INTRODUCTION 7 



as enemies, and the ships, vessels, and goods were to be seized 

 and forfeited and the crews punished. This is the first 

 evidence of the custom of lowering the top-sails and striking 

 the flag which afterwards became so notorious as a supposed 

 acknowledgment of the English sovereignty of the sea; and 

 it is to be noted that, in later times at least, the vessel had 

 not only to strike, but had also to " lie by the lee." Consider- 

 ing the prevalence of piracy and the jurisdiction exercised by 

 the state for its suppression, as above described, and in view 

 likewise of the special measures taken by John to encourage 

 and safeguard foreign commerce, the most reasonable explan- 

 ation of the origin of the custom is that the demand for the 

 sail to be lowered and the largest vessels then had but one 

 mast and a single sail was to enable the king's officers, who 

 were there to maintain the security of navigation, to ascertain 

 the true nature of the vessel which they challenged, whether 

 it was a peaceful trader or a pirate. In all ages piratical 

 vessels have been generally swift, and, if we judge from later 

 times, the ships used in the navy were generally slow : the 

 command to a vessel to lower its sails was thus made in 

 order to deprive it of the power of escaping until the king's 

 officers had satisfied themselves as to its bona fides, and was 

 equivalent to the gun that was fired in later times in con- 

 nection with " visit and search." Shortly before the ordinance 

 was issued, John sent writs to the Mayor and Commonalty of 

 London and to all the Sheriffs of England instructing that 

 all merchants, of what nation soever, should have safe conduct 

 to pass into and repass from England, and to enjoy peace and 

 security. 1 It is noteworthy that in the first record relating 

 to the seizure of a vessel for not lowering its sail (a Flemish 

 herring smack, in 1402) it was pled on its behalf that it was 

 not armed, and that the sail had been dropped at the first 

 command. It is also noteworthy that the ordinance of John 

 was placed in the Black Book of the Admiralty immediately 

 after the mercantile marine laws. 



Further evidence as to this sort of jurisdiction in the 

 so-called "Sea of England" is to be found in the reign of 

 Edward I., at the end of the thirteenth century and the 

 beginning of the next, in the reign of Edward III., and later, 



1 Nicolas, Hist. Navy, i. 157. 





