmediatlie foUowinge," and the list of twenty-eight in- 

 cluded merchants, widows, knights, sheriffs, aldermen, etc.^ This 

 appointment appears to be the origin of the coal-factors, or fitters, 

 as intermediaries between the coal-owners and the ship-owners in 



1 Descriptions and historical sketches are given in Brand, II, 261-2; Surtees, 

 105: L; Galloway, 15-6. 



= 9 Hen. Y, Cap. 10; 30 Chas. II, st. I, Cap. 8; 6 and 7 Wm. Ill, Cap. 10. 



•' Rep. from Com. H. C, X, 563. 



^ For examples see Surtees, 105:41, 57, 190. 



■■'Surtees, 105: 14. 



^ Ibid., 52. Cf. 79, where a fitter to a particular man is mentioned. 



