MARITIME HISTORY 



complaining that they were mercilessly robbed by Scotch pirates, who v/ere at that time lying in 

 wait for the Iceland fleet of thirty sail. 1 The question of convoy protection clamoured for settlement 

 during this reign seeing that Elizabeth would never do anything at the expense of the Crown if, 

 by delay, she thought she could force her subjects to do it for themselves. In 1575 the Lord Admiral 

 equipped ships for the protection of the east coast, and endeavoured to recoup himself by a rateable 

 charge on those who benefited. From an obiection to pay anything made by the Rye men, who 

 sent boats round, we learn that he had done this at the request of Norfolk and Suffolk. In July, 

 1 5 91, Yarmouth undertook to provide the convoy for a payment of eightpence in the pound (on 

 the value of the fish) from the North Sea men and fourpence from the Icelandmen, but this 

 arrangement did not last long. 2 



The behaviour of the Icelandmen gave rise in 1 585 to complaints from the king of Denmark of 

 their misconduct in his ports ; he threatened to forbid them to fish, and the customs officers were 

 directed to take bonds for their good behaviour. 3 The subject was again under discussion in 1599, 

 when we find that the English claimed the right of free fishing and trading in Iceland under a treaty 

 of 1490, conditional on the payment of customs and renewal of licences every seven years. 4 The 

 exaction of the composition due to the queen gives us the list of Suffolk vessels sailing to Iceland in 

 1 593- 6 Orford sent two ships, Aldeburgh four (one of the owners being Henry Johnson), Sizewell 

 two, Walberswick two, Dunwich two, and Southwold four ships and twelve ' barks,' of which five 

 belonged to John Gentleman, junior, and Thomas Gentleman. The development of the North Sea 

 fisheries was checked by the ravages of the Dunkirkers towards the end of the reign, 6 and still more, 

 thought Englishmen, by the competition of the Dutch after their truce with Spain. However, from 

 the alarmist pamphlets written during the reign of James I, we gain some information as to the 

 relative importance of the ports as fishing centres. Tobias Gentleman, writing in 1614, 7 describes 

 Ipswich as possessing no fishermen, but many seafaring men ; at Orford and Aldeburgh there were 

 forty or fifty North Sea boats and ten or twelve Iceland ships, while Southwold, Dunwich, and 

 Walberswick owned between them about fifty Iceland vessels and twenty North Sea boats. Kirkley 

 and Lowestoft, he says, were 'decayed,' having only six or seven boats, and the Lowestoft people 

 bought fish of the Dutch instead of working for themselves. The English fishermen were 

 handicapped by several disadvantages, one being unskilfulness as compared with the Dutch, but an 

 especial hindrance was the unsatisfactory condition of some of the towns and harbours. Dunwich, 

 he remarks, is 'now almost ruined;' the entrance of Southwold Haven, although the whole trade of 

 the town depended on the Iceland fishery, was so often closed that it frequently happened that the 

 vessels could not get in or out at the proper time. In 161 9 a petition relating to Dunwich, 

 Southwold, and Walberswick states that the conjoint value of their fishery had been ^20,000 

 a year. 8 



The evidence concerning these ports is usually contradictory, but some of them evidently 

 possessed a foreign as well as a local trade. The question arose in 1585 whether Aldeburgh or 

 Orford was most suitable for a custom house, and while there were only two Orford owners trading 

 abroad the witnesses deposed to a much greater Aldeburgh trade. 9 One witness said that there 

 were 40 ships and 140 fishing boats belonging to the town, and the lowest estimate was 14 or 

 15 ships and 100 fishing boats, while nine or ten of the owners traded to Italy and Spain, no 

 doubt with salted fish. A pamphleteer of 1 6 1 5 10 writes that Aldeburgh formerly had 30 or 40 

 vessels, of an average of 200 tons, working all the year round in carrying coal from Newcastle to 

 France, and bringing back salt, but there is no hint of this trade nor of these ships in the details of 

 the Exchequer Commission. The Chamberlain's Accounts of Aldeburgh for 1626-8 give the names 

 of forty-eight vessels belonging to the port, but most of them are small ones. 11 A petition of 1628, 

 asking for convoy on behalf of ten towns of Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Cinque Ports, 12 states that 

 160 Iceland ships and 230 North Sea boats were expected to sail, but of the Iceland vessels the 

 larger portion must have belonged to Norfolk; in 1632 it was estimated that half the number of 

 vessels going to Iceland sailed from Yarmouth. 



A combination of fortunate circumstances brought Devon to the front during Elizabeth's 

 reign, but although the eastern counties produced no remarkable leader, they gave the Navy a breed 

 of men strong, steady, and true, fine fighters and fine seamen, who could be relied upon either to 

 command or to serve. Thomas Cavendish of Suffolk was a circumnavigator of renown, but he only 

 copied Drake. The real strength of the east coast men lay in their North Sea training. A con- 

 temporary writer said well that ' wet and cold cannot make them shrink nor strain whom the 



1 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxxii, 72. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. ix, App. i, 318. 



3 S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxxx, 26. ' Cott. MSS. Vesp. C. xiv, fol. 26. 



s Add. MSS. 34729, fol. 63. 6 Sce/w/, 223. * England's Jl'a\< to Win Wealth, Lond. 16 14. 



8 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, 23 Feb. 1618-19. ' Exch. Spec. Com. 2178. 



10 The Trade's Increase, Lond. 1 6 1 5 . " Redstone, Ship-money Returns for Suffolk. 

 " S. P. Dom. Chas. I, xc, 70. 



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